What chilling news the co-pilot of the GermanWings airplane that went down in the French Alps was intentional. It’s so hard to believe what is going on in this world. Let’s pause the remember the victims and hope this is the last of these horrific occurrences….. Had a great day yesterday with Mark Tremonti dropping by for an audio and video interview and Lee Runestead and Eric Vanlerberghe of I Prevail (drummer and heavy vocals.) Can’t wait for you to hear the story of I Prevail. These guys haven’t even been together a year. Met through friends and rehearsed in a storage room and recorded demos in one of their parents’ basements. They’ve got nearly 7.5 million views on YouTube on their Taylor Swift “Blank Spaces” cover. They’ve only done 6 live shows so far, and from the looks of their set, they look like seasoned professionals. Can’t wait to see how they grow! Meanwhile, Tremonti told me the upcoming Cauterize album is going to be a two-cd release, which part 2, Dust, coming out sometime later this year. I learned the Cauterize album was originally going to be titled Providence (a beautiful song on the album), but they decided to change it up. The artwork sounds pretty cool, too. Mark told me he is very proud of these 20 songs, and that he believes it is some of his best work. (I agree!) There are even some 3 part harmonies on this thing! I asked what the status is of Creed, and it appears there will never be another Creed album or tour. You’ll see in the video interview, Mark says he and Scott Stapp had a falling down half-way through the last Creed tour and he has no intention of renewing that relationship. Although he wishes Scott no harm, it seems he will never work with him again. Anyhow, be listening for Mark on hardDrive over Easter weekend and upcoming hardDrive XL shows as well! You can pre-order Cauterize, which drops Jun 09…..Pulse Of Radio reports Metallica will headline this year’s edition of Lollapalooza along with Paul McCartney. The festival is once again scheduled to take place at Grant Park in Chicago, on July 31st, August 1st and 2nd. Joining the headliners will be more than 100 other acts, including Sam Smith, Florence And The Machine, Alt-J, Death From Above 1979, Of Monsters And Men and many more. Metallica said in a statement, “It’s been nearly 20 years since we’ve been lucky enough to take the stage at Lollapalooza, so we are over the top that we’ve been asked to play this year at the now annual extravaganza held at Grant Park in Chicago. We’ll be hitting the stage on Saturday, August 1st.” McCartney will headline on Friday (July 31st), while Florence And The Machine will do the honors on Sunday (August 2nd). Metallica last appeared on the Lollapalooza bill back in 1996, when it was still a traveling festival. That year’s lineup also featured Soundgarden and the Ramones. Speaking of Metallica, guitarist Kirk Hammett has added another new event to his second annual Fear FestEvil horror-themed weekend. The new addition is a free outdoor Carnival of Chaos, which will include a freakshow, carnival games, a hearse car show, Hammett’s ’36 Ford, a crypt and various vendors. The carnival will be set up outside the RockBar Theatre in San Jose, California on April 11th and 12th, where the Fear FestEvil is taking place. The weekend will also include musical performances, celebrity appearances and a VIP party featuring a murder mystery dinner…. Another reason why Dave Grohl is just about the coolest dude around. Pulse Of Radio also reporting the Foo Fighters frontman has done his part to help fulfill the last wish of a terminally ill fan of the band, according to Gigwise. Ken Powell has been battling cancer for 14 years but with surgery and treatment both having failed to contain it, the 56-year-old hardcore Foos fan has set out to meet the band while he still has time. Powell, who lives in Australia, was set to meet the Foos when they toured there recently. But a bout with food poisoning forced Grohl to cancel all fan meet-and-greets. However, a friend of Powell’s who happened to be a flight attendant made contact with Grohl and told him Powell’s story. Grohl’s response was to send Powell a photo of himself holding a sign saying “Hi Ken,” with two VIP tickets for the band’s upcoming show in Los Angeles on Sep 21st. Powell is now raising $20,000 for his trip to Los Angeles, with all contributions above that amount going to cancer research. Powell said, “Any money surplus to the fundraiser’s objective will be donated to Melanoma Institute of Australia who have been a big support to me.” Foo Fighters will tour Europe in May and June before kicking off a massive North American tour on July 4th in Washington D.C., the 20th anniversary of the release of the first Foo Fighters album….System Of A Down bassist Shavo Odadjian said in a new interview with Madcap Music Review the band has already worked on its first new music in a decade, with plans to enter the studio in the coming months to record a full-length album. Asked about the chances of the group recording for the first time since 2005, Odadjian said, “Yeah, there’s a very good chance. I don’t have a date. We’ve already gone. We’ve written some songs. We’re keeping it to ourselves. We’re getting back to the bulls**t of being together.” Odadjian told us a while back he could never envision System Of A Down going away permanently: “We’re brothers, man, we’ll take bullets for each other. So it’s like, you kind of miss each other after a while and you, one guy makes the first move, then another starts making phone calls….this is a juggernaut, man. System Of A Down is my lifeline. It’ll never go away. We could not make a record for 10 years — that’s not gonna happen, but I’m just saying we could — and we’ll come back strong.” System singer Serj Tankian — widely believed to be the member least interested in recording again until now — said in a recent interview with RollingStone.com that “there has been talk” of the band recording a new album, saying, “The openness is there to work together, but we haven’t made any particular plans that we can announce.” System last released new music in 2005 with the Mezmerize and Hypnotize albums, but started to tour again in 2011. The band members have reiterated throughout the hiatus they have remained friends, although drummer John Dolmayan hinted last year at some personal issues in the group, saying, “We probably would have been in the studio making an album already, but for personal reasons, one of our members cant be in the studio right now. It’s a positive thing, but that’s all I can say on that right now.” System Of A Down recently added two more North American dates to its upcoming world tour. In addition to shows in Los Angeles on April 6th and Quebec on June 18th, the band will now stop in Detroit on June 17th and Toronto on the 19th. The tour commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and will feature System Of A Down’s first-ever performance in their homeland of Armenia, on April 23rd…Jane’s Addiction has announced they are continuing their tour from last year, performing its classic 1988 album Nothing’s Shocking from front to back at selected shows . The band also recently got together to begin working on new material. Confirmed Jane’s Addiction tour dates are posted in Road Rage….Happy 47th today to former Smashing Pumpkins and A Perfect Circle guitarist James Iha. And very Happy 67th to the one and only Steven Tyler of Aerosmith!