American leg of the Long Goodbye Tour has just been announced today. 19 shows in total (including a token Canadian date in Toronto). The tour starts on August 12 in Las Vegas and wraps up on September 10 in Cincinnati. Most of the venues are sheds belonging to the Live Nation and named after corporation du jour. Alice Cooper will be a co-headliner on all shows, with Edgar Winter Band as a special guest on some.

There will be a plethora VIP packages, with first presales starting January 30 at noon (which is just about now). General public onsale starts February 3 at 10:00 AM.

Full details in our calendar.

Thanks to Nigel Young, Lutz Reinert, and Mike Whiteley for the heads up.

More of Steve’s interviews at the NAMM.

He shows off Music Man serial number 000002, which was presented to him by Ernie Ball on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the first guitar built to his exact specifications. Serial number 1 is, of course, his well known and by now properly battered blue guitar:

Steve (once again) talks about different versions of his Music Man and his plans for 2017 — and between Purple, Flying Colors, and Dixie Dregs it sounds like it’s gonna be a busy year for him:

Thanks to American Musical Supply and Gear Gods for the videos, and to Marije Essink for the heads up.

Steve Morse was at the NAMM convention (as he often does), which was held January 19-22 in Los Angeles.

Steve and John Petrucci interview each other:

Steve talking about his Music Man guitars:

Paul Gilbert, Steve Lukather, John Petrucci, and Steve Morse chew the fat (Steve joins at around 11 minute mark):

Thanks to Guitar World, Reverb.com, and Andertons Music Co for the videos, and to BraveWords for the heads up.

In his interview to Heavy Worlds Ian Paice said that the band has not yet made any plans as to whether The Long Goodbye Tour will indeed be their last:

It’ll be a long tour. It may be the last big tour; we don’t know. […] We haven’t made any hard, fast plans. But it becomes obvious that you cannot tour the same way you did when you were 21. It becomes more and more difficult. People have other things in their lives, which take time. But never say never.

We enjoy playing onstage, but we have to be real about life, you know? So this will be a major world tour, and when it’s finished, we’ll see how it feels.

This post has been brought to you by our told-you-so department.

Thanks to Heavy Worlds for the info (via Blabbermouth).

In anticipation of his European tour (which starts in Newcastle on January 20), Glenn Hughes spoke to the Metal Express Radio. He introduced his band — Soren Andersen on guitar, Pontus Engborg on drums, and Lachy Doley Jay Boe on keyboards, offered his $0.02 on the 2016 Rainbow incarnation, talked about the setlist for upcoming tour, discussed the Wolves’ prospects for the season, and shed some new light on why his co-headliner with Living Colour fell through:

You were going to do-headline with Living Color in November but that fell through. What happened there?

I got a call to say they`d pulled out of the tour and was given no reason why but have since heard that they were offered a tour with Alter Bridge which their management must have thought was a bigger tour so they went for that despite all of the paperwork being sorted and agreements in place to come to the UK with me. There`s no problem between us as I know those guys well. I think it was their management who made the decision.

Read more in Metal Express Radio.

Errata: after this interview was taken a few weeks ago, a new keyboard player Jay Boe has been announced for Glenn’s band.

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info and to Yvonne for correction.

Don Airey will be inducted into the Hall of Heavy Metal History. If you never heard of such hall, it is quite new — in fact, this is their first induction year — but quite ambitious. The induction ceremony will be held on January 18 at the Anaheim Expo Center, the day before NAMM opening. And Don is in a good company too: fellow inductees include Ronnie James Dio, Lemmy Kilminster, Randy Rhoads, Vinny Appice, and Rainbow Bar and Grill, among others.

Thanks to Nathan Sage for the heads up.

Wymer is preparing to ship another limited edition photobook, this time on Whitesnake.

Whitesnake In Full Flight is a fully independent publication: A collection of concert photos and behind the scenes shots of David Coverdale’s Whitesnake during the bands classic early years from 1978 – 1981.

With over 130 concert photos from UK gigs they include fantastic shots from their third ever gig in Wolverhampton on the first “back to the roots” tour. By the time of the band’s first full scale UK tour promoting the debut album Trouble, Coverdale’s former Deep Purple band mate Jon Lord had joined. The book contains photos from Birmingham during that tour. The Deep Purple connection continued when drummer Ian Paice joined in 1979. There is also a photo of Paice from the band’s third gig although he was just another audience member at the time. Paice joined in time for the band’s first appearance at the Reading Festival in 1979 from which there are many photos included along with shots from later in the year during the Lovehunter Tour. The concert photos conclude with shots from their appearance at the 1981 Monsters Of Rock Festival.

Whitesnake In Full Flight also contains a superb range of photos from the personal collection of bassist Neil Murray who is collaborating with us on this publication. Armed with his trusty Pentax, Neil was always on hand to catch the band in many different situations and locations. His collection includes photos from the first Japanese tour in 1980 and the recording sessions for the Saints & Sinners album in the Autumn of 1981.

This combination of behind the scenes images mixed with the dynamic gig photos are beautifully presented in a 128 page, full colour hardback book. Limited to only 300, each book is individually numbered and sits neatly encased in foam within its own metal flight case and is a beautiful addition to any Whitesnake collection.

If that wasn’t enough, this unique publication also includes a set of 6 A4 photos printed on high quality 400gsm premium board and perfect for framing. The six photos contain one full band shot and one each of Coverdale, Lord, Paice and guitarists Micky Moody and Bernie Marsden.

The book will be published on April 7 and can be ordered directly from the publisher.

The record company has published the contents of the upcoming Time for bedlam Deep Purple EP.

It will include:

1. the album version of Time for bedlam;
2. Paradise bar — a new song recorded during inFinite sessions; this track is promised to be exclusive to the EP;
3. instrumental version of Uncommon Man
4. rehearsal version of Hip Boots recorded live at band’s rehearsals shortly before entering the studio record the new album.

The EP is scheduled to be released on February 3 and is said to be available for a limited time.

Preorder it from Amazon:

TL;DR: financial affairs of the pre-reunion Purple are a huge mess. Lots of money “disappeared”. Lawsuits are abundant. Gory details below.
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