Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello penned an op-ed piece for Rolling Stone on Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, vice president on the Republican ticket alongside presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney. In a New York Times profile, Ryan — who is known for his far-right positions on both economics and social issues — claimed he enjoyed the music of the ultra-leftist rap-rock quartet. Check out Tom’s entire piece here. Morello has responded, writing, “Paul Ryan’s love of Rage Against the Machine is amusing, because he is the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades. Charles Manson loved the Beatles but didn’t understand them. Governor Chris Christie loves Bruce Springsteen but doesn’t understand him. And Paul Ryan is clueless about his favorite band, Rage Against the Machine.” Ouch!…..Pulse of Radio reports on the hardDrive Live Tour reporting Creed and Alter Bridge guitarist Mark Tremonti will embark on his first solo headlining tour this fall when he tops the bill for the annual HardDrive Live tour, presented by HardDrive Radio. Tremonti is touring behind his first solo album, All I Was, which came out last month. Joining him on the bill will be Man The Mighty, a new act signed to Tremonti’s own Fret 12 Records. Tremonti will play two warm-up shows on September 11th and 12th with opening act Charm City Devils before the tour gets underway on the 20th in Flint, Michigan. Creed and Alter Bridge bassist Brian Marshall is also part of Tremonti’s solo touring band. Tremonti played his first solo show in July in Orlando, Florida, and told us how it went: “The most nerve-wracking part of a show is when you’re starting your first song, and we get ready to start, I cue our drummer to start the song and Brian’s (like), ‘I got nothing, my bass is not working.’ It took him a good three or four minutes to figure out that he had a mute button on his amp — who puts a mute button on their amp in the first place? But that kind of ruined the whole big ‘come out onstage and kick ass’ kind of thing. And so finally he figured out his mute button was on and we started, and from there on out it was great.” See all the dates on the Road Rage page! Tickets on sale now! ….Nickelback has recruited former Seinfeld star Jason Alexander to star in the band’s new video for the song “Trying Not To Love You.” The humorous clip features Alexander, who played the hapless George Costanza on the long-running show, as a goofy coffee shop worker named Bud who falls in love with a customer played by Baywatch star Brooke Burns. But Alexander has another role in the video as well, as the suave competition for Burns’ affections. Which one will get to stir her coffee? “Trying Not To Love You” is the fifth single from Nickelback’s 2011 album Here And Now. Nickelback has been on the road since the spring behind the disc. The band wrapped up a lengthy North American trek at the end of July and will head to Europe in early September. Here And Now has sold more than 900,000 copies since coming out last November. Chad Kroeger has a golf course on his property outside of Vancouver! Check out the video here….Kid Rock has written an anthem for his hometown NFL team, the Detroit Lions, as part of a promotional effort sponsored by Pepsi in which each NFL team will get a new song composed for them by a local artist. Rock’s song is scheduled to be released in the next few weeks and fans will be able to download it using a redemption code on specially marked cans of Pepsi, Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Max. Look for more info on the promotion at www.PepsiAnthems.com…..And lastly, the Idiot of the Year Award goes to Dave Mustaine of Megadeth. We all know he’s a Republican, which is fine. But when you say something this ridiculously stupid and false like this, you win the award, chump! Here’s what he said: While performing with Megadeth on August 7 in Singapore, Mustaine told the crowd, “Back in my country, my president is trying to pass a gun ban*. So he’s staging all of these murders, like the Fast And Furious thing down at the border and Aurora, Colorado, all the people that were killed there. And now the beautiful people at the Sikh temple.” He continued: “I don’t know where I’m gonna live if America keeps going the way it’s going because it looks like it’s turning into Nazi America.” Dave, get a life. If you don’t like America, you can always move!…Happy 64th today to Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin! He tried to pick me up when I was 17. I think Kip Winger wrote a song about that! LOL And Happy 42nd to Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit. No matter what you think of the guy, he did direct a cool movie! “The Education of Charlie Banks.” Check it out on Netflix. [* = not a ban on guns, a ban on assault rifles and tighter restrictions on on-line sales of ammo and the like. Get a life Dave!]
