Love this interview with Corey Taylor and Cutter from Razor 94.7 that was conducted at RockUSA in Oshkosh. Our own Lou Brutus gets some props in it, too! Gotta love Corey! He is the best! Fun interview, Cutter!!!!
Of Mice & Men’s Austin Carlile left the band last year battling Marfan Syndrome, a genetic disorder that affects the body’s connective tissue. Yesterday, he revealed he’s now entering an intensive physical therapy program in hopes to restore the strength and mobility to his legs and back. He posted on Instagram, “We discovered two cysts growing on my spine, but they are NOT cancerous.” Carlile noted that no operation is needed, but said he’s “Not out of the woods yet, and extremely happy the results are not what was originally feared.”
He ended his post with a quote from Martin Luther King…“If you cannot fly, run. If you cannot run, walk. And if you cannot walk, crawl. But by all means, KEEP MOVING.”
As fans who have followed Carlile since his exit have known, the singer’s physical struggles continue, but he is fighting the good fight. In the post, Carlile revealed seizures have been causing extreme pain and as of 12 days ago, due to anti-seizure meds, he has been seizure free, which he calls, “Yet another blessing.”
Carlile: “Next step, baby steps, but I feel blessed to be able to move ahead, as slow as that may be.”
Since being diagnosed with Marfan Syndrome, Carlile has spoken openly about his condition. He also recently addressed a group of physicians about the importance of having a cooperative care team and what it means to the patients. Even while dealing with his physical issues, the singer recently revealed he’s been working on new music. We have you in our thoughts, Austin. Wishing you all the best always!
And here’s yet another DJ bud with James Hetfield of Metallica! Meltdown of the Mighty WRIF 101 sat down with Papa Het at Comerica Park. James said some interesting things about how the band records, as well as the loss of 250 musical ideas when Kirk Hammett lost his phone during the writing process.
Regarding the phone full-of-riffs, Hetfield laughed when he said, “That’s what he claims. I’m sure he did, but it doesn’t make sense that he wouldn’t have them on his computer, either.” Hetfield also commented to WRIF radio on how they decide the best riffs to use on an album…“We all submit our tapes and we sit there and we listen to them and we pick the best stuff. There was not much stuff from Kirk. Whether his phone was lost, or whatever.” Hammett is not credited on any of the Hardwired…To Self-Destruct tracks.
Hetfield: “We’ve got 40 riffs — maybe this time I think I stopped it at around 24 and said, ‘Come on, there’s some good stuff here.’ So, usually we start developing them and then other ones that you can kind of tell aren’t going to go anywhere — they’re like parts, cars. So you start picking riffs off them. Hey there’s a great set of headlights, we’ll use it for that song or the intro or whatever it may be. So they kind of all get picked and it’s like you get the Frankenstein of songs, you get all the best parts.”
Metallica is currently on tour and will play at the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles tonight. (Thursday, Jul 20.)
Blabbermouth is reporting the new rock documentary “Hired Gun: Out Of The Shadows, Into The Spotlight” received a one-night showing on June 29 at several hundred North American locations through Fathom Events. The film chronicles the story of world-renowned musicians who are not household names, but are instead the session and backup musicians who have performed at concerts and on countless recordings with huge stars yet remain largely unknown to the public. It will be released On Demand and DVD Aug 1st.
Five Finger Death Punch guitarist Jason Hook, who came up as a session musician himself through stints with Mandy Moore, Hilary Duff, Vince Neil and Alice Cooper, teamed with filmmaker Fran Strine to make the film happen.
During a recent appearance on “The Morning Blend” on Las Vegas ABC affiliate KTNV, Hook stated about “Hired Gun” : “Basically, the movie focuses on musicians that are hired to play for celebrity artists. I used to do hired-gun work before I got into Five Finger Death Punch, so I had my own story to tell. But I also know so many musicians myself that I could call up for their story. So right away I knew I could get my hands on some good content.”
Hook said that he wanted the film to be an accurate depiction of both the glamorous side of being a sideman and the lifestyle’s considerable downsides — such as the pay, which can often be minuscule, and the fact that you can be as disposable as toilet paper.
“My experience was that, growing up, I was, like, ‘I wanna be a rock star. I wanna be famous. I wanna be on the big stage under the lights,’” he said. “So I found myself in that situation playing… I was with Hilary Duff, Alice Cooper — these big gigs — but then I started thinking, ‘This really has nothing to do with me, and I’m replaceable.’ So I’m, like, ‘I get the feeling, but it’s shallow. It’s not the deep feeling. There’s no satisfaction.‘”
Hook also talked about the “sheer-terror” moment when he realized it could all be taken away from him in an instant. “What happens is you can make some good money being a hired gun. So you start to see this income. I’m, like, ‘Well, I have never had money. So now I wanna have nice things. I wanna have a car and a house, and I’m gonna grow up now.’ But the thing is, at any given moment, they can just shut the gig off. And I learned that the hard way. I had these major bills, and all of sudden I read the e-mail that says, ‘Nothing personal, but we’re taking the artist’s career in a different direction, and thank you. Best of luck.’ And I’m, like, ‘No no no no no. This can’t happen. I just bought this place. I have this massive mortgage payment.’“
The documentary goes behind the scenes and explores the personalities and creativity of the best session players and backup musicians in the world. Among the artists interviewed are John Mellencamp drummer Kenny Aronoff, former Ozzy Osbourne bassist Rudy Sarzo, ex-Metallica bassist Jason Newsted, KISS drummer Eric Singer, guitarist John 5 from Rob Zombie‘s band, Toto axeman Steve Lukather, Alice Cooper guitarist Nita Strauss and many more.
Hook told hardDriveRadio about the common theme that runs through the movie. “Everybody we talked to had like one ‘holy cow’ story — some good and some horrific — about their experience playing their instrument for some artist,” he said. “And so what we found was that if we strung all these ‘holy cow’ moments together, we ended up with a ‘holy cow’ movie.”
Celebrating life today: Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard is 51, Andrew Stockdale of Wolfmother is 41.
Gotta dash! Heading down to the city, where it will be a mere 100 degrees heat indexes. ARGH! Seeing Guns N’ Roses tonight, interviewing Seether’s Shaun Morgan and Adrian from Otherwise on Friday!