In 1968, Gary Moore (above, top left) was just 16 years old when he joined future Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott in the Dublin blues-rock quartet Skid Row*. So, Moore was a charter member of the Society of Overachieving Teen Guitarists that would later include Steve Vai (19, Frank Zappa), Zakk Wylde (19, Ozzy Osbourne), and Devin Townsend (19, Steve Vai). Pretty elite company.

After a pair of short stints in Thin Lizzy, Moore again reunited with Lynott in 1979 for the band’s seminal Black Rose: A Rock Legend (see Axl Rose’s Black Rose-themed tattoo here, upper left). More than twenty solo albums followed, including 2008’s Bad For You Baby.

British tabloid The Sun reports that Moore, 58, was discovered unresponsive by medical staff in a Spain hotel suite where there were “definite signs of alcohol.” The Sun also quotes a source at the hotel who has stated that Moore “seemed fine when he left [the hotel bar] around 11 pm.” A post mortem has been scheduled.

After the jump, check out the MetalSucks round up of tributes to Moore by members of Obituary, Opeth, Black Flag, Testament, Black Sabbath, and mo(o)re.

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Here’s something interesting I just read on Blabbermouth. This is Ozzy Osbourne talking about the decision to remove Bob Daisley and Lee Kerslake’s tracks from the 2002  reissues of Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman and have them replaced with new recordings by Robert Trujillo and Mike Bordin:

Ozzy told The Pulse of Radio he was against the idea of replacing the original tracks when he found out about it. “Believe me, it wasn’t my doing,” he said. “I mean, I didn’t know that was being done, ’cause Sharon was fighting all the legal things that were going down at the time. I said, ‘What did you do that for?’ And she said, ‘The only way I could stop everything was if it went to that level.’ And I said, ‘You know what, whatever the circumstances were, I want the original thing back.’ I mean, I wouldn’t have done that.”

It’s pretty funny to see Ozzy place all the blame on his wife, although it isn’t hard to imagine that he’s telling the truth. Still, this is why you have to pay attention to what your handlers are doing. If he was against it, how did it ever get so far as to have the re-recordings done without his knowledge? Why not just cancel the reissues? Maybe if your brain was functioning properly, dude, it never would have gone down that way.

In any case, the original, proper recordings of those classic albums are getting another reissue sometime this year. I can already tell you that they will be both be better than Scream.

-AR

Remember in 2002, when Ozzy Osbourne reissued Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman with Bob Daisley and Lee Kerslake’s original bass and drum tracks deleted and replaced by new performances from Robert Trujillo and Mike Bordin? That was a crock of shit, wasn’t it? I’ve never even heard the re-recordings, and I really don’t care to; Bordin and Trujillo are talented dudes, but come ON. I don’t care if Daisley and Kerslake were suing Ozzy or Chinese-fingercuffing Kelly or what; I am not a fan of re-writing history. (I was just as disappoined that Bordin and Trujillo even agreed to participate in the re-recordings, but that’s another rant for another blog.)

Well, it looks like the re-writing of history may be re-written: Blabbermouth says that Rolling Stone says that 30th-anniversary editions (well, one 30-anniversary edition and one 29-anniversary edition, really) of those albums will be released later this year, with Daisley and Kerslake’s recordings re-instated.

Presumably this is because the two men have long since lost their lawsuit against the Ozzman, in which they asserted that they were owed a larger chunk of the royalties for those recordings. I don’t know enough about the case to really know if Daisley and Kerslake were actually getting screwed, or if they were just trolling for more moolah; in any case, I’m glad that any kids who will only just now be familiarizing themselves with these legendary albums will get to hear them the right way.

Here’s “No Bone Movies” from Blizzard; Daisley and Kerslake co-wrote this song, and the version below features their drum and bass tracks intact.

-AR

Judas Priest with Dave Holland, far left.

Speaking of metal, children, and tricky issues: Tuesday will see the release of the 30th Anniversary Edition of Judas Priest’s British Steel, and Phil Freeman over at MSN has made an interesting observation about the accompanying liner notes:

[The booklet] also includes a short note from the band on the inside cover, a two-page spread of live photos, a two-page essay by some dude I’ve never heard of (Dave Shack), two more pages of live photos, and two pages of credits (band and crew). And while the essays deal with the 30th anniversary, all the photos are new-looking, presumably shot on the 2009 tour. Which means they include Scott Travis on drums. And when you look at the credits in the back of the booklet, Scott Travis is listed as Judas Priest’s drummer.

Which is fine…if you’re talking about the [accompanying] live album. Scott Travis has been Judas Priest’s drummer since 1989. He played on Painkiller, all the Ripper Owens-era material, Angel of Retribution and Nostradamus. But he did not play on the 1980 recording of British Steel. Dave Holland did.

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