Today’s the day our friend Slash drops by the hardDriveRadio studios here in NYC. He is the hardest working man in show biz, lemme tell ya! Last night, the band performed at a tiny club downtown called Santo’s House Party (co-owned by Andrew WK) to an invitation only crowd. And Saturday night, if you have DirecTV, you can watch a documentary on the making of Slash’s World On Fire cd, which drops today, as the fine folks over at Ernie Ball, who created the webisodes REAL TO REEL with SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY & THE CONSPIRATORS (hmmm, did they steal that title fro Dave Grohl?) made it into an hour long film. It air Saturday, on AXS TV 9 PM ET/5 PM PT. As mentioned, World On Fire is out today on Slash’s own label Dik Hayd International, distributed through Caroline. Listen to the new album streaming in full on USA TODAY.com this week (HERE). The title track “World On Fire” marks Slash’s fastest-climbing song at radio ever; the album’s first single hit the Top 10 this week. Listen to the song “World On Fire” HERE and watch the fun NSFW video HERE. On Friday, Sep 19, Slash will be on hand at Universal Studios Hollywood to unveil the new maze “Clowns 3D Music By SLASH” at “Halloween Horror Nights.” This collaboration with the prolific guitarist marks the first time a musician has created an original maze score for the popular event. Later that night, he’ll receive an “Eyegore Award” which honors influential entertainment professionals for bringing the horror genre to life within the movie, television and music industries. Slash will join a roster of today’s leading Hollywood horror icons at the show including Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, From Dusk Till Dawn, Grindhouse) and John Landis (An American Werewolf in London, Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’, The Blues Brothers) and many more. Following the annual “Eyegore Awards,” Slash and Myles will perform “Nothing Left To Fear,” the title song for his first-ever motion picture (2013) he co-produced through his film/TV production company Slasher Films. Beginning Tuesday, Sep 23, Slash will celebrate the release of WORLD ON FIRE by returning to the iconic guitarist’s stomping grounds with a series of three very special sold-out club shows: Sep 23 (The Troubadour) and then, moving up the hill to the world-famous Sunset Strip, Sep 25 (The Roxy) and Sep 26 (The Whisky A Go Go). These shows are presented by and honor the 50-year anniversary of the beloved musician retailer Guitar Center. For more information, go to: www.SlashOnline.com. Fans can be a part of history as Guitar Center will present SLASH featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators “Live From the Roxy,” to be broadcast on national television on DIRECTV’s Audience Network (Ch 239) Nov 9th at 8pm. The 90-minute full rock concert will be filmed in stunning 4k and 5.1 surround sound. Fans can enter to win a VIP trip for two to see The Roxy show and take home an Epiphone Les Paul signed by the legendary guitarist, visit guitarcenter.com/slash to win. See, Slash, he kicks ASS!….Dave Grohl and his merry music makers Foo Fighters closed out the Invictus Games, and Prince Harry‘s 30th birthday spectacular, over in Merry Ole England (wasit last night or the night before?) Man, that had to be AWE-some too! And there’s good and sad news. Sad news regarding the passing of Sound City owner Tom Skeeter. Sound City, the legendary studio in which numerous classic rock albums were recorded that was the subject of Dave Grohl‘s 2013 documentary, Sound City: Real To Reel. It was posted on the studio’s Facebook page on Saturday (Sep 13th) that Tom Skeeter passed away at the age of 82. Skeeter was prominently featured in Grohl’s film, recalling stories from the studio’s history and handing off the studio’s famous Neve console to Grohl, who bought it as the facility was closing down. The board was built in 1972 and was used for more than 40 years to record albums by Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac, Cheap Trick, Guns N’ Roses, Nirvana, Rage Against The Machine, Slipknot, Nine Inch Nails, Metallica and countless others, many of whom Grohl interviewed for the documentary. The Facebook post read, “We lost our main man, Tommy Skeeter this week. Grateful our Sound City Movie pals for introducing him to all of you. Thank you to all of the people who have stopped by the office to meet Tom in the past few years — he enjoyed the visits, and loved hearing how far people had come.” A message posted at the Sound City Movie Twitter page and all the Foo Fighters‘ social media accounts stated, “Thank you, Tom. For all the music….Tom Skeeter RIP.” Although the studio closed its doors in 2011, Grohl told us his fond memories of just hanging out there: “You know, Sound City was a place that I would go visit when I had nothing better to do. They had barbecues every Friday so, you know, you’d get there — go on a Friday to meet your buddy Nick who’s the engineer and T-Bone would be smoking a joint in the parking lot and someone would be cooking up some burgers, and it was Sound City, you know. It was a hang.”….Meanwhile, the unbelievable charitable folks they are, Linkin Park has launched a campaign to aid the West African Ebola outbreak. Mike Shinoda said:
Hey guys, hopefully you’ve been following our journey on the road during Carnivores Tour thanks to Chideo. For those of you who don’t know much about it, Chideo is the first online interactive charity broadcast network where fans can get access to exclusive video content and experiences with their favorite celebrities while doing some social good.
Giving back is incredibly important to me and to Linkin Park. In 2005, we started a nonprofit organization, Music for Relief, in response to the Indian Ocean tsunami that devastated many of the places we had just played on tour. Through Music for Relief, we are committed to utilizing our connections with other bands, people in the music industry and, most importantly, our fans to raise awareness for those in need around the world. Since its inception, Music for Relief has raised over $6 million to aid survivors of natural disasters and planted over 1 million trees to reduce climate change.
Right now, Music for Relief is responding to the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa. One of the most crucial aspects of fighting this deadly virus is having the protective gear to help those who are sick. Music for Relief is raising money for goggles, masks, gloves, full body suits and more for the brave aid workers responding to the crisis. The more gear they have, the better the chances there are of getting the virus under control and preventing it from spreading.
I want to encourage you all to get in on the conversation, and Chideo is a perfect place to get started. You can register on Chideo.com or download the Chideo app and you’ll gain access to behind-the-scenes video content (like our backstage dance party during Rob’s drum solo or Dave’s weirdest backstage tour ever), not to mention you’ll be the first to hear about future sweepstakes opportunities to get up close and personal with the band. On top of all that, your generous donation will support our charity Music for Relief. A full protective suit costs about $350, but with all of you contributing, the impact can be great.
It’s been a lot of fun reading your questions and creating our video responses – we hope you’ve enjoyed them, too. Please know that you are making a difference by donating to Music for Relief on Chideo and helping people in the greatest need around the world. Thank you.
Also today, Five Finger Death Punch and Volbeat kick off a fall North American co-headlining tour in Salt Lake City. Five Finger drummer Jeremy Spencer told us why he thinks the Denmark-based Volbeat has taken off in America: “It’s a fresh sound, I think. They poke out as being something that’s new and exciting and different and people are relating to them. People are really excited about them, they were always emailing us, ‘When are you guys gonna tour with Volbeat? Volbeat! Volbeat!’ And we were like, we started to take notice of that and we tried to make it happen before and we just couldn’t until now. But we’re really excited about it.” Check out the new interview video with Jeremy talking about his book, his favorite football teams and more! Watch! And enter to win an autographed copy of Jeremy’s “Death Punch’d: Surviving the Five Finger Death Punch Metal Mayhem.” Make sure you are a registered hardDriveRadio Radical, yo!….Avenged Sevenfold has set Oct 16th as the release date for the band’s mobile game, Hail To the King: Deathbat. It will be available via the App Store and on Google Play. A new trailer has been released as well. The game includes nine new pieces of music created by the band, but frontman M. Shadows said, “It’s purely throwback video game music. A lot of 8-bit sounds but a lot of instrumentals. We made songs that reminded us of our youth playing Castlevania or Mario Brothers.” ….Happy 89th to guitar legend B.B. King!