Happy Friday! Walked by Rockefeller Plaza last night and they were setting up for the arrival of the Christmas Tree! Oh boy! Tons of tourists and no where to walk on the sidewalks! Love this time of year, and it gets earlier and earlier every year! Pretty soon the tree will go up on Labor Day! Geez! …Godsmack has begun work on its sixth studio album, according to a post on Facebook. The band wrote, “That’s right motherf***ers! We are in (Florida) writing for the next album!” Godsmack’s last full-length set of all-new material, The Oracle, came out in May 2010, although the quartet also issued the concert set Live And Inspired last year. There is no word yet on when Godsmack expects to release the new disc, but it’s likely to arrive in 2014, followed by a tour….Pulse of Radio reports Metallica recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of the release of . . . And Justice For All, the band’s fourth studio album and first to reach both the Top 10 on the Billboard album chart and the one million mark in sales. Frontman James Hetfield spoke with Artist Direct about the record, saying, “Touring that thing, I think of it as our fancy, showing-off album, ‘We’re crazy progressive musicians. We really know how to play here!’ (laughs) Making that work into this is a challenge, and I love that part of it.” The disc was also the first full-length studio effort to feature bassist Jason Newsted, with Hetfield recalling, “It wasn’t the first time with Jason Newsted, but it was the first real studio record he showed up and kind of was heard on the album (laughs). That’s another whole therapy session right there!“…Avenged Sevenfold‘s “Shepherd of Fire” video debuted yesterday, but I forgot to mention the tune also appears on the latest Call Of Duty: Black Ops II DLC pack update. M Shadows told me he’s friends with Mark Lamia, studio head for Treyarch, the designers of the game, and gave Mark a copy of the band’s album even before their own record company heard it! Mark called him moments after hearing “Shepherd” and asked it he could use it on the game pack. Matt is a HUGE gamer, so you know he was stoked to say yes! And the rest is gamer history!…Dave Grohl made an appearance at the Country Music Awards on Wednesday night (Nov 6th) with the Zac Brown Band. The Foo Fighters frontman joined the Altlana country folk rockers to play Brown’s new track “Day For The Dead” at the prestigious Nashville event. Earlier this month, Grohl teamed up with actors Jack Black and Val Kilmer to form spoof band Sweetriver And The Huckleberry Dogs and perform on the Yahoo web series Ghost Ghirls. Love me some Dave!…..Some interesting albums for you to look out for in the new year include Within Temptation‘s Hydra, which features special guests Howard Jones (ex-Killswitch Engage), rapper Xzibit, and Soul Asylum’s Dave Pirner. Comes out Jan 31st. And on Jan 28th, the Kevin Churko produced Red Dragon Cartel, a new band fronted by former Ozzy Osbourne and Badlands guitarist Jake E. Lee. (Sharon Osbourne once got mad at me for mentioning how I thought Jake was missed after he was fired from Ozzy’s band back in the 90’s! I produced a music video for his Badland’s band back in the day and what a crush I had on him! LOL) Anyhow, that new album features Maria Brink of In This Moment, Jeremy Spencer of Five Finger Death Punch, Robin Zander of Cheap Trick, members of Slash‘s band and Kyuss’ Scott Reeder. Could be some good stuff on both of these releases….Birthdays! Today, Sharon’s son Jack Osbourne turns 28! God, I remember when he was 8!! Saturday, Lou Ferrigno, aka The Hulk, turns 62 and Sunday, DJ Ashba will be 41 and the composer whose music you hear just before the band takes the stage, Ennio Morricone, will be 85! Oh, and Lou Brutus‘ birthday is Sunday too! Be sure to wish him a Happy One on our and his Facebook/Twitter pages. Have a great weekend!
