What a great day yesterday turned out to be! We had Theory Of A Deadman drop in for interviews (audio and video) and acoustic performance of “Angel.” Love those guys, their spirit and their comedic talents too! LOL They crack me up! You MUST go to their Facebook to see some of their hilarious posts! Too funny!….Then Paulie Walnuts, Danica and Shane accompanied me to the Best Buy Theater in Times Square to do an video interview with Gavin Rossdale of Bush. Such a lovely, kind and dare I say, handsome fellow he! (Blush) But towards the end of the interview, a fire alarm came on (apparently a water pipe in the area broke and the power was shut down inside the club) so we were forced to end out interview early. Boo! But it was a fine time and we got to meet Chewy, his Pomeranian. Very cute. I got to hang out on the side of the stage for their show, too. Great production, great set. And I love they cover Talking Heads‘ “Once In A Lifetime.” And during “Little Things,” Gavin goes into the audience all the way up to the cheap seats and interacts with fans. It’s pretty cool to watch. And he was jumping around the stage, clearly having a grand ole time. Even Chris Traynor’s guitar tech commented, “Gavin is really happy tonight. It shows.” Loved it! Hung out for a few after the show in Stars In Stereo’s dressing room with tennis star John McEnroe. Ya never know who you’ll see at a rock concert in NYC. Hit Yahoo Screen and watch Monday night’s show from Boston’s House of Blues….News of today: Pulse of Radio reports Stone Temple Pilots drummer Eric Kretz told a New York radio station that singer Chester Bennington is on the road to recovery from a leg injury that forced his other band, Linkin Park, to cancel most of a U.S. tour. Kretz said, “His voice is in great shape, man. He still has to sit down when he’s singing. We’re in the studio right now putting vocals on four new songs this week. So he’s sitting down doing it. But he’s such a health nut that his recovery time is gonna be half of what any mortal human would allow himself to.” Kretz also spoke about the recording sessions for STP’s new album, saying, “We’re very close (to finishing up four new songs), yeah. We’re getting into the guitar solo territory next week. We’re just finishing up the vocals on some of the stuff, and, man, it’s real exciting, ’cause this stuff is sounding huge.” Stone Temple Pilots’ first studio project with Bennington on vocals was an EP called High Rise that was released in October 2013. The new album is due out later this year. Bennington replaced original singer Scott Weiland in the lineup in May of that year. STP will head out on the road this spring as well for its first new tour dates since late 2013. The trek kicks off on April 8th in Seattle, winding down on April 30th in Philadelphia. One dollar per ticket on the new tour will be donated to Music For Relief, a nonprofit organization dedicated to disaster relief and environmental protection that was launched in 2004 by Linkin Park….Three Days Grace has revealed its upcoming album Human will arrive in both standard and deluxe editions. The limited run, two-CD deluxe version will contain a second disc including live renditions of “Painkiller,” “Let Me Down, “Every Other Weekend” and an alternate recording of the song “Human Race.” The package will also include a custom woven beanie, a square-foot sticker featuring the album art, and a five-card set of photos and notes from each band member. Three Days Grace drummer Neil Sanderson told us how the band goes about choosing a title for each new album: “Once the songs are together, we really kind of take one step back, and you can start to see the common thread that kind of moves all through the songs, and then that common thread is essentially where our heads have been at during the process of writing. You know, we start to think about where we were at and what’s the major thing that we were really channeling.” Anyone who pre-orders Human on iTunes or Amazon will instantly receive digital copies of the band’s two latest Number One singles, “I Am Machine,” and “Painkiller.” Human will arrive in stores on March 31st and is the band’s first record with singer Matt Walst, who joined the band in 2013 following the departure of original frontman Adam Gontier. Three Days Grace will kick off a spring North American tour on April 9th in Riverside, California, winding down on April 23rd in Dallas. The trek will follow gigs at the Brazilian and Argentinean editions of Lollapalooza in late March….Alice In Chains has launched a new online auction benefiting Music for Relief in its efforts toward Ebola prevention and MusiCares for its aid of musicians in need of assistance. Among the items on the auction block are a Jerry Cantrell autographed signature Superhawk Guitar, a Fender Squier Bass Guitar signed by Mike Inez, plus signed instruments from Slash, Tom Morello, Linkin Park, Deftones‘Stephen Carpenter and other items from acts like Pearl Jam, System Of A Down and more. The auction runs through March 10th. (Thanks, Noisecreep)….Metallica frontman James Hetfield has opened up in a recent video about his past, saying fans would not like him if they knew all of his dark secrets. Hetfield said, “You wouldn’t really like me if you knew my story, if you knew what horrible things I’ve done. I’m coming to grips with that, ’cause I have groups of people that I’m able to share all my horrible stuff with — shameful, extremely shameful, dark stuff. Some of it is things I’ve taken from my parents and carried it a little further. Other ones, I’ve been able to drop some of that. Other ones I’ve picked up on my own and then created — shame’s a big thing for me.” Hetfield added, “Playing music has saved my life. Every day saves my life. When I’m able to write . . . write a riff, write some lyrics, stuff like that . . . it’s the way I connect with the world. And so I think kids that do have the gift of art, writing painting, drawing, designing, metalwork, woodwork . . . any craft-type stuff . . . caring for that . . . caring for that.” Empowering children has been a part of Hetfield’s message for years. In other footage, he talks about overcoming his fear of responsibility, his recovery from drug addiction and what it means to be a role model. The videos were produced by Road Recovery, an organization founded to help young people battle adversity and addiction. Hetfield got clean in 2002 and returned to Metallica to record the St. Anger album and make the documentary Some Kind of Monster, which depicted his struggles and the band’s near-breakup. Watch James here, here and here….Happy 33rd to The Used’s Bert McCracklen.