Good morning Radicals! It’s Friday, and the last day of November! We’re in the final run of 2018 now! Let’s see what’s up in music news today:
Five Finger Death Punch singer Ivan Moody has said in a new interview that most of the big-name rappers that he has met are “about as hard as soft butter,” adding, “That’s all there is to it. I have not met a rap dude yet who intimidates me — at all.”
Moody told the Rock 108 radio station, “I just got to meet Machine Gun Kelly, opening up for Fall Out Boy, which was an awkward mix. But all in all, he’s a good kid, man. I mean, I don’t get involved in it.”
Moody continued, “I meet these rock guys, these metal guys, and we are very real. You’re talking about Corey Taylor (Slipknot) and Randy (Blythe, Lamb Of God) and myself, J.D. (Jonathan Davis of Korn) — these are real dudes, and no way am I gonna walk to up to (them) and talk s**t about their wife or their kid.”
Moody said he was surprised to hear some of the beefs and barbs that rap artists exchange via their lyrics, explaining, “It’s just hilarious to me on one level where these guys get away with that, and then I meet them, and they’re just gentle, weird kids . . . So it’s just funny to me. I don’t know where these rap guys get off trying to act so hard.”
Five Finger Death Punch is continuing to tour in support of its latest album, And Justice For None, which came out in May.
Four former members of the Sweden-based rock band Ghost have requested a new trial in their lawsuit against the band’s leader, Tobias Forge. The four musicians believe the judge who ordered the dismissal of the lawsuit last month had a conflict of interest in overseeing the case since both he and Forge are members of the Swedish Order Of Freemasons.
Forge, who founded Ghost eight years ago and currently performs as Cardinal Copia, was sued by the four ex-members in April 2017. They accused the singer of cheating them out of their rightful share of the profits from the band’s album releases and world tours. The trial in a Swedish court lasted for six days, and on October 17th, the judge dismissed the case. The musicians were also ordered to pay Forge’s legal fees, which could amount to approximately $146,000.
The musicians have now appealed the ruling, with their attorney, Michael Berg, writing that it must have been almost impossible for Judge Henrik Ibold to “objectively and impartially assess the probative value of the information that Tobias Forge has provided.” Ibold denied in an interview that he knew Forge was a member of the Freemasons, although he admitted that he had “heard some rumors that it could be so.”
Forge has responded to the appeal or to the accusations involving Ibold. The band is currently on a massive North American fall tour that will wrap on December 15th in Brooklyn.
Fan-filmed footage of an early Linkin Park concert, captured in 2000 at the Mason Jar in Phoenix, has been posted online. The gig took place in August of that year, two months before the California-based act released its debut album, Hybrid Theory.
The concert 18 years ago may have even been considered a hometown gig for singer Chester Bennington. The late musician was born and raised in the Arizona capital, while the other Linkin Park members hailed from the Los Angeles County area.
The venue itself is somewhat regionally historic, especially for bands about to blow up nationally: Nirvana played there in 1990, a year before Nevermind was released.
Singer Mike Shinoda told us a while back that there were plenty of tough moments in those early days: “Oh yeah. We had our ups and downs. People from the record industry were going to come out and see the band, and because of problems, this and that, we didn’t play a great show. And so things like that can get you down, but that’s the point when you’ve got to put in the extra work. And that’s what we did. We turned around and said, ‘Let’s write some more songs, let’s do these things to fix the problems that we have.’ That’s how we got where we are now.”
Linkin Park has not performed together in public since October 2017, when the surviving members staged a tribute concert in Los Angeles to Bennington. The band has not officially announced whether it intends to carry on following the death of Bennington, who committed suicide in July 2017 at the age of 41.
The wife of Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave and Prophets Of Rage bassist Tim Commerford has filed for divorce. According to The Blast, Aleece Commerford filed documents on November 28th to end the couple’s 17-year marriage.
The 50-year-old rocker and Aleece Commerford were married in 2001 and have two sons together, Xavier and Quentin. In the documents obtained by The Blast, Aleece listed the date of separation as Tuesday (November 27th), and is asking for physical custody of the two children. She is also seeking spousal support from Tim.
The family lives in Malibu. Aleece reportedly works in the medical field, and as an AIDS activist. It’s unclear what caused the split between the couple.
In a 2016 interview with Forbes, Tim stated about his family, “I love being a dad, I love my wife and my kids are amazing to me and I love the challenge of making music and family work. They influence me musically and emotionally.”
Commerford and the rest of Prophets Of Rage are reportedly preparing to release their second album sometime in early 2019.
Finally, we’d like to wish a Happy Birthday to Disturbed bassist John Moyer, Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover and the legendary Billy Idol!
