Slash! What can I say, the guy is so awesome! He’s one of the most down to earth, unaffected rock stars you will ever meet. His management emailed me after they left to say such nice things! “Over the years, you’ve developed a great thing with Slash and you know he goes out of his way to support those who support him.” Aw, gee. (I did wear my Chuck Taylor’s in his honor.) So be listening tonight on the XL for a previous interview and hang on for the new video interview and our new interview on the air with Lou Brutus! Slash is a sweetheart and he is vey dedicated to the plight of the elephants who are being killed by rich game hunters and poachers who kill them for their ivory. (Don’t quote me, but I think the tune “Beneath The Savage Sun” is about that.) Anywho, check out the album, World On Fire, which I believe is still streaming at USA Today. (See yesterday’s blog for more on that.) His next stop is Friday at Universal Studios in LA for the launch of Halloween Horror Nights. He composed the music for the 3-D maze with terrifying clowns! ARGH!…..Pulse of Radio reports Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor said in a new interview with Metal Hammer firing founding drummer Joey Jordison in 2013 after 18 years was “one of the hardest decisions” the group ever made, adding that Jordison is “in a place in his life” which is “not where we are.” Taylor said he could not get into specifics for legal reasons, but admitted, “It’s when a relationship hits that T-section and one person’s going one way and you’re going the other. And try as you might to either get them to go your way or try and go their way, at some point you’ve got to go in the direction that works for you. This is me speaking in the broadest terms, with respect to Joey. I guess to sum it up, it was one of the hardest decisions we ever made.” Taylor said the band is “happy right now and we hope that he is . . . he’s just in a place in his life, right now, that’s not where we are.” The singer would not answer whether drug use played a role in Jordison’s dismissal, and confessed he had not been in touch with his former bandmate. Taylor said, “I haven’t talked to Joey in a while, to be honest. That’s how different we are. It’s not because I don’t love him and I don’t miss him. And it is painful; we talk about him all the time, but at the same time, do we miss him or do we miss the old him? That’s what it really comes down to.” Slipknot releases its fifth studio album, .5: The Gray Chapter, on Oct 21st. It’s the band’s first without Jordison and late bassist Paul Gray. The identities of the band’s new bassist and drummer have not yet been revealed, but both appeared — disguised in the same newly designed mask — in the video for “The Devil In I”, the first single from the new album. Nonetheless, it is widely believed that the new bassist is Alessandro “Vman” Venturella, who sports the exact same tattoo on his hand that was spotted on the hand of the new bassist in the video….So if you are wondering where the new Foo Fighters song is on the radio, we are wondering the same thing! I find it strange no one involved with the project is even saying WHAT the single will be or WHEN it will come out! My friends in radio seem to think it will drop next month when the first HBO special airs, around Oct 17. Remains to be seen….The next Three Days Grace single is coming Sep 29th called “I Am Machine.” I do know that!.. I also know Bush will reissue four of its previous albums on Oct 14th in remastered editions, including 1994’s Sixteen Stone, 1996’s Razorblade Suitcase, 1999’s The Science of Things and the 1997 remix LP, Deconstructed. Frontman Gavin Rossdale told us putting the reissues together has been a bittersweet experience: “We’ve done some remastering of the stuff and we’ve got some nice things planned, some alternate versions of things. It’s been quite nostalgic for me, going back into the past, I mean looking through oceans of old photographs and being maybe quite nostalgic when I try not to be nostalgic. It’s fun and enlightening and heartwarming and sad all at once.”….Meanwhile, just a reminder the new hardDriveRadio APP is where you can finally LISTEN to the weekend edition of hardDrive! We post the weekend show on Mondays after it’s aired on our partner stations, and you can get it FOR FREE to listen to at your leisure! So grab your iPhone or Android and download NOW at the app store or Google Play!….Happy 63rd to the Queen of Halloween, Elvira aka Cassandra Peterson and Happy 69th to The Zen Master, basketball coach Phil Jackson. Years ago, in the 80’s when I lived in LA, I did a Halloween radio special with Cassandra and the guy who play “Jambi” on PeeWee’s Playhouse tv show John Paragon and SNL star, the late, great Phil Hartman. We had an absolute laugh RIOT making it. Hmmm, I wonder if I saved a copy. It was back in the day when we still pressed our shows on VINYL! Yes, I am that old! LOL Quick side note, that was back in the day when Rob Zombie was working in at the art department on PeeWee’s Playhouse! Have a great day!