Happy First Day of Spring! Although here in NYC, we are expecting freezing rain and snow. Thanks, Mother Nature!……In the news, Pulse Of Radio reports Slipknot percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan said in a new documentary special aired on BBC Radio One he could envision a time when Slipknot’s lineup consists of all new members. Crahan explained, “I’m always trying to figure out how to let it be forever . . . Don’t be surprised one day, you know, nobody in the band will be in the band. It’ll all just be new people. I’ll be eighty and there’ll be a whole Slipknot thing moving. I mean, we’ve got two new guys now, man. You never know — my son might take over. You never know.” Crahan told us a while back when he eventually retires from performing with Slipknot, his son would be the perfect replacement: “My oldest boy, when I do skip, he’s gonna take over my slot. He was sitting on the stair in diapers wearing my mask with sticks while we were downstairs trying to learn how to be a band. So when I leave, it won’t be like I died and my son came in and tried to fill my place. I’m gonna bail, but I’m gonna hand over the throne and say, ‘Hey, I can’t do it anymore. You do it. You’re my blood.’” Slipknot’s two newest members are bassist Alessandro “Alex” Venturella and drummer Jay Weinberg. They replaced the late Paul Gray and the fired Joey Jordison respectively. Slipknot has been touring in support of its latest album, .5: The Gray Chapter, which came out last October.The band will launch a spring U.S. trek on April 25th in Fort Myers, FL, ending on May 16th in Grand Rapids, MI, with more summer dates to follow in July and August…..Can this be true? A new book out in the U.K. claims Metallica has made a series of “disastrous” financial decisions over the past five years that has left the band in the red. According to Gigwise, Into The Black authors Paul Brannigan and Ian Winwood claim that since 2010, “It’s likely that Metallica have lost more money than they’ve made.” The pair explained in an interview with The Weeklings, “By their own admission, the two stagings of the Orion festival were disastrous financially, and the shambles that was the Through The Never movie cost $32 million and will only recoup a fraction of that amount.” The authors added, “Factor in HQ staff salaries, crew retainers and assorted running costs associated with maintaining an entertainment corporation and you can easily understand why the band — of necessity now rather than by choice — are driven to tour Europe every summer.” Winwood and Brannigan said that Through The Never — a concert movie mixed with a fictional narrative — took an especially large bite out of the band’s finances. The movie made less than $4 million at the box office. (Let’s see, THEY LOST $28 MILLION on it!) Guitarist Kirk Hammett admitted a while back he was disappointed that it didn’t do better: “You know, I really, really felt that we had put our all into this movie. I mean, we spent a lot of time making it, we spent a lot of time editing it in post-production and making sure that it was exactly what we wanted it to be. We spent a lot of time making sure it sounded up to par with, you know, all our other stuff. And, you know, it’s just amazing because other than our fans, no one else was interested in the movie (laughs).” Metallica is currently working on its 10th studio album, but has a dozen dates scheduled between early May and mid-September, including the inaugural Rock In Rio USA festival in Las Vegas on May 9th and they have also been doing the occasional corporate gig which can rake in upwards of one million a pop! The band recently announced it plans to reissue all its early albums, starting with a limited edition cassette replica of their legendary 1982 demo, No Life ‘Til Leather, on Record Store Day (April 18th). Don’t worry, they won’t be getting food stamps any time in the near future….Pulse of Radio also reporting fans of Scott Weiland were left “disgusted” and “disappointed” after the former Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver singer held a VIP meet-and-greet session at the Brighton Music Hall in Boston, Massachusetts. Three different fans posted their descriptions of the event at a Stone Temple Pilots fan forum, including one fan who claimed that Weiland said to him, “Let’s suck a d**k!” The first fan, under the name “PigsInZen,” wrote that Weiland and his band “sounded kickass,” but that when he went backstage for his photo with Weiland, things did not go as well. He wrote, “Scott didn’t even look at me when I was talking to him, he put his arm around me and literally said ‘Lets get this s**t done with.’ As I fakely smiled for my photo, I couldn’t believe what just came out of my hero’s mouth . . . Scott should not be saying that when people paid 150$ for a brief picture with him after the show.” Meanwhile, “Matthew” wrote, “I did the meet and greet as well and he said ‘Let’s suck a d**k!’ to me and that was it. Over and done in 10 seconds. He was definitely drunk and ready to get outta there.” Finally, “Toahiaph” wrote, “Add me to the list of fans who Scott was not so nice too. The other members of the band all cool and with it . . . Scott seemed hammered.” When “Toahiaph” went up for his picture, “(Scott) says something like, ‘OK hurry up I don’t want to hear it.’ I stand next to him and smile for my picture… meanwhile he was complaining the whole five seconds that it was taking too long. I will NEVER pay to shake his hand again.” Scott Weiland and his band the Walkabouts next play in Austin on Saturday (March 21st). Their new album Blaster arrives on March 31st. And I think THIS story explains EVERYTHING, don’t you? I also had friends who went to the show who got similar treatment backstage. He didn’t even LOOK at them when they said hello. What’s the deal, Scott. Are you THIS miserable? I feel sorry for your band. Pretty soon they’ll walk away, too…. Celebrating birthdays this weekend: Today (3/20): Chester Bennington is 39. Bruins’ star Bobby Orr is 67 (I once beat him at Pong) and Pat Riley is 70. Sunday, Limp Bizkit’s JOhn Otto is 28. Bill Shatner, “Beam Me Up, Scotty!” is 84!