Hello folks! Try as I did, wifi, other than for my iPhone, wasn’t working for me enough to post new daily reports, so I apologize! But I wish I could’ve because I know I’ve forgotten some of the shining moments of my 5 days at sea with a ton of rock stars and their fans. Shiprocked 2012 was a truly unique rock festival experience I HIGHLY recommend! Despite a 18 hour span of some really ROCKING seas, you mostly didn’t even know you were at sea aboard a gigantic ship! It was part vacation for this gal, who didn’t get to see everyone, unfortunately, because I was interviewing bands when others were on stage. I talked to Jonathan, Munky, Fieldy & Ray of Korn, Morgan Rose from Sevendust, Ivan Moody from Five Finger Death Punch, Richard Patrick of Filter, Chris Howorth of In This Moment, Sonny Sandoval from P.O.D. (he and his wife and I took a tour of Ernest Hemingway‘s house in Key West! Was so cool!), Sully Erna from Godsmack, Page Hamilton of Helmet, Brett Scallions of Fuel, Dave Buckner & Ben Moody of The Halo Method. All my conversations were great, not to mention the other folks who were hanging out like Jonny Hetherington of Art of Dying and John Tempesta (ex-Rob Zombie) of The Cult. (Jonny sat in with The Halo Method and John with Helmet as he was a former member.) Met Lukas Rossi of The Halo Method, Filter’s new guitarist, Jonathan Radtke, formerly of Kill Hannah, and the new guys in Helmet’s band. Plus our contest winner Amanda Shugart and her mom Sue were so sweet! There were too many others, my memory fails me, but they were SO MUCH FUN to hang with and enjoy great rock music on the boat! I was excited to see a former Korn krew member, Sleepy, who’s back as Jonathan’s bodyguard, Stew Wilson, monitor board man extraordinaire, and Jim who normally is Munky’s guitar tech but on this run, he handled all guitar duties. My experiences were some that I will cherish and next year, Lou Brutus will be there! (This is one we will have to alternate for sure!) I did have to take my motion sickness remedies on Friday morning, Thursday night is POURED rain in port in Nassau, The Bahamas, and the captain had to hold us there due to 65 mph winds at sea. GLAD we didn’t have to go through THAT! But next day was really rocky! Whew, glad to be on dry land as the thought made me feel queezy! LOL Believe me, this is a trip for the rock fan, as chances are you will get to meet some of your favorite band members. Most everyone hung out. And did I mention the odd costumed folks? I think the weirdest one was this normal looking woman in her 30’s who dragged around this child-sized doll by her hair that was supposed to be HER. She would lay on the deck for pictures where someone had to hold her by the hair as she held onto the doll’s hair. It was freaky! Then there were the dudes, I think there were 3 of them, in skin tight alien looking body suits (I think one got thrown out of the Korn show in theater), the bride & groom from hell, the gorilla, and of course, the drunken chubby dude in the bikini. I also heard about a guy sporting a kilt who would show folks his naked butt, but I missed that. All in all, an amazing event. Don’t miss it! And I think the next one is going to be June 14-16. No details yet, so stay tuned! www.getshiprocked.com. Congrats to Alan Koenig and his staff for a great event! And if you are reading this because you met me at Shiprocked, reach out via the interact link on the home page! And register to be a hardDriveRadio Radical!…As I mentioned Filter, Richard Patrick played several new tracks from the new Filter record, which all sounded amazing! I am so glad the band is back, kicking serious ASS live and seeing Richard in his showman BEST! The band is now signed to Wind Up Records, who will schedule it for sometime in the new year. It was once again produced by Bob Marlette. “Hey Hey Whaddaya Say” I believe will be the first single. There’s stuff on there that’s harkens “Hey Man Nice Shot,” and one that is very nine inch nailsy, a couple like “Take A Picture” too. And one of the members from Korn told me the new material Korn is working on is probably going to be some of their best to date, and THAT’S saying something, since I loved The Path of Totality. They haven’t picked a producer yet. And in other new album news, Five Finger Death Punch are working away on new stuff in Las Vegas with Kevin Churko. I think Zoltan said “If it ain’t broken, why fix it!” So everyone is so stoked to have new stuff coming. And did I mention the carousing in the casino after hours with Morgan Rose, Luis from P.O.D., Lukas Rossi and Ivan Moody! Man, I was watching Morgan bet $250-300 on hands at the Black Jack table, while playing off other table hands as well! It was INSANE! He said he won $5,000, but I wonder how much he SPENT! ….Been waiting on this news. Metallica announced on Friday (Nov 30th) it has taken ownership of all the band’s master recordings and long-form videos under a provision of the band’s 1994 joint venture agreement with the Warner Music Group. According to that provision — almost unheard of for acts signed to major label contracts — all the masters reverted back to the band as of Friday. Frontman James Hetfield said in a statement, “We would like to thank everyone at the Warner Music Group for 28 years of a fantastic relationship, particularly since 1994 where we truly felt we had partners in every aspect of our business in North America.” The band is also launching its own label, called Blackened Recordings, the new home for all of their recordings and videos, as well as anything else that the band may come up with. All marketing and promotion will be handled by Blackened, with distribution through Rhino Entertainment in North America and the Universal Music Group internationally. Drummer Lars Ulrich said, “Forming Blackened Recordings is the ultimate in independence, giving us 100 percent control and putting us in the driver’s seat of our own creative destiny.” Meanwhile, expect a new Metallica album in 2014. The 3-D movie sometime next year. Meanwhile, Blabbermouth reports Metallica has partnered with the Virginia Tech university bookstore to produce an “Enter Sandman” shirt, with the band’s share of the proceeds to be given to the Morgan Dana Harrington Scholarship Fund. The fund is named in honor of the Virginia Tech student who disappeared after leaving the group’s Oct 17th, 2009 concert at the John Paul Jones Arena on the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville, Virginia. Her skeletal remains were found on Jan 26th, 2010, in a remote field on a farm in Albemarle County, Virginia. The shirts went on sale in October, and the first month of sales generated $17,000 for the fund. You can order a short-sleeve shirt at http://tinyurl.com/cpxbsyg and a long-sleeve one at http://tinyurl.com/cd3b5xh ….Foo Fighters, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Coldplay are among the acts who made Forbes‘ newly published list of the 25 highest-paid musicians of 2012. Foo Fighters earned $47 million to land at Number 14 on the list, while the Chili Peppers raked in $39 million to finish at Number 19. Sitting comfortably at Number 21 was Coldplay with a not-too-shabby $37 million in the bank for the past 12 months. The highest paid artist of all was rapper and producer Dr. Dre, who grossed $110 million — mainly from his back catalog and the sale of his lucrative headphones business, Beats By Dre. Ex-Pink Floyd bassist/vocalist Roger Waters earned $88 million from his The Wall Live tour, making him the highest paid rockers on the list. Last year’s Number One, U2, took in $78 million to occupy the Number Four position. Forbes compiles its annual highest-paid musicians list by estimating artists’ earnings from music sales, live shows, endorsements and merchandising. Other rock artists on the list included Bon Jovi at Number Six with $60 million, Paul McCartney at Number Eight with $57 million. I was number 1,999,999,999,999 on the list….Be sure to set your DVR! The surviving members of Led Zeppelin will appear tonight (Dec 3rd) on CBS’ The Late Show With David Letterman. Ultimate Classic Rock reported the three — Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones— who, along with Letterman, were awarded the Kennedy Center Honor on Saturday night (Dec 1st) in Washington, D.C. — will chat with Letterman — but not perform. The Kennedy Center Honors will air on CBS on Wednesday, Dec 26th. Check your local listings for stations and times. The band-members are promoting their new live collection, Celebration Day, which features Zeppelin’s entire 2007 London reunion concert in honor of former Atlantic Records chairman Ahmet Ertegun….Happy 64th to Ozzy Osbourne, who is probably singing that Beatles’ song “When I’m 64” all day today! LOL
