Oh man, I was so shocked to read the news of the cancellation of the rest of the Linkin Park tour while I was at the Papa Roach, Seether, Kyng, Islander show last night! Here’s the email I got from their publicist: Linkin Park regret to inform their fans they must cancel the remaining dates of The Hunting Party tour, due to a leg injury of lead vocalist Chester Bennington. The injury requires immediate medical attention making it physically impossible for Bennington to perform. Chester says, “I’m really disappointed this injury has made it impossible to continue with this tour. The first couple shows were just magical. We will truly miss not being with our fans for the next few weeks. Hope to see you again soon.” Fans can seek refunds at point of purchase. WAH! You can see clearly he’s hurt here. I was so excited to see Linkin Park, Rise Against and Of Mice & Men on Sunday. Was supposed to interview everyone. Now I guess I should be happy I can have Sunday off. But geez…..Speaking of the Papa Roach/Seether show, it was off the chain! Terminal 5 in NYC was ON FIRE for all the bands, it was so cool! Walked in and Islander was on and Paulie Walnuts told me I missed Islander’s Mikey Carvajal telling the crowd “New Wave” was a song the band was dedicating “to the lovely Roxy from hardDrive!”!!!!!!!! WHAT?!!!!!! That was sooooooo cool of them! Anyhow, I was happy to see all the bands. Special thanks to Karen D from Seether’s label for hooking me up with my backstage interview with Seether. Got to hang a bit with their touring guitarist Bryan Wickmann. He’s a really nice guy. And Dale Stewart! He could’ve DIED from his head injury suffered in Oklahoma City last winter when he slipped and fell on wet tile with icy boots when he went outside their hotel to smoke a cigarette. (Note: Smoking CAN kill you.) Listen for Dale, John Humphrey, Shaun Morgan and Bryan on the shows soon…..Papa Roach’s Jacoby Shaddix, Tony Palermo and Tobin Esperance entered the hardDrive studios yesterday and it was a blast. Love those guys and we did audio and video interviews. In the video interview, I had the band talk about this history as 2015 marks their 15th anniversary. Been with these guys the whole 10 yards too! Jacoby has invited us to join them at Rock Im Park and Rock Am Ring in June. Hmmm. Sounds tempting….After we reported the scheduling of the first date yesterday (Jan 20th), Slipknot has now confirmed a spring headlining tour of the U.S. with support from Hatebreed. (See Road Rage.) The relatively short trek will include several festival stops and begin on April 25th at the Fort Rock festival in Fort Myers, Florida, ending on May 16th in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This is Slipknot’s second U.S. run in support of its latest album, .5: The Gray Chapter, which came out in October…..Foo Fighters bassist Nate Mendel has set March 10th as the release date for If I Kill This Thing We’re All Going To Eat For A Week, the debut disc from his side project Lieutenant. According to Spin, Mendel sings lead vocals and plays guitar for the project, which features guest appearances from Foo Fighters guitarist Chris Shiflett, Helmet‘s Page Hamilton, Modest Mouse‘s Joe Plummer and Jeremy Enigk from Sunny Day Real Estate, among others. The first track from the album is called “Believe The Squalor.” The album was recorded mainly by Mendel and Plummer at the Foo Fighters’ private Studio 606 facility in Los Angeles. Mendel was also a member of Sunny Day Real Estate before joining the Foos. Lieutenant recently played a string of warm-up dates in Southern California and plans to go out on a spring tour before Mendel regroups with the Foo Fighters for the massive summer trek. Meanwhile, Foo Fighters, who are touring in South America currently, invited original Pearl Jam drummer Dave Krusen to join them on stage for a cover of the Rolling Stones “Miss You.” Jonny Kaplan is on vocals. (Krusen, Kaplan & Foos’ keyboardist Rami Jaffee also play in a Rolling Stones cover band called Bitch.) Interested in seeing an okay fan-filmed video, watch it here…. Yikes. The Beastie Boys are likely to head back to the courtroom later this year with energy drink maker Monster. Also according to Spin, the band has filed another lawsuit against the company, which it sued successfully last year over unauthorized use of its music. This time the band is demanding that Monster pay back the $2.4 million that the Beastie Boys spent in legal fees on the first case. A court ruled in favor of the rap-rock trio in June 2014, awarding them $1.7 million after it was proven that Monster used the band’s music without its permission in a promotional video….Daniel Johns is in the news. Remember him from Silverchair? I remember meeting Silverchair & Daniel when he was just 16 years old! (He’s 35 now.) Their debut album, Frogstomp, had the exciting track “Tomorrow” on it. Loved that tune. Anyhow, I am reading on Blabbermouth he’s planning to release a solo record, Aeriel Love, on Jan 29 (I guess that’s in Australia? Not sure). For more, hit Daniel’s Facebook page…. I see Blabbermouth also has noted, .We Are Harlot have released the music video in the UK for their new single, “Dancing On Nails.” The band will be in NYC on Feb 4 to do press. Their debut album was produced by Kato Khandwala, who most recently did The Pretty Reckless‘ Going To Hell cd. Anyhow, check out the video here. The single will be out here in the states on Feb 3. Looking forward to seeing my pal Danny Worsnop (yes, the same as the singer of Asking Alexandria.)