A light snow powered by 25 mph winds today. Ah, winter, please be over…. Today, our LA correspondent and friend Don Kaye will be interviewing Alice in Chains’ guitarist/singer Jerry Cantrell over at the Capitol Records studios in Hollywood. It’s days like these I wish I was able to telepathically transport myself, if only to avoid TSA lines….March means two things. College Basketball and St Patrick’s Day. In honor of his part Irish heritage, actor Charlie Sheen made a surprise appearance to introduce Slash at last Saturday’s concert at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin, Ireland, according to the Irish Times. Sheen told the audience he was there for three reasons, explaining, “I want to remind Colin Farrell that I’m still alive,” adding that the second reason was to “drink the finest Guinness which our ancestors gave to us,” and finally saying that his third reason was to introduce the “greatest guitarist in the history of sound.” Slash returned the favor by dedicating the Guns N’ Roses song “Rocket Queen” to his “old friend” Sheen, who had flown from Los Angeles for the concert. Gotta love a man that can fly to a friend’s show no matter where in the world it is!….Pulse Content reports a video has been posted online in which former Mad Season drummer Barrett Martin reminisces about late Alice In Chains and Mad Season singer Layne Staley, who died in 2002 of a drug overdose. Staley, Martin, Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready and bassist John Baker Saunders recorded Mad Season’s sole album, Above, in 1995, but any chance of a second one was shelved after the deaths of both Staley and Saunders. McCready, who got clean just before recording Above, told us he often thinks about what his two band mates would have done if they had lived: “It’s an interesting, sad feeling at times, because I wonder what those guys would be like now. You know, I wonder if Layne would be a dad or Baker would be a dad or, you know, those kind of things that are important to me now, as opposed to when I was in my 20s, are so different and I wish they could experience that.” Interesting note: Mad Season was started in 1994 when Mike McCready met John Baker Saunders at a Minneapolis rehab facility. Check out the video interview here…..I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the passing of a behind the scenes major force in metal music, Pat Egan. The metal community is rallying together to help raise money for the family of Relapse Records director of sales Pat Egan, who died from pneumonia-related complications on Feb. 18. “Pat was a fixture of the New York hard rock and metal scene for 30 years,” says Rennie Jaffe, VP/label manager of Philadelphia-based Relapse. “Everybody knew him and he was everybody’s best friend.” In the hours after Egan’s death, Jaffe reached out to about 25 Relapse acts-including Baroness, Red Fang, Revocation, Toxic Holocaust, Pig Destroyer and comedian/metal fan Brian Posehn-asking if they’d waive track royalties for inclusion on a compilation album. “Everybody said, ‘Absolutely. Let us know if there’s anything else we can do,’” Jaffe says, noting that Egan had recently celebrated his 10th year at Relapse and was greatly responsible for much of the indie metal label’s success. The tribute album, “Patlapse,” can be purchased online at Bandcampfor a suggested donation of $5. Donations can also be made through PayPal to wellmissyoupat@relapse.com. All proceeds will go toward a college fund for Egan’s teenage daughter, Katie. The album has already generated $5,000 in sales, Jaffe says.Pig Destroyer has also offered to sell its unreleased album, Mass and Volume, on Bandcamp in early March, with all proceeds going to the Egan family. “That should generate a ton of money,” Jaffe says, citing Pig Destroyer as one of Relapse’s top sellers. A memorial event for Egan was held on Tuesday night at New York’s Idle Hands Bar, where the launch of music memorabilia on ebay was announced. Items from the likes of Metallica, Kiss, Zakk Wylde, Suicide Silence, Aiden, Flogging Molly, A Day To Remember, Rush, Stone Sour, Korn, Corey Taylor, Jason Aldean, The Black Crowes, Dir En Grey, Apocalyptica and more. Plus even more items in the coming days and weeks. “He never failed to make anyone smile, and he will always be remembered,” Katie Egan and her mother, Melinda, jointly wrote in the comments section of Egan’s obituary on Billboard.biz. Check out the auction here: http://myworld.ebay.com/pateganmemorial (Thanks to Billboard and Marc Shapiro.)
