Yes, that’s right and it’s red hot.

Former Red Hot Chili Pepper guitarist, John Frusciante, has been voted the best guitarist of the last 30 years, reports CHARTattack.  The voting was done in a BBC 6music listeners’ poll.

Frusciante left the Chili Peppers this past December.

But, since 1980, there has been no greater guitarist than Frusciante.

Frusciante beat out many great guitarists for the top spot.  He beat former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash, as well as Muse front man Matthew Bellamy and Tom Morello.

Overall, Frusciante picked up 13.9 per cent of the votes.

Just recently, the top guitarist of the last 30 years, contributed his talent to Man Meat, Swahili Blonde’s debut album, to be released July 6.

Frusciante is also the executive producer for Mars Volta axeman Omar Rodriguez-Lopez’s The Sentimental Engine Slayer debut album, and plans to release two albums with Rodriguez-Lopez sometime this year.

Frusciante also beat out Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, and Jack White.

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U2 is at the top of Billboard’s musician money charts, reports CBC. The band earned $108.9 million in 2009.

The Irish rockers were also the top touring act of the year, selling 1.3 million tickets for the 20 shows on their 360 Degree world tour. The tour – still ongoing – is the most expensive one in history.

The 2009 earnings chart placed Bruce Springsteen in second with $57.6 million and Madonna, who earned $47 million, in third. Also on the list of last year’s top earners were AC/DC, Britney Spears, Pink, Jonas Brothers, Coldplay, Kenny Chesney and Metallica.

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English rocker Ozzy Osbourne will join heavy metal band Metallica on stage for their upcoming concert to honour the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame’s 25th anniversary in New York City, CHARTattack reports.

The show will take place on Oct. 30 at Madison Square Garden. The event will also feature performances from U2, Aretha Franklin and Eric Clapton. Another show, being held the day before, will feature Simon & Garfunkel, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Friends. All of the event’s performers are members of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

Metallica were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in April, along with Jeff Beck and Run DMC. Osbourne was inducted into the Hall Of Fame in 2006 along with Black Sabbath.

In other news, at their two sold-out shows last month at Montreal’s Bell Centre, Metallica set a new record for the venue’s highest paid attendance ever.

Metallica also decided to donate $21,462 of their earnings from those two shows to a community services organization called Sun Youth.

“It’s a beautiful gift,” Sun Youth co-founder Sid Stevens told the Montreal Gazette. “People sometimes look at groups of this nature in a derogatory or negative manner. But it’s very interesting to see them donate in every city they visit.”

Stevens said Metallica are giving a part of the profits from their Death Magnetic concert tour to a local charity at every stop.

Metallica continues to support Death Magnetic here:

Oct. 26-27 Toronto, ON @ Air Canada Centre
Oct. 30 New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden (Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame 25th anniversary)
Oct. 31-Nov. 1 Quebec City, QC @ Colisee Pepsi
Nov. 3 Ottawa, ON @ Scotiabank Place
Nov. 9 Grand Rapids, MI @ Van Andel Arena
Nov. 10 Buffalo, NY @ HSBC Arena
Nov. 12 Albany, NY @ Times Union Center
Nov. 14-15 New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
Dec. 5 Las Vegas, NV @ Mandalay Bay Events Center
Dec. 7 Boise, ID @ Idaho Center
Dec. 8 Sacramento, CA @ ARCO Arena
Dec. 10 Anaheim, CA @ Honda Center
Dec. 12 San Jose, CA @ HP Pavilion At San Jose

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Metallica have confirmed they will film four shows on their World Magnetic Tour for a new concert DVD.

“There’s been a little chatter here and there about us filming a few shows this summer for potential release on DVD and among the countless Internet rumors, these ones are actually true!” the band announced in a recent posting on their official website.

“We thought it would be cool to document a few shows that are unique and sure to be extra memorable for us, and hopefully for you too.”

The band will bring camera crews to their three shows at Mexico City’s Foro Sol on June 4, 6, and 7, as well as their July 7 show in Nimes, France at the Arenes De Nimes, a historic Roman amphitheatre. All four shows are sold out.

The statement on the website concludes: “For any Metallica friends going to these shows, bring your war faces and don’t be scared of the cameras!!!”

Metallica have said they plan to tour through 2010 in support of last year’s “Death Magnetic,” their ninth studio album. They currently have shows scheduled through mid-December, including seven sold-out Canadian dates.

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After Guitar Hero: Aerosmith fell as a bust, I was extremely hesitant to pick and try a guitar hero title based on one of my favourite metal bands, but through my loyalty of both the game and the band, I figured I’d give it a shot, after all, Metallica would never sell out, right? (that was a joke). Guitar Hero: Metallica (GH:M) delivers everything it promised. Open for the band, play with the band, be the band. While presentation, music, graphics, and extras are all phenomenal (and all that are important to the Guitar Hero brand); I still felt a little off about GH: M, more the vibe I get from the band itself than anything else. GH:M promised us three things. A kick ass sound track, a real feel for what the band does almost nightly while on tour, and visuals that rival a live concert. In all three sections, GH:M meets expectations and does it with flair.

Visually I enjoyed GH: M not only as a video game but how closely it felt to a live concert. As I had attended a Metallica concert a couple of months ago, with the show fresh in my mind I decided to compare it to their virtual stage presence. Their signature moves were all there, stances, postures, actions and facial reactions were all accurate. In fact a couple of times it kind of weirded me out that they could nail down the motion capture so perfectly. Again however, this lead to an issue I’ve always had with Guitar Hero, that being that the stage presences during songs felt too scripted. If you were to play the same song three times in a row for example, all three times James would whip his guitar up in the exact same manner at the exact same point every time, an issue you witness less with their rival game, Rock Band. Otherwise when playing as the house band you’re in the same position as if you were playing any other Guitar Hero title, same characters and instruments present, which was expected comparing GH: M to their Aerosmith predecessor. While playing as Metallica however, up to the hair styles and facial blemishes you play and look like a much younger Metallica band… which I guess makes sense as if you were aging and greying, would you want to be immortalized in your prime or your later years? Lighting effects, virtual pyrotechnics, and all that fun stuff are included and work well with the songs they apply to, much like a planned concert yet again. Stage backgrounds almost all relate to a Metallica album or tour and as such, all these features combined provide the most realistic concert simulator to date.

This sound track is wicked. Not only do players get to enjoy a slew of Metallica songs (almost 30) from All Nightmare Long to Whiplash, but you also get some great tracks from bands that have, in one way or another, interacted with Metallica in the past. These tracks include Bob Seger’s Turn the Page, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Tuesdays Gone, Slayer’s War Ensemble, and Toxicity by System of a Down to name a few. The only con to this amazing track list of approximately 50 songs is that not everyone might find it amazing. If you’re a fan of hard rock or metal, you will adore this list, if however, you’re a fan of country, pop, or easy listening… well then a) you would hate this track list… and b) why would you pick up Guitar Hero: Metallica in the first place? As well, players can access the Death Magnetic album DLC in GH:M, saving them from swapping the disc out for Guitar Hero: World Tour. It’s true however that Death Magnetic is the only DLC that will work on GH:M, I feel this may again have to do with the scripted stage presence found in this title.

Controlling Metallica has never been easier, players can drum, play the guitar or bass, or sing their favourite tunes as one of the most influential bands in history. The guitars are a-blazing, vocal chords burning, and drums pounding and this was in fact one of the reasons I felt Metallica was somewhat rubbing in the hardships of their jobs with this title. I will admit it must be really hard being Metallica, standing on stage rocking their asses off for hours on end, I don’t necessarily want to experience that pain when playing a leisurely game at home. Some of these songs are lightning fast from start to finish and some of them are extremely long. Players have three options: a) they can pause in the middle of songs for a rock-break to rest their rock-fingers, b) players can suffer and struggle through the rock-pain, or c) they can train day and night for months on end to be able to virtually rock as long and as well as Metallica. The drums have it especially bad, as Lars showboats in the game and virtually (and smugly) laughs at how you can’t do what he does on a plastic toy, it got a little annoying that every song took 5-10 minutes to play through. At certain points I felt the urge to just turn the title off and play something fun… or rest my hands in a bowl of cold water. To add insult to injury, since my Guitar Hero drum set was defective, I was using the Rockband drum set, meaning one less pad to play making the game that much easier… but still painful. Add on the extra hard plus mode for drums (not recommended unless you have the double bass pedal bundled with pre-ordered games) and you have one hell of a time ahead of you. Guitar and bass weren’t any easier, just as fast, just as long, just as painful. It’s not so much that the songs are hard to play, but rather they’re fast, furious, and long.

So what else is there to do beside play the game? Well, I’m glad you asked. Much like Guitar Hero 1 and 2, to progress through the ‘story’ mode, instead of having to beat certain songs, players only had to accumulate a certain number of stars to progress, meaning you could skip all the songs you found boring until a later point. The real fun however comes from all the added bonuses the game provides. Aside from the standards like quick play mode, online play, multiplayer band, and battle mode, there are characters to unlock such as Lemmy (of Motorhead fame) and King Diamond (from Mercyful Fate), instruments and costumes to unlock and other colour variations and videos to ‘purchase’ from the game store. New features in the battle mode include new power ups such as ‘fade to black’, ‘trapped under ice’, and ‘ride the lighting’ (which is essentially the same as amp overload). Another extra bonus is that every song in the game is available in quick play mode from the start, a welcomed tweak to this Guitar Hero fan. Players can also go backstage to practice the more challenging songs, view behind the scene videos and pictures, and read song lyrics. You also have the option of creating your own Rockstar in the aptly named Rockstar Creator mode, leader board, Rock rank, and community stats tracking fill out the extras. Oh, I may have neglected to mention two extra cool additions to the bonus mode, Drum over mode allows players to erase the drum track to any song and, depending on which song, the accompanying drum tracks are available to go wild and sound great doing it with any track in the game. The second bonus, again, I feel is Metallica tooting their own horn, but is still kind of neat. Metallifacts, after you finish a song you unlock the Metallifacts for it in which the song will be shown and played in the background, but throughout the song little fact pop-ups appear, kind of like a DVD-style text based commentary. While the concept is neat, I’m not sure I really care that the sound I’m currently hearing is a trumpet played in reverse. I’m sure it’s something different… but I just don’t care.

Overall if you’re a fan of Metallica, you should go out and get this title for whatever system you have, if you don’t have any systems available for this title but love Metallica, you should go get an Xbox or PS3 and rock the heck out! If you can’t stand stuck up, full of themselves rock stars (which by far Metallica is allowed to be) you might want to steer clear of this one. One thing’s for certain with Guitar Hero Metallica however, it will by far increase your finger stamina to a whole new level.

Gameplay: 4.5/5

Graphics: 4.5/5

Sound: 5/5

Replay Value: 4/5

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Ticketmaster is using “paperless “ tickets for the first time in Canada for Metallica’s October 12 concert at Winnipeg’s MTS Centre.  This system was implemented in order to ensure that the tickets will go directly to those who purchase them.  In other words, it’s bad news for scalpers.

Instead of buying a normal, printed ticket when they went on sale through Ticketmaster on Saturday, fans purchased an electronic ticket using their credit card.  According to charttack.com, they’ll then have to swipe their credit card and provide another form of identification to gain entry to the venue.

Ticketmaster told CBC News about the change in ticket distribution. “It eliminates the ability for you as a purchaser to transfer that to somebody else,” said MTS Centre general manager Kevin Donnelly.  “You physically need your credit card to now enter the building, so you cannot then resell it unless you’re giving your credit card away at the same time.”

This is not Metallica’s first time with the “paperless” ticket approach.  They also used the ticket system at a show at London, England’s O2 Arena.  

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Metallica and Run DMC are two super groups that will come together whit old band mates and take the stage to accept the honor of being inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

While past ceremonies have depicted tension between old band members, as per the behind the scenes grudges between members of Blondie and Van Halen, Metallica and Run DMC are two groups that plan on treating the event as a joyful milestone, rather than a mix of bad blood.

Metallica have told press that they are not interested in any drama and plan to invite former bassist Jason Newsted to perform with them alongside current bassist Robert Trujillo. Frontman James Hetfield has promised that instead of tension, the group will make the night a celebration of their long career, mtvnews.com reports.

Run DMC will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Eminem, who makes few public appearances these days. Although Run DMC have drifted apart and are rarely seen in the same room together, this induction will be a celebration honoring not only the groups accomplishments, but also a tribute to DJ Jason “Jam Master Jay” Mizell whom was killed in an unsolved 2002 ambush.

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After shaking up the SXSW festival last week with a greatest-hits set, Metallica have jetted back to Europe for the remainder of their World Magnetic Tour. But fear not, U.S. and Canadian fans – the heavy-metal icons will be back on this side of the pond in the fall.

The tour’s second North American leg kicks off in Nashville on Sept. 14, winding through cities the band missed during their first round of dates on the continent in 2008 and early 2009.

The 26-city trek will hit five Canadian cities — Montreal, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa and Quebec City — before wrapping up in San Jose on Dec. 12.

“European Summer Vacation, part 2,347 will end on August 2, so that can only mean one thing … more dates in the U.S. and Canada!” the band wrote on their website.

“We just rocked Austin at SXSW and are super psyched that we’ll be back in North America visiting our friends in the Fall as the World Magnetic Tour keeps rolling on. We had an amazing time on the last run in ’08 and early ’09 and we are so ready to do it again!”

Tickets for the Canadian shows go on sale April 4. Pre-sale offers will be available to members of the band’s official fan club, MetClub.

Metallica released their latest album, “Death Magnetic,” in September. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, making Metallica the only band to have five consecutive No. 1 album debuts on the chart.

Here are Metallica’s upcoming Canadian dates:

- Sept. 19 – Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre
- Oct. 12 – Winnipeg, MB @ MTS Centre
- Oct. 26 – Toronto, ON @ Air Canada Centre
- Oct. 29 – Ottawa, ON @ Scotiabank Place
- Oct. 31 – Quebec City, QC @ Colisee Pepsi

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Eminem, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea and guitar legend Jimmy Page are among the celebrity presenters who will pay tribute to honourees at this year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

The ceremony, which will be held April 4 at the Public Auditorium in Cleveland, honours inductees who were chosen by the 600 voters of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation. Artists are eligible 25 years after the release of their first recording.

Rap pioneers Run-DMC will be inducted by Eminem, who is returning from a long hiatus with the release of two albums later this year.

Heavy-metal rockers Metallica will be inducted by Flea, whose own band will be eligible for induction next year.

Jeff Beck, a 1992 Hall of Fame inductee as a member of the Yardbirds, will be inducted for his solo work this time by fellow ex-Yardbird Page.

Other 2009 inductees include R&B singer-songwriter Bobby Womack, to be inducted by the Rolling Stones’ Ron Wood, and doo-wop group Little Anthony and the Imperials, to be inducted by Smokey Robinson.

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A free download of the Guitar Hero Metallica demo will be available today on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace.

The demo allows for players to play Metallica hits like “Sad But True” and “Seek And Destroy.” Songs from Alice In Chains and Queen were picked as guest acts by Metallica. Players can choose from gameplay modes like single-player, band quickplay, head-to-head, face-off, pro face-off and battle.

The game is being developed by Neversoft Entertainment for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Budcat Creations is taking care of versions for Wii  and PlayStation 2. The game will be released on March 29.

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Pearl Jam and Metallica are getting in on the world of gaming in a big way.

First, Pearl Jam’s entire debut album, “Ten,” will be available for download through “Rock Band” on March 24.

The “Ten” track “Alive” was previously featured on the “Rock Band 2″ disc.

The album, which was first released in 1991, is also being reissued in expanded form by the label Epic/Legacy that day.

Metallica is getting its own showcase on “Guitar Hero,” with an upcoming GH game devoted to the band.

The band recently unveiled details of the project on their website: “Guitar Hero Metallica allows you to play as us in either single instrument or band career game modes in your choice of some famous settings (Tushino Airfield anyone?) or new venues with in the round staging.

“Included are 28 Metallica songs along with a few from some of our buddies like as Alice in Chains, the Foo Fighters, Slayer, Machine Head and Queen.

“There is also an all new Expert+ difficulty setting featuring two bass drum kick pedals (!!!) along with all the gameplay modes from Guitar Hero World Tour.”

The band urged fans to keep checking their website in the coming months for track listings, more features and previews of the game ahead of its scheduled release in the first half of 2009.

“Guitar Hero” previously issued an Aerosmith edition of their game, and its creators said in October they were developing a game dedicated to the Beatles.

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Metallica will herald the release of their new album with a radio show — and the help of a few famous friends.

Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins of The Foo Fighters will join the heavy rockers as they host a live radio broadcast tomorrow (Sept. 4) from their headquarters.

Besides chatting with their special guests, Metallica will preview tracks from “Death Magnetic,” which will be released Sept. 12 and is the band’s first album in five years.

Fans can tune into the hour-long show via Metallica’s official website starting at 6 p.m., as well as on select radio stations across the U.S.

The band has already unveiled several tracks from the album ahead of its release. “Cyanide” is now available on select iTunes music stores, while “My Apocalypse” was posted as a free-to-hear stream on the band’s website last month, a few days after first single “The Day That Never Comes” was released to radio and for digital download.

As previously reported, Metallica will play two mid-September shows in Berlin and London — ticket proceeds of which will be donated to charity — before embarking on a fall tour.

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Metallica will play clubs shows in Berlin and London in anticipation of “Death Magnetic,” their first studio album in five years.

The band announced the special gigs via a posting on their website, writing: “Have we mentioned that we have an album coming out in September? Maybe just a few times . . . so to celebrate, we thought it would be cool to hang with a few of our closest friends in some of our favorite cities.”

They will play Berlin on Sept. 12 and London on Sept. 15, though the locations of the shows have yet to be disclosed.

Tickets will be available exclusively to MetClub and Mission: Metallica members.

The club shows will be book-ended by Metallica’s headlining dates at the U.K.’s Reading and Leeds Festivals in August and a North American tour in the fall.

Meanwhile, the complete track list for “Death Magnetic,” due out Sept. 23, has been confirmed.

The successor to 2003′s “St. Anger” was produced by Rick Rubin and features 10 songs, including “The Unforgiven III.” The track follows “The Unforgiven,” from 1991′s self-titled release (also known as “The Black Album”) and “The Unforgiven II” from 1997′s “Reload.”

For fans who are also gamers, all of the tracks from “Death Magnetic” will be available for download on “Guitar Hero III” the day the album hits stores.

They will also be available on “Guitar Hero World Tour” when the game is released this fall.

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It’s no secret that the independent music-retailing business is on the decline. Just look at what happened to Sam The Record Man.

Well, retailers across North America aren’t going down without a fight. The stores are enlisting the help of big-name acts such as Metallica and Steve Earle in an effort they’ve hailed Record Store Day.

Next Saturday (now Record Store Day) participating record stores will be pulling out all the stops with free promotional CDS, vinyl albums, videos and even live in-store performances.

Eric Levin, an owner of the 32-store Alliance of Independent Media Stores, said the day is an effort to combat the “perception that record stores are something of a joke, like we are all dinosaurs stuck in the tar,” according to CBC.ca.

Musicians from all genres are lending their support to the cause.

“There’s nothing as glamorous to me as a record store” Paul McCartney said in response to the campaign.

McCartney, rocker Henry Rollins, Metallica, Panic at the Disco, Steve Earle and Allison Moorer are will reportedly be appearing at various record stores throughout the States to do everything from greet fans to work as cashiers.

The stores participating in Canada are Music Monitor Network, Blackbyrd Myoozik of Edmonton, Bluestreak Records of Peterborough, Ont., and Atomix Records of St. Catharines, Ont. No word yet on what Canadian stars will be doing till-duty.

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It’s taken Metallica longer than most bands to realize that selling your music is a good thing, but they’ve finally done it. The band made their work available through Apple’s iTunes digital music store for the first time on Tuesday, reports Reuters.

However, only the American and Canadian online stores are selling the tunes due to a dispute with Metallica’s overseas label, Mercury (the band is on Atlantic here).

Though downloads of full Metallica albums have been sold through other services like MSN Music, single songs could not be bought until now.

iTunes is selling the band’s first four albums — “Kill ‘Em All,” “Ride the Lightning,” “Master of Puppets” and “…And Justice for All” — along with previously unreleased live performances from 1989.

Though most major artists now have deals with iTunes to sell their music, a few of the big names still holding out include Radiohead, the Beatles, Garth Brooks and Led Zeppelin.

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Wishes really do come true.

At least that’s how it appears for heavy metal titans, Metallica, after they eagerly signed on board to open up for The Rolling Stones in San Francisco.

“Over the course of our career we’ve been fortunate enough to share the stage with a select few of the bands we grew up on, admired and respected including AC/DC, Deep Purple, Guns N’ Roses and Iron Maiden. The only band that we have never played with but have always wanted to is the Rolling Stones,” says drummer Lars Ulrich.

It’s no wonder why these rockers bailed out on their vacation plans.

Not only is Metallica scheduled to play amongst these admirable icons, but they’ll perform both shows in their hometown San Francisco on November 13th and November 15th at SBC Park.

The roster of opening bands is impressive as it should be, considering The Stones have earned a reputation as a bona fide rock band.

Other opening acts include Joss Stone, Pearl Jam, Maroon 5, and The Tragically Hip.

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