Happy Monday, although it’s pouring rain here. Wish my California friends were getting this instead. They’re the ones who really really need it. And Tracy Morgan. We need to send healing thoughts and vibes to the SNL/30 Rock star who remains in critical, yet responsive condition in a hospital in New Brunswick, NJ after a horrible accident early Saturday AM….Today I am super-busy! Calling Slash over in England, then Hellyeah’s Chad Gray & Tommy Maxwell drop in. The new Hellyeah Blood For Blood album is out tomorrow! Looking forward to speaking with all!…Godsmack‘s “1000HP” was released today, as well as “I Don’t Want To Be Here Anymore” from Rise Against. Be listening for this new music this week on the XL!…. And we’re about a month away from the kick off of the hardDrive Live Tour with Black Stone Cherry, We As Human and Kyng. Fifth Freedom will be on some of the dates where both We As Human or Kyng can not. There will always be 3 bands on the bill each night. Fifth Freedom are a country rock band out of Portland, ME. Check them out on their Facebook. And be listening to your local station in the tour cities for a cool contest you can win locally which includes playing CORNHOLE with the bands and you can take home a custom designed autographed cornole board of your own!…..This is kinda cool. Avenged Sevenfold axeman Synyster Gates recently taught a Master Class in guitar playing for Guitar Center in LA and two clips have been posted online. Surprisingly, Gates doesn’t just focus on rock and metal, but also touches on country and gypsy jazz music. The class itself was just limited to 10 entrants hand-picked by Gates himself. We know Syn meets tons of fans all the time at meet-and-greets and other events, and we asked him what he does if a fan is especially boisterous or over-excited: “You accommodate, you know, you sign their things and you’re polite, and if they can calm down and they have some stuff to ask you or whatever, then it’s a really cool thing. If they’re really excited, I mean, it’s cute and everything, but I prefer, you know, the conversational aspect if we’re gonna meet a fan or something.” Meanwhile, here is an interesting clip showing him playing some different styles acoustically… Saw on Blabbermouth Lars Ulrich told a Bay Area radio station Metallica is getting closer to the recording process for their next album. He said “I can tell you, all kidding aside, I’m pretty convinced that 90 percent of the record is actually written, it’s just gotta be kind of assembled between all those riffs. It’s just a matter of connecting this to this and sort of shaping it into a song. And so, I’m pretty psyched about that.” OK, so let’s get crackin’, fellas!….This is pretty cool. Pulse of Radio reports former My Chemical Romance singer Gerard Way will make his debut as a writer for Marvel Comics with one of five issues of a series called Edge Of Spider-Verse. According to Den Of Geek, he’ll work with artist Jake Wyatt on a story that introduces a mysterious new character known as “SP//dr.” The five-part series will lead up to a Marvel “event” called Spider-Verse, in which every version of the iconic superhero from multiple realities will team up to fight a villain named Morlun. Edge Of Spider-Verse is expected to debut this fall…Incubus guitarist Mike Einziger has written and recorded a new song called “Til Everyone Can See” in support of the World Day Against Child Labour. For the recording he recruited Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, violinist and fiancee Ann Marie Simpson, Pharrell, Oscar-winning film composer Hans Zimmer and others. The song will be available as a free download on Thursday (June 12th) as part of the launch for the International Labour Organization’s Red Card to Child Labour campaign….Johnny Depp is 51 today.