Good morning Radicals! Here’s what’s going on in the world of Rock and Roll:
Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor said in a new interview that Imagine Dragons has replaced Nickelback as the most hated act in music. Speaking on Los Angeles radio station KLOS, Taylor called Nickelback “the scapegoat of rock and roll,” but added, “However, they are passing the baton to Imagine Dragons right now, and I love it.”
The singer, who has lived in Las Vegas for the past nine years, continued, “They’re awful, so that’s cool. And they’re from Vegas, so I’m gonna go home to protests. Can’t show my face in this town now. Yeah, people are slowly coming back to appreciate Nickelback and then just turning their irksome ire towards Imagine Dragons.”
It was just two years ago that Nickelback leader Chad Kroeger slammed both of Taylor’s bands, calling Slipknot a “gimmick” and referring to Stone Sour as “Nickelback Lite.” Taylor responded by calling Kroeger “Captain Ego from Planet Douche,” adding that he had gotten an apology from Kroeger’s bandmates.
In his original statements, Kroeger had accused Taylor of talking trash first — something Taylor said he didn’t remember very well. But Taylor admitted to us a while back that he’s never been afraid to voice his opinions: “The minute that I start worrying about that is the second that I don’t deserve my career. Then it’s not about expression anymore, it’s about money, and I can make money at Burger King. This is me being myself — if you’re offended by that, sorry, but you not coming to my shows is not gonna change how I think.”
Taylor played a solo show on Wednesday night (February 20th) at the Roxy in West Hollywood, California. Opening the event was Cherry Bombs, the all-girl dance group led by Taylor’s girlfriend Alicia Dove.
Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker gave Billboard an update on the band’s eighth studio LP, saying, “I’m really excited because we’re about 70 percent finished with our album. I feel like this is the closest we’ve come to something like (2003)’s Blink-182 since that album, which is one of my favorite Blink albums by far.”
Asked why he compared the upcoming set to the 2003 self-titled effort, Barker explained, “I feel like (2016’s) California was similar to (1999’s) Enema Of The State and (2001’s) Take Off Your Pants And Jacket — reestablishing the band, giving fans what they really want and expect from Blink. Now that we got that out of our system naturally, we’re not writing like that this time. It’s more experimental.”
As for when the new Blink record might arrive, Barker hinted, “April, May or June, if I had to guess. That’s the target. It’s kind of loose. But I feel like it’s happening right around there.”
The new Blink record will be the band’s second with guitarist and singer Matt Skiba, who replaced founding member Tom DeLonge in 2015 after the latter decided to spend more time on his investigation and documentation of paranormal occurrences and UFO activity.
AC/DC guitarist Angus Young has donated the Canadian equivalent of nearly $15,000 to the Alzheimer Society of Ontario after hearing about a Canadian fan’s unusual fundraiser.
Steve McNeil, who lost his mother and his mother-in-law to Alzheimer’s, has been traveling across Canada to skate for 19 hours and 26 minutes in each of the country’s NHL cities, raising awareness and money for local Alzheimer’s societies.
He says that his effort is a tribute to both his mother and Angus’s brother Malcolm Young. The latter co-founded AC/DC with Angus and died from dementia at age 64 two years ago, after the illness forced him into retirement in 2014.
Angus told us at the time that it was clear to both himself and his brother that Malcolm would not be able to continue in the band: “He kept going as long as he could, you know. I mean, he was still writing until he couldn’t do that anymore. You were hoping, you know, that he would get better. The physical side of him, he got great treatment for that, but the mental side just deteriorated, you know. So he himself said, you know, I won’t be able to do it anymore.”
AC/DC’s accountant told CBC that Angus and his wife, Ellen, “stumbled across” an article about McNeil’s efforts and asked her to write CBC for more details about supporting his fundraiser.
Finally, we’d like to wish a Happy Birthday to Lamb of God frontman Randy Blythe, Nothing More bassist Daniel Oliver, and New Years Day singer Ash Costello!
