Pat Martin of 98 Rock KRXQ in Sacramento reported on his radio show on Tuesday (Dec. 12) that veteran German hard rockers SCORPIONS were in talks to play next year's Ozzfest . "My source was a friend in the recording studio with the band, who gave him the news...for what it's worth," Pat reportedly explained to a SCORPIONS fan who contacted him to find out more details. "Is it official? Far from it, but a really good rumor at this point."

SCORPIONS arrived in Los Angeles in October to begin recording their new album with songwriter/producer Desmond Child .

Source BBM

Neil Peart, legendary Rush drummer, has posted the following update on his website:

"Exactly one year ago (to recap a story begun in earlier reports), my bandmates and I started talking about working on some new songs. Alex and Geddy got together in Geddy 's home studio in Toronto and simply played, letting the new ideas flow out unguided and unedited, while 3000 miles away in California, I began drafting some lyrics and sending them up.

"In March, the three of us met at my house in Quebec, and Alex and Geddy played me the six songs they had been working on. All of us felt very positive about their direction, and agreed that we needed to spend some time working together. In May we moved into a small Toronto studio, and started refining those songs and writing a few others.

"As previously reported, in June I recorded three songs in Los Angeles with my friend Matt Scannell , and for me as a drummer, that was a challenging and inspiring experience. Also, the new set of purpose-built 'recording' drums that my friends at Drum Workshop put together for me, which were intended to be used on Matt 's project and become my 'West Coast kit,' sounded so good that I had them sent straight east, to use on the new RUSH album.

"Later that month, I also fulfilled a longtime challenge as a motorcyclist, doing a 'Thousand-in-One' — 1000 miles in one day — in the course of riding my R1200GS from Los Angeles to Quebec, 3000 miles, in four days. (Yes, I was in a hurry!)

"Though obviously no leisure tour, it was still a powerful traveling experience, giving me what felt like a 'snapshot panorama' of a wide swath of North America — California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ontario, and Quebec — in such a brief time.

"And even on that express route, mainly keeping to the 'mileage disposal units' of the interstates, and even in the fierce heat of early summer in the desert Southwest, there were still hours of sublime beauty: the Mojave Desert (always), I-70 through Utah and Colorado (perhaps the most scenic stretch of interstate in the country), and even the Great Plains. Unlike some travelers, I never find that part of the country boring. The highways are flat and straight, sure, but those endless green farmlands all around make a nice kind of 'intermission' in a transcontinental roadshow, opening with the deserts and mountains of the West, and closing with the forests and rocky bluffs of upper Michigan and northern Ontario. On a journey like that, the prairies were a welcome pastoral interlude."

Source Neilpeart

MTV, Jon Wiederhorn, recently conducted interview with Ronnie James Dio about upcoming album. Few excerpts are follows:

"It's going to be a lot of fun to get back in front of fans and perform these songs again," Dio said. "I think this is something a lot of people have been waiting a long time for."

According to Dio , the HEAVEN AND HELL tour will kick off in Vancouver, British Columbia, on March 3 and play at least seven shows across Canada, ending in Toronto. Then the band will likely play South America, Japan, Korea, Australia and Europe before returning to North America for a U.S. tour in August or September.

Though Dio is thrilled to be able to revisit his past with SABBATH , he hasn't lain awake at night longing for a reunion. And while Iommi and Butler have wondered over the years what it would be like to play again with Dio , it was Warner Music subsidiary Rhino Records that first brought up the idea by making plans to release "The Dio Years" . The label contacted Iommi 's manager and said it would like to include some previously unreleased songs. Since there was nothing worthwhile in the vault that hadn't been used, Iommi contacted Dio and suggested they consider getting together to write some new material.

"About four months ago, I went over to England to Tony 's house, where he has a studio," Dio said. "We started to work together, and it was really so enjoyable. After long spaces of time not working with people, you forget how good they are or how much you liked being around them."

The band isn't yet ready to announce the titles of the three new songs, but that doesn't mean Dio isn't eager to talk about them. One, he says, will be slow and doomy, the second will be midtempo and the third will be a scorcher.

"They're the perfect blend, [given] the limitations of only doing three tracks," he said. "I feel like we covered all the bases, and it's all guitar, bass, drums and voice. There are no keyboards, and it sounds excellent. And the lyrics are pretty weird. Whenever I get back with SABBATH , I seem to have this leash taken off me and I can write as weird as I want to."

Source MTV