Wait, after 44 years, the group Spirit is suing Led Zeppelin, saying Led Zep ripped them off for the music that makes up the intro of the world famous “Stairway To Heaven”??? Spirit (I think I owned one of their albums back in the day) contend their tune, “Taurus,” was ripped off by the legendary Zeppelin in 1970 and used on “Stairway To Heaven.” If you listen to the intros of both songs, you will hear similarity. And apparently, the two bands toured together back in those days. But come on, you wait nearly 45 years to file a suit? Come ON! …Speaking of Led Zep, I had such an amazing time at Rock On The Range, and just one of the “pinch me” moments was being able to stand on the side of the stage when Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience performed their 7 song set. From “Kashmir” to “When The Levee Breaks” to “Whole Lotta Love,” it was amazeballs for yours truly, who loved Led Zeppelin. I was the only person to interview Jason Bonham before the show and was melancholy when he told me he never knew the greatness that was his dad John “Bonzo” Bonham ’til after he died. Jason was only 14 then. Actually got a little teary during the set. It was great! Meanwhile, watching on that same stage just before Bonham, Of Mice & Men did one of their best performances of their career, who broke the record for the largest crowd on the Rock On The Range second stage! Had to be at least 15,000 people there! (See the shot posted above.) The band is riding high on that performance, let me tell ya! And right after their show, they had to drive 20 hours back to Florida. Love those guys! So proud of them! Listen for Austin Carlile with Lou Brutus on Part 1 of Backstage @ Rock On The Range coming up May 31st weekend! Other highlights, Avenged Sevenfold‘s Synyster Gates gave Lou one of his guitars! Now he has one from Syn and Zacky! So cool! Syn’s little dog, “Pinkley” was there and she’s the cutest little thing EVER! Lou has pictures! Their set was amazing! More pyro than we’ve ever seen! And there was a private party afterward in the artist lounge with the band! Five Finger Death Punch‘s show, what can I say, I wonder how many people hung around for Kid Rock after they tore the place up! Kinda hard to top that show. They had the crowd in a frenzy inside Crew Stadium! Ivan Moody was on point and it was fun standing on the side stage. Lou took a picture of Ivan when he came over to Lou and then Ivan took a picture of Lou! And Nothing More rallied the crowd, despite having an unfortunate power failure half-way through their set. But they plan to make it up to fans and will be doing some free shows in the area during the next run. There’s a big buzz on the band, and you should definitely check them out on the upcoming tour with 5FDP & Volbeat (with Hellyeah.) Pop Evil had Darryl McDaniels of Run-DMC come out for “Trenches.” Needless to say the crowd went bonkers! People also came away impressed with performances from Lacuna Coil (always great), Avatar, Heaven’s Basement and We Came As Romans, as well as Texas Hippie Coalition. Seether‘s show was solid, so was Adelitas Way and as always, Alter Bridge and Mastodon (I heard one of the guys from Crobot went crazy in the artist lounge and removed his pants. Missed seeing that tho! LOL) Cool stuff! Other than that, we didn’t get to see very much. We were either on a bus or in a dressing room or trailer or I was coordinating schedule changes and had to be backstage. I know , oh poor Roxy! But we go to these events and work our tails off! Yeah, we get to hang with the bands and stuff, but it’s still hard work! Got to hear almost everyone perform tho. Other newsy things: Alter Bridge/Slash singer Myles Kennedy played me the first single from the new Slash album! Sounds killer! Staind’s Mike Mushok told us he has recorded a song with Adam Gontier for the former Three Days Grace lead singer’s anticipated solo record. Our contest winners, Shelby Chane & Joey Canfield got to hang out with Lou and I in the media tent and totally unplanned, Five Finger Death Punch was making their rounds speaking to the radio stations who were set up inside. So Shelby and Joey got to meet the band and get pictures. Good Times! I interviewed a new band I quite like called We Came As Romans. Think they will have a hit with their song “Hope” that’s being released soon. Also got to talk to Jim Breuer, who you may remember from SNL as “Goat Boy.” He’s working on an album with a band and has a couple of great guests including Brian Johnson of AC/DC!! And of course, Lou spoke with 37 bands! We were the only ones to get Myles and Mark Tremonti of Alter Bridge. The only ones to get Synyster Gates of Avenged Sevenfold! We rule, kids! And Thursday, I got to interview Corey Taylor before he got unshamelessly ROASTED at the first annual ROAST ON THE RANGE. It was a hilarious night with Roastmaster Sebastian Bach, with Clown from Slipknot, Scott Ian from Anthrax & his wife Pearl Aday, Jamie Jasta of Hatebreed, Jim Florentine, Don Jamieson, Craig Gass, Finesse Mitchell (another SNL alum) and actor/comedian Brian Posehn. OMG. Things I can not repeat, but it was pretty fun. Corey told me Slipknot has about 6 more weeks til they’ll be done with the new album, but he did NOT say Jim Root would no longer be a member of Stone Sour. So I don’t have much for that on you, except we know Jim has been really stretched between touring and writing for Stone Sour and being one of the main songwriters for Slipknot. (He was NOT fired!) So I think this is for him to take a break for the time being at least. Corey did say the music is outstanding and some of their best work! Hopefully this fall! And I think the Knotfest could turn into a rolling tour in the US. So far we know there are two shows, Des Moines and outside Minneapolis. So we’ll have to wait ‘n see what’s next. And Corey’s stoked for folks to get to see his acting debut in Fear Clinic, starring the great Robert Englund. OK, so what else is news? Pulse of Radio says Metallica frontman James Hetfield will narrate the upcoming History Channel series The Hunt, which will chronicle the hunt on Alaska’s Kodiak Island for the Kodiak brown bear, the largest land predator on earth. Hetfield has been known to be an avid hunter and has some experience going after bears. The eight-episode series will premiere on Sunday, June 8th at 10PM ET on the History Channel…Sick Puppies has released a video for “Die To Save You,” the latest single from the trio’s current album, Connect. The song hits the airwaves just as the band gears up for its summer touring schedule, but frontman Shim Moore told us fans who have seen them recently will already know it: