Hello and HAPPY FRIDAY! This day couldn’t come faster, although next week is a grueling one for yours truly! Three interviews on Tuesday, and three on Sunday. Seether, Papa Roach, Islander, Linkin Park, Rise Against and Of Mice & Men. Yeah, busy! So, if you see a band on this list and have a question for any of them, HOLLAH! Interact link on the home page OR the Interact Live section of the new HARDDRIVE RADIO APP! Do it! Ya got nothing to lose!……Hoping to sew up some things on a possible hardDrive Live Tour arrangement! We’ve got some lofty plans for this one and if the planets align properly, it could happen! Fingers crossed out there PLEASE!……Weird that the kid who was planning some terrorist attack in Washington, DC is named Chris(topher) Cornell. The REAL Chris Cornell is in the news today too. Pulse of Radio reports the Soundgarden singer has revealed via Twitter he has just begun recording a new solo album, according to Blabbermouth. No further details are currently available. Cornell’s last solo studio effort, 2009’s Scream, was an ill-advised attempt at urban pop produced by Timbaland. The album was received negatively by critics and fans, with Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor calling Cornell’s attempted makeover as a pop singer “embarrassing.” Cornell’s last all-new full length album of any kind was Soundgarden’s sixth studio outing, King Animal, which came out in 2012 and ended a 16-year gap between releases for the band, who broke up in 1997 and reunited in 2010. Cornell told us a while back that working with the band nowadays was a nice balance to his solo career: “One thing about a solo artist is you can just be in a room way too long with yourself and your own thoughts and your own songs, and it feels really good to be working with Ben (Shepherd, bassist) and Matt (Cameron, drummer) and Kim (Thayil, guitarist) again, and it’s actually a really nice reprieve also from just being alone, doing what I do. It’s helping with the balance, I think, too.” Cornell’s other solo records include 1999’s Euphoria Morning, 2007’s Carry On and 2011’s acoustic live set Songbook. Soundgarden released a three-disc collection of B-sides and rarities called Echo Of Miles: Scattered Tracks Across The Path late last year. The group plans to work on a new studio album sometime later in 2015…I was just texting with Adelitas Way singer Rick DeJesus the other day. We are planning to hang in Las Vegas at the RadioContraband Convention at the Mandalay Bay Jan 28-31. Looking forward to getting out of the cold! Anyhow, Pulse reports Adelitas Way only just released its last album, Stuck, in July 2014, but the band is gearing up to bring more new music to the masses. In a post at their official Twitter page on Wednesday (Jan 14th), the band revealed they will issue a new single in Feb, followed by a five-song EP in March and a new full-length album this summer. But the band won’t be locked in a studio during that time either. They perform Friday (Jan 16th) in Las Vegas, then will take a couple of weeks off before starting the SnoCore Tour on February 3rd in Charlotte, NC alongside Framing Hanley and headliners Flyleaf. Frontman Rick DeJesus told me a while back getting to be friends with your tourmates doesn’t happen overnight: “You really don’t become friends with a lot of bands ’til the first, like, two or three weeks in. The first week is always kind of everyone feeling each other out, the crews feeling each other out…it’s about feeling out the right situations first, and then I think after everybody gets everyone’s patterns down, you start interacting with each other, bumping into each other, and then by the end of tour no one wants to leave.” …Seems unlikely Phil Rudd will be available to leave New Zealand to perform with his AC/DC bandmates on Feb 8th at the Grammys in LA. SO, wonderers are wondering: Who will they get to play the drums? I will bet the odds are good Simon Wright or Chris Slade could do it. And looking at the Foo Fighters’ schedule, it VERY possible (if the band flies home after their shows in South America, which end Jan 31) Dave Grohl could finally check off another thing off his bucket list. (The Foos have to be in New Zealand on Feb 18.) So now the chips are on the table. Who do you think it might be? (I told Angus Young in November that Dave wanted to play with them! He said he thinks Dave is a great drummer, too!) Guess we’ll have to wait ‘n see….And finally today, sorry to hear legendary L.A. rock, pop, and punk songwriter, producer, impresario and Runaways manager Kim Fowley died on Jan 15th of bladder cancer at age 75, according to Pollstar. Fowley played a pivotal role in nearly all aspects of L.A. rock, with his work spanning decades and genres, including projects by such legends as Phil Spector, the Beach Boys, the Hollywood Argyles, the Byrds, the Seeds, Cat Stevens, the Runaways, the Modern Lovers, Warren Zevon, Paul Revere & The Raiders, Frank Zappa, Alice Cooper — as well as co-writing such classic Kiss tracks as “King Of The Night Time World” and “Do You Love Me” on 1976’s Destroyer. He served as the announcer to John Lennon & The Plastic Ono Band‘s debut performance on September 13th, 1969, and can be heard opening the Live Peace In Toronto album. Most recently, Fowley made an appearance in Beyonce’s 2014 Haunted” video. Steven Van Zandt said in a statement: “Kim Fowley is a big loss to me. A good friend. One of a kind. He’d been everywhere, done everything, knew everybody. He was working in the Underground Garage until last week. We should all have as full a life. I wanted DJs that could tell stories first person. He was the ultimate realization of that concept. Rock Gypsy DNA. Reinventing himself whenever he felt restless. Which was always. One of the great characters of all time. Irreplaceable.” Blondie drummer Clem Burke also paid tribute saying: “Kim was a great and often misunderstood individual. When Blondie first came to Hollywood Kim was one of the legends we wanted to meet. We did meet him at the Tropicana motel and became friends. I had the privilege of sitting next to Kim at a screening at SXSW of The Runaways film. When it ended, I turned to Kim and told him he was the hero of the film. He seemed happy to hear that.”..Celebrating birthdays: Saturday: First Lady Michelle Obama is 51. Kid Rock turns 44. Muhammed Ali is 73 and God Bless Her: Betty White is 93. Sunday: Jonathan Davis of Korn is 44. Have a great weekend! See ya Monday!