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Rock music Artist-Bobby McIntyre

rock music artist Bobby Mcintyre

I’ll Be Your Hero- Bobby McIntyre

Bobby McIntyre is just a family man who loves to sing and write, and produce great music. With a huge passion to help bands and artists worldwide achieve there own dreams of music. You can find Bobby on both sides of the industry, as a promoter and rising artist himself. His vocal range is something to take notice of as well. He is able to sing Randy Travis and then pull off the high notes of Steve Perry and Lou Gramm. His debut album “The One” really does not even showcase his complete vocal range. Bobby also likes to experiment with multiple styles of music from pure country, Pop,R&B, to all-out power ballad rock.

Bobby McIntyre is well on his way to a successful music career! He is starting to get some International attention with his music. Bobby has been approached by some great Labels, Managers and Publishing Companies that want to work with him. It is just a matter now of finding the right team. One of Bobby’s strong points is his ability to market himself to the massive online world. He creates great online friendships with other great people and artists because he is very real and appreciates the importance of his fans. In just 3 years Bobby has built a very impressive fan base that grows every day as a result of his impressive marketing skills. His music is getting some world wide airplay as well. Bobby now has over 300 thousand fans online that follow him. The Bobby McIntyre Country page for Reverbnation has been ranked as high as #1 Globally on the Reverbnation country charts. He also reached #1 All Genres of music globally under the singer/songwriter genre out of 4 million artists. He has performed for Rascal Flatts, Clay Walker, Tracy Lawrence, Jo Dee Messina, Chely Wright and Daryle Singletary, in front of thousands of people. He has written songs with some of the best song writers in the world. Bobby McIntyre’s career is now just truly starting to take off. His Debut Album, “The One” is now available to purchase on iTunes!

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Rock Music-AeroSmith

Rock Music Stars

Rock MusicRock Music

rock music

 

https://twitter.com/IamStevenT/status/727606436205842432

  • Known for an aggressively rhythmic style as rooted in James Brown funk as in more traditional blues, Aerosmith were the top American hard-rock band of the mid-Seventies; if you set foot in a high school parking lot back then, the verbose back-alley numbers on 1975’s Toys In The Attic and 1976’s Rocks were inescapable. But the members’ growing drug problems and internal dissension contributed to a commercial decline that accelerated through the late Seventies and early Eighties. Two crucial lineup changes and a few poorly received albums preceded a 1984 reunion of the original lineup and the multiplatinum Permanent Vacation, which signaled one of the most spectacular comebacks in rock history. Though by this time they were presenting themselves as vociferous adherents to the sober lifestyle, Aerosmith retained much of their bad-boy image. And despite a considerably more commercially slick and power-ballad oriented sound than they’d first emerged with, frequently drawing on outside songwriters, they managed to became even more popular the second time around.Aerosmith was formed in 1970 by Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton and Steven Tyler, who was then a drummer. The group was completed with drummer Joey Kramer and Brad Whitford; Tyler, with his trademark high shriek, became lead singer. For the next two years all five members shared a small apartment in Boston and played almost nightly throughout the area, occasionally venturing to New York City. Clive Davis saw the band perform at Max’s Kansas City in New York and signed them to Columbia. A minor hit and future FM-radio staple from their debut, “Dream On,” strengthened their regional following.Meanwhile, Aerosmith began to tour widely. In 1976 “Dream On” recharted, rising to Number Six. And by the time of “Walk This Way” (Number 10, 1977), the band had become headliners. Its phenomenal success was short-lived, however. A series of sold-out tours and platinum albums hit its peak in 1976.

    By 1977 the group’s constant touring and its members’ heavy drug use (Perry and Tyler were nicknamed “the Toxic Twins” for their substance abuse) had begun to take their toll. After months of rest, Aerosmith recorded Draw the Line and appeared as the villains in Robert Stigwood’s movie Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Their version of Lennon and McCartney’s “Come Together” from the soundtrack was a minor hit. But Aerosmith was unraveling: In 1979, admitting to long-standing personality and musical conflicts with songwriting partner Tyler, Perry quit and started a band called the Joe Perry Project. Jim Crespo took his place. The next year Whitford departed to form the Whitford/St. Holmes band with ex—Ted Nugent sidekick Derek St. Holmes and was replaced by Rick Dufay. Neither Perry’s nor Whitford’s records sold particularly well.

    Rock in a Hard Place, Aerosmith’s first new recording in almost three years and the first without Perry, peaked at Number 32 in 1982. But in early 1984 the five original members met backstage at an Aerosmith concert and decided to re-form. Done With Mirrors, their first “comeback” LP, sold moderately. But he group’s re-ascendance began in earnest when Aerosmith collaborated with Run-D.M.C. on the duo’s hip-hop version of the 1975 Aerosmith warhorse “Walk This Way.” That fall, just as “Walk This Way” was peaking at Number Four on the pop chart, Permanent Vacation (Number 11, 1987) was released. The album wound up spawning three hit singles, while the songs’ videos introduced Aerosmith to the MTV generation. Aerosmith further consolidated its success with the critically acclaimed, quadruple-platinum Pump (Number Five, 1989), which boasted three Top 10 hits. “Janie’s Got a Gun” (Number Four, 1989), about a teenage girl getting revenge for incestuous molestation by her father, won 1990’s Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal.

    In 1991 the group signed a record deal with Sony worth a reported $30 million for four albums. Three years later, in summer 1994, Aerosmith landed a seven-figure deal from G.P. Putnam’s Sons for their group autobiography. With the hit ballads “Living on the Edge” (Number 18, 1993), “Cryin” (Number 12, 1993) and “Crazy” (Number Seven, 1993) ubiquitous on MTV, Get a Grip hit Number One, followed by 1994’s double-platinum Number Six greatest-hits package, Big Ones.

    But Aerosmith soon re-entered rougher waters. The band started working on the follow-up to Get a Grip, but didn’t get along with producer Glen Ballard, who left in the middle of the sessions and was replaced by Kevin Shirley. Meanwhile, Joey Kramer’s father had died, sending the drummer into such a depression that he had to be replaced by session drummer Steve Ferrone on some tracks. In the midst of it all, the band fired its longtime manager, Tim Collins, who had helped the musicians through sobriety and helmed their Eighties comeback. Collins retaliated by suggesting that some of the band members had fallen off the wagon; Tyler was then accused of “not being part of the team” in a letter sent to him by his four bandmates. Tyler denied taking drugs, insisting, “I’ve had no mood-altering substances in 10 years.”

    When Nine Lives finally came out in 1997, it entered the chart at Number One. And though the album didn’t yield a major hit single, “Pink” (Number 27, 1998) earned Aerosmith another Grammy, for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal. In 1998, “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”, Aerosmith’s contribution to the soundtrack of Armageddon (which starred Tyler’s daughter Liv), became a Number One pop hit, and was nominated for an Academy Award. In early 2001, Aerosmith was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, just as the band’s new album, Just Push Play (Number Two, 2001) scored with the powerpoppish hit single “Jaded” (Number Seven, 2001).

    O, Yeah! The Ultimate Aerosmith Hits (Number Four, 2002) was the first best-of collection to combine music from the band’s Columbia and Geffen tenures. Tours with the likes of Kiss and Kid Rock followed, as did Honkin’ on Bobo (Number Five, 2004), an album of blues covers that was certified gold in the U.S, despite its ill-advised title. In 2006, though, two members of the band fell ill: Tyler announced that he had ruptured blood vessels in his larynx, while Hamilton disclosed that he was being treated for throat cancer. Both recovered, though Hamilton missed much of the band’s 2006 tour. Nonetheless, in 2007, the band performed one of its most geographically extensive tours ever, traveling to countries like Russia and Latvia for the first time in its career

    When the band went on the road again in 2009, the tour hit a number of snags, as Whitford and Hamilton recovered from surgery and Tyler from a leg injury. In August 2009, Tyler fell off a stage in South Dakota, damaging his back and neck; he was taken to the hospital, and the show was canceled. Within a few days, the rest of the tour was called off as well, though select concerts were performed later in the year. Rumors circulated in November 2009 about Tyler leaving the band, but this speculation was scuttled when he joined Perry for a performance of “Walk This Way” in New York that month.

    Tyler entered rehab shortly after the surprise appearance, and in May 2010 Aerosmith launched another world tour — even though their most recent album was now nearly a decade in the past. Toward the end of the tour, word surfaced that Tyler was signed to be a judge on American Idol. In typical Aerosmith fashion, the rest of the band first learned about it from news reports. “It’s one step above Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” a furious Perry told the press. “I don’t want Aerosmith’s name involved with it.” In early 2011, Aerosmith (sans Perry) cut a series of demos for a possible new album. At the same time, however, Tyler continued work on his solo debut — leaving the future of the band as murky as ever.

    Portions of this biography appeared in The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001). Chuck Eddy contributed to this article.

Aerosmith – I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing

Aerosmith – Cryin’

Aerosmith – Sweet Emotion

Aerosmith – Angel

Dream On by Aerosmith lyrics

Aerosmith – Janie’s Got A Gun

Aerosmith – Amazing

Aerosmith – Walk This Way

Aerosmith – Livin’ On The Edge

Aerosmith – Pink

Aerosmith – Love In An Elevator

Aerosmith – Rag Doll (Official Video)

Aerosmith – What It Takes

Aerosmith – Dude (Looks Like A Lady)

Aerosmith – Hole In My Soul

Aerosmith – What Could Have Been Love

The story of Aerosmith

Aerosmith – Girls of Summer

Aerosmith – Fly Away From Here

RUN-DMC – Walk This Way

 

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rock music news-Coldplay

music news-Cold play

Coldplay – Hymn For The Weekend (Official video)

  • When Coldplay issued their debut, Parachutes in 2000, many assumed they only succeeded because they filled the void left by Radiohead, who had became less radio friendly and more experimental with each new release. No doubt, Coldplay’s sound —elegant, melodic, vaguely spacey and very dramatic — bore plenty of similarity to mid-1990s Radiohead. But the group’s hooks, sharpened by frontman Chris Martin’s ability to pull heartstrings, and the their willingness to evolve their sound, gave Coldplay staying power. As a result, the band became one of the most commercially successful acts of the new millennium.Coldplay formed at the University College of London in 1998 by guitarists Martin, a pianist from childhood and also a singer, and Jon Buckland; they were later joined by drummer Will Champion and bassist Guy Berryman. (Tim Rice-Oxley was asked to join on keyboards, but was too busy with his own group, Keane.) They played their first shows as “the Coldplay,” and in 1998 self-issued an EP, Safety. The following year, the group released the Brothers and Sisters EP on U.K. indie Fierce Panda, performed their first sessions for the BBC Radio 1 presenter Steve Lamacq, played Glastonbury, and signed to Parlophone in short order.Though Parachutes‘ lead single, “Shiver,” didn’t make much impact, the follow-up, “Yellow” (Number 48, 2001), was omnipresent on radio and one of the first power-ballad hits of the new decade. The group’s follow-up, A Rush of Blood to the Head (Number 5, 2002), consolidated Coldplay’s position as the go-to band for melodically sturdy guitar-rock weepers, as it spun off a fistful of big hits: “In My Place” (Number 17 Modern Rock, 2002); “The Scientist” (Number 18 Modern Rock, 2003); the piano-driven “Clocks” (Number 29, 2003), which won the 2004 Grammy Award for Record of the Year; and “God Put a Smile on Your Face.”

    In Rush‘s wake, Martin became an outspoken advocate of fair trade (he appeared with the phrase “Make Trade Fair” written on his hand on a magazine cover) and spoke in favor of John Kerry’s presidential bid. (Martin doesn’t have an American vote, but his wife, the Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow, does.) The band gives ten percent of their profits to charity.

    Those profits went way up in 2005, when Coldplay released their third album, X & Y, which went straight to Number One in 22 countries, including the U.S. and U.K. Despite critical pans (including a high-profile drubbing in the New York Times), the album spun off the radio tracks “Speed of Sound” (Number Eight, 2005), “Fix You” (Number 59, 2005), “Talk” (Number 86, 2006), and “The Hardest Part” (Number 37 Adult Contemporary, 2006). Martin became a tabloid fixture thanks to his marriage, but his image, and his band’s, remained relatively down to earth.

    On 2008’s Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends (Number One, Top 200) Coldplay’s sound became more overtly experimental as the band worked with boundary-pushing producers like Brian Eno, who helped bring the band win significant critical acclaim. The album’s first single, “Violet Hill,” hit Number Eight, while the follow-up, “Viva La Vida,” hit Number One and won Song of the Year at the 2009 Grammy Awards. After the release of Viva La Vida, Coldplay embarked on tours in North America, Latin America, and Europe. In December, 2009, they convened in a North London church to focus on a new album, again working with Brian Eno.

    Jim Macnie contributed to this article.

 

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Bon Jovi- rock music news

rock music news-and Bon Jovi

Bon Jovi – Livin’ On A Prayer

  • Like an American Def Leppard with a Bruce Springsteen fixation, Bon Jovi used good hooks, pumped-up production and stadium-sized passion to forge the pop-metal alloy that made them one of the dominant mainstream rock bands of the Eighties.

    As a working-class teenager, John Francis Bongiovi, Jr. (born March 2nd, 1962 in Perth Amboy, New Jersey) showed little interest in school, preferring to sing with his friend David Bryan Rashbaum in local bands. Cousin Tony Bongiovi, owner of New York City’s Power Station recording studio, let Bon Jovi sweep floors there and record demos with such musicians as Aldo Nova and members of Springsteen’s E Street Band.

    The nucleus of the Bon Jovi band — Rashbaum on keyboards, Dave Sabo on guitar, Alec John Such on bass and Tico Torres on drums — played clubs to support local radio play for their demo. PolyGram won a record label bidding war (reportedly signing only John Bongiovi, with the rest of the band as his employees) and had the Italian-American Bongiovi de-ethnicize his name to Jon Bon Jovi (keyboardist Rashbaum dropped his surname, becoming simply David Bryan). After seeing Bon Jovi at a New Jersey club, guitarist Richie Sambora auditioned and replaced Sabo (later of Skid Row).

    Bon Jovi’s self-titled debut album (Number 43, 1984) included the hits in “Runaway” (Number 39, 1984) and “She Don’t Know Me” (Number 48, 1984). But Tony Bongiovi sued the band, claiming he had helped develop its sound; Jon Bon Jovi called his cousin’s influence “slim to none,” but settled out of court. Their next album, 7800° Fahrenheit (Number 37, 1985), went gold.

    Bon Jovi then made two crucial marketing moves: bringing in composer Desmond Child (former leader of the Seventies New York disco-rock band Rouge, he also wrote for Aerosmith, Cher and Kiss) as a song doctor, and basing the next album’s content on the opinions of New York and New Jersey teenagers for whom they played tapes of more than 30 possible songs. The resulting selections formed Slippery When Wet (Number One, 1986), which sold more than 12 million copies with the help of some startlingly un-metal synthesized hooks and straightforward performance videos that showcased the videogenic band. Hit singles included “You Give Love a Bad Name” (Number One, 1986), the hardscrabble romantic anthem “Livin’ on a Prayer” (Number One, 1986) — both of which Child cowrote — and “Wanted Dead or Alive” (Number Seven, 1987). The latter, perhaps in part due to Bon Jovi calling himself a “cowboy,” would be covered by more than one Nashville country act a couple decades down the line.

    The Slippery formula was followed for New Jersey (Number One, 1988), which sold more than seven million copies and contained five Top Ten hits: “Bad Medicine” (Number One, 1988), “Born to Be My Baby” (Number Three, 1988), “I’ll Be There for You” (Number One, 1989), “Lay Your Hands on Me” (Number Seven, 1989) and “Living in Sin” (Number Nine, 1989). In the midst of a 1989 tour Jon Bon Jovi married his high school sweetheart Dorothea Hurley in Las Vegas (they have two children). Sambora dated Cher for a while, and Bon Jovi backed her on some tracks on her 1989 Heart of Stone album. In 1994 Sambora married actress Heather Locklear (the pair’s separation became prime tabloid fodder in 2006). Later in 1993 Bon Jovi played the Soviet Union in the Moscow Music Peace Festival — arranged as part of a community-service sentence on Bon Jovi’s manager Doc McGhee, who in 1988 had pleaded guilty to drug-smuggling charges from a 1982 arrest.

    After 18 months of touring, the band members went separate ways. Jon Bon Jovi’s solo album Blaze of Glory (Number Three, 1990) — recorded with Jeff Beck, Elton John, Little Richard and others — yielded hits in the title track (Number One, 1990) and “Miracle” (Number 12, 1990). Blaze was the soundtrack for the movie Young Guns II, in which Bon Jovi had a bit part, and the album earned both Oscar and Grammy nominations. The following year Sambora released his first solo album, Stranger in This Town (Number 36, 1991). Bon Jovi ended a year of breakup rumors with a Tokyo concert on December 31, 1991. The band then recorded Keep the Faith (Number Five, 1992), which produced hit singles in the title track (Number 27, 1993) and “Bed of Roses” (Number 10, 1993). Another hit, “Always” (Number Four, 1994), emerged from Bon Jovi’s 1994 anthology, Cross Road (Number Eight).

    In 1995 the band released These Days (Number Nine). After a full-scale world tour, the band went on hiatus. Jon Bon Jovi took a role in the 1995 film Moonlight and Valentino, and continued acting throughout the Nineties, appearing in Ed Burns’ No Looking Back and the World War II submarine adventure U-571. In 1997 he released his first official non-soundtrack solo album, Destination Anywhere (Number 31, 1997). The following year Sambora released his second solo album, Undiscovered Soul.

    Bon Jovi regrouped in 1999 with to record “Real Life” for the EdTV soundtrack. The following year, the band released Crush (Number Nine, 2000), collaborating with Swedish teen-pop svengali on the hit single “It’s My Life” (Number 33, 2000), which included sound-effect hooks that harked back to the band’s Eighties singles. Demand for Bon Jovi’s old-style pop-metal turned out to be so big that, since the reunion, the band has gone on to release more successful albums than it did even during its pin-up prime. Crush went double platinum in the U.S. and sold 8 million copies worldwide. After a successful tour, Bon Jovi returned with Bounce (Number Two, 2002. And to keep momentum with their younger audience, Bon Jovi had adopted a more alternative-rock look and sound and played dates with the alternative-identified pop-rock band Goo Goo Dolls. For This Left Feels Right (Number 14, 2004), the band re-recorded some of its biggest hits as slowed-down adult contemporary songs. The four-disc box set 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong (Number 53, 2004) — the title and packing art playing on the similarly titled Elvis Presley album — compiled 50 rare and unreleased tracks and a behind-the-scenes DVD.

    Bon Jovi returned the following year with an album of new material, Have a Nice Day (Number Two, 2005), which produced not only a pop single in the title track (Number 53, 2005) but also the band’s first country crossover hit, “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” (Number One Hot Country, 2005; Number 23 pop, 2006). The duet with singer Jennifer Nettles of the country band Sugarland won a 2007 Grammy for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals. The twangy move suited the changing tastes of aging Bon Jovi fans, many of whom had begun listening to the more adult-contemporary, rock-oriented sounds of post-Garth Brooks country radio. After releasing a live disc and comprehensive greatest-hits package in 2006, Bon Jovi’s next album of new material, Lost Highway (Number One, 2007), was marketed more directly to the country audience, with country-charting singles “(You Want to) Make a Memory” (Number 27 pop, Number 35 Hot Country, 2007) and “Till We Ain’t Strangers Anymore” (Number 47 Hot Country, 2007), a duet with LeAnn Rimes. To support the record, the band recorded an episode of MTV’s Unplugged.

    But the band’s next album, The Circle, was more rock than country; it debuted at Number One in Billboard in November 2009, five months after Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora’s induction into the Songwriter’s Hall Of Fame. At decade’s end, Billboard ranked Bon Jovi as the ninth highest grossing touring artist of the 2000s; The Circle Tour, scheduled to begin in early 2010, was slated to be their biggest and most extensive since their late Eighties hair-metal heyday.

    Portions of this biography appeared in The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001). Chuck Eddy contributed to this article.

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Rock Music News-Pear Jam 2016 Tour

Music news-Pear Jam

Pearl Jam – Jeremy (Official Video)

  • Along with Nirvana, Pearl Jam were initially known for popularizing grunge, the Seattle sound that exploded nationwide in the early Nineties. But the band became an American rock institution by broadening their heavy, Led Zeppelin-influenced sound while maintaining the emotional depth that made their songs so resonant in the first place. Leaping from obscurity to superstardom, the band sold more than 15 million copies of its first two albums, and after a couple of years during which they got mired in high-profile controversies, Pearl Jam recovered and were still filling arenas at the close of the 2000s.

    Pearl Jam’s roots in the Seattle scene go deep: In the mid-Eighties, Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard were members of the seminal Seattle band Green River, which split in 1987. Half the band formed Mudhoney, while Gossard and Ament joined singer Andrew Wood in Mother Love Bone. One of the earliest Seattle bands to sign with a major label, Mother Love Bone seemed on the verge of breaking big when Wood died of a heroin overdose in 1990. Mercury Records wanted Gossard and Ament (with Bruce Fairweather on guitar and drummer Greg Gilmore) to record with a new singer, but the band declined.

    Afterward, Gossard and Ament, along with Seattle veteran Mike McCready, started work on a demo tape in late 1990. They asked former Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons to join, giving him a copy of the tape. Irons was involved with his own band, Eleven, but passed the demo on to a singer he knew in San Diego, Eddie Vedder, who immediately wrote lyrics to the songs and mailed back a tape that included his vocals; he was invited up to Seattle and the rest was history.

    Concurrently, Gossard, Ament, and McCready, along with Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell and Matt Cameron, recorded Temple of the Dog (Number Five, 1992), a memorial to Wood, in 1990, with Vedder trading verses with Cornell on the rock radio smash “Hunger Strike.”

    With the addition of Vedder and drummer Dave Krusen, the new band was complete. They called themselves Mookie Blaylock, in honor of the basketball player, but changed the name to Pearl Jam, purportedly after a psychedelic confection made by Vedder’s half-Native American great-grandmother, Pearl. (Vedder finally admitted the story was bogus in 2006.)

    The band did not forget Blaylock: Their debut album, Ten [Number Two, 1992], was named for his uniform number. On the strength of its Mother Love Bone connections and a growing national interest in the Seattle scene, Pearl Jam was signed by Epic Records in early 1991. Krusen left the band after the sessions for Ten; he was replaced by Matt Chamberlain on tour, with Dave Abbruzzese filling the drum chair in the fall of 1991.

    The band toured extensively, headlining small halls and opening for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Neil Young and U2. They headlined the 1992 Lollapalooza Tour and opened for Keith Richards on New Year’s Eve 1992. Vedder, Gossard and Ament took time out to play Matt Dillon’s backing band, Citizen Dick, in the 1992 Seattle-based movie Singles. By the end of 1992, Pearl Jam was among the biggest bands in the world. Vedder’s intense, clenched-teeth delivery gave life to his personal travails (“Alive,” “Black”), while songs like “Jeremy” and “Why Go” were easy rallying cries for teenagers seeking music they could call their own.

    Although Pearl Jam was originally marketed as an “alternative” band, their connection to classic rock of the Sixties and Seventies soon became apparent. Vedder filled in for Jim Morrison at the Doors reunion for the 1993 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies; he also took part in concerts honoring Bob Dylan and Pete Townshend around this time. The band also backed Neil Young on “Rockin’ in the Free World” at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards and developed an enduring father-son relationship with him.

    It was apparent, though, that Vedder was having trouble coping with the demands of stardom: He would show up for photo sessions wearing a mask, and he was surly and uncommunicative in interviews. There were reports that he performed drunk, and in 1993 he was arrested in New Orleans for public drunkenness and disturbing the peace after a barroom brawl. None of this detracted from the band’s popularity — Vs. (Number One, 1993), its second album, sold a record-setting 1.3 million copies in its first 13 days of release.

    Rattled to the core by its sudden fame as well as the suicide of Kurt Cobain, Pearl Jam canceled its 1994 summer tour when, in a public dispute over service charges against Ticketmaster, they couldn’t keep admission prices as low as they wanted; band members also testified against Ticketmaster before Congress. That fight ultimately ended in retreat for Pearl Jam. The band did not make any videos to promote Vs., which built on the sound of the debut with more nuanced songwriting and acoustic detours (“Daughter,” “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town”).

    Instead, Pearl Jam went back into the studio and recorded its third album, Vitalogy. The vinyl version was released two weeks before the CD and cassette, debuting on the charts at Number 55 — the first album to appear on Billboard’s album chart solely on the basis of vinyl sales since the proliferation of the CD in the mid-Nineties. Once the CD arrived in stores, Vitalogy, packed with future staples such as “Better Man” and “Corduroy,” zoomed to Number One.

    The following year, Pearl Jam backed Young on his Mirror Ball album and released two of its own songs recorded during those sessions as the Merkin Ball EP. The band also appeared for the second time at Young’s Bridge School Benefit concert as part of its increasing involvement in political activism and various charities. Indeed, over the years, Pearl Jam has supported such causes as abortion rights, Kosovar refugees, women’s self-defense, opposition to the death penalty and Ralph Nader’s 2000 presidential campaign.

    Though Pearl Jam was at the peak of their popularity in the mid-Nineties, they also went through some rocky times. In late 1994, the holder of the drumming seat changed again as Abbruzzese was replaced by Jack Irons. The band’s attempt to experiment with its sound, 1996’s No Code (Number One, 1996), threw many fans for a loop. Despite its initial success, the album dropped out of the Top 20 within two months.

    The band retreated to safer ground on Yield (Number Two, 1998), an album of straightforward hard rock that was accompanied by an animated clip for “Do the Evolution,” Pearl Jam’s first music video since Ten‘s “Jeremy.” The band also returned to playing mainstream arenas (many of them selling their tickets through Ticketmaster); Cameron became a permanent addition on drums that summer as well.

    Pearl Jam’s members even started to look as if they were finally becoming comfortable with their status as rock stars. This was especially true for Vedder, who showed up unannounced on “The Late Show With David Letterman” to sing “Black,” played small venue shows with Townshend and rocked out obscure covers with a pickup solo band as his whims dictated.

    The group had also become strong enough to overcome a tragic accident — nine fans were crushed and suffocated during Pearl Jam’s set at the Roskilde, Denmark, festival on June 30th, 2000. Initially held “morally responsible” by the Danish police, the group was later cleared of all blame. Pearl Jam also began playing exclusive shows for fan-club members, who also receive limited-edition Christmas singles — one of them turning into the surprise pop hit “Last Kiss” (Number Two, 1999) when it got a wider release.

    On their first studio release with Cameron, Binaural (Number Two, 2000) was another dose of scruffy rock in an era that found the MTV audience listening to either rap-metal or teen pop. In September, Pearl Jam made history by self-releasing 25 live albums in one week, and by having five of them enter the Billboard 200 simultaneously. Pearl Jam continued to release documents of their 2000 tour, reaching a total of 72 sets by mid-2001. The one triple-CD, 11/6/00: Seattle, Washington, was the most popular, entering the chart at Number 98.

    After Vedder and McCready performed with Neil Young at the post-9/11 benefit concert America: A Tribute to Heroes, Pearl Jam returned to the studio for the more experimental Riot Act (Number 5, 2002), which included the Anti-George W. Bush track “Bu$hleaguer.” During the band’s Riot Act tour in 2003, Vedder would perform the song wearing a rubber mask of the president, resulting in more than a fair share of boos from fans who wanted Pearl Jam to just focus on the music.

    Pearl Jam announced that year that they would not be renewing their contract with Epic Records after fulfilling it with the long-awaited archival release Lost Dogs (Number 15, 2003) and the retrospective Rearviewmirror: Greatest Hits 1991-2003 (Number 16, 2004). The band then recorded a one-off self-released ingle, “Man of the Hour,” which ran over the end credits of Tim Burton’s 2003 film Big Fish. The band spent much of 2005 on the road, headlining shows and opening a couple of dates for the Rolling Stones. In 2006, Pearl Jam tested the indie waters again with Live at Easy Street, recorded the previous year at Seattle’s Easy Street Records, and sold exclusively to independent record stores.

    Though Vedder earlier had announced that Pearl Jam was not interested in signing with another major label, the band did just that in early 2006 when it struck a deal with Clive Davis’ new J Records, part of the same Sony BMG music group that controls Epic. The band’s first release for J was a self-titled album that year which dropped the artiness of the prior two releases in favor of revitalized, melodic rock and roll. The single “World Wide Suicide” became the group’s first Number One Modern Rock single in a decade.

    Pearl Jam made good on its DIY ambitions with 2009’s Backspacer, which it self-released in the States with the help of Target. The album scored the band its first chart-topper in 13 years.

    Portions of this biography appeared in The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001). Jonathan Cohen contributed to this article.

 

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AeroSmith-Rock Music News

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  • Known for an aggressively rhythmic style as rooted in James Brown funk as in more traditional blues, Aerosmith were the top American hard-rock band of the mid-Seventies; if you set foot in a high school parking lot back then, the verbose back-alley numbers on 1975’s Toys In The Attic and 1976’s Rocks were inescapable. But the members’ growing drug problems and internal dissension contributed to a commercial decline that accelerated through the late Seventies and early Eighties. Two crucial lineup changes and a few poorly received albums preceded a 1984 reunion of the original lineup and the multiplatinum Permanent Vacation, which signaled one of the most spectacular comebacks in rock history. Though by this time they were presenting themselves as vociferous adherents to the sober lifestyle, Aerosmith retained much of their bad-boy image. And despite a considerably more commercially slick and power-ballad oriented sound than they’d first emerged with, frequently drawing on outside songwriters, they managed to became even more popular the second time around.

    Aerosmith was formed in 1970 by Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton and Steven Tyler, who was then a drummer. The group was completed with drummer Joey Kramer and Brad Whitford; Tyler, with his trademark high shriek, became lead singer. For the next two years all five members shared a small apartment in Boston and played almost nightly throughout the area, occasionally venturing to New York City. Clive Davis saw the band perform at Max’s Kansas City in New York and signed them to Columbia. A minor hit and future FM-radio staple from their debut, “Dream On,” strengthened their regional following.

    Meanwhile, Aerosmith began to tour widely. In 1976 “Dream On” recharted, rising to Number Six. And by the time of “Walk This Way” (Number 10, 1977), the band had become headliners. Its phenomenal success was short-lived, however. A series of sold-out tours and platinum albums hit its peak in 1976.

    By 1977 the group’s constant touring and its members’ heavy drug use (Perry and Tyler were nicknamed “the Toxic Twins” for their substance abuse) had begun to take their toll. After months of rest, Aerosmith recorded Draw the Line and appeared as the villains in Robert Stigwood’s movie Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Their version of Lennon and McCartney’s “Come Together” from the soundtrack was a minor hit. But Aerosmith was unraveling: In 1979, admitting to long-standing personality and musical conflicts with songwriting partner Tyler, Perry quit and started a band called the Joe Perry Project. Jim Crespo took his place. The next year Whitford departed to form the Whitford/St. Holmes band with ex—Ted Nugent sidekick Derek St. Holmes and was replaced by Rick Dufay. Neither Perry’s nor Whitford’s records sold particularly well.

    Rock in a Hard Place, Aerosmith’s first new recording in almost three years and the first without Perry, peaked at Number 32 in 1982. But in early 1984 the five original members met backstage at an Aerosmith concert and decided to re-form. Done With Mirrors, their first “comeback” LP, sold moderately. But he group’s re-ascendance began in earnest when Aerosmith collaborated with Run-D.M.C. on the duo’s hip-hop version of the 1975 Aerosmith warhorse “Walk This Way.” That fall, just as “Walk This Way” was peaking at Number Four on the pop chart, Permanent Vacation (Number 11, 1987) was released. The album wound up spawning three hit singles, while the songs’ videos introduced Aerosmith to the MTV generation. Aerosmith further consolidated its success with the critically acclaimed, quadruple-platinum Pump (Number Five, 1989), which boasted three Top 10 hits. “Janie’s Got a Gun” (Number Four, 1989), about a teenage girl getting revenge for incestuous molestation by her father, won 1990’s Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal.

    In 1991 the group signed a record deal with Sony worth a reported $30 million for four albums. Three years later, in summer 1994, Aerosmith landed a seven-figure deal from G.P. Putnam’s Sons for their group autobiography. With the hit ballads “Living on the Edge” (Number 18, 1993), “Cryin” (Number 12, 1993) and “Crazy” (Number Seven, 1993) ubiquitous on MTV, Get a Grip hit Number One, followed by 1994’s double-platinum Number Six greatest-hits package, Big Ones.

    But Aerosmith soon re-entered rougher waters. The band started working on the follow-up to Get a Grip, but didn’t get along with producer Glen Ballard, who left in the middle of the sessions and was replaced by Kevin Shirley. Meanwhile, Joey Kramer’s father had died, sending the drummer into such a depression that he had to be replaced by session drummer Steve Ferrone on some tracks. In the midst of it all, the band fired its longtime manager, Tim Collins, who had helped the musicians through sobriety and helmed their Eighties comeback. Collins retaliated by suggesting that some of the band members had fallen off the wagon; Tyler was then accused of “not being part of the team” in a letter sent to him by his four bandmates. Tyler denied taking drugs, insisting, “I’ve had no mood-altering substances in 10 years.”

    When Nine Lives finally came out in 1997, it entered the chart at Number One. And though the album didn’t yield a major hit single, “Pink” (Number 27, 1998) earned Aerosmith another Grammy, for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal. In 1998, “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”, Aerosmith’s contribution to the soundtrack of Armageddon (which starred Tyler’s daughter Liv), became a Number One pop hit, and was nominated for an Academy Award. In early 2001, Aerosmith was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, just as the band’s new album, Just Push Play (Number Two, 2001) scored with the powerpoppish hit single “Jaded” (Number Seven, 2001).

    O, Yeah! The Ultimate Aerosmith Hits (Number Four, 2002) was the first best-of collection to combine music from the band’s Columbia and Geffen tenures. Tours with the likes of Kiss and Kid Rock followed, as did Honkin’ on Bobo (Number Five, 2004), an album of blues covers that was certified gold in the U.S, despite its ill-advised title. In 2006, though, two members of the band fell ill: Tyler announced that he had ruptured blood vessels in his larynx, while Hamilton disclosed that he was being treated for throat cancer. Both recovered, though Hamilton missed much of the band’s 2006 tour. Nonetheless, in 2007, the band performed one of its most geographically extensive tours ever, traveling to countries like Russia and Latvia for the first time in its career

    When the band went on the road again in 2009, the tour hit a number of snags, as Whitford and Hamilton recovered from surgery and Tyler from a leg injury. In August 2009, Tyler fell off a stage in South Dakota, damaging his back and neck; he was taken to the hospital, and the show was canceled. Within a few days, the rest of the tour was called off as well, though select concerts were performed later in the year. Rumors circulated in November 2009 about Tyler leaving the band, but this speculation was scuttled when he joined Perry for a performance of “Walk This Way” in New York that month.

    Tyler entered rehab shortly after the surprise appearance, and in May 2010 Aerosmith launched another world tour — even though their most recent album was now nearly a decade in the past. Toward the end of the tour, word surfaced that Tyler was signed to be a judge on American Idol. In typical Aerosmith fashion, the rest of the band first learned about it from news reports. “It’s one step above Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” a furious Perry told the press. “I don’t want Aerosmith’s name involved with it.” In early 2011, Aerosmith (sans Perry) cut a series of demos for a possible new album. At the same time, however, Tyler continued work on his solo debut — leaving the future of the band as murky as ever.

    Portions of this biography appeared in The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001). Chuck Eddy contributed to this article.