Latest news with #GunsN'Roses
Time of India
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Eijaz Khan on his deep bond with music; says ‘Music doesn't fix you, but it makes life bearable'
Eijaz Khan , best known for his intense performances in projects like City of Dreams, Adhrishyam, Dhoom Dhaam, and Shah Rukh Khan's Jawan, recently opened up about something far more personal than a role or a script — his profound and emotional relationship with music. What unfolds is not just a love for melody, but a quiet testimony to the healing power of sound. On the topic of the current wave of remixed classics flooding Bollywood, Eijaz is refreshingly honest. 'I have mixed feelings about it. There's a very fine line,' he says. He isn't against experimentation, but what bothers him is the dilution of emotional memory. 'As long as the original song is respected and its essence isn't lost, it's okay,' he explains. But too often, the remixes feel like 'noise,' stripping away nostalgia and repackaging emotionless versions for quick consumption. 'It feels like those memories are being erased and repackaged like junk food,' he says, with a clarity that reveals his deep respect for original artistry. Asked which musician moved him the most, Eijaz doesn't hesitate. 'George Michael,' he answers. 'His voice doesn't try to be vulnerable — it just is. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Trading CFD dengan Teknologi dan Kecepatan Lebih Baik IC Markets Mendaftar Undo It scratches you, it makes you bleed, it shakes you.' For him, albums like Listen Without Prejudice and Older resonate on a visceral level, mirroring his own inner struggles. The pain, isolation, and silent battles in Michael's music echo chapters from his own life. 'Those albums aren't just music to me — they've become lifelines. ' Recounting a powerful moment from a Guns N' Roses concert, Eijaz reveals, 'When they started playing my favorite hits, I didn't scream or sing along. I just froze and started crying.' In that moment, he felt a convergence of his past and present selves. 'I was that young boy, Eijaz Khan, who didn't understand so many things but had Guns N' Roses as a companion.' That concert was not just an experience — it was a memory stitched back together, a form of emotional closure. Naming his favorite song is easy: Older by George Michael . 'That song isn't preachy — it feels like a quiet, honest conversation you have with yourself,' he reflects. With every passing year, its meaning grows deeper. 'Every line, every word feels like a page pulled straight out of my own emotional diary.' Music, for Eijaz, goes beyond entertainment or inspiration. 'It transforms you. It helps you evolve. Sometimes it gives your deepest pain a voice,' he says. It hasn't fixed him — but it has comforted him through despair. 'You understand music differently when you're broken,' he says poignantly. 'And I think during my loneliest phases, music understood me even when I didn't understand myself.' From silence to song, from solitude to self-awareness, Eijaz Khan's emotional world is intimately tied to the music that shaped him. 'Sometimes it's healed me. Sometimes it's haunted me. But always, it's comforted me.' And in those melodies and lyrics, we see not just the actor, but the man — real, raw, and remarkably resonant.
Daily Record
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
The singer who had 'greatest vocal range of the 1960s', according to science
The unrivalled singer eclipsed big names like Elvis and Mick Jagger, according to a recent study. The world has been blessed with top vocalists over the years, but a new study has given one famous singer in particular a prestigious title. The crooner took the crown of the 1960s artist with the most impressive vocal range - and he beat several other big names. James Brown, affectionately known as the Godfather of Soul, is the singer in question, according to Concert Hotels' research. They say the late icon exhibited a remarkable vocal stretch from E2 to F6 octaves with ease. Analysing classic pop culture artists through a monitoring system, the study concluded that Brown's vocal prowess eclipsed that of his contemporaries, including Elvis Presley and Mick Jagger. The same study also noted that Mariah Carey holds the record for the highest note reached by a vocalist, while Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses hits the lowest – both artists having started their careers well after the '60s period. Brown, famed for his vigorous stage presence, had a knack for delivering piercing screeches and deep, soulful tones in chart-toppers like Super Bad and Get Up Offa That Thing. He famously flaunted his range during a performance on The T.A.M.I. Show on October 28, 1964, reports the Mirror US. As Jagger lingered backstage ready to perform with The Rolling Stones, he was reassured by Marvin Gaye who suggested that despite Brown's electric set, "just go out there and do your best." Known for his acute musical ear, Brown could detect any slip-ups his band made during shows. He was notorious for issuing fines to band members who faltered musically during performances. James spent his formative years in the care of his great-aunt in Georgia, following his parents' divorce. Growing up in the Deep South during the Great Depression of the 1930s exposed him to some of America's most trying times. On one occasion, his poverty was so dire that he was sent home from school for wearing "insufficient clothes." His musical talents began to flourish at a tender age, thanks to his neighbours teaching him to play various instruments such as drums, piano, and guitar. His passion for gospel music, ignited in church, would ultimately propel him to stardom. While attending Alto Reform School, James founded a gospel group called the Flames, later known as the Famous Flames. The group caught the attention of Little Richard, a renowned rhythm-and-blues and rock-and-roll artist, who helped them gain recognition. In 1956, they released their debut single, 'Please. Please. Please', which sold three million copies and launched James into the spotlight. Throughout the 1960s, James earned the nickname Soul Brother Number One, and by the 1970s, he was revered as the Godfather of Soul. His remarkable career comprised 100 singles, nearly 50 chart-topping albums, and unforgettable live performances, including Live at the Apollo, which remained on the charts for 22 weeks. Despite leaving behind a lasting musical legacy, James passed away on Christmas morning in 2006 at the age of 73, due to complications from fluid in his lungs and a heart attack. His widow, Tomi Rae, revealed that the star had battled his condition for days before his passing. Following his passing, she laid bare the reality of their life together versus his public image. She said: "There was this public image he'd spent years creating and there was the real James Brown I lived with for nine years. I was the only person to see the real him. By the end, he was suffering terribly from arthritis in his legs. I had to massage him." Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'.
Los Angeles Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Guns N' Roses' former manager recalls harrowing stories, calls Mötley Crüe ‘brutish entertainers'
As the manager of Guns N' Roses during the band's debauched heyday, Alan Niven has no shortage of colorful stories. The LAPD fetching Axl Rose from his West Hollywood condo and bringing him directly to the stage so Guns N' Roses could open for the Rolling Stones at the L.A. Coliseum. Slash going off script and taking a Winnebago for a joyride — and then standing in rush hour traffic and brandishing a bottle of Jack Daniels — while filming the 'Welcome to the Jungle' music video. Guitarist Izzy Stradlin carrying a $750,000 cashier's check that Niven had to take from him and hide in his own shoe for safekeeping during a raucous trip to New Orleans. About 15 minutes into a thoughtful Zoom conversation, the garrulous Niven poses a question of his own: 'Why was I managing Guns N' Roses?' Given what he describes, it is a good question. 'Because nobody else would do it,' he says, noting that the band's former management firm 'could not get away fast enough' from the group. 'No one else would deal with them. Literally, I was not bottom of the barrel, darling — I was underneath the barrel. It was desperation.' Case in point: his very first Guns N' Roses band meeting. On the way into the house, Niven says, he passed by a broken toilet and 'one of the better-known strippers from [the] Sunset Strip.' Stradlin and Slash were the only ones who'd shown up. Once the meeting started, Stradlin nodded out at the table and Slash fed 'a little white bunny rabbit' to a massive pet python. 'And I'm sitting there going, 'Keep your cool. This may be a test. Just go with it and get through it.' But that was my first GNR meeting.' These kinds of stranger-than-fiction anecdotes dominate Niven's wildly entertaining (and occasionally jaw-dropping) new book, 'Sound N' Fury: Rock N' Roll Stories.' With brutal honesty and vivid imagery, he describes the challenges of wrangling Guns N' Roses before and after the band's 1987 debut, 'Appetite for Destruction.' These include mundane business matters (like shooting music videos on a budget) and more stressful moments, such as navigating Rose's mercurial moods and ensuring that band members didn't take drugs on international flights. But 'Sound N' Fury' also focuses extensively on Niven's time managing the bluesy hard rock band Great White, whose lead singer, the late Jack Russell, had his own struggles with severe addiction. To complicate the entanglement, Niven also produced and co-wrote dozens of the band's songs, including hits 'Rock Me' and 'House of Broken Love.' Niven mixes delightful bits of insider gossip into these harrowing moments: firing for bad behavior future superstar director Michael Bay from filming Great White's 'Call It Rock 'n' Roll' music video; Berlin's Terri Nunn sending President Reagan an 8-by-10 photo with a saucy message; clandestinely buying Ozzy Osbourne drinks on an airplane behind Sharon Osbourne's back. And his lifelong passion for championing promising artists also comes through, including his recent advocacy for guitarist Chris Buck of Cardinal Black. Unsurprisingly, Niven says people had been asking him for 'decades' to write a book ('If I had $1 for every time somebody asked me that, I'd be living in a castle in Scotland'). He resisted because of his disdain for rock 'n' roll books: 'To me, they all have the same story arc and only the names change.' A magazine editor paid him such a huge compliment that he finally felt compelled to write one. 'He said, 'I wish I could write like you,' ' Niven says. 'When he said that, it put an obligation on me that I couldn't shake. Now I had to be intelligent about it and go, 'Well, you hate rock 'n' roll books, so what are you going to do?' ' Niven's solution was to eschew the 'usual boring, chronological history' and structure 'Sound N' Fury' more like a collection of vignettes, all told with his usual dry sense of humor and razor-sharp wit. 'If you tell the stories well enough, they might be illuminating,' he says. 'I saw it more as a record than I did a book. And you hope that somebody will drop the needle in at the beginning of the record and stay with the record until it's over. 'For me, dialogue was key — and, fortunately, they were all more f— up than I was,' he adds. 'So my memory of the dialogue is pretty good. … There's some dialogue exchanges in there that imprinted themselves for as long as I live.' One of the artists that doesn't get much ink in 'Sound N' Fury' is another group known for its hedonistic rock 'n' roll behavior, Mötley Crüe. Niven promoted and facilitated distribution of the independent release of the band's 1981 debut, 'Too Fast for Love' and helped connect Mötley Crüe with Elektra Records. He doesn't mince words in the book or in conversation about the band, saying he feels 'very ambivalent about the small role I played in the progression of Mötley Crüe because I know who they are. I know what they've done to various people. I know how they've treated certain numbers of women. And I am not proud of contributing to that. 'And on top of that, someone needs to turn around and say, 'It's a thin catalog that they produced,' in terms of what they produced as music,' he continues. 'There's not much there and it's certainly not intellectually or spiritually illuminating in any way, shape or form. They are brutish entertainers, and that's it.' Still, Niven says he didn't hesitate to include the stories that he did in 'Sound N' Fury,' and by explanation notes a conversation he had with journalist Mick Wall. 'He sent me an email the other day saying, 'Welcome to the club of authors,' ' he recalls. 'And I'm going, 'Yeah, right. You've been doing it all your life. I'm just an enthusiastic amateur.' And he said, 'Welcome to the club — and by the way, it's cursed.'' Niven pondered what that meant. 'A little light bulb went on in my head, and I went, 'Ah, yes, the curse is truth,' because a lot of people don't want to hear the truth and don't want to hear what truly happened. 'There are people in the Axl cult who won't be happy. There will be one or two other people who won't be happy, but there's no point in recording anything unless it's got a truth to it.' Niven says when the book was done, he didn't necessarily gain any surprising insights or new perspectives on what he had documented. 'The fact that people are still interested in what you've got to say about things that happened 30 years ago is almost unimaginable,' he says. 'I never used to do interviews back in the day. But at this point, it would just be graceless and rank bad manners not to respond. 'Occasionally people go, 'Oh, he's bitter,'' Niven continues. 'No, I am not. I don't think the book comes off as bitter. Many times I've said it was actually a privilege to go through that period of time because I didn't have to spend my life saying to myself, 'I wonder what it would have been like to have had a No. 1. To have had a successful band.' Well, I found out firsthand.' Niven stresses firmly that management was more than a job to him. 'It was my way of life,' he says. 'People who go into management and think it's a job that starts maybe at about half past 10 in the morning once you've had your coffee and then you check out at six, they're not true managers. 'They're not in management for the right reasons,' he adds. 'Rock 'n' roll is a way of f— life. It's 24/7, 365. And that was my approach to it.'
Glasgow Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Glasgow Times
Guns N' Roses at Wembley Stadium: Support act, timings, more
The 'Paradise City' band will be bringing their 'Because What You Want & What You Get Are Two Completely Different Things' tour to the iconic venue for one special night. Best known for hits 'Sweet Child O' Mine' and 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door', the group first performed at the old Wembley Stadium in 1992, where Brian May joined them. Now Guns N' Roses are back at the London venue for their latest tour, and if you were lucky enough to get tickets, check the support act, timings and more below. When are Guns N' Roses at Wembley Stadium? Guns N' Roses will be performing at Wembley Stadium for one special night on Thursday, June 26. What time do doors open for Guns N' Roses in London? If you want to head down early to soak in the atmosphere before the band takes to the stage, you can at 5.30pm when the doors at Wembley open. What are the set times for Guns N' Roses at Wembley? The official set times for Guns N' Roses have not yet been confirmed, but according to Wembley Park, the set times are expected to be as follows: 7pm - Support act 8.15pm - Guns N' Roses take to the stage The show ends no later than 10.30pm What is the setlist for Guns N' Roses? The setlist for the tour is not yet confirmed, but is expected to include big hits from the band, including the likes of: Welcome to the Jungle Sweet Child O' Mine Paradise City Knockin' on Heaven's Door November Rain You Could Be Mind NightTrain My Michelle Don't Cry What is the seating plan for Wembley Stadium? If you're curious about how good your view of the stage will be at Wembley Stadium, you can see on its website. On the website, you'll be able to select your exact seat and see a digital view of the stage. Recommended Reading All seating is reserved. It is also important to note that people buying in level 5 should be aware they are high up and not suitable if you have a fear of heights. Who is the support act for Guns N' Roses at Wembley? Guns N' Roses will be supported by group Rival Sons, known for songs including Do Your Worst, Too Bad, Open My Eyes, Shooting Stars and Keep on Swinging.
Time of India
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
The rise of soulful concerts
They sell out arenas, auditoriums and also go on multi-city tours, but its the concert experience they offer that separates them from the mainstream performers like Guns N' Roses, Travis Scott, Bryan Adams. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Attendees not only dance at these gigs but sway to the rhythm. They focus on something more inward – a shared experience of inner peace, reflection and meditation – a soulful concert. India's live entertainment scene is evolving, making room for more than just a spectacle. When artistes like Rishab Rikhiram Sharma and Jahnavi Harrison perform, they offer a different kind of concert experience – one that transcends genre and creates a soulful, immersive environment. These are concerts not just for the audience, but with them. It's less about stimulation, more about satiation of the soul. 'This is a mix of spirituality, culture, and entertainment,' explains Deepak Choudhary of Eva Live. 'The vibe is defined by the music, but it's the shared emotional space that sets it apart.' Jahnavi Harrison recently performed in Delhi and Chandigarh 'New-age artistes are democratising the genre' This inclination towards culturally rooted music is not a nascent phenomenon. India's love for classical and fusion music dates back to several decades, courtesy communities such as SPIC MACAY, adds a District Spokesperson, adding, 'These communities have done a great job popularising this genre across generations. Building on this, today, new-age artistes such as Rishab Rikhiram Sharma, Anoushka Shankar and Jahnavi Harrison are further democratising this genre, making it more accessible and engaging for a larger, younger audience. Interestingly, the audience drawn to these concerts represent more than just dedicated fans. The attendees, increasingly seeking authentic connections to their cultural heritage, find a powerful and resonant thread in this music, offering both artistic fulfillment and a deeper sense of belonging.' Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Rishab Rikhiram Sharma conducted a ten-city India tour titled Sitar for Mental Health 'Such concerts aim for emotional and spiritual connection With instruments like the dhol, sitar, and harmonium, these events are rooted in Indian classical and devotional traditions, yet carry a contemporary freshness. The artistes may vary in genre and style, but the common thread is great content, curated with intention and depth. 'It's about the vibe – different artistes bring different flavours, but the purpose remains shared experience,' shares Deepak. Explaining the category of these concerts, Mohit Bijlani from Team Innovation, shares, 'It is a form of sonicmeditation. The atmosphere at these concerts is distinct, characterised by energy that encourages both vulnerability and introspection. It transcends a mere performance; it's a collective gathering centered on shared presence and profound spiritual exploration.' The focus is beyond just performance. 'These concerts are curated keeping in consideration the subtle feelings, emotional or spiritual connection and fostering a strong sense of community among the attendees. The venue and its setup contribute significantly to this unique and often more intimate atmosphere,' points out the District Spokesperson. Acyuta Gopi, who is also going on tour in India, shares that 'This is a new genre of immersive entertainment with spirituality at its core' 'Substantial portion of attendees fall within the 25-40 age bracket, contrasting the previously dominant 50+ demographic' Interestingly, the demographic is shifting for these gigs drawing in the 25–40 age group, who are driven by FOMO and the search for something meaningful. 'These gigs tap into the deep-seated human desire for meaning, community, and transformative experience, with contemporary artistic expression. Interestingly, we've observed a significant demographic shift, with a substantial portion of attendees falling within the 25-40 age bracket, contrasting the previously dominant 50+ demographic for events of this nature,' points out Mohit Bijlani. Radhika Das is set to go on a nine city tour in India in November this year ' Soulful concerts are demonstrably gaining momentum, rivalling mainstream genres' The movement is no longer niche. These concerts are filling stadiums, selling out in hours, and becoming just as popular as mainstream music events. 'They will become bigger in the coming time,' says Deepak. 'These concerts are demonstrably gaining momentum, as an increasing number of individuals recognise their capacity to heal and inspire. They signify a cultural evolution towards prioritising experiences that genuinely nourish the human spirit, rather than merely stimulating the senses. Indeed, these concerts are now filling stadiums and rivaling mainstream genres in popularity. We've experienced sold-out shows within hours of announcement, and consistently fill arenas – exceeding 10,000 attendees,' adds Mohit.
