Jon Zazula, Co-Founder of Legendary Metal Label Megaforce Records, Dies at 69

Kurt Vile, Neil Young, Neko Case and more. Their final single, ‘Message to Belial’, was released last month, and produced by Arcade Fire‘s Richard Reed Parry. Listen to that above.It’s with unfathomable sadness that we announce the sudden passing of Dallas on Thursday, February 17th.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorLarge sections of the fabric roof of London’s O2 Arena have been shredded by strong winds from Storm Eunice, causing the venue to close, according to the BBC. The South London venue has been hit by winds of up to 90 mph in one of the worst storms to hit the United Kingdom in recent memory.The closure looks to be relatively brief: a show tonight by AP Dhillon has been moved to Tuesday.A statement on the venue’s website reads: “Due to today’s adverse weather conditions, we can confirm that there has been some damage caused to the tent fabric in our roof at The O2.

Sasha Urban editorJan DeWitt, a longtime television producer of shows including “Bones” and “Judging Amy,” died Jan 29 at his home in Santa Barbara, Calif. He was 75.DeWitt spent nearly 50 years working in the film and television industry.

Pearl Jam‘s Stone Gossard has tried to defuse the recent war of words between his bandmate Eddie Vedder and Mötley Crüe‘s Nikki Sixx.Gossard said that he was a fan of Mötley Crüe’s music, despite Vedder’s recent comments, and that he had purchased the band’s 1981 debut album ‘Too Fast For Love’ when it was still available only on the indie label Leathür Records.“Jeff [Ament, Pearl Jam bassist] and Mike [McCready, guitarist] and I loved hard rock, like, went through it all. I bought the first Mötley Crüe on Leathür Records,” Gossard told the Fan First podcast. “I thought it was, at the time, it was punk-like.

After Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder recently got into a war of words with Nikki Sixx, a perhaps unexpected person has come to the defence of the latter’s band Mötley Crüe – Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard.It all began last month when Vedder said in an interview that he’d worked at a venue in the 1980s where hair metal bands like Mötley Crüe had played, and that he had always “despised” what he saw as a “vacuous” music scene.Sixx then hit back, saying that he was taking Vedder’s comments as a “kind of a compliment”, because Pearl Jam are “one of the most boring bands in history”. This prompted Pearl Jam to tweet a video of one of their audiences apparently having a whale of a time, with the caption “we love our bored fans”.But while Vedder was not, and is still not, a fan of Mötley Crüe in their heyday, it turns out that several of his bandmates were.In a new interview with Revolver’s Fan First podcast, Gossard says: “For sure, Jeff [Ament, bass] and Mike [McCready, guitar] and I loved hard rock, you know, like, [we] went through it all.

 chronicled the stranger-than-fiction story about the multiple kidnappings of Jan Broberg, the story is being revisited as a scripted, true-crime series starring Anna Paquin and Jake Lacy.Adapted by showrunner and executive producer Nick Antosca and directed by executive producer Eliza Hittman, will recount the real story of the teenage girl who was abducted not once, but twice by the same man in several years. That man was the Broberg family’s trusted neighbor, Robert Berchtold, who ended up manipulating and exploiting the parents before turning their daughter against them. “Nick Antosca has created a compelling series in that explores one family’s unimaginable experience with great insight and sensitivity,” said Lisa Katz, president scripted content, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIn what may be a case of unfortunate timing, Kendrick Lamar will appear in an extended Spotify podcast series that examines his classic 2015 album “To Pimp a Butterfly” — premiering Wednesday (Feb. 16).

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorBritish singer-songwriter Emeli Sandé has announced her forthcoming album, “Let’s Say for Instance,” will be released on May 6 via Chrysalis Records.Sandé has enjoyed enormous chart success in her native England, with her debut album, “Our Version of Events,” selling nearly five and a half million copies to date and becoming the biggest-selling album in the U.K. for 2012 (and the second-biggest for 2013).

Jim Angle, one of Fox News Channel’s original reporting line-up in 1996 and its chief national correspondent when he retired in 2014, died Wednesday at his home in Arlington, Virginia. He was 75.

Wilson Chapman editorJim Angle, one of the first reporters to work for Fox News Channel, died Feb. 9 in Arlington, Va., the network reported on Friday. He was 75.“Jim was a Fox News original and a top Washington correspondent whose talent and fearless reporting was unmatched,” Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott said in a statement.

Jan DeWitt, who produced over 500 hours of television and features, including many episodes of Bones and Judging Amy, died as a result of Covid on the morning of January 29 at his home in Santa Barbara. His friend and partner, Charlene, was by his side and his daughter, Anika, was on the phone from Colorado when he passed. He was 75.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAdele addressed the abrupt postponement of her Las Vegas residency and revealed that she plans to have a child with partner Rich Paul in a pre-recorded interview on Britain’s “Graham Norton Show” that aired Friday in the U.K. and is slated to run on BBC America next week.“I tried my hardest and really thought I would be able to pull something together in time,” Adele said of the Vegas postponement, which was announced just hours before the first show, after hundreds of fans had traveled to the city for the show, according to reports of the interview in the British press.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAfter seeing her song “Fingers Crossed” become a TikTok smash, Vancouver Island singer/songwriter Lauren Spencer-Smith has partnered with Universal Music Group’s Island Records and Republic Records. According to the announcement, “The innovative partnership, structured with manager and business partner David Ehrlich (pictured above, right, with UMG chief Lucian Grainge, left, and Spencer-Smith), allows Lauren Spencer-Smith to keep her independent spirit via her own imprint while tapping into premium services from both labels.”After breaking through on TikTok, “Fingers Crossed” garnered over 100 million streams hitting the Top 50 on Spotify in 23 countries and peaked at No.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorDr. Dre has made the historic move of bringing two deaf rappers into this year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show.Sean Forbes and Warren “WaWa” Snipe, will appear alongside Dre, Eminem, Mary J.

Eddie Vedder is not a fan of Mötley Crüe — and apparently the feeling is mutual.

Jon Zazula was the founder of Megaforce Records, Metallica’s first label.Zazula began his influential career as the founder of Rock and Roll Heaven, a New Jersey record store that found its first home at an East Brunswick flea market, the Route 18 Indoor Market. Founded in 1981, the record store became a mecca for heavy metal lovers as Zazula imported rare metal records from overseas and traded underground tapes and demos. He came across Metallica’s 1982 demo tape, “No Life ‘Til Leather.” He loved what he heard, and he founded Megaforce Records along with his wife, the late Marsha Zazula, to give the band a record label home.

Metallica, Anthrax, Testament and Ministry – has died at the age of 69.Variety confirmed Zazula’s passing through a representative of Megaforce, though a cause for his death was not confirmed.