6RR Spotlight

Metallica To Play 2015 X-Games

 

Fresh off this past weekend’s performance at the inaugural U.S. version of Rock In Rio in Las Vegas, Metallica has announced that it will perform at the 2015 X-Games, set to take place between June 4th and 7th in Austin, Texas. Metallica will headline on June 6th. Other artists playing at the extreme sports showcase include Nicki Minaj, Talib Kweli, Kid Ink, Pennywise, Joywave and more.

 

The band revealed its involvement in a video interview with skateboarding legend Tony Hawk. Metallica frontman James Hetfield told Hawk in the clip, “It only makes sense that people who grew up on Metallica are wanting to continue to skate and do the cool things that they do.”

 

Hetfield continued, “We’re pretty jazzed. We’re excited to get there and X-Games has been going on for a while; it’s about time! The music does something to you. When athletes are already really good and the music takes them to another place, you can’t explain that.”

Bassist Robert Trujillo added, “It always seemed like the skaters and the surfers were really connected to the music of Metallica . . . There’s a connection to those type of people. It’s similar energy. You see at these events they’re playing a lot of hard rock metal and punk rock.”

Despite insisting that work has been proceeding on a new album, Metallica has spent a lot of time outside the studio in the last year, with activities that included a string of European all-request shows last summer, a week-long residency on The Late Show With Craig Ferguson, and this past weekend’s Rock In Rio stint.

More festival dates are on the schedule for this summer, including two shows in Montreal and a headlining slot at Lollapalooza in Chicago at the end of July.

 

 

Aerosmith Wins Sports Emmy

 

(hennemusic) Steven Tyler and Joe Perry’s video remake of “Dream On” with the Southern California Children’s Chorus to honor the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing won a Sports Emmy Award on May 5.

 

The Boston Herald reports the clip from ESPN’s “E:60” took home honors in the “Outstanding Open/Tease” category at a ceremony in Frederick P. Rose Hall at New York’s Lincoln Center.

 

“It’s kind of a surprise, but I’ll take it,” said Casey Tebo, the director who filmed the performance, which was mixed for broadcast with scenes of the victims, the Martin Richard Foundation marathon team training in Boston and other Boston Strong images.

“Steven asked me what we could do,” explained Tebo of the song’s re-creation. “I said, ‘Man, it’s gotta be something that will give you goose bumps.’ And we thought about what happened to Martin, and thought it would be great to have a children’s choir sing with them.”

 

Everyone in the Aerosmith camp felt affected by the tragedy, including Tebo. “What happened affected us all pretty deeply,” said Tebo. “A friend of mine was standing right near where the bombs went off. He spent a month at Mass. General having skin grafts on his legs and hands. And Aerosmith has represented Boston for so long. ‘Dream On’ was a fitting song for the whole Boston Strong thing of trying to rise up after something terrible happened.”

 

 

Jack White To Resume Acting Career

 

Jack White is reportedly interested in re-launching his acting career now that he’s on an extended break from touring, according to Billboard. A source said that after playing what was billed as his “final live show for the foreseeable future” on April 26th, White wants to take a few years to focus on acting. The singer-guitarist’s last role was Elvis Presley in the 2007 comedy Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, although he also had a role in 2003’s Cold Mountain and has appeared as himself in several other films.

 

White recently wrapped up a world tour in support of his second solo album, Lazaretto, with a series of five acoustic shows in the last five states he had yet to hit on the trek.

Lazaretto came out in June 2014 and followed up his 2012 solo debut, Blunderbuss. White toured extensively behind both records

A source close to White said only that he is taking an “indefinite” hiatus to focus on “other endeavors.”

 

 

Roger Daltrey Announces New Teen Cancer Wing For Nashville Hospital

 

Prior to the Who’s concert last night (May 11th) at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, Roger Daltrey met with the press to announce the partnership with the city’s Vanderbilt Hospitals and the band’s patron charity, Teen Cancer America. Daltrey has been diligently working to bring teen cancer wards to hospitals all over the UK and now, the States — with Vanderbilt marking the 11th hospital to sign up to create its own facility to specifically serve teens apart from children and adults.

 

Joining Daltrey was The Band Perry, who will serve as spokespeople for Teen Cancer America. The Tennessean reported there was no word as to whether the teen cancer wing will be at Vanderbilt University Medical Center or Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, with a construction start date still up in the air.

 

Daltrey explained to the crowd about teen cancer patients: “They don’t ask for much. It’s amazing that here we are in 2015 and no one had noticed until recently that this age group, they’re too old to be children and they’re too young to be adults. They are completely isolated in the hospital system.”

 

 

Unseen Nirvana Photos Released

 

Photographer Kirk Weddle has released a series of photos he took of Nirvana on October 28th, 1991, in which he persuaded the trio to pose in a swimming pool in a parody of the naked-baby-in-a-pool cover of their just-released album Nevermind, which he also shot. Weddle recalled the band being tired and the weather being cold, saying, “(Kurt Cobain) was not a water guy at all.” But Weddle finally got them into the pool, with many of the 200 images never before seen until now.