DOME AND DUMBER
Rock N’ Skull loses venue along with Steel Panther, Warrant, FireHouse and Lita Ford
PEKIN, Illinois — In what seems to be a neverending saga, the Rock N’ Skull story just keeps getting dumber and dumber.
First off, the story Metal Sludge reported back on July 6th that Steel Panther was being cut from the roster, is still not officially confirmed.
But according to the event promoter, a poster (inset right) that was leaked in recent days clearly has no sign of Steel Panther. This on what also appears to be or was slated to be a newly named event.
The festival in its 5th year looks to have been in the planning stages, to do another do-over of sorts.
The event’s (leaked) poster and promo (if it was accurate) is advertising the 3-day event as “80’s At The Dome” with no sign of the Rock N’ Skull branding.
It appears that the event had also cut Lillian Axe from the Sunday lineup, along with losing Friday night acts White Widow frontman Jules Millis from Australia and Age of the band Amunition who is from Norway.
The lineup is slightly different with a total of 4 changes (26 in total since first announcing), with the biggest name (missing) being Steel Panther.
The Los Angeles based hairband super heroes were slated to headline Saturday night.
It should be noted that there were new additions including Brandon Gibbs (Devil City Angels, The Special Guests) and the Kiss tribute band DTKS: (Dressed To Kill Show) replacing the lost Friday acts.
Adding to the Steel Panther rumors, Metal Sludge reported weeks ago that Rock N’ Skull was rumored to have ‘lost’ their deal with the “Avanti’s Dome” venue and speculation was they were moving the festival to “Diesel Dick’s Pub & Grub“.
Event promoter Justin Murr was quick to reply with posts on social media insinuating that was not the case.
Murr even offered for readers to contact “Avanti’s Dome” directly and posted their phone number.
A follow-up message from Murr appeared to change course a bit writing: “I never denied your story or said it was fabricated…”
Within 24 hours those messages from Murr and Rock N’ Skull were all deleted but not before all were screen captured.
In addition the ticket bud link was once again disabled and there have been no tickets available for 33 days as of this posting.
Now it appears that after several weeks of speculation, rumor and an outpouring of concerned ticket holders many of whom wanted refunds, the event may have tried to change their festival name and rebrand the event as “80’s At The Dome“.
Event promoter Murr posted over the past weekend about the latest rumor regarding the name change and (leaked) poster: “There is a poster making the rounds that I shared with a less then scrupulous person. It was just a mock-up for a proposal, it was not meant for the general publics eyes…”
Now on August 15th Murr announced the following: “As of now, The Dome will not be hosting the event.”
Murr continued in his long post adding in part: “…I hate to announce we will not be able to afford to have Warrant, Lita, & Firehouse perform at RNS 17.”
Murr then added: “I can’t make excuses and this is not any or those bands fault but solely falls on my shoulders. I am in breech and I appreciate them & their agents working as long as they did as I tried to save the dome.”
See the full “**Update 2**” screen captured (inset left, click to enlarge) from the Rock N’ Skull official event’s facebook page.
FireHouse lead singer Cj Snare posted on his official Facbook page confirming the band’s departure: “Time to let go of Rock N’ Skull !!! Bye Bye !!!”
Metal Sludge first reported rumors back in early March that there was trouble from the inside. There were several reports from multiple industry sources close to the event that talks among partners were trying to figure out which bands to cut and how to downsize for financial reasons.
Our initital report was followed up by our breaking story that Ace Frehley was pulling out of the event. This was followed by reports about Ted Poley (Danger Danger) pulling out as well.
A follow up article with Poley who confirmed he was an actual partner, then went on a rant calling out the event and Murr with harsh words, some of which he later retracted.
In the weeks to follow SouthGang also pulled from Rock N’ Skull, WildSide was next. All of these acts confirmed their departure.
Metal Sludge then reported that Steel Panther was rumored to be getting cut from the roster as well to once again ‘save money’ ($ 30,000.00 according to our intel).
This was never confirmed nor denied by Rock N’ Skull or Murr despite multiple inquiries from fans and related parties.
Also on August 12th Don Dokken appeared on The Classic Metal Show and was quoted as saying he was “blowing out” the Rock N’ Skull appearance on Friday October 27th
Don Dokken is scheduled to headline the night with Lita Ford and Jack Russell of Jack Russell’s Great White among others.
Murr writes: “I have no comment” on the Dokken status in a screen capture at left.
Dokken then stated in detail that the gig was not going to work out as he has to be in Monterrey Mexico the following day (Sat. Oct. 28th).
Listen to The Classic Metal Show below as Dokken explains his tight schedule (around the 50:00 minute mark).
As of today (August 16th) there is no official lineup, venue for the event or any related promo or poster detailing location or bands to appear.
We will do our best to bring you updates and news as it becomes available.
