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KISS guitarist/vocalist Paul Stanley was among the biggest names in TV and radio who joined together at Dick Clark's Malibu, California home yesterday (Thursday, May 3) to pay tribute to the rock 'n' roll icon and TV and radio pioneer who passed away on April 18.

Commented Stanley: "Yesterday, the private memorial for Dick Clark took place, and I was there by invitation along with Erin [Stanley's wife], Gene [Simmons, KISS bassist/vocalist] and Shannon [Tweed, Gene's wife].

"Dick was a true icon who changed the world of rock and roll while making a career of using his love of music to make icons of others.

"To see rock's greats spanning five decades humbled and giving thanks to this giant only underlined once again the impact this wonderful man had on so many.

"Any of the current 'Idol'/'Voice'-type shows wouldn't exist without the trail that Dick Clark blazed to make them possible. He left an indelible mark on me for the irreplaceable generosity he showed KISS over the years. Always there with a word of guidance, we won't forget him. He will live on through his impact on countless aspects of American pop culture."

Clark died of a heart attack in Santa Monica, California at age 82. According to The Pulse Of Radio, Clark's death came a day after being admitted for an outpatient procedure. Clark, affectionately known as "America's Oldest Teenager," is survived by his wife Kari, and his three children Richard Augustus II, Duane, and Cindy. Memorial plans have yet to be announced.

Over the course of the show's 30 years, artists who performed on "American Bandstand" included the BEACH BOYS, THE DOORS, MADONNA, and literally hundreds of others.

In 1964, "American Bandstand" moved to Los Angeles, where it would remain until 1989 when the show was canceled.

"American Bandstand" became one of television's longest running music shows, and the first network series devoted exclusively to rock n' roll.

QUEENSRŸCHE singer Geoff Tate was interviewed on the latest edition of the weekly two-hour classic hard rock and metal show "Noize In The Attic" (web site).

When asked if he would be receptive to the idea of former QUEENSRŸCHE guitarist Chris DeGarmo rejoining the band if Chris expressed his desire to return to the group, Tate said, "I think it would be great! For me at least, he and I were very close working together. It was a good team... I'd definitely work with Chris again. We made plans to work together over the years at various times and sometimes we've gotten together and sometimes we haven't. He's just… I hate speaking for the man — he should speak for himself — but I think he's just into a different part of his life [working as a professional charter pilot] and happy with that."

Regarding whether he would ever consider performing the 1986 QUEENSRŸCHE "Rage For Order" in its entirety on a full tour, Tate said, "Probably not. We played the 'Rage For Order' album [as a one-off] in New York [last year], and that was really, really… How should I put it? It wasn't very satisfying. I'll put it that way. It's not a record that has a lot of passion in it; it's kind of cold and clinical. It was a record of its time. It's not an album that has songs on it that resonate with me anymore as a person. So it's not something that I would work very hard to put together. [Same thing with 1990's] 'Empire'. Honestly, that's just not who I am. I'm more of an in-the-now person. I'm interested in what's happening with life at the moment. I'm not at that stage in life where I'm interested in looking back."

QUEENSRŸCHE's latest album, "Dedicated To Chaos", sold 8,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 70 on The Billboard 200 chart. The band's previous CD, the epic concept album "American Soldier", opened with 21,000 units back in April 2009 to enter the chart at No. 25. This was roughly half the first-week tally registered by QUEENSRŸCHE's "Operation: Mindcrime II" album, which shifted 44,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release back in April 2006 to debut at No. 14 on The Billboard 200 chart.

QUEENSRŸCHE's 2003 effort, "Tribe", sold 20,000 copies in the first week while 1999's "Q2K", opened with sales of 28,000.

QUEENSRŸCHE's top-selling album by far is 1990's "Empire", which was certified triple-platinum in October 1994 for sales in excess of three million copies in the United States. The original "Operation: Mindcrime" release (1988) attained platinum status in August 1991, while 1994's "Promised Land" reached the same plateau in December 1994.

According to The Pulse Of Radio, guitarist Neal Schon says that the only way to see Steve Perry back on stage with JOURNEY would be alongside current vocalist, sound-alike Arnel Pineda. Schon, keyboardist Jonathan Cain, and Pineda spoke to The Huffington Post to publicize the new documentary, "Don't Stop Believin'': Everyman's Journey", which premiered at New York City's Tribeca Film Festival, and talked candidly about what it would take to have Steve Perry ever rejoin JOURNEY, with Schon saying, "I don't think there's any way not to have Arnel at this point. Who can say never? You can never say it's never going to happen. Maybe ten years from now? Six years? Who knows? But if that situation ever came up, I think it would be the both of them. And I think it would be at the point where it's a farewell tour. . . and we're done. That's the only appropriate way to go about it."

He recalled the search to find Pineda after going through two frontmen following Perry's departure. Schon explained, "We needed someone to really nail our catalog. I looked for a couple of days, non-stop on YouTube. It was a different way to go about it, instead of flying people in from all over the world. I looked and looked for like two days, and Arnel popped up at the last minute in a link. I heard the voice and went, 'He's got the high tenor voice.' I realized he was very, very strong and covered a lot of area."

Jonathan Cain added that there's a difference between being a straight mimic and doing what Pineda does. "He's not a tribute band singer," Cain said. "The tribute band singers are scary because they are kind of clones, you know? We did have a guy that we looked at, but he was so much like Steve Perry, it was crazy. It was too creepy. But, it was kind of neat to get next to that and see it for a second. A lot of these tribute guys, they can sing the old stuff, but, you try to put a new song in their mouth and they can't do it."

Pineda was asked if he's ever met Steve Perry. "No, but I've been wanting to," he said. "I hope I can sing with him, you know, side by side. If he would welcome that. That would be awesome. I think, especially the hardcore fans, they would love it."

Steve Perry, who over the years co-wrote such JOURNEY classics with Neal Schon as "Don't Stop Believin'", "Stone In Love", "Lights" and "Any Way You Want It", told The Pulse Of Radio that during the band's heyday, Neal Schon literally had uncut gems flowing from his fingers. "It was challenging, because Neal Schon is a goldmine of potential ideas and he doesn't know, really, which are the best or not — 'cause they're all interesting to him," he said. "But in come my set of ears and he'd play stuff and I'd hear melodies, I'd say, 'Wait, what was that?!' And (he'd say) 'Oh, I don't know, it's just 'diddle-a doh' over this with a fifth. . .' I'd say, 'I don't care what you call it — what was that?' 'I don't know, it's just an idea I came up with last night.' I'd say, 'Well, why don't you keep playing that for a second while I come up with a melody?'"

IRON MAIDEN guitarist Adrian Smith has told VH1 Classic's "That Metal Show" that the band might approach songwriting differently for its next album and move away from composing long, progressive-rock-style tracks which have characterized some of MAIDEN's most recent efforts.

MAIDEN's 15th studio CD, 2010's "The Final Frontier", featured 10 tracks that had an average running time of seven minutes and 40 seconds, with the shortest song, "The Alchemist", clocking in at four minutes and 29 seconds, and the longest, "When The Wild Wind Blows", lasting ten minutes and 59 seconds.

Smith tells "That Metal Show": "On the last couple of albums Steve [Harris, bass], Bruce [Dickinson, vocals] and me have written together, which is a new thing. Steve used to bringing three, four, five completed songs. But now he's doing more arranging, production, overseeing. We sit down and write, and that's reflected in the slightly different stuff."

He adds, "We've been writing longer for some reason. Maybe next time we'll do some shorter stuff — but it's difficult to look into the future too far."

The guitarist also expressed his admiration for the likes of Jimi Hendrix, FREE and THIN LIZZY and the way they approached composing new music. "They did some great singles — put things into three minutes, which is a difficult thing to do, but it can be done."

Adrian is quick to point out, however, that IRON MAIDEN will continue to do things its own way, as has been the case throughout its 30-plus-year recording history. "It's just the band," he says. "There's no outside influences. There's never been a record company in the studio with us, so we're lucky — but we kind of worked for that."

IRON MAIDEN will return the road this summer with a series of arena, amphitheatre and festival shows in the USA and Canada, opening in Charlotte, North Carolina on June 21 and finishing in Houston, Texas on August 18, to be followed by further dates around the world in 2013. The "Maiden England World Tour" will closely mirror, in terms of production and content, the original 1988 concert video of the same name, shot on the "Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son Tour".

Says Smith : "Probably two-thirds of the set is going to be [revisiting the setlist from the 1988 tour]. It's good to rediscover [those old tracks]. I like to play them slightly differently, but people know them so well you can't deviate too much. If we remember the songs, it'll be alright."