Had a spectacular weekend! Saturday kicked off with a trip to the office to interview Ben Burnley of Breaking Benjamin. He arrived with his wife and we immediately reconnected after a 5 year break. I always liked Ben. He was very open about his health issues, which include flu-like symptoms with dizziness and fatigue. He’s been to several different specialists and hospitals around the country, enduring test after test to try to find out what the problem is and how it can be solved. To no avail. The good news is, he’s working and fighting through all this. And even now has a 5 month old son, Benjamin. (OMG, he is so cute and what a chunk! Naming sons Benjamin runs in his family. His father, grandfather and uncle are all named Benjamin.) Ben and his family have left the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, PA area and have moved to an ocean side town in New Jersey. He’s very happy and in a great place, and so appreciative of the Breaking Benjamin fans. Ben and the band will travel up to our studios in mid April before they head out on the road to do an acoustic performance, so be looking for that, as well as our audio and video interviews with Ben soon on the hardDriveRadio app and the hardDriveRadio YouTube channel. We’ll invite Ben to do a live chat on the app soon too!….Saturday night, I was invited to see The Temperance Movement at Webster Hall in lower Manhattan, not far from the horrible explosion site you’ve probably seen on TV. The band was more amazing than I had imagined. Frontman Phil Campbell (man, does he have a thick Scottish brough!) has the stage presence and swagger of Mick Jagger and the voice of a young Rod Stewart. I dig their brand of rock, not heavy, but rockin’ enough to turn jaded metal heads into fans. They certainly get you up and dancing and feeling good! I strongly urge you to check them out if they head to your town. They’ll be hitting the hardDriveRadio studios on April 13th…..In the news today, I love this! Munky (aka James Shaffer) from Korn along with the Hot Topic Foundation, presented the Little Kids Rock organization in Pasadena, CA a check for 1.2 MILLION dollars and provided a boatload of instruments to the group last week. Check out the presentation here. Munk also performed The Beatles‘ “Eleanor Rigby” and Michael Jackon’s “Beat It” with the kids. Cool stuff!…Well, this is sudden and wasn’t in the cards last week when I spoke with Mark Tremonti, that’s for sure! Tremonti, the band fronted by the Alter Bridge/Creed guitarist , has announced bassist Wolfgang Van Halen will not tour with the band due to commitments with his main act, Van Halen. Wolfgang said in a statement, “I am still part of Tremonti and very excited for the release of (new album) Cauterize, but unfortunately am unable to participate in the upcoming tour dates, both in the States and overseas due to my prior commitment with Van Halen for the upcoming summer tour in support of the Tokyo Dome Live In Concert album. (I) look forward to seeing all the Tremonti fans on the road as soon as my schedule permits!” Tremonti has not revealed who will play bass on the tour, which kicks off on April 25th in Orlando and has dates booked through late May so far. Wolfgang did play on Cauterize, which is due out on June 9th, and Mark Tremonti told us that the bass player made invaluable contributions to the record: “He’s just a super-solid player, he learns stuff in two seconds and there’s two key spots where we did the three-part harmonies that Wolfie would sing the very high part and Eric (Friedman, guitarist)would sing the middle part and I’d sing the lower part, and it just really makes a big — you know, it sounds nice. I love the addition of his voice.” So, hmmm, does this open the door again for Alter Bridge bassist Brian Marshall or will Mark need to find someone else. Wonderers are wondering…..Veteran hard rockers Sevendust have finished recording their 10th studio album for a tentative July release. Guitarist John Connolly recently told Loudwire, “There’s a lot of heavy on this one, but there’s also a lot of melody. There’s a lot of spillover from where our headspace was at on an acoustic perspective, which is great.” The band’s last release, 2014’s Time Travelers And Bonfires, was an acoustic set…..Happy 70th today to Eric Clapton.