Oooohhhhh! Don’t walk under a ladder, step on a crack or let a black cat cross your path! It’s FRIDAY THE 13th, yo!
I love this story from The Pulse Of Radio! While awarding the Medal Of Honor at the White House yesterday (Thu, Nov 12th) to a former Army captain who tackled a suicide bomber in Afghanistan and was badly injured in the Aug 2012 attack, President Obama recounted a moment during Florent Groberg‘s recovery when he thought he was hallucinating because Korn singer Jonathan Davis appeared at his bedside.
The President then said, “Flo thought, ‘What’s going on? Am I hallucinating?’ Today, Flo, I want to assure you you are not hallucinating. You are actually in the White House. Those cameras are on, (and) I am not the lead singer from Korn.” Groberg, who needed 33 surgeries to save his leg after tackling the bomber, is the 10th living service member awarded the nation’s highest honor for battlefield bravery in Iraq or Afghanistan. JD, who happened to be visiting military bases abroad when he met Groberg, posted a video snippet of Obama’s speech on his Instagram account along with a one-word comment: “Wow.” Love it!
Well, I suppose the BIG news is concerning more chatter about a touring reunion of the original Guns N’ Roses band! Pulse says a report from Dish Nation claims a reunion tour of the classic Guns N’ Roses is “close to being revealed,” with the band allegedly headlining several major festivals in Europe and the U.S. before embarking on a worldwide tour to mark its 30th anniversary. A source explained, “Slash and Axl have verbally agreed to get things together again and reform the original band. The live shows is where they can show the world what they had and also make the greatest earnings.”
The source added, “Promoters are quietly working away to land opportunities. Details of the reunion are expected to leak out in the next few days. Everyone is expecting huge demand for tickets, but the boys are very humble and are not sure what to expect.“
According to other reports, the band has already been approached about playing shows in Australia, Portugal and Sweden. Rumors about a reunion have been heating up ever since the summer, when original guitarist Slash revealed that he and singer Axl Rosehad repaired their relationship after nearly 20 years of estrangement. The longtime feud between Slash and Rose has been seen for some time as the main stumbling block to a reunion of the original lineup, which has not performed together in 24 years. Several members have recently left the current lineup of Guns N’ Roses, which features Rose as the sole original member. The band has not performed live since last year. The band’s Twitter account has posted several cryptic messages lately, furthering talk of a reunion.
I want to check this film out! Pulse also reporting Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo has unveiled the official trailer for Jaco, the documentary about pioneering bass player Jaco Pastorius that Trujillo executive produced. Trujillo spent five years and a lot of his own money on the film, and told us why it was important for him to make it: “It’s a story that I wanted to share with as many people as possible — musicians or non-musicians, you know, bass players or non-bass players. And this is not about Robert Trujillo the bass player or, you know, the guy from Metallica or anything, this is really about me just trying to share the story of my favorite bass player. You know, I know the story’s powerful, it needs to be told.”
Trujillo cites Pastorius as one of his main influences on bass and saw him perform four times before Pastorius’ untimely death. Jaco will be out on Nov 27th via VOD and streaming services and will also be available as a Blu-ray, DVD and digital download. The official soundtrack to the film will also be released on the same day. The film features exclusive material from the Pastorius family archive, as well as interviews with Jaco fans such as Joni Mitchell, Sting, Flea, Herbie Hancock, Geddy Lee, Bootsy Collins, Carlos Santana and many others. Check out the trailer here.
Jaco Pastorius was best known for his groundbreaking bass work with the jazz/rock fusion band Weather Report between 1976 and 1981. Pastorius descended into drug and alcohol abuse in the 1980s and lived on the street for weeks at a time in 1986 and 1987. He died on Sep 21st, 1987 at the age of 35 after suffering brain injuries in a fight with a club bouncer.
We just posted a new Ghost performance video for “Jigolo Har Megiddo” on the hardDriveRadio YouTube Channel. And the first clip we did for “If You Have Ghosts” has already hit 100,000 hits! Thanks! Meanwhile, Ghost performed on 11/11 in Gothenburg, Sweden and you can see some footage here and here.
Don’t forget to set your reminder for the Live AMA in the INTERACT LIVE section of our APP with Winston McCall of Parkway Drive happening tomorrow (Sat, Nov 14) at 6 PM EASTERN! This will be a great opportunity to speak with the frontman of this awesome band from Australia! Download the hardDriveRadio APP for free in the app store or Google Play and get in on the action! More artist chats in the works!
And don’t forget MAYNARD KEENAN and MAT MITCHELL of PUSCIFER in the hardDriveRadio studios on Monday! Think up some questions you can send along to me via the INTERACT LIVE section of the app or via the interact link on the home page (email.) Do it! Let me know you city/state, too!
Celebrating life this weekend: Saturday, Tobin Esperance of Papa Roach is 36 and Josh Silver of Type O Negative is 53. Sunday, my pal Chad Kroeger of Nickelback is 41. Have a great weekend!