Good morning everybody! Hope you are as excited as I am that the weekend is upon us!….We talked to Tom Morello yesterday about his fantastic work with Bruce Springsteen on The Boss’ new album, High Hopes. Funny how this relationship began after Rage Against the Machine covered Springsteen’s version “The Ghost of Tom Joad” back in 1997 to accompany a home video release (I don’t think we had DVD’s yet.) LOL Anyhow, Tom filled in with the E Street Band last year when Steven Van Zandt had made an acting commitment to his new series Lilyhammer (which is very funny, BTW. Check it out on Netflix.. And then the ideas started there when Tom brought up a song, “Hunter of Invisible Game,” he had heard when Rage was working with producer Brendan O’Brien and Brendan was playing the tune when Tom walked into the studio. P.S. It now appears on High Hopes. Tom plays on 8 of 12 songs and sings with Bruce on the new version of “The Ghost of Tom Joad.” The album is really good, at least IMHO. Anyhow, to get back to Tom’s interview, turns out he revealed HE is working on his own solo record, but not a folkie thing like Nightwatchman. He told us, “It’s time to rock. The first time I ever sang with an electric guitar in my hand was ‘Ghost of Tom Joad,’ 2008. Until then, I had kept my singing, folk career and my electric guitar shredding career completely separate. It was on that stage that I realized that there might be a way to combine all the things I do as a song writer and as a guitar player and this record is going to be that. I wanna make the craziest guitar record that anyone’s ever heard. The idea is that this is the ‘Hendrix of now’.” Woot woot! My toes are curling! Would LOVE to hear some rocking Morello music this year! And no, sadly, there are no plans for any Rage Against The Machine activity, despite the 20th anniversary of Evil Empire. WAH!…..Lou Brutus spoke with Toryn Green from Emphatic last night. Toryn, you may recall, previously sang with Fuel and did a run on vocals with Apocalyptica a few years back. Listen for the interview in a couple of weeks on the air and look for Emphatic on tour with Red and Gemini Syndrome starting the second week in Feb. Waiting to get those dates for ya and will post in Road Rage as soon as possible. (I am dying to see Gemini Syndrome, I love that album so much!)…..Well I found out some great news! Apparently getting some love at radio has sparked the creative juices of our friends in the Deftones, who are talking about the possibility of releasing a new album as early this spring! Amazing! Usually takes those boys EONS to release albums, but not this time! I can’t wait to hear what they’re up to! And HellYeah are putting the finishing touches on their new album in Las Vegas with Kevin Churko behind the wheel. Vinnie Paul told Metal Hammer,“The new HELLYEAH record is our very best. This record is heavy and diverse. It was an honor working with Kevin Churko-everything we did on this record was from a different perspective. Kevin really pushed and got the best out of us. We can’t wait for all the HELLIONS to hear it!” HELLYEAH! The to be titled disc is tentatively set for April 28th! And Mastodon are also hard at work on their next album. Add these to the upcoming releases from Chevelle, Black Stone Cherry, Kyng and even Linkin Park, and we’ve got ourselves another amazing year for rock! ….Celebrating birthdays this weekend: today: Brent Smith of Shinedown is 36. On Sunday, Rob Zombie turns 49, Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against The Machine is 44 and Howard Stern will be 60….Have a killer weekend and good luck to your teams in the playoffs. GEAUX SAINTS!
