sleazeroxx.com Queensryche’s touching ballad “Home Again” from their latest album American Soldier has really struck a chord with the military community and now the band wants your help making a video. Queensryche is asking members of the military to submit pictures of themselves with their families to be featured in the upcoming music video for the song “Home Again.” Photos can be uploaded photos from 7/14/09 – 7/26/09. One grand prize winner will be selected at random from all eligible…

sleazeroxx.com Scott Rowley of www.classicrockmagazine.com caught up with Ozzy Osbourne last week at the Slash & Friends gig in Norway, where the whispers backstage had guitarist John 5 (ex-Marilyn Manson, currently with Rob Zombie) lined up as a possible replacement for Zakk Wylde… “Well, I’m getting a new guitar player as we speak,” said Ozzy, “and everyone has been saying to me for a long time, ‘Get Johnny 5!’ And I tried him at one time and I didn’t really…

kgw.com PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland rock and roll icon Drake Levin, guitar player for Paul Revere and the Raiders, died July 4th at 62 after battling cancer. Levin’s family said he died at home in San Francisco. Gino Rossi – Alex Hart Management Levin joined the Raiders in Portland at age 16 in 1963. The band went on to have 23 hit singles and more TV appearances than any other band in the 1960s. Monday night Drake was acknowledged on…

cnet.com Guitarists are typically a pretty hesitant bunch when it comes to adopting new tech. In fact, most guitarists I know spend their time lusting after vintage guitars and vacuum tube amps–casting disdainful sneers at anything that looks as though it were invented after 1980. That said, most of my musician friends are also iPhone owners. Their excuse for allowing a smartphone into their otherwise low-tech lifestyle is that they want to stay connected with their fans via e-mail, SMS,…

www.rollingstone.com Greg Prato of www.rollingstone.com reports that until recently, heavy metal’s leading female rocker has been laying a bit low. In addition to being the guitarist for the Runaways in the ’70s, Lita Ford was responsible for two solo pop metal hits in the ’80s: “Kiss Me Deadly,” and a duet with Ozzy Osbourne, “Close My Eyes Forever.” But with a new album on the horizon, Wicked Wonderland (out September 15th via Ford’s own label, JLRG Entertainment), Ford is back….

bizjournals.com Paul Reed Smith Guitars said Wednesday it would lay off 30 employees and implement a 4-day manufacturing week as it grappled with the recession. The Stevensville company is disbanding its nightly manufacturing operations, spokeswoman Rebecca Eaddy said in an interview. Eaddy said the recession has impacted musical instrument sales overall and Paul Reed Smith, known for its stylish craftsmanship, is not immune. The cuts will bring Paul Reed Smith’s work force to 250. Despite the economic downturn, the company…

latimes.com George Fullerton, a longtime associate of Leo Fender who played a crucial role in the electric-guitar innovator’s extraordinary success through his broad-based skills as a musician, artist and technician, has died. He was 86. While Fender tinkered away, coming up with improvements in guitar design that led to the creation of his revolutionary Telecaster and Stratocaster electric guitars, Fullerton was charged with making those innovations practical for mass production in their Orange County factory that opened in the late…

http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20090705/ENTERTAINMENT/906299925/-1/SPORTS?Title=Ailing-guitarist-gets-second-chance-with-left-handMINNEAPOLIS – Guitarist Billy McLaughlin was at the top of his game a decade ago, a fingerstyle player noted for his technique of tapping on strings, when he began having problems controlling his right hand, missing notes with no clue why. Audiences thought he was drunk. After a maddening couple of years in which his playing grew so bad he couldn’t perform his own songs, McLaughlin finally received a diagnosis: an incurable neuromuscular disease. “When this first started happening, I…

gear4music.com Many electric guitar players do not mind their instrument becoming a little roadworn, as it can add to its character considerably.Gibson Les Paul Standard Electric GuitarElectric guitar player sells lightning-charred Gibson Les PaulSuperb prices on musical instruments However, one musician has taken this concept slightly further by auctioning off a guitar that was hit by lightning. A Gibson Les Paul owned by Charles Hoyt from Mississippi was struck by the bolt back in 1992, but he has held on…

nme.com Music file-sharing website The Pirate Bay has been sold. It is set to be transformed into a legal music site that sees artists and record labels get paid for the downloads they provide. The Sweden-based website – whose four founders and hosts were sentenced to a year in jail and fined for copyright infringement offences in April – will be acquired by Swedish software company Global Gaming Factory X AB in August. The Pirate Bay has been sold for…