Thursday and the day is good! Albeit “hot and heavy” as the morning tv weatherman called it. Hmmmm……
Could it be their biggest hit? That’s what some are speculating about the new single from Hellyeah. Their cover of Phil Collins‘ 1982 hit “I Don’t Care Anymore” is doing great on the show and on radio stations across the country. Oddly enough, Saint Asonia released their version, a more spot-on cover, that didn’t resonate. Oh well.
The Pulse Of Radio says the song is taken from Hellyeah’s new album, Unden!able, and features a guitar track from late Pantera guitarist and Hellyeah drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott‘s brother “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott, which the siblings first recorded 12 years ago.
Vin told us why it was so emotional for him to have his late brother’s guitar solo on the song: “You know, we’ve always said all along, we felt like Dime was our sixth member, you know. From day one I always felt like he was patting me on the back and just telling me this is the right thing for me to be doing, this is what I need to be doing. And so for him to be a part of a Hellyeah track is really special for us.“
The band has finished recording the basic tracks for Unden!able when they started discussing ideas for a cover song. When guitarist Christian Brady suggested “I Don’t Care Anymore,” Vinnie remembered he and Dimebag had recorded the track nearly more than a decade ago for their post-Pantera band Damageplan, although it was never used. Dimebag was shot to death in a Columbus, OH nightclub Dec 08, 2004.
Vinnie located the track in his archives and Hellyeah put together a new version of the song. They spent three weeks lifting Dimebag’s guitar parts from the out-of-date computer software on which they had been stored.
HardDrive wishes a Happy Birthday to Papa Roach vocalist Jacoby Shaddix, who celebrates his 40th birthday today (Jul 28th). Shaddix was born in Vacaville, CA in 1976 and formed Papa Roach in 1993 after he and drummer Dave Buckner met in high school. They were joined by bassist Will James and guitarist Ben Luther, although eventually all three instrumental members of the band were replaced, leaving Jacoby the only original member in the group.
Papa Roach self-released its debut album, Old Friends From Young Years, in 1997, then hit it big in 2000 with Infest, their major label debut on the now defunct Dreamworks label. I remember receiving their first single, “Last Resort,” in a package with a giant water bug size rubber cockroach! YEUW! Papa Roach has issued a total of eight studio albums, yielding 27 singles with hits like “Dead Cell,” “Scars,” “Lifeline” and “Face Everything And Rise.”
Other albums include 2004’s Getting Away With Murder, 2006’s The Paramour Sessions and last year’s F.E.A.R..
Shaddix currently resides in the Sacramento area with his wife Kelly, to whom he has been married since 1997. They have three sons: 14-year-old Makaile, 11-year-old Jagger and nearly three-year-old Brixton.
Shaddix admitted a while back that he and his wife separated for a time in 2012, although they eventually reconciled: “We’re working it out again, you know. We started going to therapy and counseling and doing that whole deal and really, like — we both had to just lay everything out on the line and just be completely honest with each other, and in the whole process realizing, you know, we really, we are meant for each other, you know. It’s just like, we’ve got to learn how to work together again as a team, you know. It sounds kind of cliche or whatever, but it’s like, the left hand got to know what the right hand is doing, and the right hand’s got to appreciate what the left hand is doing.”
Shaddix has been very public about his problems with alcohol and drug abuse, but has been sober since 2012. He said at the time that his struggle to get clean made it into that year’s album, The Connection: “I was a mess. I’m a mess. You know, I was in the process of getting sober again and I just, you know, I’m a wreck. I’m a rock ‘n’ roll freight train. I’m a VH1 story. It came through on the record, you know, so there’s desperation, there’s hope, exhilaration, there’s empowerment…it’s a myriad of emotions. You know, there’s songs on this record that I listen to and I’m just — they hit so deep to me, I’m like, ‘God, I don’t even want to listen to that song right now.’”
Papa Roach has been working on a new studio album and as the band approaches its 24th year of existence, Shaddix told us that he refuses to let anything keep him down: [“I’m a fighter. That’s just me, you know. I just don’t give up. You know, that’s just not my style. I show that through my music, with my band…it’s a crazy life we live, you know, and it will continue to be.”
I LOVE this story! Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash recently surprised the cast of the Broadway musical School Of Rock by jumping onstage during a rehearsal and jamming on some Guns songs with them, according to Loudwire. With Guns N’ Roses in the New York area for a couple of shows, Slash stopped by the rehearsal and stepped onstage with guitar in hand as the kids in the cast played “Sweet Child O’ Mine.”
Rolling Stone caught the entire jam session on camera, including singer Bobbi MacKenzie‘s reaction to seeing Slash onstage after they had finished playing the song. The legendary guitarist stayed to play “Paradise City” with the kids as well, later saying, “It was really cool to meet such an enthusiastic and talented bunch of young rock ‘n’ rollers. They were great kids as well as players.”
Slash, who has two sons himself, told us a while back how becoming a father affected his life: “That was one of the defining moments in my life where I actually turned around and looked at everything from a perspective of sensibility. So it was right at a time where I’d finally come to terms with myself and sort of had figured out where my goals were. And so I got these great two little kids and I just wanna sort of bring ’em up in sort of the rock and roll fashion, which is how I was born, you know, and raised, and they’re great.”
Slash has performed with young musicians before, notably playing with a group of students at the Brennan Rock and Roll Academy in Sioux Falls, SD back in 2013.
He and the rest of the Guns N’ Roses crew continue the “Not In This Lifetime” tour this Friday (Jul 29th) in Orlando, FL.
Gotta dash! Got Tony Rombola and Shannon Larkin‘s new band, Apocalypse Blues Revue coming in. They’ll be doing an interview and acoustic performance. Gotta go get ready! Later taters! Stay cool America!