Stone Sour’s Corey Taylor Loves Stephen King Horror Novels

Stone Sour and Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor knows a thing or two about writing. After all, he recently penned an autobiography, Seven Deadly Sins: Settling the Argument Between Born Bad and Damaged Good, that landed on the New York Times bestseller list.

Taylor recently chatted with Artist Direct about his favorite reads, and he said Stephen King’s The Stand is at the top of the list. C’mon, are you surprised?

“I’d have to say the unabridged version of The Stand with the extra 150,000 words,” he said when asked to rattle off his No. 1 pick. “I pretty much read that once a year, and I have since I was … 20-years-old. It's one of my all-time favorite books, and it’s such an adventure that it’s almost like reading the script to a fantastic movie that you know will never get made. The Stand is definitely a favorite. How stoked do you think I was when Slipknot got mentioned in Stephen King’s Cell?”

Taylor’s other favorites include Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Legs McNeil’s Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, the latter which he says is a must-read “if you’re into music history and you want to know where real punk music came from.”

In more Taylor news, he’s currently working on a new album with Stone Sour that’s expected to arrive in 2012.

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Soundgarden Land Cover of <em>Rolling Stone Australia</em>

Perhaps no upcoming album from the remaining ’90s grunge contingent is more anticipated than Soundgarden’s new LP. Chris Cornell and his entourage haven’t released a collection of originals since 1996’s Down on the Upside, and after the band’s 2010 reunion, it was obvious the guys have preserved their ability to mesh sludgy metal with alternative rock and put out catchy, neo-psychedelic nuggets.

Soundgarden appear on the cover of Rolling Stone Australia’s February issue and in the article, the full band discuss the grunge group’s past, present and future, asserting, “there’s absolutely nothing nostalgic” about their reunion.

Cornell recently told Gibson.com that if he could go back and change one thing along Soundgarden’s career path, he would take back the big “breakup” announcement. “I think if there’s a lesson to be learned, it’s that it wasn’t even necessary to announce a breakup. We could have just said we were going on indefinite hiatus, and that would have been fine,” he said. “There didn’t have to be some sort of finality. It certainly didn’t change anything from the standpoint of the media or even Soundgarden fans. Every time I did an interview, I was asked, ‘Is Soundgarden ever going to get back together? Will the band ever do anything again?’ Had we just said we were going on hiatus, the question would have been “When?” instead of ‘Will?’ [laughs] And the answer would probably have been the same:  ‘I don’t know.’”

Read more of Gibson.com’s exclusive interview with Cornell, including why he loves rocking Gibson ES-335s with Soundgarden, here.

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Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood Joins Paul McCartney on Stage

Paul McCartney pulled a Rolling Stone on to stage at his show at London’s O2 Arena on Monday (December 5).

NME.com reports that Beatle Paul told the crowd he had a “surprise” for them before bringing Ronnie Wood on stage for a snarling version of The Beatles’ 1969 track, “Get Back.”

McCartney’s London concert lasted three hours with the veteran songsmith playing three songs that he had never before played in the U.K., “The Night Before,” “The Word” and “Come and Get It.”

McCartney next plays Manchester on December 19 and Liverpool on December 20.

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Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood Wins More Radio Awards

Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood now has a flourishing broadcasting career. On Wednesday, Wood received two prestigious radio awards in London.

Last year, Wood began broadcasting his own show on the Absolute Classic Rock radio station and picked up the Music Radio Personality of the Year honor at the Sony Radio Academy Awards. He now can add to that award, the Specialist Programme of the Year and Newcomer of the Year honors from London's Arqiva Commercial Radio awards.

Legendary DJ, David "Kid" Jensen was given the Lifetime Achievement Award. Jensen, alongside his good friend John Peel, was hugely influential in breaking indie music in the U.K. in the '70s and '80s.

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Queens of the Stone Age, Strokes Join Pearl Jam Festival

As previously reported, 2011 marks a big year for Pearl Jam. It’s the 20th anniversary of the release of their debut album, Ten, and the rockers have been commemorating it with the release of deluxe re-issues and a new documentary (Pearl Jam Twenty) about the band directed by Cameron Crowe. And, after revealing that they would host a one-time festival to celebrate two decades in rock, Pearl Jam have now announced the details.

The “concert celebration” will be held Labor Day Weekend (September 3 and 4) at Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy, Wisconsin. Of course, Pearl Jam will headline, but they’ve invited Queens of the Stone Age, The Strokes, Mudhoney, John Doe, Joseph Arthur, Glen Hansard, and Liam Finn to join them, according to PearlJam.com.

Tickets for the two-day event go on sale to fan club members on May 23 and to the general public on June 4. The shows will mark Pearl Jam’s only U.S. appearances in 2011.

Following the festival, the band will embark on a Canadian tour that will include 10 dates in September.

Pearl Jam Canadian tour:

Sept. 7 – Montreal – Bell Centre
Sept. 11 – Toronto – Air Canada Centre          
Sept. 12 – Toronto – Air Canada Centre          
Sept. 14 – Ottawa – Scotiabank Place            
Sept. 15 – Hamilton – Copps Coliseum            
Sept. 17 – Winnipeg – MTS Centre                    
Sept. 19 – Saskatoon – Credit Union Center      
Sept. 21 – Calgary – Scotiabank Saddledome    
Sept. 23 – Edmonton – Rexall Place                  
Sept. 25 – Vancouver – Pacific Coliseum

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