Good morning friends! I’m back in good ole upstate NY where we went from being in hot, humid 90’s to wet, cool 60’s. Um, yeah.
I LOVE this! My pal Lzzy Hale of Halestorm performed a short but sweet excerpt of Dolly Parton‘s (and made super famous by Whitney Houston) of “I Will Always Love You” at a radio festival in Illinois over Memorial Day weekend! OMG. She is so awesome, isn’t she?
Meanwhile, I guess it’s made official that the band is working on their next album with Nashville based producer Nick Raskulinecz. Nick has most recently recorded records for Deftones, Korn and Alice In Chains to name a few. He also helmed Halestorm’s third covers EP, ReAniMate 3.0: The CoVeRs eP, which came out in Jan. This will be great for the band as everyone will be bunking in with Lzzy at her new home down in a Nashville suburb. It is a pretty fabulous place, I must say!
Halestorm guitarist Joe Hottinger told Kansas City radio station KQRC over the weekend, “We’re making a rock and roll record. We have a new producer, and he’s made some of our favorite records.” Lzzy added that the sessions have been “pretty epic” so far. She told us not long ago that she and her band enjoy taking creative risks: “With every new risk that we take, a whole other door opens up, you know, another opportunity. So I hope that we will take every opportunity given to us and I guess just see what happens and take the most risks we can.”
Halestorm is scheduled to play several festivals over the summer and early fall, with the band’s next appearance set for June 16th in Flint, MI for our affiliate The Banana (WWBN) with Skillet, All That Remains, Starset and others.
Ghost kicked off their U.S. tour on Saturday in Bristow, VA and according to Blabbermouth, they seem to have a new drummer in the mix. Ghost are the opening act for Iron Maiden. Diehard fans who watched video footage of Ghost’s set noted a “slight difference in drum set, different style of playing and slightly larger build” of the person behind the kit. Like the other instrumental members of the band, the drummer is masked and known only as a Nameless Ghoul.
This means the current Ghost drummer is apparently not the same one that toured Europe with the band in March and April. The Sweden-based act underwent a complete overhaul at the end of 2016, when singer and chief songwriter Tobias Forge, who performs as Papa Emeritus, fired the entire lineup and recruited new musicians for this year.
Ghost has a night off from the Iron Maiden tour tonight (Jun 6th) and will play a headlining show in Albany, NY, just down the road. Hmmmm, I might have to see if I can score a ticket!!
My boys Korn posted a snippet of the music video for “Black Is The Soul” over on their Twitter. If I knew how to repost those things, I would. So check it out over on Twitter.
OK, so now my wi-fi is acting funky. Probably because it’s drowning in rain right now. More later or tomorrow!