Insane! Had the greatest interview yesterday with Robert and Dean Deleo of Stone Temple Pilots! I am so psyched for them. It’s been too long that these talented fellows have had to sit on the side lines and wait while their flaky singer tried to get his act together. Sorry, I said it! Scott Weiland is a flake. He blew it. I think fan reaction has been lukewarm to Chester Bennington being his replacement, but come on people, give it a chance. Everyone seems to like the new single “Out of Time,” and Chester has been a fan of STP for so long, that in rehearsals, he didn’t even need the lyrics to any of their old tunes. Meanwhile, the band started recording a song Dean wrote for the EP and they expect to have a total of 5 songs on it for an October release. In the meantime, a tour with Filter is now posted in Road Rage! So happy all my pals in these two bands are going forward! ….Avenged Sevenfold released “Hail To The King” yesterday and announced the cities for their upcoming tour with Deftones and Ghost B.C. See Road Rage and check out the tune here. Plus the band is releasing some cool deluxe versions of the new album. Hit www.avengedsevenfold.com….More dates were posted for the HARDDRIVE LIVE TOUR: Bullet For My Valentine, Black Veil Brides, Stars In Stereo and Throw The Fight. And you can find those in Road Rage and also note tickets for the new shows are on sale Friday! Links will be available at www.harddrivelivetour.com tomorrow….And Five Finger Death Punch posted their dates yesterday with Escape the Fate, Gemini Syndrome and UK newcomers Miss May I. Road Rage is where you can find ’em! Here’s a video blog from Zoltan….Corey Taylor, aka The Boogie Knight, hits the hardDrive Studios today, and we’ll be talking to him about his new book hitting bookshelves today “A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Heaven (Or How I Made Peace With the Paranormal and Stignatized Zealots and Cynics in the Process.)” Dude, why such a verbose title? Anyhow, the book is a fun read and you will be shocked by the things he’s encountered! Plus we’ll find out about getting his stolen property returned! Meanwhile his friend, Slipknot percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan has landed his first gig as a feature film director. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Crahan will get behind the camera for Officer Downe, an upcoming movie based on a graphic novel about a Los Angeles cop who is killed repeatedly in the line of duty, but is telekinetically resurrected by his superiors and sent back onto the streets. Crahan, who has directed a number of music videos and concert DVDs for Slipknot, told us he’s been working his way toward directing a feature for a long time: “I’ve been preparing myself with art my whole life, and preparing myself for directing and scriptwriting, and this is what I’ve been doing for 10 years, is learning and studying and taking it in. You know, I honestly believe that, you know, we are gonna create the next ‘Clockwork Orange’ and I’m gonna die trying because that’s my life.” Here’s a video of Shawn discussing the project. (Thanks Pulse Content)….Glad to see there’s activity in the Beastie Boys‘ camp. Mike “Mike D” Diamond spoke with Rolling Stone about his first new music in two years, a song written to accompany the showing of the Kenzo fashion house’s 2014 Spring/Summer Collection, which debuted during Paris Fashion Week at the end of June. Diamond explained, “I was a little apprehensive. It might shock you, but I haven’t been to that many fashion shows, and I’d never done a commissioned piece for a fashion house . . . The show itself, meanwhile, turned out to be a full-on theatrical experience held in a circus school in the outskirts of Paris.” Meanwhile, Adam “Ad-Rock” has a role in a new film called While We’re Young, also starring Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts as a married couple. Horovitz made his acting debut in the 1989 drama Lost Angels with Donald Sutherland, but has not had a substantial movie role in two decades. He’s also appeared in 1991’s A Kiss Before Dying and 1992’s Roadside Prophets, and played himself in a 2009 episode of 30 Rock. Horovitz and Diamond have also been working on a memoir about the Beastie Boys, whose career came to an end with the death in May 2012 of fellow Beastie Adam “MCA” Yauchfrom cancer…Loudwire reports Tool drummer Danny Carey gave a progress report on the band’s long-delayed new album in a recent interview, saying, “It’s still the three of us (Carey, guitarist Adam Jones and bassist Justin Chancellor) right now and (we will be joined by singer Maynard James Keenan) soon . . . We’re working everyday on it and it’s going really well, so I’m hoping we’ll get into the studio by the end of the year.” Carey predicted an early 2014 release for the group’s first album since 2006’s 10,000 Days….Rob Zombie follows in the footsteps of Five Finger Death Punch guitarist Jason Hook by appearing on Tuesday’s (July 16th) episode of the History Channel program Counting Cars. In the episode, Zombie calls Count’s Kustoms owner Danny ‘The Count” Koker at his Las Vegas shop about customizing his 1967 Ford F-100 in seven days. The newly customized truck will be on display starting Friday (July 19th) at the Mayhem Festival tour stop in Camden, New Jersey, which Zombie and Five Finger are co-headlining.…Sevendust guitarist John Connolly said in a new interview that the band plans to record an acoustic EP in early 2014, to be followed by an acoustic tour. Connolly explained, “There’s a lot of talk, a lot of buzz going around about another acoustic tour. We’ve always wanted to do one, but we really don’t want to do it without a record, so we may be hopping in at some point to do some kind of an acoustic EP.” Connolly added that the acoustic set would probably mix a few older songs in with some newer tunes. Sevendust is currently on the road behind its ninth studio album, Black Out The Sun and will be on this summer’s WJJO Band Camp in Madison, WI on Aug 17th….Have a great day! Stay frosty, to those of use in the “hell zone” of heat Mother Nature is throwing at us!
