Man, what a week this has been and it’s not over yet! Yesterday, Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney of Alice In Chains stopped by for lunch and a chat for hardDriveRadio! I gotta tell, even though I can’t repeat some of these stories to protect the innocent, we laughed our asses off! When you’ve been around the block as long as we have, there are so many characters in this world of rock, and there are as many stories. But man, I had to bite my tongue during the interview because Kinney is so freakin’ funny! He has this “alter ego” called “Complicated Kinney” and he has several album covers in case he ever decides to go “solo.” OMG. Funny as hell. Their website dude Baldy was there and he took some pix in the studio. Dunno if they will actually make the website or not, but check it out. They signed our Nightmare B4 Xmas guitar we’ll giveaway in December too! We also shot some video, so you will hear the boys tell a funny prank and get a little serious about bullying. Looking forward to seeing them on Uproar. And they just shot a video for “Voices,” which should be out in a few weeks.. Also yesterday a new band out of Sweden & Denmark called Amaranthe came by for an interview with Paulie Walnuts, Nice folks. Catch them on tour with The Kobra & The Lotus. For more www.amaranthe.se…Today, Chris Motionless of Motionless in White drops by. I realized yesterday the Circus Ringmaster in their music video, directed by Shawn M. Crahan, is none other than Chris Fein of Slipknot! I KNEW he looked familiar when I saw it the first time. Anyhow, we’ll find out how things have been going on Mayhem for those guys. Also dropping by today, Jason Nivens from 98-9 The Rock KQRC in Kansas City, who is on vacation and is celebrating his birthday in the Big “Steamy” Apple. Nivens does afternoons on KQRC, and the station is a long-time hardDrive affiliate! Right on!….Saturday, no rest for the weary as I will be headed to the Saratoga Springs stop of Mayhem to chat with Five Finger Death Punch, Rob Zombie and Mastodon! Looking forward to that and hope it does rain in buckets over there! Will also be checking in with our Albany affiliate, Q103, who will be broadcasting live from the show. Wes Styles will be in da house!…..Meanwhile, speaking of one of those bands, Five Finger Death Punch‘s bassist Chris Kael and Spector have joined forces on the design and creation of the Chris Kael CK-4 signature model bass guitar. According to Blabbermouth.net, the instrument features a “neck-thru the body” construction, which is a carbon fiber reinforced in 3-piece rock maple. The fingerboard is made of rosewood and was designed with 24 frets. It also has solid maple body wings and features an EMG BT Tone Circuit and EMG P/J active pickups. The signature guitar will be available in matte black or matte white with black hardware. The knuckle-head/brass knuckle pate is black on the white model and chrome on the black model, however the plate is removable. Nice! I will see one in person!…..As you know, earlier this week, Stone Sour and Slipknot singer Corey Taylor‘s new book, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Heaven (Or, How I Made Peace With The Paranormal And Stigmatized Zealots And Cynics In The Process), documents his quest to find out the reason why he’s had so many paranormal experiences over the years and what has caused them. He told us how that search inspired the book: “I sat back and I realized I had all of these experiences and I was still kind of looking for answers. I’ve never been satisfied with religious connotation, I’ve never been satisfied with the various and so-called ‘ghost hunters,’ so I just kind of sat down and started trying to figure things out for myself. And a lot of the explanations I came to made more sense than what was available.” The book arrived on Tuesday (July 16th).Taylor will make his way to San Diego on Saturday (July 20th) to sign copies of the book and his House Of Gold And Bones comic book series at the massive geek culture event Comic-Con. According to Noisecreep.com, the singer is also offering a BitTorrent Bundle which includes part one of A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Heaven, the book’s cover art, a sample of Taylor’s comic book, four original comic book covers, and four alternative comic book covers and sketches. If you sign up with your email address, you’ll get an exclusive download of the music video for “Do Me a Favor”…Finally today, it was very kind of Sick Puppies to give Lou Brutus and me (and many radio friends) a special THANK YOU in the liner notes of their new album, Connect, which dropped on Tuesday. Thanks Shim, Emma and Mark!...Happy 38th today to Daron Malakian of System Of A Down, and Happy 3-0 to Aaron Gillespie of The Almost and formerly of Underoath.
