New month, new knee! Well, sort of! I was off a few days last week recovering from some minor knee surgery to repair torn meniscus! Saturday night, I was able to put on a party dress and celebrate a friend’s birthday in style over-looking Central Park high above on the 20th floor of an amazing building. And I got to meet the wife of a man who created touring as we know it today who also conducted the very first interview with The Beatles, a former Ikette (from Ike & Tina Turner’s Revue) and Melvin Van Peebles. Yes, it was a momentous evening!
OK, so last night, as I am watching Game of Thrones, I see this guy getting killed by one of those marauding skeleton figures and I say to myself, “Was that Brent Hines from Mastodon? Sure looked like it could be his twin!” and then I go on Facebook this morning and find out IT WAS! Brent and bandmates Bill Kelliher and Brann Dailor all were cast as extras in the big fight scene. (Where was Troy Sanders?) They have a song on the new Game of Thrones Mix Tape Vol 2 called “White Walker.” Now we know the significance! WOW!
Meanwhile, congrats to our friends in Kansas City at 98.9 The Rock! They held their annual RockFest, where 50,000 were in attendance, although it looked way bigger! So happy to see that! To all the naysayers: Rock Is Not Dead!
The day I interviewed Robert Deleo and Chester Bennington of Stone Temple Pilots, I met this dude who works for the Huffington Post, who interviewed Dean Deleo and Chester. Check it out here.
Finger Eleven have announced some tour dates! Check them out in Road Rage. They will be releasing an album Jul 31st and new single “Wolves and Doors” later this month. Scott Anderson, Richard Jackett and James Black join us tomorrow in the hardDriveRadio video room for an performance and interview. Crobot will also stop by. So be looking for new performance videos from them really soon on the new hardDriveRadio APP and the hardDriveRadio YouTube channel! Subscribe! Last week, Lou Brutus caught up with Jeremy Spencer from Five Finger Death Punch and Jesse Leach of Killswitch Engage, who also happen to have a new song on that Game of Thrones Mix Tape called “Loyalty.” You’ll be hearing these interviews very soon on both hardDrive and hardDrive XL!
Avenged Sevenfold has posted a 90-second teaser online for its long-awaited new DVD, This Is Bat Country. The disc has been in the works for more than five years, with the band filming numerous shows around the world and planning to incorporate live footage into a chronicle of the band’s recent career.
Singer M. Shadows told us a while back the documentary uses the 2009 death of drummer Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan as a starting point: “The DVD will take place right before we lose Jimmy, and then it’s gonna basically take you all the way through to now. So it’ll be mixed in with some live performances, but there will also be a very strong story arc to what our story is and what’s going on with us.” Shadows told Loudwire last year, “Our story is obviously one not every band has. Our story is one of loss, one that we lost our best friend and we went on to put out two consecutive Number One records . . . it’s basically tracking the whole thing through our own eyes and words, because no one has really heard our side of the story.” The DVD will contain performances from the band’s sets at key events like the Download Festival, Rock In Rio, Rock On The Range and others. Avenged Sevenfold’s previous DVDs include 2008’s Live In The LBC & Diamonds In The Rough and 2007’s acclaimed 2007 road documentary All Excess. Avenged Sevenfold released its latest album, Hail To The King, in 2013. It was the band’s second straight studio effort to debut at Number One on the Billboard chart, following 2010’s Nightmare. The band has just two dates scheduled for 2015 at this time, on July 17th at the Rock USA festival in Oshkosh, WI, and July 19th at Rock Fest in Cadott. Lou Brutus will MC that show!
Celebrating a birthday today, The Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood is 68! And still rocking his bad ass off every night!