Gee! Nearly the end of July! No fair! I want summer to last another 3 months!…What a busy couple of days here in the hardDriveRadio world. Today, Theory Of A Deadman stop by for an interview and in-studio performance! Later today, Tim McIlrath of Rise Against calls in on the hotLine and Thursday, I’ll catch up with Oli Sykes of Bring Me The Horizon and Alan Jones of Fifth Freedom who are on the hardDrive Live Tour. Then next week, Gus Wood from Young Guns phones in. Those guys are putting final touches on their next album. Heard their new one and it’s great. Lot of action! Yesterday, Don Kaye from our sister division, Pulse of Radio, spoke with Noodles of The Offspring. They kick off the Summer Nationals Tour in Pittsburgh today (Jul 29th), along with Bad Religion, Pennywise and either Stiff Little Fingers or the Vandals on selected dates. Epitaph Records put on the first Summer Nationals event in Los Angeles 20 years ago, as Offspring guitarist Noodles recalled: “Epitaph kind of put it together at the Palladium, and we headlined one night, Bad Religion headlined one night — it was largely Epitaph bands. The punk thing had just started to break, it was a chance for all us bands to kind of get together and celebrate that, and also pay tribute to the bands that got us wanting to do this in the first place.” The Offspring will be performing their blockbuster 1994 commercial breakthrough, Smash, in its entirety on the tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its release. (Watch this video for their Rock Am Ring performance. THAT is one huge crowd!) A deluxe box set anniversary edition of Smash will arrive in mid-August. This is the Offspring’s first full North American tour in several years. See Road Rage for all the dates….Speaking of anniversaries, Pulse reports Metallica‘s second album, Ride The Lightning, turns 30 years old this week and drummer Lars Ulrich and guitarist Kirk Hammett spoke with Rolling Stone about the record and its place in Metallica’s history. Asked if Metallica was trying to make a different album from its debut, 1983’s Kill ‘Em All, Ulrich replied, “It was the first time that the four of us wrote together and we got a chance to broaden our horizons. I don’t think it was a conscious effort to break away from anything musically . . . we were obviously still into the thrash type of stuff. But we were realizing you had to be careful that it didn’t become too limiting or one-dimensional.” Ulrich explained Ride The Lightning was the first album to feature writing contributions from Hammett and late bassist Cliff Burton, who had arrived in the band after most of the material for Kill ‘Em All had been written. He explained, “Ride The Lightning was the first time that both Cliff and Kirk got a chance to add what they were doing. They just came from a different school, especially Cliff, who came from a much more melodic approach.” The varied sounds of the disc, which included the first Metallica ballad in “Fade To Black,” drew mixed responses from some fans. Ulrich recalled, “It did surprise us a little bit, I guess. People started calling us sellouts and all that type of stuff. Some people were a little bit bewildered by the fact that there was a song that had acoustic guitars.” Noting that at least four songs from the album are still part of Metallica’s live set today, Ulrich said Ride The Lightning “holds up very well,” adding, “There’s kind of a youthful energy that runs through the record.“…I dunno about you, but I really like Jack White‘s tune “Lazaretto.” You folks in Detroit can see him throw out the first pitch tonight at the Tigers’ game as they take on the Chicago White Sox. A Detroit native, White will also have the Third Man Record Store van parked at the stadium for three hours before game time. In other news, White made a surprise appearance during Beck‘s show at the Newport Folk Festival on Saturday night (Jul 26th). White came onstage to play alongside Beck on “Pay No Mind,” “Loser” and “Where It’s At.” (Rolling Stone/Jam!)…This story I found on Blabbermouth. (And I gotta say, Corey Taylor aka “The Boogie Knight,” just can’t sit still for a minute! He can’t. He smokes cigarettes, drinks coffee and works NON-STOP! I don’t think the guy sleeps!) Fan-filmed video footage of Corey Taylor (Slipknot, Stone Sour) performing a solo set on July 25 at the Thunder Valley Casino Resort in Lincoln, California as part of the “Summer Concert Series 2014” can be seen here (I picked his cover of “Wicked Game” which you may have heard in the past on a hardDrive Cover It Up special edition.) In a career now spanning 15 years, Corey Taylor has enjoyed chart-topping success, both with his face masked for Grammy-winning metal powerhouses Slipknot and his soul bared for multiple Grammy nominees Stone Sour. He has authored a pair of best-selling books (“Seven Deadly Sins” and “A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Heaven,” and is currently writing his third book and wants to try his hand at a novel as well!) and makes his acting debut later this year alongside horror icon Robert Englund in “Fear Clinic.” Meanwhile, Slipknot has finished recording its fifth studio album and first since 2008’s All Hope Is Gone. The disc is also the band’s first without late bassist Paul Gray, who died in 2010, and drummer Joey Jordison, who was dismissed in late 2013. Stone Sour has released one last lyric video from its conceptual double album House Of Gold And Bones. The clip is for the title track, which appeared on the second of the two discs, and goes heavy on artwork from the comic books based on the album, which were issued last year by the Dark Horse Comics publishing company. Stone Sour completed most of the touring cycle for the “Gold And Bones” albums earlier this year, while also announcing the departure of guitarist Jim Root from the band lineup. And there you have it. Smoke is rising out of the Slipknot camp. Maggots, be warned…..Congrats to Amy Lee of Evanescance. She gave birth to her first son, Jack Lion, on Thursday, Jul 24th. He weighed in at 7 lbs, 13 oz….Happy 61st today to Geddy Lee of Rush and Happy 72nd to Tony Sirico (aka the “original” Paulie Walnuts of The Sopranos fame)!…In stores today: THEORY OF A DEADMAN SaVages and ADELITAS WAY Stuck.