So sad to hear about the death of BB King. What a legend who inspired the careers of countless artists from The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn to U2, Royal Blood, Kill It Kid and The Temperance Movement. Blues is the base of rock. BB was a sweet and humble soul who never really acknowledged his own greatness. Take a moment today to listen to “The Thrill Is Gone” or “How Blue Can You Get” or “When Love Comes To Town.” The man performed up til last year when he was 88! I hope his beloved Lucille Gibson guitar will be donated to the Smithsonian or the Blues Museum, where it belongs for millions to see. Someone said in a Facebook post today, “Lucille has been quieted.” 🙁
Had a busy day yesterday when Faith No More and Of Mice & Men were in the studios. As mentioned, OM&M performed a tune in our studio and we did a video interview. We will make a podcast out of my interview with Faith No More’s Billy Gould & Mike Bordin! Good times!
Well, Paulie Walnuts has landed in Columbus, followed by Lou Brutus after he gets off the air! Interviews in full swing. Hope all goes well. I couldn’t go this year because of my bad knee. Hope it’s not too rainy, or they’ll be calling it Rock on the RAINge!
Blabbernouth reveals Five Finger Death Punch has chosen “Jekyll And Hyde” as the first single from its forthcoming sixth studio album, Got Your Six, tentatively due at the end of the summer. An official release date for the single has not yet been announced, but the track is expected to arrive at radio soon. Five Finger Death Punch will headline a tour also featuring Papa Roach, In This Moment and From Ashes To New this fall after the new disc arrives.
Interesting music video from Three Days Grace for “Human Race,” directed by former MTV associate Mark Pellington who went on the direct “Jeremy” for Pearl Jam, Linkin Park‘s “Final Masquerade” and clips for Nine Inch Nails and Cage The Elephant. Check it out.
Pulse Of Radio reports Creed frontman Scott Stapp revealed more details of his six-month, drug-induced meltdown in his first TV interview with ABC’s Nightline. In addition to posting videos online in which he claimed mysterious forces were draining all the money from his bank accounts and alleging that members of his family were also part of ISIS, Stapp believed at one point that he was a CIA agent on a mission to kill President Obama.
Stapp recalled, “I was so out of my mind, delusional, turned on everyone that I loved, made wild and crazy accusations about my wife. I thought I was being followed by the government . . . it was a manic paranoid, psychotic episode. I was driving around with a 12-gauge shotgun in my lap. And I thought that people were trying to kill me.” Stapp added, “I would have like, maybe a 45-second interval of, ‘What’s going on,’ and then I’d be right back into the psychosis,” which he said was brought on by abuse of prescription drugs.
Stapp said he began taking prescription antidepressants in 1998, eventually going on to abuse other drugs and alcohol. He was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) years ago. He said after getting a prescription for Adderall last year, he kept upping the dosage to double the legal limit until it led him to his “full-blown psychotic episode.” He concealed the Adderall from his wife Jaclyn, but when she found out about it, his attempt at quitting cold turkey made his mental condition even worse.
Stapp said that during his mania, he stuffed his wallet with cash and filled his truck with his gun collection and sports memorabilia, which he said he started giving away with reckless abandon as he drove across the country.
Jaclyn filed for divorce in November 2014, saying in the papers that Stapp had “become a paranoid shell who has threatened to kill himself and harm his family.”
Stapp eventually came out of the psychosis and Jaclyn helped get him into treatment, where he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He is now sober and moved back recently to his home with Jaclyn in Florida.
Bring Me The Horizon has announced it will release a concert CD/DVD package called Live At Wembley Arena on May 29th. According to the band, those who order the release within the next week will have their name printed in the booklet that comes with the set. The DVD was filmed last December in London when the Yorkshire-based band headlined that city’s most prestigious venue.
Bring Me The Horizon drummer Matt Nicholls told us what playing at Wembley meant to his band: “It’s Wembley at the end of the day, you know what I mean? It’s a pretty big deal. I think it’s a big deal for any band, wherever you’re from, but being a British band, I think it’s like, kind of like the pinnacle.” Bring Me The Horizon recently completed the touring cycle behind its fourth studio album, 2013’s Sempiternal. The band has been recording their next album, which will come out later this year (hopefully) on Columbia. The current single from that disc, “Drown,” is Number Six on the Active Rock radio chart. I was actually supposed to be at that show on December 05th in London, but had to cancel because of a medical condition. Seems like something is always holding me back lately! BOO on getting older! It ain’t for the young, let me tell ya! LOL
Pulse also reports the first image from Officer Downe, the feature directing debut of Slipknot percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan, has premiered online via Entertainment Weekly. The picture shows Sons Of Anarchy star Kim Coates as the title character, a scientifically enhanced Los Angeles cop who is resurrected every time he is killed in the line of duty and sent back onto the streets.
Clown cast Slipknot singer and budding actor Corey Taylor in the film and Taylor told me about the experience: “I knew he was gonna start working on his movie as soon as we got back from Europe, and he’s like, ‘I might have something for you.’ I was like, ‘Dude, I’m totally down.’ It was really cool, man. It was cool to see him in his element. He loved doing it. He was a pig in heaven, basically, you know. So I filmed for a day, got all my stuff done, I’m really stoked about it. Basically I look like a meth-head Riddler — like, it’s pretty cool.”
Officer Downe is based on an Image Comics graphic novel written by Joe Casey and is currently being offered to distributors at the Cannes Film Festival in France. Crahan has directed a number of music videos, concert DVDs and behind-the-scenes featurettes for Slipknot. He and Taylor founded a film production company called Living Breathing Films in 2012, although it has yet to release anything. Taylor recently made his acting debut in the horror movie Fear Clinic, which came out on home video in February.
I had some friends who were at this show last night. Seems like it was off the chain awesome. Pete Townshend and Eddie Vedder‘s benefit concert at Chicago’s Rosemont Theatre, featured once-in-a lifetime guest spots from Joe Walsh, Joan Jett, and Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen. The 90-minute show, dubbed Celebrating The Who, raised money for the band’s patron charity Teen Cancer America, which provides programs and care for young people with cancer through the University of Chicago Medicine. Roger Daltrey, who did not sing so as to preserve his voice for tonight’s (May 15th) gig in Columbus, Ohio, introduced the show. According to Internet reports and fan posts on TheWho.com, the show, which featured the Who’s touring band, opened with Townshend’s brother and Who guitarist Simon Townshend playing a solo mini-set, which included Vedder playing his solo song “Far Behind,” along with a ukelele version of the Who By Numbers classic, “Blue, Red, And Grey.” During course of the night, Vedder and Pete duetted on a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Corrina, Corrina,” the heartfelt “You Stand By Me” from the Who’s 2006 Endless Wire collection, and “Behind Blue Eyes.” Vedder also performed his Pearl Jam classic “Better Man.” Pete tackled his signature Quadraphonic tunes “I’m One” and “Drowned,” with Joe Walsh helping out the pair for “The Kids Are Alright,” and a scorching solo on “Eminence Front.” Joan Jett joined them all for “I Can’t Explain” and took the lead on “Summertime Blues.” Rick Nielsen joined the ensemble for the show-closing one-two punch of “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and “My Generation,” which incorporated the groove of Townshend’s blues-influenced 1965 demo, before morphing into the standard arrangement.
Breaking Benjamin, performing today at Rock on the Range, has added some new dates for July. See Road Rage.
Finally today, celebrating life this weekend: Saturday: Krist Novoselic turns the Big 5-0! Sonny Sandoval from P.O.D. (they have a new record coming that is killer!) is 41. Sunday: Trent Reznor is also 50 and Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age turns 42.