I would be remiss if I did not address what’s happened in Moore, OK.  My heart goes out to the entire community devastated by what had to be one of the worst tornadoes to hit that area in years.  Several rock artists took to Twitter to express their shock and sorrow over the destruction and death wrought on yesterday (May 20th) by a mile-wide tornado that struck the suburbs of Oklahoma City. At press time the death toll was over 100,  and expected to rise further, with a number of children at an area elementary school  and patients in a local hospital among the dead. You can help:  text STORM to 80888 to give $10 to the Salvation Army.  Text REDCROSS to 90999.  Or contact these sites directly: www.unitedwayOKC.org  or www.tulsaCF.org.

Slash: “Horrible what the people in Oklahoma just went thru. The devastation they’re facing now. & the lives they’ve lost.”

Shinedown: “Take a moment… If you can… To tell the ones you love, just that… That you love them. Remember that life is so precious. God bless #OKC”

Papa Roach: “Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected by the mile wide tornado in Oklahoma.”

David Draiman: “My thoughts and prayers go out to the residents of Oklahoma who have been ravaged by the recent swath of tornadoes.”

And now on to the news:  I have to begin with our weekend in Columbus at Rock on the Range.  (Many thanks to organizers Joe, Gary, Melissa, Chamie, Danny and Del!)   It was definitely their biggest show to date!   Lou Brutus and I go in there like commandos!  We are on a mission! I schedule the interviews with the bands and Lou goes off to tackle them!   (I only did two of the interviews: Bush’s Gavin Rossdale  & Three Days Grace    On Thursday, when I arrived at my hotel, I saw all these tour buses and wondered if Korn were staying in my hotel.  Sure enough, YES!  I saw Head in the lobby being interviewed by some video guys while he was skype-ing with his daughter.  Later that night,  I texted JD‘s bodyguard and was invited onto the bus to hear to some of the new (as yet unmixed) music!   HOLY CRAP!   I was freaking out!  ( As I was listening on the bus, JD  texted  Head, Munky & Fieldy  to say “Roxy’s going ape sh&t !”)   I heard like 5 or 6 new songs.   I loved it all.  It’s heavy, still has electronic overtones on some, and then some great old skool stuff.  All I can say is get ready!  JD’s new love is “trap” music.  Ya know, Jonathan’s a DJ too, so that’s where the whole dub step influence came from.   Meanwhile, Korn was traveling with a group of fellas from Dallas (Scott, Condy, et al)  who were doing a documentary on the band, mostly having to do with Head’s return.  But as Korn’s “oldest fan,”  I was also invited to be on camera to talk about the band and their history.   Lou was filmed while interviewing Head and Munky.   It should be cool once it’s together.  The band perfomed on Friday night.  Not since Woodstock ’99 have I seen such an electric performance from the band!  (That was in front of 100,000, this show clocked in at around 27,500.)  Head is back in full form and the energy now is explosive!  I got to stand right on the stage and loved to see Jonathan turn and smile after one of the songs!  The crowd response was so off the hook and at one point, their manager and I walked from the side of the stage to the sound board, where he asked Marco the sound man to turn it up!   It was AMAZING!  They did all the hits starting with “Blind,”  and even pulled out a deep track from the first album I didn’t recall called “Lies.”  Other performances over the three days I got to see were:  Halestorm and Bullet For My Valentine, who never fail to kill.  We had breakfast on Saturday with Lzzy and Joe.  Unfortunately by the time I could get over to the side stage where Young Guns were playing, it was the last note of “Bones,” their last song!  Wah!   But got to hug the very sweaty boys!  Gonna miss them when they leave, but they are planning to record their next album in NYC, so I am sure I will be seeing a lot of them come fall. Saw a second of Hollywood Undead, but hung out with them in the parking lot backstage on Friday. They are a riot!  Played dice with them on their bus too.   Saw Mindset Evolution, who included their new song “Burn It Down” in their set.  They won last year’s  Battle of The Bands at the Rockstar Uproar tour.  Sorry I missed Cheap Trick, and Rick Nielsen also joined Buckcherry on stage.   I saw Beware of Darkness just rip in on the Jager stage on Sunday.  On Saturday, I really was sorry I missed Motionless in White, who I think have some great things in store.  On Saturday, I interviewed the guys in Three Days Grace: Neil, Barry and Brad.  They’re getting ready to take a well deserved break.  Neil said he plans to be out on his boat most of the time.  Was with Lou when he interviewed Stone Sour’s Josh and Corey.  Corey did mention next year, Slipknot would converge to begin tackling new music! YAY!   They also have some more shows to do this year.  Papa Roach’s Jacoby Shaddix had his son Jagger out with him.  He’s 8 and sports a similar haircut as Dad and has some cool green frames on his glasses.  I sat with him while he ate lunch and we watched part of the hockey game (Blackhawks lost to Detroit!) on the bus.  Then we had meet and greets with our HardDrive Live Contest Winners Lance, Louis and Bailey.  They got to meet Bullet, Young Guns and Halestorm and got pictures and stuff.  Was cool.  While walking around I got to meet Randy Blythe of Lamb of God.  Told him the message he posted last week was so poignant.   He is still in the midst of all this stuff, but  did say he’s relieved this is nearly over.  It has been a nightmare to say the least.  Phil Labonte of All That Remains (their bus was very cool)  had his dog with him, a beautiful pit bull mix.  Let’s see,  talked to David Draiman on the Device bus. Needless to say, he can’t wait for his son’s birth!   (Samuel Bear is named after David’s grandfather.) Was bummed I missed their set (we had to be ready in front of Alice in Chains’ dressing room for the interview when they stepped on stage, so we missed the show!), especially when  In This Moment singer Maria Brink joined Device onstage on Sunday (May 19th)  to perform Device’s cover version of the 1988 Lita Ford/Ozzy Osbourne classic “Close My Eyes Forever.”   Fan-filmed footage has been posted online. Lou also spent  time in the Artist Lounge doing interviews, especially when bands didn’t have a bus or dressing room, where other outlets like Fuse and Revolver were doing video stuff.  We went to Alice in Chains’ dressing room and Lou interviewed Jerry Cantrell (who looks so great with his new haircut.  Even commented he can go out more now that he’s less recognizable!) and William Duvall, who told me about this amazing documentary he is doing on jazz drummer Milford Graves (see link) which centers around the theory that the heart is a drumbeat and amazingly,  music helps stem cell growth.  So the film will follow the efforts Graves is making along these lines with cardiac patients.  It’s a remarkable tale.  Anyhow,  while walking through the parking lot backstage, I saw Alice in Chains bassist Mike Inez and walked up to him.  Turns out he was having a cigarette with Soundgarden‘s Chris Cornell.  So we chatted for a bit.  I was sad to hear Alice In Chains drummer Sean Kinney is suffering from hearing loss.  80% in on ear, 20% in the other.  It’s just the hazard of this job. And reminds me how important it is to protect your hearing when you are at shows!   Wear EAR PLUGS!  Our final interview of the festival was while Alice in Chains were on stage.  Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil and Matt Cameron. Kim commented he is looking forward to making the next album with the band.  Then I ran back to the Alice in Chains stage (we were fortunate to be one of the 10 people that got special passes to watch the band from the viewing platform.)  I love them so.  One of my favs.  I always think of the first time I met the band, back in like 1992 I think when they were in LA  making the Dirt album.  Had them on a celebrity softball team.  I recall Layne Staley being an excellent slugger!  His hair and goatee dyed green in those days.  Sigh.  Anyhow, that’s what I can immediately recall from the weekend.  And lemme tell ya, my body still wants to be in bed right now!…Happy Birthday today to my partner & love of my life,  my homie, Dwight,  Happy 35th to Adam Gontier,  and rest in peace to Ray Manzarek of The Doors who passed away yesterday in Germany. Ray was 74.

Couple of more hours til I board a flight to Columbus for Rock on the Range 2013! To say this is probably their biggest and baddest to date is an understatement!  Three days of solid rock the way we like it! Unfortunately for you, I won’t be bringing my computer, but if I can steal someone’s who not using it backstage, I may be able to do some updates, so check in frequently!…One band I wish was there is Five Finger Death Punch, who just released a lyric video for “Lift Me Up,” the first single from the band’s upcoming double album, The Wrong Side Of Heaven And The Righteous Side Of Hell. (Check it out here.) The song arrived at radio stations and digital retailers earlier this week after the group performed it live at the Golden Gods Awards on May 2nd with guest vocalist Rob Halford of Judas Priest. Halford also appears on the studio version and Five Finger frontman Ivan Moody told us about the session: “I come in, and there’s the man, the myth himself, the metal god Rob Halford singing one of our tracks. And I sat there and talked to him for a good three hours, and as you know, he just played the Golden God Awards with us — I mean, the guy is just a fantastic human being, man, and it’s such an honor to have him be a part of this.” Cool stuff….Well, last night in Belle Vernon, PA, Korn played their first full show in 8 years with Head on board.  To say this is a milestone is an understatement as well!  Me? I am counting the hours til I see them tomorrow night!…. Well, that was fast: just a few months after being announced as part of the new Nine Inch Nails lineup constructed by Trent Reznor, bassist Eric Avery has pulled out of the band, writing on Facebook, “It’s been a tough call and I don’t know if it’s the right one. I really want to focus on my musical life here in L.A., on film work in particular.”  Avery spent last year on tour with Garbage and said he was “overwhelmed” at the thought of going out again with NIN. He added, “I just got home from a year of heavy travel with Garbage, the idea of leaving town for another year and a half, and with all the intensity that Nails demands . . . fortunately my friend Trent understands all this and appreciated my pulling the plug now instead of deep into 2013 and ’14.”   Avery was a founding member of Jane’s Addiction, although he left in 1991, rejoined in 2008, and departed again in 2010. (Thanks Pulse Content)….Happy 48th today to Krist Novoselic and Happy 39th to Sonny Sandoval of P.O.D.

I am sad about Wes Scantlin from Puddle of Mudd.  What happened to him?  Doesn’t he have anyone in his life who cares about him enough to do an intervention with him? I mean, less than a week after being arrested on warrants stemming from his 2012 cocaine possession case, he has been arrested again — this time on charges of domestic violence. According to TMZ, Scantlin became physically abusive with his ex-wife Jessica at a business in West Hollywood on Monday afternoon (May 13th), shaking her and trying to drag her by her shirt. Witnesses called the police and Scantlin was hauled off in custody. He was still behind bars at press time with bail set at $20,000. Scantlin was said to be extremely uncooperative during his arrest, with one source calling him “mouthy.” Where’s his bandmates?  His manager?  His lawyer? Someone who might care enough to sit him down and tell him he needs to stop this behavior before it lands him in jail for a long while.  Just recently, Scantlin was stopped for speeding on May 7th and was booked by Hollywood police after they ran his information and found two outstanding warrants for his arrest — one for driving with a suspended license and the other related to his January 2012 cocaine possession bust. He was released on bail later that night. In February,  his ex claimed he stole her car. It was returned hours later although Scantlin’s manager denied  the singer took it. After pleading guilty last summer to the cocaine charge, Scantlin was ordered into a drug counseling program and told he would have the possession charge against him dropped if he completed the program within 18 months. He was also charged with public intoxication last year after being thrown off a Jet Blue flight from Boston to Los Angeles, although the judge in the case ruled that there was “insufficient evidence” to prosecute the singer. Wes,  please. Wes has also had problems with back tax payments in addition to last year’s ugly divorce battle with Jessica.  Dude, get help!….Metallica’s upcoming IMAX 3D movie, Metallica Through The Never, is heading to the Cannes Film Festival, which kicks off this week in France. According to Blabbermouth, the movie will be screened and shopped for prospective buyers at the event by international sales company Exclusive Media.  Drummer Lars Ulrich said, “After wading through multiple international distribution options for our film, we are excited to be partnering up with the folks at Exclusive Media, who we feel understand Metallica and understand our film better than anyone else . . . it feels like we’re off to a pretty rockin’ start.” (Thanks Pulse Content, where I also saw this…) Linkin Park will headline the 2013 edition of the Sunset Strip Music Festival, according to Loudwire. The Los Angeles-based band follows in the footsteps of previous headliners the Doors, Slash and Ozzy Osbourne. The festival will take place on August 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the many clubs that dot Hollywood’s famous Sunset Strip, including the Roxy, Whisky-A-Go-Go, Viper Room and House of Blues. The festival will turn into a street fair for its final day on Sunday, August 3rd. Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda said in a statement, “We played our first shows as a band in 1998, on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. When we were approached about an opportunity to play a special show on the Strip, we couldn’t say no . . . this will be the ONLY U.S. show for the rest of 2013.”  Members of Linkin Park’s LP Underground fan club can purchase pre-sale tickets at lpunderground.com, while general public sales begin on today (May 15th) at 9:00 a.m. More acts will be announced in the weeks ahead….Just three days til I get to see Korn reunited with Head on stage!   We’ll be interviewing the entire band and  it’s reported the band has completed work on its 11th studio album, with frontman Jonathan Davis writing on Twitter, “(This is) by far the best album we have ever done. (I am) so excited!!!”   (Spoke to their manager this week, and he said the same thing! Needless to say, I am not leaving the dressing room til I hear something!)  The album is the first to feature founding guitarist Brian “Head” Welch since 2003′s Take A Look In The Mirror. Welch left the band in 2005 to pursue a solo career and devote more of his life to Christianity, but rejoined them for one gig last year and several more in 2013, leading to plans to record together again.  Welch told Rolling Stone, “We knew we would have a blast playing together, because we love each other so much, but we really wanted to make sure the music felt right before we committed to making a whole album together. But since we got in the studio, everything just started pouring out, now I can’t wait until our fans hear this stuff!“  The new Korn set is due out in late summer and will follow up 2011′s The Path Of Totality, which found the group experimenting with dubstep. While fans expect a return to a more traditional Korn sound with Welch back in the band, Davis told us not long ago that Korn is never afraid to take risks: “We’re one of those bands that take the chance and we really just want to put out music that we like making. We don’t care if the people hate or if the people love it — we just want people to have open minds. I think it takes balls as a band to do something like that and to throw something out different, ’cause most bands are scared and they end up sounding the same every record.”   The new record will feature four-fifths of the original Korn lineup, with only original drummer David Silveria not on board. Korn will kick off a world tour on Wednesday (May 15th) in Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania. This will be Welch’s first full run of dates with the band after playing one song with them last year at the Carolina Rebellion festival.  And today, you can catch Head in an exclusive hardDrive interview video talking about his return to Korn and his own band, Love and Death.  Find it here….Bush’s Gavin Rossdale is a brave man! The frontman got a more enthusiastic response than he bargained for when he ventured into the crowd during a gig at the Klipsch Music Center in Indianapolis on Saturday (May 11th). With his mic in hand singing lyrics to a tune, Rossdale hopped off the stage  and ran down the aisles, past the seats and onto the lawn — where the trouble began. Fans on the lawn crowded too eagerly around Rossdale and he was soon admonishing the sea of people to take a step back before the things got out of hand. The band stopped playing so everyone could hear him on the mic, and eventually the crowd cleared and Gav made his way safely out of the potentially frightening situation. (Loudwire) Meanwhile, look for Gav in the upcoming Sofia Coppola film, The Bling Ring,  and be listening closely to their sets, as the band have been performing two new tunes, “The House Is On Fire” and “Loneliness Is A Killer.”  The band have been working on their next album in their spare time.  I will sit down with the talented Mr Rossdale on Sunday.  Find the band now on tour….And some lucky person or persons could win the 350 Million Dollar Powerball drawing tonight.  Good luck!

The news reported today of a woman who was removed from a flight from LA to NYC for singing, non-stop, “I Will Always Love You,” off-key practically half way across the country. The plane landed in Kansas City where she was removed from the cabin.  Times like these when your own headphones and some nice LOUD HARD MUSIC comes in extremely handy!…..Damn, wish I wasn’t so busy preparing to head off to Rock on the Range or I would definitely be checking this out tonight! 30 Seconds To Mars will perform a special show on Tuesday night (May 14th) at historic St. Peter’s Church in Manhattan’s Chelsea district, during which the band will preview songs from its upcoming album Love Lust Faith + Dreams. The event will be filmed by online music and entertainment streaming service Vevo for a concert special that will be webcast at a later date. Love Lust Faith + Dreams arrives one week later on May 21st and follows up 2009′s This Is War.  The show will feature a mix of electric and acoustic numbers, according to a press release. St. Peter’s Church is located on West 20th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues in the New York borough of Manhattan (I was at that church years ago for Liza Minelli‘s wedding to David Guest  when Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor were in the wedding party! I know, so random!) The first single from the new album, “Up In The Air,” is currently Number Five on the Modern Rock radio chart and Number 22 on the Active Rock chart. Creating a webcast for Vevo is just one more notch in the belts of a band that has been an earlier adopter of online tech to reach its fans. Singer Jared Leto told us a while back about his interest in this field: “What’s interesting is using new technologies to enhance the idea of communication and to further community. I’m always interested in where the online meets the offline and, you know, we look forward to operating in that space a lot more in the future.”  30 Seconds To Mars will perform on the outdoor stage of ABC-TV’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! on May 21st and on TNT’s Conan (O’Brien) on May 22nd….In stores today, the great new album from Pop Evil, Onyx.  Produced and recorded in Chicago at Johnny K‘s GrooveMaster Studios, the band is on tour now and you can catch them this weekend at Rock on the Range! And Escape the Fate are back with Ungrateful…It’s So Easy And Other Lies, an autobiographical documentary about the life of former Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan, will be previewed this week at the Cannes Film Festival in France, where distributor Vision Films will be showing a teaser and clips from the film to prospective buyers. The film, based on McKagan’s best-selling memoir, features rare archival footage from the early days of Guns N’ Roses as well as interviews with colleagues like Pearl Jam‘s Mike McCready and Nirvana‘s Krist Novoselic. The movie will also feature recent footage of McKagan performing with his bands Walking Papers and Loaded. Release plans are yet to be determined. (Blabbermouth)…Happy 47th today to Mike Inez of Alice In Chains!  (Can’t wait to see them this weekend at Rock on the Range!)

Good morning, friends!  Here’s the news today: A teaser of new music from Avenged Sevenfold has been posted online, according to Blabbermouth. The untitled piece of music is now available for streaming and is taken from the California act’s sixth studio album, which is due out this summer. Also available is an audio clip of Avenged Sevenfold singer M. Shadows talking about the songwriting process for the new CD.  M. Shadows recently told NME that the new album is “a little more groove orientated . . . every song has gotta have a huge riff and every song has to have a groove to it.”  The new CD is the first to be wholly written without drummer and key songwriter James “The Rev” Sullivan, who died in December 2009.  The band has lined up several festival appearances this summer, starting with Rock USA on July 17th in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.  Also hit the band’s website to catch a glimpse of the boys in the studio. I understand a single is coming in July and an album in late summer. Once again, Mike Elizondo is producing the album….They told me I couldn’t spill the beans til May 28th, but the press release came out today!  The new Five Finger Death Punch double album is called The Wrong Side of Heaven, The Righteous Side of Hell.  It will come out in two parts, the first on July 23rd.  The second album will drop in the fall.   Find the band on the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem tour beginning Jun 29th….Pulse Content reports Deftones frontman Chino Moreno has said that it is more likely now than ever before that the band will released Eros, the shelved 2008 album that it had nearly completed when bassist Chi Cheng got into a car accident in November 2008. The incident left Cheng in a semi-comatose state for more than four years, until his death last month. After Cheng’s accident, the band decided to scrap the record and start fresh, ultimately recording and releasing Diamond Eyes in 2010. Asked recently if Eros could see the light of day as Cheng’s final work, Moreno told Artisan News, “It will. I think (the chances of that happening are) more so now probably than ever (before). I actually went back and listened to some of it recently and . . . I don’t know when (we will put it out) . . . but I feel it’s a little more appropriate now for us to think about that.”…This is pretty cool. Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith is launching his own podcast on Monday (May 13th) through Music Radar called “In Conversation with Chad Smith.” The series bills itself as a non-traditional interview format offering insight into the personal and professional lives of musicians. Smith’s guest for the first installment is Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson, whom he sat down with in Los Angeles a few days before Rush was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last month. Smith described his style as “the invisible interview — that’s what I call it. Friends, thoughts, information — why do you do what you do? Admiration, respect, insight and maybe a surprise.“  As for why he chose Lifeson as his first guest, Smith said, “I’ve been a Rush fan since high school. Neil (Peart, drummer) gets a lot of attention, as he should, but Al is under-appreciated, I think. He is as great a musician as he is to be around. I’m honored for him to be my first. He was gentle with me!“  Additional installments of the podcast will roll out once a week for three consecutive weeks, with Smith scheduled to record interviews with more artists for episodes that will run later in the year. The Chili Peppers will co-headline Metallica‘s Orion Music + More festival on June 8th and 9th in Detroit….Adelitas Way guitarist Keith Wallen has exited the band, according to Loudwire. Wallen was the last member to join the Las Vegas-based group before it recorded its major label debut in 2009. Wallen announced his departure in a Facebook post that read in part, “I’ve been truly blessed to have had the opportunity to tour the country multiple times playing music with some of my dearest friends . . . It has been an honor every single day that I’ve had the privilege of performing with them. To all of their families who have at some time or another during various tours welcomed me into their homes, fed me, and allowed me to pretend that I was home again for a few fleeting moments, thank you for treating me as one of your own.” Wallen added, “I would like to thank all of you, the fans, who have tirelessly supported the band and myself along the way. It’s truly been an amazing experience feeling your love and appreciation at every show and venue we’ve had the honor of playing, and I will never forget you. And even though my run with this band is coming to an end, I am excited for the next chapter, and I am looking forward to creating much more music in the days, months, and years ahead, so stay tuned.” Keith was the dude with the glasses in the band.  He will be missed….Black Sabbath will make a rare TV appearance this Wednesday (May 15th) when the band performs its new song “End Of The Beginning” on the season finale of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, airing at 10:00 p.m. ET on CBS-TV. The episode’s plot follows the CSI team as they investigate a series of murders that resemble the sins in Dante’s Inferno, with the detectives played by Ted Danson and Marc Vann attending a Sabbath concert as part of their search for clues into the killings.The track is taken from the group’s upcoming album 13, due out on June 11th. The disc is the first Sabbath album in 35 years to feature Ozzy Osbourne, bassist Geezer Butler and guitarist Tony Iommi. Sabbath will launch a North American tour in support of the new CD on July 25th in the Woodlands, Texas….Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History Of Metal, written by rock journalists Jon Wiederhorn and Katherine Turman, (my fellow producer who is in charge of “Nights with Alice Cooper“) arrives in stores on Tuesday (May 14th). The book, compiled from more than 400 interviews done by the authors, is a chronological history of heavy metal told through the words of the men and women who created it, played it, re-invented it, and continue to do so. Among the artists included are Ronnie James Dio, Ozzy Osbourne, Bruce Dickinson, Eddie Van Halen, Tommy Lee, Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield, Axl Rose, Corey Taylor, Lemmy Kilmister, Dave Grohl, Phil Anselmo, Rob Zombie and hundreds more…..Slash paid tribute to late Slayer axeman Jeff Hanneman in a statement to LA Weekly on Friday (May 10th). Slash said, “For me, Jeff Hanneman was the king of thrash/speed metal guitar. Slayer was the first speed metal band I ever listened to; the riffs and chord changes were genius. And that right hand blew my mind. Never heard anything quite like it.” Hanneman died on May 2nd at the age of 49. Slayer released a statement last Thursday (May 9th) saying that Hanneman died of alcohol-related cirrhosis of the liver. He had not played live with the band for over two years after contracting a flesh-eating disease in his arm from a spider bite that nearly took his life. (Blabbermouth)…And finally today,  for those fans who miss 24, there’s good news! Fox has announced plans to bring back 24 for a limited 12-episode run. Series star Kiefer Sutherland posted a link to an article from Deadline.com on his Twitter account and confirmed the news saying, “Yep, I’m pulling double duty along w/ TYRANT. Whoo & Hoo!“