Today’s the day! Lou Brutus host the Bryant Park Reading Room with Corey Taylor for his new book “You’re Making Me Hate You!” We’ll have pictures throughout the day, so stay tuned!
Shinedown frontman Brent Smith told Loudwire that he developed vocal problems which contributed to a delay in recording the band’s fifth studio album. Smith explained that his throat was ailing after 21 months of touring for 2012’s Amaryllis, saying, “When we got off tour I had three nodules on my left vocal cord. I had to heal them. I was lucky enough to do so naturally — I didn’t have surgery, but it took two and a half months to get them where they needed to be.”
On top of the nodules, Smith developed another illness, revealing, “I got this thing called thrush, which is normally what babies will get. We have fungus in our bodies that’s dormant and sometimes it’ll unleash, and it unleashed on me. It went all the way down to my esophagus, so that was another two months to heal from that. Four months in all after we got off the road, then we started writing the record.”
Smith told Pulse of Radio that the extra time gave him a chance to really work on his lyrics: “You know, the band has said that lyrically, this is their favorite record. This is as they put it, they’re like, ‘The Brent that’s on this record, we’re just completely — not afraid of him, but we’re just like, we’re hanging on every single word that you’re saying.’”
These rock cruises are becoming a big thing! Breaking Benjamin will make its first foray ever out onto the water when the band performs on the Axes & Anchors cruise next February. The group will headline the cruise, which already includes Adelitas Way, Flyleaf, Motionless In White, Thousand Foot Krutch, Zakk Wylde and a number of other artists and bands.The cruise will also feature private music lessons and workshops on various music-related topics from guitar and vocals to concert photography along with the live shows. The five-day/four-night cruise sets sail from Miami on February 20th on the Carnival Victory, with stops in Key West and Nassau, Bahamas before returning to Miami on February 24th.
Breaking Benjamin frontman Ben Burnley told us a while back that he’s got a lot of phobias, although a fear of water doesn’t seem to be one of them: “Well, I have a lot of phobias. Heights is definitely one of them and that’s not a lie, and I’m scared of fast speed. I have a lot of phobias. As far as, like, deep-seated ones, I don’t think anybody really likes bugs. I wouldn’t say that’s a phobia of mine. But definitely, I refuse to fly at this point. That’s a deep-seated phobia of mine.”
Soundgarden vocalist Chris Cornell will re-release his 1999 debut solo album, Euphoria Morning, on August 14th under the original title of Euphoria Mourning. The disc has been remastered and will arrive on vinyl for the first time, along with CD and digital editions. Cornell explained that he was persuaded to change the original name when the record was first released, saying in a statement, “The title of the record has been restored to its original spelling, which was changed before release after I listened to some bad advice.” Euphoria Morning, as it was originally called, was Cornell’s first set of new recordings after Soundgarden initially disbanded in 1997. He wrote and recorded the album in collaboration with Alain Johannes and the late Natasha Shneider of the band Eleven, who played on the album, co-wrote five of the tracks and were credited as co-producers. When Euphoria Morning failed to take off, Cornell accepted an offer to join with the instrumental members of Rage Against The Machine in a new act called Audioslave. So there’s your silver lining!
Finally, happy birthday today to Beck, who turns 45 today. Andrew Fletcher of Depeche Mode is 54 and Quiet Riot‘s Carlos Cavazo is 58! Happy Birthday one and all!