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Friday, July 20, 2018

Julian Woolsey
Friday, July 20, 2018


Good news: It’s Friday! Bad news: it’s the anniversary of Chester Bennington’s death. 🙁

Photo credit: Anna Shinoda

Today marks the one-year anniversary of Chester Bennington’s death. The Linkin Park frontman was found dead in his residence in Palos Verdes near Los Angeles. Although it as reported immediately that he had hanged himself, there were questions about possible drug abuse. It wasn’t until the autopsy was released in December, that we learned definitively that drugs and alcohol were not factors in the cause of death.

Earlier this year, his widow, Talinda who has been a loud advocate in bringing awareness to mental health issues, announced the 320 Changes Direction campaign created in honor of her late husband to educate about mental illness. This was launched through Change Direction .Org, which points out 5 signs to be aware of.

In October, Linkin Park took to the Hollywood Bowl stage for an emotional three-hour tribute concert featuring guest such as Blink-182, members of Korn, No Doubt, Avenged Sevenfold, Bush, and several others. Some of the band’s biggest hits, including “Numb” and “In The End,” were sung entirely by the audience, while a spotlight focused on a solitary mic stand on the stage. Proceeds from the concert, were set aside for the Music For Relief’s – One More Light Fund.

Earlier this year, Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda posted this: “We have a lot of rebuilding to do, and questions to answer, so it’ll take time.”

On May 12, Shinoda played his first solo shows since Bennington’s death, at the KROQ Weenie Roast in Los Angeles at the Identity LA festival.

Just this week, he told France’s United Rock Nations that he was “open” to the idea of doing shows in the future with the band, saying, “I’m just taking it one step at a time and keeping my mind open to the possibilities — whether it’s doing things under my name or working with other artists or producing tracks for somebody else or if the guys are at a point where they wanna play Linkin Park shows, I’m sure that any of those things are possibilities and I’m just open to whatever happens.”

 

Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers is in a new movie starring Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman called Boy Erased.

In the trailer that Flea posted, you can see him as something of a “drill sergeant” in charge of a line of young men standing to attention, telling them to “Fake it till you make it – become the men you are not.”

Boy Erased is based on the story of a young man’s experience in a gay-conversion, therapy program, where he was sent after his Baptist pastor father and his wife discovered he was gay. The movie comes out in November.

In a recent interview, Volbeat frontman Michael Poulsen was asked how he ended up writing the liner notes for the album, Spiritual Healing, which was recorded by metal band, Death.

Poulsen said, “I’ve got to tell you, that’s something that I’m just so proud of. I’m a huge Death fan and Chuck Schuldiner was ‘the man’ and Death was ‘the band.’ Spiritual Healing is one of my all-time favorite albums, no question!”

Poulsen originally met the band while wearing a Death t-shirt, blaring their music from his car and the manager walked up and introduced himself. That was years ago and now they’re the best of friends.

Volbeat plans to be back in the studio soon to work on their seventh album.

Muse have shared a brand new video for their new single and frontman Matt Bellamy described it as having a Teen Wolf feel to it. He said, “Life on the road can bring out your inner beast, this song and video is about taming that beast, desiring a return to something human. Plus, Teen Wolf is cool.”

The video director Lance Drake added, “We follow Matt, Dom, and Chris on the chase of a lifetime – where something as simple as returning some video tapes becomes an epic journey.”

The track is taken from the band’s forthcoming album, due out in November.

In January, guitarist Josh Rand announced he was leaving the Stone Sour tour to get treatment for an alcohol and Xanax dependency. Drummer, Roy Mayorga commented and said: “We felt horrible about that. But you know what? We were behind him all the way. He’s our brother. Whatever time he needed to take off to take care of whatever he needed to take care of, we were there for him; he’s our bro. But, yeah, it was definitely a bummer to do it without him, but he told us, ‘I’ve gotta go do this.’”

After finishing treatment in April, Rand admitted that he was first prescribed Xanax eight years ago for anxiety related to flying. He said: “Over the course of the last couple years, I started drinking and when we started touring, I was basically day-drinking. But not drinking to get messed up, but just to maintain, I guess. Or to be able to cope, to have this buzz.”

“We were flying from Florida back up to Canada, and, basically, we were in the airport and I just had made the decision that I had to come home. Luckily, I had the support of the other guys and my family to make that decision. I had hit a wall and knew that I needed to regroup and deal with my stuff. So that’s what I did.”

You can watch Lou Brutus‘ entire conversation with Josh at Rock on the Range this year below. Look for Stone Sour to release a 2-disc deluxe edition of their studio album, 2017’s Hydrograd on August 31st.

Finally, we’d like to wish a Happy Birthday to Pearl Jam bassist Stone Gossard, Wolfmother frontman Andrew Stockdale, and guitar legend Carlos Santana. We miss you Chris Cornell, who’s birthday is today, as well.