Today marks my 13th year at the company where hardDriveRadio lives, United Stations Radio Networks. Although hardDrive began in 1996 at the now defunct SW Networks, and was sold to another dissolved syndicator in 1997, MediaAmerica, we are now approaching our 18th year on the air with hardDrive and our 8th year with hardDrive XL. Needless to say, I am proud of what’s been accomplished over the years and hope to see us flourish as we get closer to the legal drinking age of 21…..Congrats to my pals at AEG Live who just announced the 8th Annual Rocklahoma festival in Pryor, OK over Memorial Day Weekend, May 23-25. The current band lineup for the 2014 Rocklahoma is Kid Rock, Five Finger Death Punch, Staind, Twisted Sister, Deftones, Seether, Motörhead, Jackyl, Filter, Black Label Society, Theory of a Deadman, Killswitch Engage, Skid Row, All That Remains, Tom Keifer of Cinderella, Hellyeah, Kix, Down, Pop Evil, Adelitas Way, Black Stone Cherry, Trivium, Texas Hippie Coalition, The Pretty Reckless, Thousand Foot Krutch, Redlight King, Skindred, KYNG, We As Human, Nothing More, Devour the Day, Heaven’s Basement, Gemini Syndrome, Butcher Babies, Eve to Adam, Truckfighters, Killer Dwarfs, Bai Bang, Lynam, ASKA, Black Tora, Firstryke, Mystery, Nasty Habit, Sleepy Hollow, Wicked, Down & Dirty, Loveblast, Ruff Justice, Ratchet Dolls, Ragdoll, Dellacoma, Chaotic Resemblance, Scattered Hamlet, Siren, Mach22, Tempt, London’s Dungeon, Mine Enemies Fall, The Chimpz, Sleepwalking Home, Well Hung Heart, Framing The Red, Blackwater Rebellion, Dryver, and Dirty Crush. General Admission and VIP packages for Rocklahoma go on sale Friday, Feb 14 at 10am CST at www.rocklahoma.com. Special pre-sale prices are available for Weekend General Admission and Weekend 4-Pack General Admission tickets. To get a code for access to the special Rocklahoma Internet pre-sale, “like” Rocklahoma on Facebook or visitwww.rocklahoma.com and sign up to receive the Rocklahoma newsletter. The pre-sale will take place on Wednesday, February 12 and Thursday, February 13. Concertgoers will save by buying early, as general admission prices will increase at the public on-sale on Feb 14….This story is so disturbing on so many levels. A Seattle woman, Elizabeth Walden, has been charged for allegedly tweeting death threats to Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell. According to local Seattle TV station KIRO-7, the woman reportedly sent over 100 messages to Cornell from a total of nine different Twitter accounts. Some of the threats also alluded to raping Cornell’s 13-year-old daughter Lily. Prosecutors say those tweets constituted cyber-stalking and they filed criminal charges against the woman last week. Sadly this is not the first time Cornell and his family have been targeted in this fashion. Back in 2006, Cornell and his wife Vicky received threats in which a man described how he planned to kill Vicky and their two children. The private investigators Cornell hired to look into who was sending the letters said the stalker was British. The singer took the threats seriously enough to install a $250,000 security system in the family home in Beverly Hills, which included laser beams, 40 security cameras and armed security guards on the property. Then in 2007, Cornell sought a restraining order against an armed man who had reportedly been threatening to harm him and his family. Just insane!….This is also insane. Pulse of Radio reports it was just last week Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith threw down the gauntlet to his celebrity impersonator, actor Will Ferrell, challenging the Lego Movie star to a drum battle to assess who had the better skills behind the kit. Now Ferrell has accepted Smith’s challenge, according to Rolling Stone, writing during Smith’s recent Reddit “AMA” session, “Hi, Chad. Will Ferrell here. I saw your video and I graciously accept your invitation to a drum battle.”Ferrell added, “If we can raise $300,000 for Cancer for College I will face off with you in the greatest drum vs. cowbell showdown the world has ever seen. We can do it on stage at a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert or in front of a mutually convenient public library. Your call. Also, would you rather fight a hundred duck sized ducks or one horse sized horse?” Ferrell was apparently responding to a comment Smith made earlier in the AMA, when he suggested the actor wouldn’t go for the drum battle. Smith wrote, “Mr. Ferrell is a delusional impostor. It seems to me that he has gone off his meds and he needs to seek professional help because I am obviously more talented and handsome than he is . . . Tell Will Ferrell anytime, anyplace, I’ll take him down. I don’t want to embarrass him, but I’d say don’t bring your family. Especially children.”…As speculation continues to swirl that Foo Fighters are recording their new album in different legendary studios around the country, a new report suggests the band has already worked with producers Butch Vig and Steve Albini on the project. Vig, of course, produced Nirvana‘s Nevermind and also worked on the last Foos album, 2011’s Wasting Light, while Albini recorded the final Nirvana studio effort, 1993’s In Utero. Will each track feature a different famous producer as well? Stay tuned….Korn frontman Jonathan Davis‘ original score for the new horror movie After The Dark, composed in collaboration with Nicholas O’Toole, is being released digitally on today (Feb 11th) and on CD March 4th. The music marks the second time Davis has written a film score, following the movie Queen Of The Damned. He also composed the theme song for the 2002 revival of the popular TV series The Twilight Zone. After The Dark, formerly known as The Philosophers, is set at an international school in Jakarta, Indonesia, where a philosophy teacher played by James D’Arcy challenges his class of twenty students to a thought experiment. Faced with an impending nuclear apocalypse, they must determine which ten of them would take shelter underground and reboot the human race. The decision quickly becomes deadly as each in the group turns against each other. Nicholas O’Toole recently wrote the score for Nothing Left To Fear, the first horror film produced by Slash. After The Dark is available on VOD and in limited theatrical release now, with the movie set to arrive on DVD on May 6th…..As Chino Moreno‘s new project, Crosses, drops today, the Deftones singer has told Rolling Stone in a new interview the band is going to take the rest of 2014 off, explaining, “We just finished a tour, so we’re gonna take the rest of the year off. We’re gonna start writing some music early next year. I just moved to Oregon andStephen (Carpenter, guitar) is down in L.A. and Abe (Cunningham, drums) andFrank (Delgado, keyboards) are in Sacramento, and Sergio (Vega, bass) is in Europe.” (Note: save a couple of U.S. festivals.) Moreno added when the band does start writing again, they plan to keep the process simple. He said, “The idea is to just get together. The last couple records, we just threw ourselves into a small room and started playing. We just work organically, which I think works better than me writing a song and saying, ‘Hey, guys, learn this.’” Crosses is his side project with Far guitarist Shaun Lopez and producer Chuck Doom. The self-titled full-length debut arrives on today (Feb 11th). It includes all the songs from the band’s two previous EPS, released in 2011 and 2012, along with five new tracks. The band will join us in the hardDriveRadio studios on Thursday….Meanwhile, I’ve gotta get running. Alter Bridge is already in my office for a satellite tour of radio stations. Getting them to do a couple of acoustic tunes. And yesterday, many thanks to Rob Caggiano of Volbeat for stopping by to talk about his career. He’s on a plane today to Japan for a couple of shows with Volbeat, and then on to Australia for Soundwave. They’ll be back in the states in April….Happy 58th today to H.R. of Bad Brains, Happy 42 to Chris Jones, aka #5 of Slipknot, and Happy 37 to Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda.
.
