Good morning Radicals! Here’s some music news to start your day:
Five Finger Death Punch frontman Ivan Moody recently opened up about his struggles with alcohol addiction in an interview with Green Bay radio station and hardDrive affiliate Razor 94.7 FM. Saying that he is now 90 days sober, Moody revealed that he nearly died due to an alcohol-related seizure and woke up surrounded by EMTs and his daughter holding him while crying. Moody claimed that he never relapsed after that, but continued to enter treatment centers after that to avoid relapsing.
Moody explained, “Anyone in recovery knows that isolation is the biggest enemy. And being in the industry that we are, I had to isolate myself. I lived on the bus or a hotel room, an airplane. No girlfriends, no family. My kids are everything to me and I never got to see ’em — I missed tons of moments and years. And so the bottle sang back to me, so to speak. It was the one thing that I could guarantee.”
Moody admitted that he went to rehab five times before the last time finally stuck, saying, “I knew I was done during my detox. It took me seven and a half days just to detox. I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t go to the bathroom by myself, I couldn’t smoke a cigarette. I had a staff member actually sleep in the room with me for the first 38 hours just to make sure I didn’t go under.”
The singer said that he “didn’t want to come out of it” the last time he went into rehab, but couldn’t explain why he felt what way: “I don’t know, I really don’t. There was just so many things — minor things — that just accumulated into this one big f**king thing. I truly don’t know.”
Moody said that he worked on fixing his “spirit” this time, adding, “I just don’t want my legacy to be (dying from substance abuse). Chester (Bennington) and Chris (Cornell) and Scott (Weiland) and Layne (Staley) . . . I listen to a Linkin Park song now and I can hear him crying for help. That’s the difference. Why did it take us so long to hear that?”
Moody revealed that he was sober but massively hung over during his onstage meltdown in Europe last summer, with the band sending him home after that and later welcoming him back on a “probationary” basis after both Phil Labonte from All That Remains and Tommy Vext from Bad Wolves filled in on a couple of tours. The new Five Finger Death Punch album, And Justice For None, will be out this Friday, May 18th.
Foo Fighters will headline the 2018 edition of Cal Jam, the once-dormant festival that Dave Grohl and company revived in 2017 as a one-day event featuring the Foos, Queens Of The Stone Age, Cage The Elephant, the Kills and Liam Gallagher. This time out, the Foos will be joined by Iggy Pop, Tenacious D, Garbage, Greta Van Fleet, Silversun Pickups and many more artists, including Giants In The Trees, a group led by Grohl’s Nirvana bandmate Krist Novoselic.
The festival will take place on October 5th and 6th at Glen Helen Regional Park and Amphitheater in San Bernardino, California. The main 12-hour festival on the 6th will include some 20 bands on four stages, while the Friday night party on the 5th will feature a set by Billy Idol, along with tribute bands and comedy acts.
Tickets for Cal Jam 2018 go on sale this Thursday, May 17th at 10:00 a.m. PST at the festival’s website. More than 30,000 fans came out for last year’s inaugural festival, which revived a brand first made popular with a series of concerts in the 1970s and early 1980s. Foo Fighters opened their touring cycle in support of last year’s Concrete And Gold album at the 2017 Cal Jam, while this year’s event will serve as the band’s last Los Angeles-area show in support of the LP.
Korn will play only three shows in the U.S. this year before embarking on a “cool tour” in 2019, according to guitarist Brian “Head” Welch. Korn has been quiet since completing the touring cycle for its 2016 album, The Serenity Of Suffering, and Welch was asked by Rock & Review if the band intends to return to the road in 2018. he replied, “We’re doing only four shows this year in America. Three — L.A., Vegas, San Francisco — that’s it. We’ve got some plans to resurrect some cool tour plans next year, 2019. But it’s cool to have time off.”
Welch made his remarks at the Nashville Film Festival, where he was promoting Loud Krazy Love, a new documentary about him and his daughter.
Korn singer Jonathan Davis also recently confirmed that the band is working on its 13th studio album. Davis admitted not long ago that he had a hard time getting back into a heavier style for The Serenity Of Suffering: “I just wasn’t feeling it. I had to go through a process of falling back in love with the heavier style of music of Korn. I had to go through lots of writer’s block. There’s all kinds of things, all kinds of issues, personal stuff. It was all those things going on at once, but it wasn’t that I thought the music was bad. I was just coming up blank.”
Davis himself has been touring to support the upcoming arrival of his new solo album, Black Labyrinth, which will be released on May 25th. The set includes the single “What It Is,” which has climbed into the Top Five on rock radio.
Deftones frontman Chino Moreno confirmed in a new interview with Rock Argentina that the band is working on music for its ninth studio album, saying, “There are six or seven songs, which are still mutating. They are very powerful, and I am anxious because, as I told you before, it has been a collaborative process. I think all our albums were postcards of what we were going through at each moment . . . Today we are older guys, I suppose, but we still enjoy making songs with marked riffs, cool melodies and a lot of groove.”
Moreno also confirmed that guitarist Stephen Carpenter, who had some issues with 2016’s Gore LP, is fully on board this time around. Moreno explained, “We really want Stephen to have a strong role on all the albums, but in (the case of Gore) it did not turn out the way we wanted. Most of his problems were not about Deftones, but about personal things. The best part is that now we are writing songs for the new album, and unlike Gore, it’s been a joint effort.”
Moreno told us a while back that Deftones never enter the studio with a plan: “We never go in with the idea that this is what kind of record we’re gonna make, this is what it’s gonna sound like. All that stuff would make it way too contrived. I always felt, and I think we always just kind of feel like we just go in and make it happen, and basically what it is is a snapshot of the time that it is we made it in.”
The singer did not set a timetable for when the new Deftones disc could arrive. Gore was released in April 2016 and featured the singles “Prayers/Triangles” and “Phantom Bride.” Deftones is about to embark on a South American tour with Quicksand opening. Deftones bassist Sergio Vega will pull double duty as he is also a member of the latter act.
Metallica has donated 25,000 euros to the Veikko and Lahja Hursti Charitable Trust, an organization in Finland that arranges food and events for the needy. The donation is part of the band’s All Within My Hands Foundation, which aims to assist and enrich the lives of members of the communities who have supported the band for years. Metallica made the donation while in Finland to play two concerts in Helsinki on May 9th and May 11th. The gift came as a complete surprise to Heikki Hursti, the head of the charity.
Shinedown scored its fourth Top 10 debut on the Billboard 200 album chart on Sunday (May 13th), as new LP Attention Attention bowed at Number Five with first-week sales of 60,000 copies. It’s the group’s fourth consecutive studio album to enter in the Top 10, following Threat To Survival at Number Six in 2015, Amaryllis at Number Four in 2012 and The Sound Of Madness in the eighth spot in 2008.
Disturbed has completed work on its seventh studio album, according to bassist John Moyer. Moyer broke the news by posting an Instagram photo of him, producer Kevin Churko, drummer Mike Wengren and guitarist Dan Donegan at a restaurant, along with the caption: “Celebratory dinner! New @disturbed album tracking done!! Missing @davidmdraiman with @kevin.churko @dandonegan @mikewengren” Disturbed has yet to share a title or release date for the new disc. Thanks Blabbermouth!
The Smashing Pumpkins have announced a national sweepstakes for a 1979 House Party. Inspired by their iconic “1979” music video, the band will perform an intimate show at a secret residential location in Los Angeles, California on June 28th, ahead of the July 12th kickoff of their upcoming “Shiny And Oh So Bright” tour. The sweepstakes winner and a guest will receive exclusive access to the 1979 House Party, a Yamaha guitar, round-trip flights to Los Angeles, a two-night stay at a Hilton property, and a cash card for ground transportation. More details available here.
That’s a wrap for today! Everyone have a great day!
