In a new interview with CNN, Roger Waters discussed the provocative political messages featured in his current This Is Not a Drill Tour. While doing so, the ex-Pink Floyd singer/bassist shared what many might consider eye-opening views regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

When CNN’s Michael Smerconish asked Waters why President Joe Biden was featured in a video segment of the show labeling a number of politicians “war criminals,” Waters responded, “Well, he’s fueling the fire in the Ukraine … That is a huge crime.”

The 78-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer continued, “Why won’t the United States of America encourage [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy to negotiate, obviating the need for this horrific, horrendous war?”

When Smerconish suggested that Waters was “blaming the party that got invaded,” Waters seemed to turn the blame on NATO’s actions in the region.

“This war is basically about the action and reaction of NATO pushing right up to the Russian border,” he maintained, “which they promised they wouldn’t do when [Soviet leader Mikhail] Gorbachev negotiated the withdrawal of the USSR from the whole of Eastern Europe.”

Waters also took exception when Smerconish brought up the U.S.’s historic role as “liberators,” firing back, “You have no role as liberators! You got into World War II because of Pearl Harbor. You were completely isolationists until that … awful day.”

He added, “Thank God the Russians had already won the bloody war almost by then. Don’t forget, 23 million Russians died protecting you and me from the Nazi menace.”

Later in the interview, Waters defended China’s recent threatening actions toward Taiwan in response to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s recent visit to the latter country.

“Taiwan is part of China!” Waters declared. “That has been absolutely accepted by the whole of international community since 1948.”

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Slash is featured on a new song called “Crimson Chaos,” which is being released by the charity organization Road Recovery.

The tune was written and recorded by participants in Road Recovery’s Trax Program, which “offers young people the opportunity to build healthy networks during challenging times, helping them avoid self-destructive or risky behavior.”

In a statement, Slash says, “I’ve been hanging out with Road Recovery for a while now and I always find it a really enriching experience hanging and jamming with the kids.”

“These guys wrote me a song that I recorded and it’s really inspirational to see how young people and adults are inspired by the arts to get it together, get out of that funk, and get out of a bad situation to be able to turn their life around,” the Guns N’ Roses shredder adds. “That’s what these kids at Road Recovery have done and that’s pretty awesome.”

Footage of Slash playing with the Road Recovery kids is featured in the “Crimson Chaos” video, which is streaming now on YouTube.

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Sammy Hagar and Rush‘s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson are among the many well-known musicians who have lent their talents to former Bruford bassist Jeff Berlin‘s new tribute album, Jack Songs, a salute to late Cream singer/bassist Jack Bruce.

The 10-track collection, which focuses mainly on Bruce’s post-Cream solo work, is available now on CD and as a digital download and can be ordered at JeffBerlinMusicGroup.com.

Other guests artists featured on Jack Songs include former Santana singer Alex Ligertwood, All Starr Band drummer Gregg Bissonette, Level 42‘s Mark King, ex-Guns N’ Roses guitarist Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, King Crimson‘s Tony Levin, Nathan East, guitar whiz Eric Johnson, Mr. Big‘s Billy Sheehan, Snarky Puppy‘s Michael League and more.

“Recording the music of Jack Bruce has been the most emotional recording project of my career,” says Berlin, who was friends with Bruce. “Jack was the greatest bass influence I ever had. In the center of his music were these strange and wonderful bass lines weaving in and out of the key, reaching for resolutions and finding them, again, and again. Jack’s playing was a living evolving improvisation.”

He adds, “When he died, I immediately set out to honor him by reviewing his music to choose some of my favorite songs of his and recording them via my own musical vision.”

Berlin explains that he used producer Giles Martin‘s work on the soundtrack to Cirque du Soleil’s The Beatles LOVE stage production, a collection of Beatles mashups, as inspiration for Jack Songs.

“I arranged the music so that each song on ‘Jack Songs’ would end up as an individual work comprised of various parts of other songs in them,” Jeff notes.

Bruce died of liver disease in 2014. He was 71.

Here’s the album’s full track list:

“Creamed”
“Theme from an Imaginery Western”
“A Letter of Thanks”
“L’Angelo Misterioso”
“Rope Ladder to the Moon”
“One Without a Word”
“Smiles Story and Morning Grins”
“Folk Song”
“Traintime Time”
“Fuimas (We Have Been)”

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On Wednesday, David Lee Roth posted a previously unreleased solo song called “Nothing Could Have Stopped Us Back Then Anyway” on his official website and YouTube channel. The song pays homage to Van Halen, and now Roth’s main collaborator on the track, one-time DLR Band guitarist John 5, has debuted a music video for the tune.

The clip, which you can watch now on John 5’s YouTube channel, features archival performance footage, home movies and rare photos of Van Halen during the band’s early years.

In a message accompanying the video, John 5 writes, “Honored to be a part of this amazing piece of history. When I wrote the song with Dave, I knew it was something very special. I created this video on the tour bus as a tribute with [director] Mike Savage. Very proud to share it with everyone.”

As previously reported by the Van Halen News Desk fan site, “Nothing Could Have Stopped Us Back Then Anyway” is one of a number of songs that Roth recorded with guitarist John 5 several years ago. Over the last couple of years, Diamond Dave has released a number of other tunes from those sessions, including “Somewhere over the Rainbow Bar and Grill,” “Giddy-Up!,” “Low-Rez Sunset” and “Pointing at the Moon.”

“Nothing Could Have Stopped Us Back Then Anyway” is available now via select streaming services.

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Sammy Hagar and his band The Circle have unveiled plans to release a new studio album titled Crazy Times this fall and made the title track available as an advance digital single Friday, along with a companion music video for the tune.

The 10-song collection, which can be preordered now, will be released on CD and via digital formats on September 30, while standard black vinyl and limited-edition red vinyl LP versions will follow on October 28.

Hagar & The Circle recorded Crazy Times at Nashville’s famed RCA Studio A with Grammy-winning producer Dave Cobb.

Crazy Times, which is a follow-up to the group’s 2019 debut, Space Between, features nine songs either written or co-written by Hagar, as well as a cover of Elvis Costello and the Attraction‘s 1978 classic “Pump It Up.”

The title track was one of three tunes the Red Rocker co-wrote with his Circle bandmates — bassist Michael Anthony, drummer Jason Bonham and guitarist Vic Johnson — and Cobb.

The video for the hard-driving, riff-heavy song features Hagar and the band performing the tune as a montage of explosions and other ominous images appear behind them.

Hagar says that after the long COVID-19 lockdown, he really appreciated getting to work with his bandmates again in person.

“Going back in the studio, creating and being with the music is just what felt natural,” Hagar notes. “There was joy in the hard work, catharsis and the comradery we’d craved. It was like those two years of not being able to do very much fell away and we really all came together and let it out in the music and lyrics.”

The digital version of Crazy Times also features a pair of bonus tracks. Here’s the album’s full track list:

“Intro: The Beginning of the End”
“Slow Drain”
“Feed Your Head”
“Pump It Up”
“Be Still”
“You Get What You Pay For”
“Crazy Times”
“Funky Feng Shui”
“Father Time”
“Childhood’s End”

Digital-only bonus tracks:
“2010”
“Father Time” (acoustic demo)

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David Lee Roth has posted a previously unreleased solo song at his official website and YouTube channel called “Nothing Could Have Stopped Us Back Then Anyway” that finds the Van Halen frontman reminiscing about his old band.

Accompanying the track is a vintage photo of Roth and his three Van Halen band mates all jumping in the air at the same time. The stripped-down tune features multi-tracked acoustic guitars and sparse keyboards accompanying Roth’s vocals.

The song begins with the lines, “We laughed, we cried, we threw that television off the balcony/ That memory means so much to me,” and Diamond Dave sings later, “Remember when you safety pinned the tablecloth to my pants/ And I stood up to the sound of dancing, and the sound of our romance beginning.”

According to the fan site Van Halen News Desk, Roth recorded “Nothing Could Have Stopped Us Back Then Anyway” several years ago with current Rob Zombie guitarist John 5 during the same sessions that yielded some of the other tracks Dave has released over the past couple years, including “Somewhere over the Rainbow Bar and Grill,” “Giddy-Up!,” “Low-Rez Sunset” and “Pointing at the Moon.”

In a 2021 interview with AL.com, John 5 mentioned “Nothing Could Have Stopped Us Back Then Anyway” while discussing his sessions with Roth.

“Being a Van Halen fan and a Dave Lee Roth fan, it’s unbelievable because it’s about Dave singing about Van Halen and what it was like,” the guitarist noted. “Really something special, so I really hope that comes out.”

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