Rock N Roll Industries Issue 6

Behind the board with Steve at the Harmony Hut

Steve Vai

The Story of Light

Summer Shreds

Emilyof

Thrown into Exile

Centerfold

Mayhemfeaturing Slipknotand with

interviews

September Mourning Graces the

Rock On The Rangewith

Introducing the

SSMFcoverage

Industry Talk with

DylanofJames DurbinInterview Write upswith Chickenfoot andLindsey Buckingham

Miss Katonic Show

Steven Slate

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Rock N Roll Industries Magazine 3

As Roger Waters performs his highly acclaimed “The Wall” tour, Samson Audio and Wireless are an integral part of his performance. © 2012 Samson | samsontech.com

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Features

Write ups 20 21 22 24 25

Bonzo’s Birthday Bash Timothy B. Schmit Roxie 77 Scorpions/Tesla Lindsey Buckingham

Interviews 26 27 29 40 42 44

Glen Soble of Alice Cooper Death Dividon and XNO Huntress Black Water Project Chris Holmes Pancho Tomaselli of War/ Philm 46 Gerry Nestler of Philm

Summer Shreds 30 Steve Vai - Talks about The Story of Light, how he got his start, and find out more about the Jem and the story behind it.

47 Rock on the Range Dylan Rosenburg of James Durbin/Archer Interview 49 Rocklahoma 50 Progpower Usa 52 Summerfest 53 Mayhem Festival Thrown into Exile Interview 56 Warped Tour 57 Make Music Pasadena 58 SSMF

Cover photo: Neil Zlozower Atlas Icons.com Steve Vai: Larry Dimarzio

Industry 12 Steve Harris -Iron Maiden Essay Icon Maiden

54 Sean Crahan -Slipknot Interview new book and

37 Emily Lazar -Septmber Mouring interiew and

14 ChickenFoot -Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony

Centerfold

Mayhem coverage (53)

60 Miss Katonic interviews Gwar 62 Fan Favorite - Rhoads To Ozz Tribute 64 Know Your Gear 66 Industry Talk with Steven Slate 67 Gear Review - Kona Guitars 70 Music with Michael G (Guitar lesson) 72 RNR Ind Jukebox 73 The Bathroom Wall 74 CD Reviews

“Let the music do the talking!”

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6 Rock N Roll Industries Magazine

Everybody wants one…

IntroducIng thE Zoom Q2hd handy VIdEo rEcordEr.

Brilliant stereo recording and HD video… Now with live streaming. © 2012 Zoom | photo: Neil Zlozower | zakkwylde.com | vai.com | zoomfx.com

Rock N Roll Industries Magazine 7

Editor’s Words EDITOR IN CHIEF Mike Smothers

SENIOR EDITOR Angelica Ulloa

PUBLISHING DIRECTOR Jessica Johnson

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Chairat Roberts

mike@rocknrollindustries.com

jess@rocknrollindustries.com

DEVLOPMENT COORDINATOR

Black Raven from left: Mike Smothers, Daniel Hicks, Phil Sandoval, Evan Perman & Gonzo Sandoval drums (Shawn Helton not pictured) This has been one hard rockin’ issue of Rock N Roll Industries Magazine!

One reason is the Legendary Steve Vai, who has proven, that just because you play music, doesn’t mean you can make music and genuinely be legit in the business, like Steve has shown it takes a lot of hard work and many years to get there. After spending some time with this intrinsically motivated, confident and talented artist, he can undoubtedly “gps” you to success! We’ve also been concentrating on our Summer Shreds project, covering the escapades of hard rock bands, and festivals from coast- tocoast! Everywhere from Ohio’s Rock on the Range, Oklahoma’s Rocklahoma, Atlanta, Georgia’s Progpower USA, to Wisconsin’s 45th Summerfest.

Of course RNR will forever strive to be an integral part of our local Rock

N Roll music industries scene. Don’t miss our coverage of SSMF, Mayhem, Warped tour, and more! With the increased interests for RNR as a “go-to” industry resource, I assure our readers continuous growth in material, content, and quality. And don’t tell me we do not have the hottest, most intriguing centerfold; in artist, “September Mourning”. Don’t forget to check out the next Dec/Jan issue (Gear: A Look Ahead) featuring 2013 latest products. Finally, on a personal note, yours truly, had the great pleasure of performing live on stage at The Whiskey a Go-Go with Black Raven, for the 22nd Annual LA Music Awards Voting Party on September 27th. It was an awesome experience and great show for all involved. Thanks for all of your valuable and truly appreciated support.

Mike Smothers Editor in Chief Follow us Facbook.comrocknrollindustriesmag

Twitter @RockNRollind

angelica@rocknrollindustries.com

chairat@rocknrollindustries.com CONTRIBUTORS

Bill Hershy

bill@rocknrollindustries.com

Christa Dozier, Mercedes Keveson Steiner

CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS Keith Stixx, Mark Allee

ILLUSTRATOR Zak Hennessey

WRITERS: Ron Colquitt*, Stacey Shaw, Manny Rivas II, Michael G Clark, Joaquin Sahagun, Peggy Murphy, Julian Douglas, Noelle Kim Retes, WINJOW, Rob Gainey, Alison “MetalBabe” Cohen, Roger Stoddard, Nicole DeMarco, Taylor Hicks, Laura Chen, Raquel Figlo, Jamie Katonic PHOTOGRAPHERS: Neil Zlozower, Chad Lee, Leah Burlington*, Alex Kluft*, Jazmin Monet Estopin, Simi Friedman*, Justin Edward*, Enrique Nuñez*, Cyndi Johnson, Doug Gouge, Larry Dimazio, Lan Nguyen* * Photojournalists

Advertising/ Intern Inquires sales@rocknrollindustries.com Tel: 909 289 8872 www.rocknrollindustries.com

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Subscribers: Please alert us of any changes of address 6-8 weeks before the date of your move. Rock N Roll Industries is not responsible or obligated to re-ship issues missed because of a move we were not informed of.

Rock N Roll Industries (ISSN 2164-9863 print ISSN 2164-9871 online) is published bi monthly, 34955 Cella Ln Yucaipa Ca 92399. Annual Subscription cost is $12.95. Submission of manuscripts, illustrations, media kits and/ or photographs will not be returned. The publisher assumes no responsibly for unsolicited materials. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited.

Picures from our pop up gallery at Sunset Strip Music Festival read more about SSMF on page 58

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Andrew Freeman, Mike Smothers & Mike Hansen

Mojo Jonny Coffin

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Every Issue one lucky winner gets the chance to win awesome prices from our wonderful companies. This isssu enter to win an Ltd/ESP EC 401 and Rock N Roll Industries year subscribtion ENTER to win at www.rocknrollindustries.com or scan the tag below.

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Nik Ad

Rock N Roll Industries Magazine 11

Iron Maiden

con:Maiden by R.W. Colquitt

Delving into a stellar band such as Iron Maiden with so few words, while placing them on a level worthy of their icon status… requires the proper setup. Read onward Enter: bards and jesters... stage left. Enter: poets and actors... stage right. Pour the finest for the royal court. Though let it be known and take heed, the issue with the royal court, is that you can be beheaded as easily as being called, “Sir”. Separating common street performers, from iconic entertainers, followed suit with precision back in those days.

Bards sang ballads for the courts, as the jesters juggled and made fools of themselves for a laugh.

Tunes are still sung today from these ancient times. Musicianship’s roots run deep beneath.

Thus saying, some pieces, even entire genres, carry on through the ages. Some become iconic.

Music has existed in some form since the early ages. Primitive music still exists today in folk, as well as in tribal form. Time is ever marching onward, and change is ever present. This we accept in life as we flow along the river. As the topography of the musical landscape changes around us, some participants are written into the pages of history.

Others simply disappear. Some become renowned 12 12 Rock Rock N N Roll Roll Industries Industries Magazine Magazine

legends, and others are shrouded in myth.

Olympus, is one single name… for two ancient Greek musicians. One was a man. One is a myth. They are better known today, as mountains. Interestingly enough, one mountain is real. One is myth.

Olympus, through the years, became symbolic. An icon spanning ages. We can draw many meanings to overlay the symbolisms drawn in this equation.

The peak of Olympus, iconic most certainly.

“Heavy Metal” emerged from the fire pit, glowing red…”

When the masses assembled, and found common interests binding them together within communities, inevitably symbols developed to represent these interests for the sake of communication. Hieroglyphs became paintings, and alphabets became books. Those holding skill in these fields, became scribes and artists.

As Captain of my vessel... as you with yours, landmarks are most important. Let’s look at bands and artists, as if they are markers on

the map. The legend and compass enables navigation along the path. Not all landmarks are created equal however. The iconic landmarks among the waypoints, are few and far between.

You have heard the term, “landmark achievement”, used before. Experiencing Olympus… is a landmark achievement. No matter how you choose to read into it if you ask me. One could say this of Iron Maiden’s success easily enough just the same.

These landmark achievements, dot the landscape, setting standards, and paving the path onward.

Many would-be heroes, have come and gone amid these developments. True icons however, stand taller than the rest. They hold the line, keeping it true in seemingly unwavering fashion despite treacherous journeys involved in arriving at their stations.

The next generation then cuts the trail further, navigating via icons marking the path on the map.

Herein, lies the importance of the icons of our day.

Driven into town by the Blues… rock ‘n roll has been rocking on since the late 40’s. It rolled right with us on into the 50’s. Metallurgists then gathered all the elements around the forge in the 60’s, to combine molten melodies which would carry us into the 70’s. As “Heavy Metal” emerged

R.W. Colquitt 3 & 5 Doug Gouge 1, 2 & 4

I

from the fire pit, glowing red… it was refined and molded… hammered and honed. Then, polished after sharpened to cutting edge quality for the 80’s.

Many forms of “Metal”, were added to the arsenal. A diverse array of accoutrements were assembled, each to it’s own devices. One such device, known as the, “Iron Maiden”, made mark on the musical map ‘round about 1975.

The band’s path to the 80’s, and the road to success beyond, would prove arduous at best.

Nothing worth a damn is easy. However, from an aquarium pump, fake blood, LED lights, and simple paper-mâché, an icon was born using common items. Ironic it is, that “iconic”, is far from common. This here, would be the work of the most skilled artisans from the royal court.

On into the 90’s, “Metal” would endure a grungy battle. Some heroes would be written into history, and some would be lost in the fray. When the smoke cleared, those left standing were the tried and true. The icons remained on the field to lead the path into the new millennium.

From idea… to icon, the masterpiece known as, “Eddie”, is a landmark achievement that will stand tall through the tests of time. The torture device from the classic film inspiring the name, “Iron Maiden”, loses it’s significance standing next to Eddie. “Ed the Head”… is now representative for, “Iron Maiden”. A group of musical heroes in our very midst taking legendary status here in the now right before our eyes.

As we travel ever so briefly through a small piece of music history discussing the theory of an icon, you might realize how 37 years seems a short distance on the map. Eddie, with 36 albums under his belt, is young still. He hasn’t even yet taken hill 4-0, and yet he is truly a monumental icon.

In comparing Iron Maiden to Olympus, the equation reads that this new “landmark achievement”, will still be viewed with reverence many years from now. Just as it carried us into a new millennium, it will carry us into a new age as well, and it could easily endure more. There should be an Iron Maiden time capsule installed in the Pharaoh’s tomb enabling this if there isn’t one already.

The archaeologists that unearth the Iron Maiden catalogue in the future, would have a treat in store for them. A veritable brave new world on the horizon. Kinda like back in the day when finding my first Maiden album on the shelf in the record store. The artwork alone was intriguing enough. The sounds included, inspired me to follow their path. “Iron Maiden”… is a landmark which I’ve always endeavored to keep in sight.

Eddie, is as iconic as they come, and Iron Maiden, is moreso an icon representing heavy metal, than a torture device at this point on the map. Somewhere in time, a mountain most assuredly must be called, “Mt. Maiden”, and upon it… will be carved the edifice of “Ed the Head”. A landmark on the path for all to see.

“Most importantly… I’d like to thank these iconic heroes for a journey most enjoyed” While we’re at it, let’s just put the cherry (star) atop the sundae (mountain), and name a constellation after Eddie. Then perhaps teach of this star system’s origin in basic science/astronomy classes as a navigational constellation. Achieving at last, the stellar status intended as mentioned above.

Most importantly… I’d like to thank these iconic

heroes for a journey most enjoyed. An honor indeed to have covered the Maiden England 2012 tour. Shots are in order… let’s pour the finest for these artisans of the royal court. Here’s to seeing 40 albums in 40 years. A monumental landmark achievement it would be. Cheers... ‘n up the irons!!

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“Let the music do the talking”!

Having seen Chickenfoot twice in the last month; once at Rocklahoma and again at The Greek in Los Angeles, there can be no doubt in my mind that this band came to party! Think about it; three of their members have been around over 35 years at the highest levels of the business and the fourth is at the top of his game, so what’s to prove? (Lighten Up) No axes to grind, no statements to drive home, just the fact that these guys love to play music!

When you see this kind of passion in a band’s performance, it’s contagious! (Oh Yeah!)

(Something Going Wrong) Having only briefly heard the studio releases, I wouldn’t be qualified to judge them, but you don’t have to be familiar with the recordings to appreciate the intensity of these incredible performers: Sammy Hagar has some of the best pipes in the business; Michael Anthony is solid as a rock and can sing his buns off; Kenny Aronoff is an animal on the skins (Big Foot) and his drum solo was off the chain, but this is a Joe Satriani Chad Smith I’d never seen before…fluid, flashy, but right there in the pocket! (Different Devil) Coming from a world that centered around his amazing and unique talents, he has seamlessly integrated into this band and doesn’t come off as some kind of a sideman. The chemistry of this group is spectacular! (My Kind of Girl) The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles is one of the best venues in town to see a live show, and even with its normal 95dB limit, it still sounds enchanting, but Chickenfoot was allowed to go to 100dB and FOH Engineer Ace Baker squeezed every ounce of juice he could extract from it! (Last Temptation) Dual projection screens onstage flashed footage that added relevance to the music while the moving lights kept the guys onstage where they needed to be; in the spotlight! (Soap on a Rope) Everything was done tastefully and without becoming a distraction to the energy onstage. This is not a band that needs to enSammy Hagar, Michael Anthony tertain you with bells and whistles; they “Let the music do the talking”! (Up Next) They knew exactly when to ease it back and when to push the pedal to the floor; tires squealing & gravel flying! (Turning Left)

Rob Gainey Joe Satriani 14 Rock N Roll Industries Magazine

Alex Kluft

How many times have you come to a show to see your favorite band and walked away with the feeling that something was missing? (Down the Drain) Not at a Chickenfoot show! So even if you don’t have the CD and know their songs by heart, you owe it to yourselves to come out and see some of the greatest performers to ever hit the stage, still rocking at the top of their game. (Rock Candy) And you can bet that I’ll be taking a hard second glance at their studio releases to recapture the Chickenfoot Experience!

(Future in the Past)

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Rockaholic Promotions suggests, “With the love of both Real Estate and Music running through his veins Jim Ballester from Bestway Estate is bringing a new way to Cross Promote the two and make all our dreams a reality. He believes In the finer things of life, be it your new Business Venture,a new Home or a Dream you have wanted to make come true, Jim is ’The Man’. He has taken mixing the two things in life we all Love and Dream about and changed the way it’s seen. I promote Music for Indie and Unsigned Artists and I am just so excited watching all that Jim does and brings to the table of life. Be it a lifestyle you have always longed for or a slice of heaven on Earth. Jim will make sure all your needs are met. Rockaholic Promotions: http://www.facebook.com/Angelicmisfit or rockaholic2010@gmail. com.

JJim Ad

Bestway Estate is paving the way to blending two very important industries. It takes their talents to achieve what they do. They handle everything weather we need warehousing to scouting, private venues and promotion all the while aranging the transactions saving us valuable time. Born out of the undying desire to give G N’ R fans what they have been waiting for, a true tribute to the worlds most dangerous band!

Started 2 years ago, Guns IN Roses bring it all from Axl’s banshee wail, to Slash’s blistering solos, every detail originally brought to you by Hollywood’s bastard sons is replicated with loving abandon, blasted out note for note and dripping with sleaze. The band has played in front of thousands of people and our main existence is to give people what they once saw or never got to or ever will see again. So every member has dedicated themselves to the exact clothing in detail, to their stage performance.

“We are huge supporters of the enrepreneurial spirit and believe the hybrid of Real Estate and Entertainment can work if you have the right captain steering the ship.

Jim is the ideal candidate to merge the two worlds and will ultimately be recognized as a true visionary”. Thrashyr is a 3 year old Los Angeles Hard Rock/ Heavy Metal band. Voted “The Fastest Rising Band In LA History”, Thrashyr is known for their powerful stage show and for having the loudest fans in Los Angeles today. Harley H. Helstrum...

www.facebook.com/Thrashyr.

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We take a different approach to Real Estate, one that is built on personal touches and a Gold Standard win-win deals and positive results. I utilize the latest technologies, market research and business strategies to exceed expectations creating life-long relationships. Help you secure a future for generations to come. With that said I explained a bit about how I am developing a Niche in blending the entertainment industry with what we do, a new venture like this takes a huge chunk of my life no different than networking bands and promoting them to the ends of the earth with the resources available to each of us, it truly comes down to EXPOSURE! Some of our major capabilities include, 45,730 directories and over 5,010 worldwide company scouts and partners for commercial and residential capabilities including the arrangement of relocation. Enhanced search options to find your ideal properties worldwide Watch Lists designed track specific companies, properties and industries. We believe in the“Six degrees” relationship matrix with no downtime functionality worldwide. Detailed company and property reports and over 16,278 private primary companies for active directors and developers. We appeal to all real estate home buyers and sellers, no matter the price range or affordability, there is no limit to the capabilities we have and definitely will accommodate anyone buying, selling, developing and accomplishing anything to do with real estate. We have legal counsel available to advise and network our clients.

Robert Vergura’s band East West says “Jim was one of the 1st people I met when I moved to Huntington Beach from the Washington D.C. Area. In 1994-5 or so. James was my friend when I joined a band called East West (Taken from Psalm 103:12). We sold 3,000 CDs out of my garage and got signed by Epic / Sony and had the chance to tour North America and Europe for over 5 years straight. Winning the Dove Award for ‘Best Hard Rock Album of the Year 2002.’ The Reason I mention this is that I once again relied on my friend and he helped me out with the Real Estate. This time Commercial the latest was not only performing the Internet marketing for a new company called Massage Green Spa www.massagegreen.com but after investigating them further I purchased 4 franchise that I will be opening in Orange County in the next 2-3 years. Jim has helped us locate several sites in which we will be negotiating deals to open our locations.

Jim Ballestar has come up with the perfect combination to enhance his real estate deals. He has utilized his networking skills to bring together two seemingly unrelated fields to create a successful business: Real Estate and Music. This is a revolutionary idea and it seems to be effective in placing musicians in their dream homes while helping them (the musicians) make it happen. Jim’s creatively impressive foresight has made him a key figure in Southern California when it comes to real estate. -Peggy Peggy aka DJ PJ has been a musician all her life. Everything she does is relative to music, musicians, bands or shows. Some of the things PJ is most noted for include being an Internet Radio Personality with www.Indie104.com & www.XChamberRadio. com, playing Bass Guitar for metal band DEAD MOVES and alternative band ABANDON FAITH, writing for Rock N Roll Industries Magazine and booking and promoting independent (non-mainstream) artists at local venues in the Inland Empire of Southern California, working hard to ensure that bands get to play without paying to do so and encouraging venues to adopt a ‘No Pay-To-Play’ policy in the I.E.

How important it is to have an agency like Bestway Estate that handles everything about a realestate transaction from the begining to end as a one stop shop, locating, negotiating, developing and relocation as well as transportation via land, sea and air. Ken Hughes - Draghead Photos www.dragheadphotos.smugmug.com We work tightly with all major lending institutions, small business lenders and private lenders offering investment opportunities and new ventures. We do Franchise development and enhanced electronic media to advertise and promote the music culture and it’s rigorous needs for locales, warehouses, and venue properties.

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Always my deepest love and admiration for my brother Randy - Kathy Rhoads D’Argenzio

RANDY RHOADS LIMITED EDITION 2005 VINTAGE CABERNET SAUVIGNON Available at: www.dargenziowine.com

Or Burbank: D’Argenzio Winery Tasting Room 818-846-8466 ©2010 D’Argenzio Winery Sonoma County CA

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Rock N Roll Industries Magazine 19

Bonzo’s Birthday Bash

John Henry Bonham, also known as Bonzo - drummer of the legendary rock band Led Zeppelin, died from asphyxiation. It was a tragedy for all family, friends, and fans because of the admiration and respect he had gained through his years. He has since become a legacy for his influential signature drumming.

Which is why for his birthday, every year a tribute is formed and dedicated to keep his memory alive, and this years it was hosted at the House of Blues on the Hollywood Strip, on the day of his Birthday.

come.

Featured Drummers were: Steven Adler, Seven Antonopoulos, Carmine, Frankie Banali, Gregg Bissonette, Matt Sorum, Bobby Blotzer, Fred Coury , Vinny Appice, Virgil Donati, Troy Patrick Farrell, Glen Sobel, Troy Luccketta, Ray Luzier, Khurt Maier, Jimmy D’Anda, Roy Mayorga, Mike Portnoy, Mark Schulman, Joe Travers, Simon Wright, Yael.

On Thursday, May 31st 2012, Whitesnake’s drummer Brian Tichy (the founder of Bonzo’s Birthday Bash) and Joe Sutton, once again brought Rock’s top drummers together to choose their favorite song from Led Zeppelin and drum to the song along with the house band -The Moby Dicks.

Special Guests: Sebastian Bach, Mitch Perry, Chuck Wright, Billy Sheehan, Jeff Pilson, Phil Soussan, Keith St. John, Uncle Joe Benson Forever remembering John Henry Bonham – May 31, 1948 – September 25, 1980

Angelica Ulloa

Justin Edward

The venue was packed, fans with drinks in their hands making a toast and singing along to every song. Towards the end of the show, all drummers were invited to play together. The crowd from the second floor to the first from all sides roared in excitement and many ended in tears. It was an experience that will be talked about until the next ones to

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Timothy B Schmit epic vocalist/bassist of the Eagles, came through NY on his solo tour and graced his audience with a heartfelt emotional show encompassing work off his solo albums “Expando” & “Feel the Fire” and sprinkled with some classics from the Eagles and Poco.

Timothy doesn’t seem to of aged much, dressed casually, in jeans and a plaid shirt, still lean w/ long straight hair. He has a very comfortable, relaxed interaction with the audience, telling the back stories behind some of the songs. .

The Show opened with “One more Mile” from the 2009 Solo Album “Expando”, with Timothy on guitar up until the Eagles, “I Can’t Tell You Why” where he switched to bass.

Simi Friedman

The set was a mix of rock, ballads as well as some gospel/blues and folk tossed in to round out the mix. Timothy’s voice rang true, still able to hit the high notes with ease. Halfway through he brought out three female gospel/blues singers

Now Playing on RNR Jukebox Page 72

Hailing from Santa Cruz is Thirty9FingerS. A powerhouse attacking from center stage with a colossal wall full of sound every venue they hit, slamming the audience for a ride!

Sounding as if Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Testament had a baby! Thirty9FingerS is of the thrash descent with an injected swing feel.

Introducing the three-ringed circus will go as followed, the backbone of the band is Aaron Cooper on the drums, Jennifer Smith is fusing the skins to strings on the bass with a side of back up vocals, and further shaping the wall

,(Marlena Jeter, Mortonette Stephens , Lynn Fitmont) whose lovely voices complimented as well as contrasted.

Not only is Timothy a talented multi-instrumentalist, but so are his band mates and it was quite fun watching them constantly, trading off on acoustic/electric guitar/bass/harmonica, as the set rolled on through the different songs. At one point a tuba even made an appearance, in the hands of keyboardist Chris Farmer.

The comic edged song “White Boy from Sacramento” made an appearance and the music kept flowing through some more classic Poco and Eagles classics such as “What am I gonna do “ and with “A good day”.

The audience showed their appreciation with a standing ovation, bringing Timothy back out for a two song encore composed of “I don’t want to hear anymore” and “Love will keep us alive”.

Simi Friedman

of sound is Steve Nall on lead guitar, fronting the band is none other then Ritchie Smith with some killer pipes and rhythm guitar. Ritchie has survived a motorcycle tragedy leaving him a finger short and a shattered right arm.

His pursuit and love for music made perfect sense of naming the band Thirty9FingerS. For a show near you or updates, follow the freak show on reverbnation.com/thirty9fingers you will be glad you did. You may also enjoy “I am War” in the Jukebox section. See you at the next show!

Rock N Roll Industries Magazine 21

Ryan Roxie… is an unsung hero from the trenches. A hired gun, who successfully made a dream and hobby… into a lifestyle. You may not have heard of him… and thus we’re going to take a quick journey into the story.

This unsung hero, was brought up as an only child in San Diego, California (1965). Now, he lives in Stockholm, Sweden… and he calls Alice Cooper… his “big brother”. This level of transcendence, is the kind stories should be told about indeed. The kind of stories which tell of the making of heroes. Let us proceed…

sues the strings with intent and furvor (1977). Ryan’s weapon of choice, becomes the Gibson Les Paul. Perhaps as a soldier would his weapon, he reveres his first Les Paul, giving it the equivalence of his “first girlfriend”. He describes his heroes having using this noble axe, to cut the trails that he now follows upon. The sounds emanating from the guitar players in bands like Van Halen, Queen, and The Cars… come into play. Names like: Ace Frehley, Peter Frampton, Stevie Stevens, and Nick Geraldo… also make the list here.

His first experiences with the guitar are around age 5 (1970). However, it would be later in life that he pur-

Beginning with “Star Fire”, Ryan forms a band with his buddies, and he blazes on down the path. The roads…

RYAN ROXI, ORIANTHI, TOMMY HENRIKSEN

Down the line, and through the next doorway… the “Electric Angels” assemble (89-92), and the path to New York City is traversed. However, at this point, the musical landscape is changing, and for many a mile… it appears as if all roads lead to Seattle instead. The “Electric Angels”, are signed by Atlantic for a debut album, but the grunge movement is on the rise, and thus… a second album will not be dealt in the cards.

Ryan plays the role of hired gun for the next few years (94-96). He travels along a familiar path… back to LA. Back to the trenches, and back to his roots. There, his ol’ buddy Gilby Clarke, has developed and flourished among said garden of Rose’s for the last few years, and now endeavors to do his own thing. As the roots grow and mingle, the networking tree develops new branches. Gilby, puts in good word with the almighty Alice Cooper, and Ryan scores a one year tour, wielding the Les Paul for the 22 Rock N Roll Industries Magazine

iconic hero. Much like the heroes he followed in rock magazines back in the day, now he would grace those pages as well. Another door opens, and inside… amongst the other magazines, Ryan finds Dad’s Porno Mag (1997).

At this point in the story… he’s touring with Alice Cooper (1996), joining up with his DPM buddies (1997), and still recording on Gilby’s projects (‘til 1998). A busy man as it seems, and that… is precisely how milestones are achieved. “Make hay… while the sun is shining”, so they say. Ryan records with both, Alice Cooper on “Brutal Planet”, as well as on the second

album from Slash’s Snakepit, “Ain’t Life Grand” (2000), and achieves millennial milestones for certain. During these days, the number 77 comes into the picture. He initially starts signing things with the number “1977” as part of his mark. Then, “77” starts appearing patched on his clothing. 1977, is an important year for Ryan ya’ see.

This is about the time he really takes hold of a guitar, and runs with it… not looking back. Love Gun, Hotel California, and News of the World… come about. The “King of Rock ‘n Roll”, dies on his throne, and “A New Hope” arrives from a galaxy far… far away.

The types of things that forge your mind in youth, and stay with you.

Roxie and the number 77… reunite 25 years later, forming not only a band… but a brand as well (2002). Peace, Love, & Armageddon debuts a bit later (2004), and the path into the new millennium produces several works inside the Cooper camp (‘til 2005).

Taking lessons from big brother, Alice, the technology of blogging and radio… start the gears turning. He hits the air in the form of “Roxie’s Big Rock Show”, constructing a heptalogy of rock ‘n roll interviews, along with some rare and unreleased Roxie music (2005). Ryan then parts from the Alice Cooper ranks (2006), and heads back to Sweden, where he hosts radio shows, and writes columns while

R.W. Colquitt

change a bit along the way, but for the most part, it is the names that change primarily. Trees grow branches, and the leaves… they change. Ryan finds himself in a pop band named “Candy”, being fronted by Gilby Clarke. Candy (85-87), has changed hands, and the two are both replacements in the project. This relationship develops much like a tree branch. It would just so happen to be a branch hovering over a Rose garden to boot. Here, a root system grows deep into the LA rock scene. New friends are made in the absences of others, and when one door closes… another opens.

The path continues on, and enjoy’n the ride is the name of the game.

spending some time with the family.

“Two Sides To Every Story” (2009), is released as a downloadable double album, utilizing some new marketing tactics. 24 new tracks are released with a 12 electric/12 acoustic format, truly giving meaning to the albums name. Each version having it’s own feel, two songs a week a released at a time and made FREE for download.

The moneys are split half ‘n half with charity if the music is actually purchased, and Ryan blazes a path for others in hopes of inspiring other artists to do the same.

A revamp of, “The Big Rock Show” transpires, and yet another door opens. The path reveals a journey to “Casablanca”, and leads us onward to the now, as two singles are released under this moniker (2010). The next couple of years, are spent touring, and assembling the “Apocalyptic Youth” album. Shortly after the full release, Roxie announces he will rejoin Alice for another tour (2012). The stage is shared with bands like Heart, Thin Lizzy, and even the iconic… Iron Maiden. A pilot titled, “All Excess with Ryan Roxie.” is aired, and currently the stage is being set for “The Roxie Box”, to roll out on December 7th (2012).

As it appears, it’s been a pretty decent ride this far. “What Kind Of Life Would It Be”, if we just had “One More Day”, and a “Simple Plan”…? “1965” seems so far away, but “This Year”, we head into a brand new age, and a “Brave New World”. “U Only Go Around Once”, so are you “Takin’ a Vacation”, or are you going to “Stay In California”…? It’s all “Bustin’ Out” “This Year”, and it’s “The Next Big Nothing” “On The Way Down”, so there ain’t no need to “Go It Alone” “On The Way To Nowhere”. “When You See God”, and “The Man In The Moon”, wake up “Smell The Coffee”, then ask them, “The Question”. You’ve got “36 Hours” to find a “24-hour Man”. So head on over to RyanRoxie.com, say “Hello”, and download you a “Big Fat Song” or ten, just like the ones being quoted in this paragraph. While you are there make yourselves at “Home”, make the “Choice” to pre-order your limited edition autographed “Roxie Box”, and it’ll be a “Great Day” for “You & I & Him”.

I’d take “The Risk” on 70 songs for $50, even with “My Bad Knee”.

R.W. Colquitt

ALICE COOPER

At the Inn of the Moutain Gods

T

hese past months I was blessed enough to be invited to not one, but two great rock shows at the Inn Of the Mountain Gods in the beautiful mountains of Ruidoso New Mexico.

The Inn is a 5 star resort with everything you could ever dream of for fun or sport, with a top notch golf course, ski resort, private hunting on the reservation. It has something for everyone, but for this rocker, it was the show’s! The first was with the wonderful new lineup of Great White with new singer Terry Ilouis, just a month before their awesome new CD Elation hit the streets! Mark Slaughter opened the show and as always was brutal!

Mark has a voice to die for still after all these years!

Great White had one of the best shows I’ve ever seen in my 30 years of concerts, it was amazing, the energy and sound were above and beyond the normal for any show. I watched a packed house at the Inn get their ass’s rocked off! Everyone was standing singing along to every song within the first five minutes, Terry and the boy’s really owned the crowd that night.

My second show was with Uncle Ted Nugent and boy did the Inn deliver on this one they asked me to be their guest, I of course politely accepted! Was just blown away by the service at the Inn, which was beautiful, overlooking a majestic lake and mountain range! We were early and got to enjoy the beautiful pool and spa, waterfall Jacuzzi. I had the best hamburger of my life at the Apache Tee. Ted’s show was really moving, a lot of chatter with the fans, and a really great job done by his wonderful lead singer/guitar player, Derek St Holmes, and the rest of the band, I was most impressed by Ted’s tribute to the Marine Corps, they dressed in camo and raised a flag like it was done on Iwo Jima, all while playing the Marine Corps hymn I would have pictures, but I’m a Marine and had to stand at the position of attention, it’s a Marine thing. After the show we spent too many hours at one of the many bars at the Inn, the fans got photo’s with Derek who came out to talk about the magazine with me, they even got my hat and shirt. Something about beautiful Native American women, the fans on the

Derek St Holmes, Ted Nugent, and Greg Smith reservation are the best. After trying to recover in the morning, we really couldn’t get ready fast enough to be out by check out the wonderful staff at the Inn just told me not to worry and to please be safe.. Really???? Can anyone really be that nice?

I can’t wait for the next show there they are bringing some wonderful music and events!!!

I’m out til next time rocknrollers.Michael G.

Rock N Roll Industries Magazine 23

were having the time of their lives, rocking back and forth together in unison. Klaus, on guitar for the first and only time of the night, and bass player Pawel Mąciwoda joined them up front and continued to rock together for “Coast to Coast,” as pictures of desert highways were shown on the screens. At one point Pawel even turned his bass out to the fans in front and let them play a few notes!

Klaus traded in his guitar for a tambourine during “Loving You Sunday” as pyro exploded across the stage. Klaus took a moment to introduce the next song, saying we might remember it from the 80’s. The crowd went wild, screaming for Klaus and The Scorpions, so much that Klaus almost looked

performance and seemed so happy to

After a thirty-minute break, it was time for The Scorpions to take the stage! The stage was set up like a ‘T’ with a walkway leading from the center of the stage right into the middle of the fans on the floor. Three giant video screens lined the back of the stage, and everything was really ‘lit up’ and colorful. The Scorpions started their set with “Sting in the Tail” as James Kottak’s drum set rose to the top of the stadium. It remained at the top throughout the next song, “Make it Real” before descending closer to the stage.

Fans sang and swayed to one of the first singalongs of the night, “Is There Anybody There.”

Kottak kicked off “The Zoo” by standing on his drum set and clapping until we all joined in.

While Matthias was chewing on the talk box, Klaus Meine took the opportunity to hand out over a dozen drumsticks to excited fans.

Guitarists Rudolf Schenker and Matthias Jabs came to the front of the ‘T’ for a big intro. They

24 24 Rock Rock N N Roll Roll Industries Industries Magazine Magazine

No rock show is complete without both a drum solo, and a guitar solo, so after “Black Out” Matthias came to the front to show us what he had.

After several intense solos and whammy dive bombs, Rudolph joined him up front,

embarrassed for a moment before he changed b a c k

h i s gears and played a song we all know, love, and remember, “Rhythm of Love!”

be there.

played snippets of songs throughout The Scorpions career as their images and CD covers flashed on the video screens. After a spectacular solo, Kottak led into “Black Out” while standing on his bass drums 30 feet in the air. Rudolph, who was now wearing the scary mask from the “Blackout” album cover, joined Matthais at the front of the stage.

Klaus introduced the next song, “Winds of Change,” by talking about the Moscow Music Peace Festival and how it changed the world for the better. It was cool to see him whistle the intro from so close to the stage. After singing the first line, he turned his microphone around and we all sang the next two lines for him. This was definitely one of the biggest sing-alongs of the night.

After that, he thanked us for all the love and support we have given them throughout the years, and talked about all the times they have played Los Angeles, including the US Festival in 1983.

But, he said… “The Best is yet to Come!”

minus the mask, to kick off “Big City Nights,” which was yet, another classic sing-along.

Their three-song encore, which included “Still Loving You,” “No One Like You,” and “Rock You Like a Hurricane,” ended the show just right, with lots of pyro and stage lights.

Even though The Scorpions played to almost 18,000 people, it still felt up close and personal. Throughout the night, Klaus held his microphone out to the crowd, lead us in sing-alongs, and shook hands with fans. If this really is their ‘Final’ tour, they definitely went out with a bang.

However, The Scorpions did just tour two years ago under the same premise... Either way, they are on tour until December 15th, so catch a show in your area if you have the chance!

Keep Rockin’ Alison “MetalBabe” Cohen

Guitarists Rudolph and Matthias came to the front again, this time with a Flying V and an Explorer style acoustic in hand, for “Send Me an Angel.” They played seamlessly right into the next ballad, “Holiday.” It was time to speed things up again, and they did just that with “Raised on Rock,” “Tease Me, Please Me,” and “Hit Between the Eyes.”

James Kottak took over the stage for his famous “Kottak Attak.” His drum kit rose to the ceiling again, and exploded with both sound and pyro as it reached the top. He

Alex Kluft

The Scorpions kicked off their “Final Sting World Tour 2012” in Reno, NV on June 8th with Tesla in direct support. I have seen Tesla play many times throughout the years, but mostly in clubs, so I was really looking forward to seeing them play for a stadium size crowd again. They opened with their staple first song, “Comin’ Atcha Live,” which always gets the crowd going, and then went right into “Edison’s Medicine.” Frank Hannon grabbed his acoustic for “Love Song” which, Jeff Keith introduced by saying, ‘I don’t know much, but I know that I love all of you.’

The audience shouted every word to the chorus, loving every second of this meaningful ballad.

Tesla didn’t miss a beat before picking things up again with “Modern Day Cowboy.” I thought it was cool that Jeff Keith pointed to the giant Tesla backdrop when he sang the line “I see the message, written on the wall.’ They ended their short, but infectious and energetic set with “Little Suzi.” Jeff Keith is such an amazing vocalist, front man, and all around personality that you can’t help, but love him. The entire band put on a great

BB King’s in Manhattan, NY is an intimate place to see a performance. No more than a hundred booths and tables in the whole room. The bar is at one end and the stage is opposite and three or four feet above the recessed floor in between. No one is more than 75 feet from the stage. The place fills up early on the night of a big show. It’s general admission, and for the best tables you get there early. But this was a Tuesday, and the show started at nine. We got there at 7:30 and 85% of the place was taken. The doors opened at seven and the stream of fans descended underground at 42nd street vying for the best view of the stage or the seats closest to the performance.

I have a skinny guitar that I bought about fifteen years ago that is something like the one Lindsey Buckingham used when he recorded “Never Going Back Again.” But only Lindsey Buckingham can play a guitar like he does.

I can only dream to sound like him. He’s sexy, raw, clean and patterned.

Dressed in blue jeans and a leather jacket he exudes the bizarre for which he is known, he opened with “Castaway Dreams,” solo, without the Mac, he was without Nicks, and without a band. It was raw Buckingham. Just Buckingham.

Simi Friedman

When you see someone like this, in that way, you see something unique.

You see purity. You see the thought, the process. His philosophical take on “Go Insane” shows that one doesn’t always understand the message in the lyrics or in the music. Raw philosophy begs the beauty and the beast. The lyrics are the beauty, his presentation is its beast. Nearly within reach at all times, he pulled out one guitar after another, each with a special tone, uniquely tuned to produce the one sound for the one song. He’d gone through 6 in all, at my count, maybe seven. Some were steel stringed, some nylon, but Lindsey Buckingham and his guitars rolled through an extensive catalog of material, some soft and painfully confessional like that of “Not Too Late” and others more riotous such as the bending screams that end with the last hacking chords of “Big Love”.

With the exception of an occasional drum track, it was solo Lindsey and it was over as soon as it started, it seemed, for he captivated everyone in attendance in their own timelessness.

Suddenly it was time to go. After the encore, they did autographs for the few at the front who were fortunate enough to have paper and pen. Then, it was over. He stood before the screaming, hooting fans and holding his guitar to his bosom in front of him, they bowed together. When you see a singer/songwriter perform, you see what he plays and you see what he thinks, all at once.

Passionate and wild-Lindsey Buckingham.

Roger Stoddard Rock N Roll Industries Magazine 25

Glen Soble

Recently sat down with Glen Sobel at the Swing House Studios in the mixing room where Aerosmith recorded their new album to talk about their tour with Iron Maiden, influences, winning the guitar center drum off at a young age, and becoming the new Alice Cooper drummer.

What made you want to become a drummer?

Listening to music on the radio, Rush, Led Zeppelin. The guy across the street had drums, my friends older brother was listening to Rush, somehow that struck a chord with me early on so I just got into it from there.

Then I discovered Zeppelin, Classic Rock radio, and then everything else after that, the 70’s 80’s Fusion, Progressive. I can go on for ever as far as the influences, but that’s how it started pretty much.

When did you win the Guitar Center Drum off?

That was back in the 90’s. I call that the highest pressured gig I have ever done, because it’s a drum off competition.

Is it really a competition of music?

Not really, but it’s a time to express yourself and play for a group of judges in a room full of drummers, that’s why I thought it was the most high pressure thing. I did that two years in a row, I think I got 3rd in the overall finals, then I came back and got first. I remember that second year I did it, I said to myself “I don’t care if I win this or not, I’m never doing this again. This is insane, because of the pressure. I had a big headache afterwards and probably got sick, because I was kid and your being judged on a drum set that’s not yours, you have five minute window to set up the way you need, and then they say “Go, play, do your thing, you got five minutes.”

I’m glad I was able to get it over with and win it that year, because I wasn’t going to come back and try it again. It was good for awareness in the drum industry.

Does it lead to a gig?

Maybe, maybe not No one ever got a gig from playing a drum solo, but it does make people aware of you and they will check you out playing with a band and hopefully you’re playing music and not just drums. That’s the problem with those Drum Offs, they put a lot of emphasis on soloing, and flashy chops type of stuff. It will get you noticed, but you have to be able to play and work well with others and all those other important parts of being in a band.

Did the winner receive all the endorsement deals back then?

It wasn’t like that was part of the prize package. I definitely got drums, and cymbals, and things like that, but it did indirectly lead to me getting my first endorsement deal with Regal Tip drumsticks.

You are still with them today.

I am. I had met Carol Calato before that, and after winning that competition she just asked me one day at a NAMM show if I wanted to do that.

I said yes, because I love the sticks and the rest is history as far as that goes. Once you get one endorsement deal, sometimes it helps lead to the 26 Rock N Roll Industries Magazine

next one.

You’re also with Mapex, Sabian, and Evans now, who else are you endorsed by?

DW Pedals, Gibraltar hardware, Groove Juice, Kelly SHU, Humes and Berg drum cases. There’s been a lot of really great companies. I would never endorse a product that I didn’t truly want to use.

I know there’s guys who may look for the best deal, who’s going to give me free stuff, who’s going to put me in ads, that’s their priority. I can’t do that, because you got to play this stuff on tour every night.

How do you choose what you want to play?

What’s important there, is that the product is great, and they have a variety of great stuff to choose from. The people who work at the companies, the people that you’re going to be working with, talking with on the phone, they’re going to be the direct liaison with you and the company, they call that the artist relations person in the industry. That’s a huge part of it, you just want people that are drum bros, people that get it, that play drums themselves, and are into what this is. This crazy business of Rock N Roll, they get it, they’re a fan of a lot of the bands you’re a fan of.

You could just talk on that level. Its not just a business thing, that’s so important to me. I’ve been lucky to have these relationships from the start, I haven’t felt like I had to change or leave a company. Its been really consistent. The only new one is Evans now, the guy that’s with that company Marco Soccoli, he’s an industry veteran I’ve known for a while. Everyone knows him, because he’s such a cool guy. This business is all personal relationships.

Alex Kluft

What was the first major gig you got after winning the Drum Off? The first gig I got after was with Tony MacAlpine he’s a serious guitar shredder especially back then, it was the metal-fusion side of things, he’s an instrumental artist. He played with Steve Vai in later years. Playing with Tony led to a lot of gigs in a similar genre. After MacAlpine was Chris Impellitteri who I’ve been to Japan with a lot. Actually I just saw Chris rehearsing the other day. Playing with Chris was my first real tour. With MacAlpine,

that w a s Gregg Bissonette calling me one day saying “Hey do you know who Tony MacAlpine is? I recommended you to his manager.” Of course I knew who he was, I had a couple records that Steve Smith and Dean Castronovo had played on so I was like “I gotta get to work, I gotta learn the songs and nail it to get this gig”, because it seemed perfect. Although it was the 90’s, and that genre of music was not as big as it was in the 80’s; like any genre they have their arc. For me it was a really good entrance that gave me more

another session he got me on that Bob Ezrin was overseeing.

Tommy was involved in producing that as well, and that’s when I met Bob for the first time, that led to the gig basically. They wanted to change up the live band a little bit, and they wanted to have Bob rehearse the band kind of like a musical director. He brought Tommy, myself, Steve Hunter, who played with Alice in 70’s on a lot of the original recordings like “School’s Out,” and was also on the “Welcome To My Nightmare” album and tour back in ‘75. He’s on Peter Gabriel’s “Solsbury Hill.” All these things, some of them I was aware of, some of them I wasn’t. He’s done some great records so it was an education hanging around a guy like that and that’s pretty much how that happened. Alice was getting in the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame last year, so they wanted to make some changes. I was fortunate to be a part of those changes.

What’s is it going to be like being a part of the 22 top drummers in the Bonzo Birthday Bash?

self-confidence and I could do a gig and do it on short notice, because that’s how it was. We did an instrumental record, had only 3-4 nights of rehearsals for it. It was a good experience. I wouldn’t change a thing about that.

How did you get the Alice Cooper gig?

There’s a guy that is Alice’s guitar player now, he’s one of the three guitarists, his name is Tommy Henriksen. I’ve done stuff with Tommy for many years. I played in a band with him. After, he became more a writer/producer he would get me on whatever sessions he could. We played in one or two other bands before Alice. He had a studio in his house and we would either record drums there or at a big studio, and he’d do the rest of the record at his house. He’s worked and written with so many people. He co wrote and produced the new Alice Cooper record along with Bob Ezrin, and even before that there was

That’s going to be a fun event.

There’s a lot of guys on the bill that I’ll be playing alongside that are influences, and people I’ve listened to for years, one of my mentors is part of the line up, Gregg Bissonette, I was his student when I was 18, I ‘m looking forward to that. Everyone plays one song, so there’s going to be all these drummers backstage warming up to play one song each, and I’m sure we’re going to be laughing about that, but we’re all there to pay tribute and respect to the man, the guy, that if it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t be exactly doing what were doing the same way, because what he did has filtered all the way down to Rock N Roll today, it’s still relevant, and it makes total sense that Brian Tichy wanted to do these events paying tribute to Bonzo, its going to be great, I cant wait actually. Just about every guy on there is part of the L.A. hang of drummers so it’s going to be a cool hang. Part of the whole fun I think is going to be the rehearsal time, everybody gets to go through their song with the band a day or two before the event so its gong to be all these drummers hanging out, talking shop, being a bunch of drum geeks, and that’s going be as cool as the event I think.

Alex Kluft Rock N Roll Industries Magazine 27

Death Division is a new project with Jerry Montano, Tim Yeung, Sean De La Tour and Rick Di Marco, even though the album isn’t out yet we wanted to find out more about what to expect. We asked Jerry and Tim to tell us about their new project together.

How did Death Division get its start?

Jerry-Sean De la Tour and I met last year, I had an after party and we ended up in my studio all night writing a song. I was still in the middle of recording the Down & Dirty album at the time and we ended up just going our separate ways. A year later he tracked me down about getting together and writing, I had him over we sat down and wrote the first 4 songs over a few days. I posted on my facebook that we were looking for a drummer and a random guy posted I should get Tim Yeung “he is inanely awesome” I laughed for a minute thinking how it would rule but the chances are probably slim being he is working a lot with Morbid Angel..

Within 2 minutes of the guys post my Facebook IM chimed and it was Tim! Basically I sent him our room Mic recordings, He liked it and the next day he was at Deathcult Manor on the kit. From there it really took off.

We started writing aggressively and things just flowed.

Tim- Timing was perfect due to our time off from our other bands and projects.

Tell us about the new album you guys got coming out?

Tim- I’m so excited about this new material. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever done before and I think a lot of people will be surprised.

Jerry- We just finished recording 6 songs in July. We really wanted to go the route of doing it in the same environment we birthed the songs, So we turned the band spot into a recording studio for a few weeks. Our family friend Christian hooked us up with some nice mic pres and Down & Dirty/Ace Frehley drummer Matt Starr came down with everything else... we had the Deathcult Manor turned into a studio in days! It was cool to do it Zepplin-Foo Fighters-

28 28 Rock Rock N N Roll Roll Industries Industries Magazine Magazine

Down style. For vocals a good friend Jason Miller (Godhead) let us take over Central Command Studios for a few weeks while I produced the vocals with Sean. The entire process has been magic. I feel it’s the best stuff I’ve been a part of in my career.

To have so many people come out to support and help us has been amazing. It’s being mixed now then Maor Appelbaum will have it mastered and ready to hit.

Tell us about the death division short film video and trailer?

Jerry-Once the press got word of Death Division it sparked the fire. We needed to get something out about the band. I ended up writing a video/ short film idea I had… instead of doing the typical webisode or video.

I was inspired by seeing how other friends of mine such as Jonny Coffin have taken things in similar directions. So armed with a treatment idea and my friend Bill Weiss I hit up my friends Andrew Bryniarski and Lacey Conner to star in the first look into the band. Directing even on a small level was a lot of fun and challenging...

Lucky for me I had Andy with tons of experience and patience. We are hoping to release the video and first song “All hope is lost” in September.

The trailer teaser is available via YouTube.

How did you guys meet?

Tim-Jerry and I have known each other for years from touring and going out.

Jerry-Done shows and festivals together etc. Sean I met randomly and guitarist Rick Di Marco I brought in from my rock n Roll project Down&Dirty.

Where can I get my hands on those awesome shirts of yours?

Tim-You can get one of these awesome shirts from our Facebook page which is www.Facebook.com/death division Jerry- and on our website DEATHDIVISION.com How would you describe death division?

Tim- I would say overall very wellrounded, dark, melodic, classic, versatile.

JT, Sphynx, GB, Dr. Frost and D Who and what is XNO? It’s a band pronounced as Zee-No, their live performance captures attention from everyone. As if their style wasn’t dark enough, their sound is just as hard. Every show is better than their previous.

Jt, Sphynx, GB Rodzz, D, Dr. Frost, have worked hard as a band and as a business to create XNO perform not just your average show, but to make every performance better than the last.

Here is Sphynx, founder of Xno to give us a brief intro.

New cd, when do u think it will be coming out?

We are going to try to get into the studio before the end of the year. If we do, the new CD should be out by the early part of 2013. It is long over do, and we are excited to get this finished.

How long have you been playing, and what made you choose guitar?

I have been playing on and off and since I was about 10 years old. Mostly off, haha. I picked guitar because of my dad. He was a guitar player, and I watched him practice with his bands as a child. He was also a guitar builder for a lot of the major guitar companies as I was growing up. When I lost him, I decided it was time to follow in his foot steps. So I started XNO....

You and the singer JT have been the staple that holds this band together how did you meet/form XNO? My best friend Eric, and I have been friends for about 25 years.. His brother is JT. So you can say JT and I are kinda like family. When I was putting XNO together. JT had been singing most of his life, so when I was putting XNO together, JT was the perfect fit. I hit him up and away we went.

Tell us about your signature Tregan Guitar?

I have been with Tregan now for about 5 years, we met Tony, the owner of Tregan at NAMM in 06//07. I loved his guitars, he loved my style, we talked for a bit, and I became a Tregan artist. Over the years, I kept asking for different things on my guitars, little tweaks here, a little change there. Then we were at a guitar show in PA, and people really liked the models I had, and the Sphynx series was born. They are amazing guitars.

Check them out www.treganguitars.com Where can we find out more about XNO? You can find us on twitter, facebook, and our web site www. xnorox.com Also I want to give a huge thanks to Rock n Roll Industries, you guys have supported us from the start. Mike and Jess, you guys kick ass!!!!

W

e sat down will Jill Janus of Huntress after her shoot at Zloz Photography studio to find out what’s new in the world of Huntress.

What have you have been up to?

We’re doing some more promotional photos for Huntress and the upcoming tours that we’re heading out on. Neil’s been a buddy of mine for nearly ten years now, we had a play date today, for us this is fun. We did three different costumes… Some of these photos will be used in various magazines; it’s a good time.

What can we expect from Huntress, and how did you get to where you are today?

Neil Zlozower Atlas Icons.com

This summer Huntress will be heading out in the US again for another National tour, we will be on the road with our buddies Wretched, supporting them for most of July. August, we will be doing some Headlining shows for Huntress as well, along the east coast and they’re really looking forward to us from the east coast, so it’s always great to get to go back there. Right now we are on the road supporting our debut album SPELL EATER, which came out in May of this year on Napalm Records. The way it all was launched was; I actually asked the taro reader to reveal one card that would become an epic metal song bring us success and Eight of Swords chose us, that is the title of the song. I wrote the song with my band and decided to turn that one into a video, knew it was going to be epic. Everything was falling into place. With the director Simon Chan of Artificial Army brought the vision to life.

We knew we had something special. We were virtually unknown and when the video hit and we debut it on noise creep.com we had about nine labels biding for us and that was stressful, overwhelming, I never thought I would say it, but I’m really glad that we have a good lawyer. That’s really the only down side of the business for me, it’s just all the legal shit that you have to go through, the sharks are swimming.

Besides that rapid start, then we went into the recording studio and luckily we have had this record written for about a year. The preproduction was intense, per production one month, recording one month, were still dusting off the demonic cobwebs from the vocal booth. That’s what we’re supporting now, it’s great stepping up from opener to headliner, slowly making our way up now, rather than doing a thirty minute set, we’re able to perform the entire album. For those who have had so much faith in Huntress from the very beginning it’s a dream come true.

Where can we find out more about you and the upcoming tour?

We will be on tour this summer all over the United States you can find out our tour dates on our website Huntresskills.com, we will also be giving away Jager merch, we are now sponsored by Jagermeister, we are thrilled to be part of the Jager family and hunt masters! Come by the shows and see us afterwards, it’s going to be one hell of a summer.

Rock N Roll Industries Magazine 29

very disciplined very focused on the things he wants to achieve.

And we had a great time, two world tours and sold millions of records, being out there at that time, this was before AIDS you know, the parties were just notorious. Dave really knew how to throw a party, you heard rumors, but you have no idea, unless you were there every night and saw it. It was just done so well, he was very serious about not being serious.

You g o t an early start as a guitar player, what was it like working with Frank Zappa?

Frank did the music that he wanted to do and that was the biggest influence that he had on me. That’s how I learned how to make music and got into this business. There is no need to conform because when you conform you’re cheating yourself and you’re not going to do your best work. A lot of people feel that they need to do commercial music in order to make enough money so that then, they can do what they want, it doesn’t really work that way. Because in any field in any genre there are people that really love that particular genre and they’re doing what they love best and you compete with that.

Where as if you do what you enjoy the most or what excites you the most you’re going to do your best and you will be the most successful with that. Like if you listen to my music it’s not straight ahead commercial music it’s what I feel that I can do best and that’s what I chase and I’m extremely confident that there is an audience that are interested in it and that’s what Frank did.

When you were touring with him I heard that you had the title of Stunt Guitarist, tell us a little about that?

Well Frank was a composer first and foremost and he would write music for orchestras and what not, and Frank would actually write music on a piano. He would hear a melody in his head and he would write it out or he would plunk it out on the piano, then he would put various rhythms to it and the guitar is a very idiosyncratic instrument where things fall a certain way for your fingers and if you take a piece of piano music or flute music or anything like that and try to play it on the guitar it’s not going to fall easily, so frank would give me not only music that didn’t fall on the guitar, but with rhythm and it was extremely difficult stuff, because it had rhythm notation that was obtuse, and it had to be played a certain way. He would give me these things and to me they were relatively easy because my approach was, no matter what you give me I can play it because all you have to do is start really, really slow and be extremely patient. But if you keep doing it no matter how difficult it is eventually it starts to become easier. With Frank it was a real test, because he would give you music where you hold one page here ( in front of him) and the last page is at the sink over there (about 20ft away) and you have to have it committed to memory. And it wasn’t suited for the guitar at all so he would give me this stuff and I would be 30 30 Rock Rock N N Roll Roll Industries Industries Magazine Magazine

very e a g e r, I would j u s t spend every waking moment on learning it because it was exciting to me.

Once you’re able to play things that you couldn’t play, it gives you this feeling, this sense of achievement, you keep going and going and with Frank there was no end to what he gave you if he thought you could do it.

Working with David Lee Roth did you both feel honored to show the world your talents together?

Well I can’t speak for him, but for me it was a life experience it was stunning to me how it all worked out because when David left Van Halen everybody was used to hearing Edward behind his voice, so when he started a solo band it was the most coveted guitar position in the music business at the time and I feel Billy Sean recommended me because I was kind of like the hot shot at the time. I was the rumor in my own room, a legend in my own mind I just got together with Dave. Dave was pretty simple he didn’t go through a lot of players I don’t think he wanted to go through the whole cattle call thing or it would seem as though he was auditioning players when he just wanted to say, that this is the guy and we hit it off really well, we were friends as much as you can really be a friend with Dave and it was the same kind of schooling as with Frank. I was this kind of a kid that had no real stage presence or charisma, I was very shy in a way, but I was fiercely confident. There was not a shadow of doubt in my mind that I was able to do this gig and it was the same thing with Frank, whenever Frank was around I was nervous because he was frank and I was just this kid, but whenever I played for him there was no question in my mind that I was in control of what I was doing and that is the way that you have to be with guys like Dave and Frank. Dave was an amazing experience he is really intense. He is

With all the different outlets how do you think that influences you as an artist and makes you learn new things?

It’s always fun to get involved in things that are a little out of your comfort zone. But when I do things like the video games and stuff like that, I don’t think the majority of the audience is concerned about who did it, they just want to have a good time pushing the buttons. And to me I’ll do certain things like that for odd circumstances for instance the one video game- Halo my friend Nile Rodgers was producing it and he said “Why don’t you come down and play in this sound track,” I didn’t want to play on a video game, what would I do? But he said it’s really great, come on down. I was in Seattle on tour and he was in Seattle, and we just had a blast I didn’t really know the video game I knew that my kids really were into videos games so I called them up from the studio and told them that that I was working on this sound track for this video game and they were like oh ya, ya alright what’s the video game? I didn’t even know, I asked and he said it’s HALO 3 Steve, it’s the most anticipated video game in the world right now, and I said “Halo 3” and they were just astounded in silence on the other end of the phone. So, finally I was cool in my kid’s eyes because I was playing in Halo. Sometimes gigs like that come up and if it feels interesting enough to me Ill do it, like I recently did a couple of tracks for Joe Jackson. I played in his records before because I really like him as an artist. It has to have something for me. I have to feel like I can contribute my wiredness and its worked out, but really there are all kinds of side projects, the most Important thing to me are my records obviously like with any artist.

Speaking of creating your album you have also created and played some of the most interesting guitars including the Triple Neck that you played in skyscraper and adding the handle to the Ibanez Jem, what was the most interesting to play or design?

Larry Dimarzio

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“25 years old and it’s the longest running most successful signature guitar in history” I have been really fortunate in the position that you’re selling records or whatever companies are interested in having you play their equipment. But to me I wasn’t really attracted to endorsements because they seemed cheesy or something, hawking someone else’s gear, using your integrity for that, but if something was really great that I really did use I would consider it, but existing gear never really satisfied me because I was always trying to find myself as a player and as a result the kinds of instruments and gear that I wanted to use needed to be tweaked. I wanted something that suited me better and for instance with Ibanez before I went to bed with

7 Jem

77,77

specs that you just couldn’t find on guitars of the time, 24 fret necks with these cut out aways and whammy bars that you can pull up on and do drive bombs and it picks up configuration that may have been around but I didn’t know about them and to this day I haven’t seen the evidence of that stuff existing before I designed this Jem. So I designed this guitar and it was really just me thinking, oh I would like this oh I would like to do this, oh this would be cool. When I joined Dave’s band I started to use these guitars and then all these guitar companies wanted me to play their instruments and I was like thanks, but this is my instrument this is what I feel comfort-

“We had sold 77,777 Jem and we wanted to commemorate it so we had a contest”

tory. I’m told by three different sources that the Les Paul is not a signature guitar, what ever that means. But the sister model of the Jem; which is the RG, it’s basically like the Jem without the handle and a couple little things.

From the reports that I have received it’s the second biggest selling guitar in the world, in some places it’s the biggest selling and it’s really interesting to see it happening. The addition of the second string was really very innocent, It was revolutionary, but as far as the idea it wasn’t any genius brilliant idea, any idiot could had said “hey I want a guitar with a seventh string,” and that’s what I did. I was talking to one of the guys from Ibanez and I said make me a guitar with a seventh string, the conversation took one minute. I used it for the Whitesnake record and for my Passion & Warfare record, I still use it it’s on a couple of tracks on my new record and I knew that young kids that might have been inspired by me who were inspired by this guitar were going to be making music that was much different than what I was doing. I was driving down the street one day and I heard this song on the radio and I couldn’t even believe what I was hearing, it was new, it was fresh, it was different, it was unbelievably heavy, it was Korn. When they first came out and they were using the seven string and they went in the press saying ‘we like Steve and that’s why we picked this up,’ but I think that it’s just obvious you don’t even have to be a Vai fan to see the potential in having that low string. A lot of bands started doing it and once they started taking off everyone started making seven strings, all the companies. When I was playing it there was only one company making it, because it’s very expensive to create a new neck model, body, and tail pieces. Just the tail piece, you have to mold all this machinery. It created a whole subculture of music. It was really nice to see and nice to be a part of it, it was just an innocent idea. It was just -I like this, and I think that’s how all great ideas start from people. What’s practical, what do I want, not necessarily what the world wants, and if the world clicks with what excites you then you’re a luck guy.

Can you tell us a little about this Jem?

Ibanez so to speak, I was playing, when I was a kid I loved Strats and I loved Les Pauls because Jimmy Page played a Les Paul and I loved Strats because Hendrix played strats and it had a whammy bar, I had to have a guitar that had a whammy bar but I couldn’t stand the sound of single coil pickups for rock n roll. Even in high school I was playing Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, and Led Zeppelin, single coil pickups just didn’t do it for me and the sound of the Strat wasn’t rock n roll, but it had a whammy bar. So as I grew I thought, why should I conform to any of these guitars, why not just build something that really suits the idiosyncrasies of my playing. So I went to this little guitar shop in Hollywood called Performance Guitar and I gave them all these 32 32 Rock Rock N N Roll Roll Industries Industries Magazine Magazine

able with and if any of you guys want to make this instrument then I’ll play it. I sent out the specs and all the companies sent me back their version, not my version. Except Ibanez they sent back the perfect Jem, it was better than the performance guitars that I had and they did it in like three weeks.

I was like well jeez thanks, and they where like ‘we think that other people would like these guitars can we sell them?’ I was like who is going to want these?’ They were like, ‘you would be surprised Mr. Steve’ and I said, ‘ok we will give it a go’ and it’s one of the biggest stunners in my life, this guitar it’s 25 years old and it’s the longest running most successful signature guitar in his-

That one there, I was just fooling around with.

We had sold 77,777 Jem and we wanted to commemorate it so we had a contest, and thousands of people sent in their design for the Jem and I had to pick one, it was really hard, but that one was the one I picked so Ibanez made two of them one for the winner and one for me.

You were recently at Zloz’s shooting, what is it like working with one of the most iconic photographers from film to Digital?

Ya, it’s so weird like one minute you’re sitting in your teenage bedroom flipping through magazines and looking at the name of the

photographer because I never really took notice of that stuff and then I started noticing because wow he shot this, he was there, oh wow he shot that guy, and then you start looking at all this stuff, then I open my eyes and I’m in his studio and he’s like “Get your fucking chin up Vai,” “What the fuck are you doing, think of what you’re doing,” I’m like yes sir. That was like 25 years ago. I have been shooting with Zloz I think over 25 years because he was shooting me before I even had the Jem and the Jem is 25 years old, he’s just a character, he is unbelievable, one of the most colorful interesting people in Rock N Roll, that I have ever met. The thing that I love about Neil is that he is brutally honest, but is considerate. He is really concerned, he works his ass off, passionate about photos and doing his business. And brings quality photos, has a real talent when you look at his photos, they are as Rock N Roll as you can get. I never thought that it mattered when I was younger. Well what’s a photo? You point and click, nothing like that, it has everything to do with lighting and capturing a moment and with Neil you get these intense shadows and stuff that just has the right Rock N Roll attitude in them, and ya, look at how much this guy has shot and he’s funny as hell.

You have been called the Ultimate Guitarist what other artists influences you to help you achieve that platform?

Well It’s nice that someone might consider me the Ultimate Guitarist, but I think it’s a matter of taste. There has been a lot of great guitar players in my life, I was a teenager in the seventies so I was absolutely enamored with Led Zeppelin, guys like Jimmy Page, Hendrix, Ritchie Blackmore, Brian May, all these really great rock guitar players of the seventies. Probably my biggest influence was Joe Satriani because he was my guitar teacher when I was a kid. I call that the Vai advantage, he lived in the same town, went to the same school and he was about three or four years older. But when you’re twelve and somebody is fifteen or sixteen they’re like gods, especially if they can play the solo in Heart Breaker. And Joe was always great, me and all my buddies worshipped him and his band. We had a little band and we just tried to emulate them. Joe was the only one in the beginning that even knew I played guitar because I was so shy and he was very through and very strict in a way. But the most amazing thing about him was every time he touched the guitar music came out even if he was doing exercises and scales.

He was a mentor of shorts, when you’re a kid and you’re listening to records it’s really cool and you become inspired. But when you’re sitting with somebody in front of you that can really play and is musical in the core, it’s a whole different story. You can only teach somebody what you have and Joe had it all. I remember when I moved out to California I was with Frank and then Dave Roth and I were becoming known, I would just tell everybody that you got to see this guys Joe Satriani and I’m thinking, I’m scratching my head going why isn’t he, even when I was a kid I thought that he was better then all these guitar players.

Your new album is about to come out which we we’re lucky enough to get a sneak peak of tell us a little of the behind the scenes of making it?

It’s called the Story of Light and it’s the second installment of this huge concept trilogy that I’m working on called “Real Illusions,” my last studio record was called Real Illusions: Reflections, so it’s based on a story, but you don’t have to necessarily be interested in the story to enjoy the music. Because it’s all over the place, the first song of Real Illusions has nothing to do with the

Steve perfecting his art, with no less than a customized board housed inside his personal studio the Harmony Hut Rock N Roll Industries Magazine 33

chronicle order of the story. So it’s cut up, and diced up and spread out over these two records and a third record eventually. Then the plan is to take all three records and put them in the proper order and put vocals on some of the instrumental pieces and put more music and actually have a running rock opera of sorts.

So we will have to wait to see the final results are?

Ya, if I live long enough. In my heart I’m very much a rock musician, but I like compositions and work to create a unique brand of music. As a result there is some very accessible music in my catalog and there is some really outside stuff. But there’s people that like it, the new record the Story of Light is more and the same of what my other solo records are like, but just with an evolution like any artist you evolve. There’s nothing different, but the fact is my records song to song are really different. A lot of conventional thinking would say that “That song doesn’t even belong on this record” this is like a really smooth clean guitar song and then this one is like blood on the tracks. When I’m putting it together I don’t even really think of that stuff you just get an idea and go ‘oh wow that’s a great idea’ and you just can’t do anything else. Even if reason says this isn’t going to sale, I can’t help it. I have to do it, I’m lucky it sales. It came out August 14th 2012.

Along with that you also have a new tour coming up just around the corner, what surprises do you have coming up for your fans?

I got some great surprises, on the new record there’s a track called John the Regulator which is a very popular old kind of a gospel track it’s a public domain track, a lot of people have covered it. The White Stripes did a cool version, Sons of Anarchy did a really great version, there was a lot. I had heard the original by Blind Willy Johnson and I just heard all these huge guitars on it and it was really heavy the way I did it and the second half there’s a hundred piece choir singing, the vocal arrangement is nothing like any other version. But I needed somebody to sing it. I like to sing, but I don’t do it that often because I don’t have a really great range. I was hosting this event at the Academy for Preservation, and this girl Beverly McClellan took the stage and sang this song, I was so blown away absolutely knocked out, she was a season one finalist on the show the voice, and I just went up to her and I said ‘we have to do something’ and oddly enough she knew my music and she gave me a cd. So she sang on it, it’s unbelievable really. I’m taking her on tour, she’s going to be opening the show. Then there’s a track, I usually like to include a melo kind of a vocal song, I have this interesting track, and I got with Aimee Mann, she wrote the lyrics and we sang a duet on it. It was really nice, but for the tour the last tour I did I had two violin players, I like to bring something interesting to the stage. I did a DVD called ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ and you can really see how it came together. And I

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thought what can I do on this tour I want to do something different on each one, I was pursuing the interest and I came across the Hip Harpist her name is Deborah Henson Conant and she is this absolutely amazing harp player, but she has this strap on harp that’s electric so you can put it through all these effects and stuff. She does these bends and she plays blues rock , but she can play anything. I saw how I could make it work because a lot of my music has aggregated parts and acoustic guitars, well I’m welling on top. I talked to her and she was interested so we just finished three weeks of rehearsals and oh my god, it’s going to be so great the people that like my music I believe they are really going to enjoy this. It’s heavenly hard.

What is the most common question that you

these questions for the rest of my life so I had to address these in my head and the way I address it is how many times can you answer this question and make it sound fresh and interesting every time, so that’s my goal.

I don’t know how many people know about your wall full of pedals in there, how long has it taken for you to collect all those?

Thirty Years, that’s just one of the things that really excites guitar players, is all the little pedals. And I love collecting pedals because when a pedal comes out it’s usually here today gone later today and there’s these really geeky guys who sit around, who love the guitar, but realize that they love electronics a little more. They sit and they make all this wild gear and they say

“I knew that I was going to be asked these questions for the rest of my life so...” get from your fans?

Well fans ask very different questions than journalists, journalists get the bio they read it and some of them don’t have any idea of what your career is or anything, but most of the time they stick to the bio, and they say “This is what it says in the bio so I will ask him about this”. But fans they’re different there are guitar fans and they want to know about the guitars and amps and stuff like that, and how did you play this. There’s fans like the more esoteric stuff that I do and they ask a lot of esoteric questions, they want to know what my spiritual beliefs are, stuff like that, the journalist want to know what it was like to play with frank Zappa, and About Dave Roth and the things like Whitesnake and all the conventional stuff and I don’t have any problem talking about it. I knew that I was going to be asked

check out what I made and they give me this stuff and they never can get it off the ground. So I have a lot and I use them they’re really cool.

It’s really nice to have all that stuff. It’s like if you loved cooking you have shelves of rare spices from around the world or something. Some of these sounds you can really taste.

Where can fans go to find out more about this and all the tour dates?

Vai.com has everything it has all the tour dates, I’m really excited, I haven’t really been on a full blown solo tour in quite sometime because my last solo tour I did a month in America and a month in Europe. This is two months in America, two months in Europe and I’m going for three weeks with G3 to Europe and then it’s just so great I’m going to be going to the rest of the

world. I’m going to Eastern Europe along with all of Europe. I have been there several times, after those 4 months I’m doing a small orchestra tour of eastern Europe and then I go to places like Japan, Australia, I have gotten offers in the past multiple times to go to Africa and India, but I’ve never gone so I am going to go this time. I have been to Russia many times, then South America, Mexico, Indonesia, China.

So there is pretty much no one that has an excuse not to go to your shows That’s right, you better be there or you’ll be punished.

Larry Dimarzio

Anything else you would like to say?

As always I’m very appreciative of the support, I’m really looking forward to getting out on the tour and evolving my facial expressions to a new dimension of bizarre and just getting out there and feeling the energy of the audience again, doing my best to give them everything that we got.

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New Release Melancholia

How did you get your start in music?

EL: When I was 4 yrs old, I was a ballet dancer, that’s when I first got on stage and started performing, then I went to a performing arts high school where I got into music and learned how to write and things like that.

I notice you definitely have a passion for theatre and dance, correct?

EL: Yes, I love theatricality in anything that I do, making everything some sort of art, and a piece of art, that’s really important to me.

What is your favorite theatrical play you’ve seen live?

EL: Wow, that’s hard, there are so many, anything by Andrew Lloyd Webber – it’s very dramatic and the set design is incredible and insane, so anything like that is really cool. And with ballet any thing from Giselle to Romeo and Juliet, things like that.

So what brought you all the way to LA from NY? EL: Actually this project did, I kept coming back and forth for two years trying to get things going with the comic side of it and other things we were doing around the project and it was basically like I was here so much, maybe I should just come out here and really pursue it. I didn’t really want to leave New York cause I love that city, it’s amazing, but I had to do it so I just packed up and moved.

Compare us (LA) to NY, what is the main comparison, would you say?

EL: Well, the people, the people are so different to the people in New York, I don’t mean it in a bad way. I love the people in New York, it’s just a different way of thinking all together, here it’s more like “heeyyy what’s up?” and over there it’s like “hey I have to get to a meeting what’s up.”

People hustle more in New York, cause the city has a pulse to it, like it is it’s own animal, and it drives you to get things done every day. Here the weather is always the same and nice out – there the weather changes.

What is your involvement with comic con?

EL: I’m doing this comic book with Mark Silvestri of Top Cow and he has done a lot of different things, like helped create WOLVERIVE for “XMEN,” and has made “Darkness,” “Witchblade,” and a bunch of amazing comics in his time. I presented him with this project and said I really want to do a story line driven with a musical element to it, like an art project, he thought it sounded cool so we paired up and came together making this like a trans media project. It’s coming together rather slowly but still coming together. Hee hee.

What is your vision of your future? What have you got going on?

EL: Well we are doing this thing with MTV geek; we are doing these live action webisodes that entail a story telling of the comic mixed with some animation. It should be really interesting

and get more of the storyline out there, kind of create our universe. We are trying to create its own little place and its uniqueness and things like that and draw people into that, to escape, escapism and stuff.

Tell me about your new album you got coming out EL: Well we released Melancholia on Repo Records, which is in Germany, and it is released in Russia a little bit too, but that came out May 18th. It’s not going to be over here, it’s just for the European market, it is available on import through amazon.com and best buy.com so you can get it. It was basically, when we first started two and a half years ago we had all these songs that we wrote so we got together and put them together. We put it out there (Melancholia) cause we wanted to put out these songs, we were about 3 or 4 months into being a band when we went out with Manson, so that was a big thing, and we had these songs, they were kicking around and we never released anything as we had been waiting for the right moment all of this sort of stuff we had contract this and that. We decided when Repo came and said ‘let’s just put out these songs, your fans will love it,’ and they have, they have really responded to it, and a lot of Europe has responded to it, we are on the rock and metal charts over there.

So Europe tour or what?

EL: Yeah, I’m hoping that we can get over late in the fall. That would be fun.

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S

o of course about the fall, the name September Mourning, how did that name come to be?

EL: September Mourning is actually the name of the character in the comic book, she is a Reaper, she takes souls and has the power to give souls back into other peoples bodies, so they can get a second chance at life. I think we have all wanted a second chance somewhere down the line so it is something you can probably relate to. But she has this unique ability to do that, and she became a reaper because she had been deemed as somebody whose soul was going to be taken by a reaper, and that specific reaper fell in love with her and he decided to save her, and in order to save her he had to split his soul and gave her half of his powers. So, he did that and she became this reaper with a split soul who can walk in the world of the living and the world of the dead. So she knows the things we don’t know.

Very cool. Repo Records are working well for you?

EL: Yeah, Repo is cool, they are an independent label over there, they started with a lot of different bands like, The Birthday Massacre started with them, a lot of bands came out with Repo and so we decided it would be really cool to put out something on them and they do a good job, they know their German market.

So tell me about being on tour with Marilyn Manson?

EL: Hee hee! Manson was cool, he ‘s a cool dude, he’s super smart, he’s super intelligent. No matter what is said about him he is definitely a very interesting person to talk to and get feedback from and just chill with. He was really interesting to talk to about things I wanted to do and he was really supportive about the band and things like that. He was actually really nice to us on tour. I have no complaints about that man!

What does “making it,” mean to you?

EL: For me if one person gets this, if one person walks away from this and understands what I am trying to do and the message I am trying to convey and can put it together – that is success to me. It doesn’t have to be millions and zillions of people bowing at my feet ya know. I don’t want to rule the world per say, I just want to make a world for our fans, and make art and be able to do it. That’s what’s important to me.

Joaquin Sahagun

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Black Water Project RNR sat down with Justyn a.k.a Stuntman in the studio on his solo production “Black Water Project,” as they were laying down the first tracks.

Justyn: I definitely like it. I love the way this studio works so I just came down to work on a instrumental solo project which I didn’t finish, I know its like a year in the making. It was Tell the readers what you have a blues surf guitar fusion thing. So I been doing today at Big Surprise had such a blast recording that I was Music? just like Madison, (my sister and lead singer for Madison rose) I was like we Justyn: We have been working on the need to do something with Carmen. first track off of my new album called Its just the best time I have ever had Back in the Valley for Black Water in the studio, I don’t leave the studio Project. It’s kind of a folk ballad, it’s feeling brain dead so she came down. going to have a lot of cool elements to it. I’m going to try to add maybe a Carmen: We cut some new vocals on little electronica, different things to it. a song called “Over you,” then I mixed It’s about a domestic abuse situation. and mastered it.

A guy who has a couple move in next door to him and he witnesses the Justyn: The track was great before, decline of their marriage. It’s about and it just went to a whole other level a cry for help, and feeling helpless, that I didn’t even picture. Carmen has wanting to help someone, but it has a that magic touch. really good ending.

Carmen: It ROCKS it really does!

Carmen: Today we did guitar, Justyn did a guitar track. We did drums and Josh: Today was an awesome recordbass and it’s starting to sound really ing day, just one track recording with good, going to do some more over Justyn. We have been working with dubs on keyboards and percussion.

Justyn for a while and it went well today, happy to be working with the Justyn: It’s turning into a really great producer here, it’s a very comfortable project I’m not even worried about do- environment. ing vocals today. Just because I want to take it home and really practice John: I just met Carmen today, we and kill with the vocals because this have only cut one tune so far, so still is the first time, obviously I’m known have another 9 or 10 to go. But today as the guitar player for Madison Rose, was just an easy experience. 2-3 but I have never been known as a takes and the most and the rest is vocalist so it’s important to me to be up for Carmen to work his magic and very confident before I start laying make us sound good. down vocals. John my drummer for Madison Rose is also my drummer for RNR: How did you get involved in this project and he just smoked the this project? drums today. Of course I don’t expect anything less from him and Josh John: I met Justyn and his sister is also my bass player for Madison Madison about a year and a half ago Rose, he’s a genius bassist. Everyone they came through my rehearsal is very chill here. studios looking to find musicians they did a bunch of rehearsals and tryouts Carmen: Chill and talented for drummers and bass players.

They hired a band and shortly there Justyn: That’s the best combination after Justyn contacted me and said that he was having trouble with his RNR: How did you all start working drummer; at that point I don’t think he together? even realized that I was a drummer, I mentioned that I did play drums. And Justyn: I saw an ad for Big Surprise he had me come out and do a tryout, Music and I called him, I didn’t know hired me from there. He had another who was going to answer. I knew who bass player that couldn’t handle it.

Carmen Garillo was, he was in Tower Power and some of my favorite Tower Josh: I came in about 6 months ago songs were, Carmen songs. I had taking another bass players position seen on the ad that Carmen owned and it’s been a great opportunity playthe studio, but I did not expect him to ing with Madison and Justyn, we have answer the phone. So I call and go “Is had some awesome opportunities Carmen Garillo there?” and he says playing at NAMM in front of a bunch “ya this is Carmen,” wow ok cool, I’m of people and doing these recordings interested in working with you down at and stuff like that. the studio and he said come on down.

That’s just Carmen’s mentality, there’s John: Had some great no pretention. shows at the whiskey.

Carmen: I’m a really bad sales man so you either like it or you don’t.

Josh: Good times, good music, good people.

John Hoik

Carmen Garillo, Justyn AKA the Stuntman, Josh Taddeo

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Chris Holmes CHP Solo project

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Tell me how this new album you have coming out got started?

This guy last year he had the wife that was 12, so that means he was sleeping with her when she was not even 13. That’s what the Chris: This could take awhile… song is about, is those people. We recorded and I think I got about 43 songs and some RNR: That’s ok were almost done and some didn’t have Chris: Three years ago I was at my friend’s vocals. I was trying to write the vocals on Phil “Animal” Taylor; he plays in Motorhead, this other one. And then I went somewhere he had a computer mac, I ask what’s on his for the weekend and I came back and Phil computer? And he says some music and I had had a brain aneurism, and the aneurism say to put it up. I went man this is horrible so was in the memory part of his brain, and it’s he gets all mad at me, and asked can you sad, the doctor told me that his short term record any different, and I say ya. So anyway, memory is probably shot. It might be for we recorded one song and it was cool. Then the rest of his life, he doesn’t know. It might we recorded another song. So we started recome back. When he got out of the hospital cording a bunch of them- then we had about and was in rehabilitation at his house I put 10 ideal songs, and somebody taught me on the last song we did and he listened to it. how to play a major scale. I don’t know the And he goes that’s pretty good, and I ask do major and minor chords, I don’t read music. you remember playing it, and he says no. It Anyway, so I learn this trick and I wrote this hurt my heart and I don’t know if his memory song so that I can play a major scale. So I will come back or not. But he’s still the same put it all down so that he can play the drums person. to it. A couple days later, I go man did you play that song? And he (Phil) goes that song RNR: How long has it been? sucked. I’ve had my feelings hurt before, and Chris: That was in February, he went back to about four months later I was going through England, where he is from. His sister is there the computer and found out that he played for him. He couldn’t get the proper medical the drums to it, he didn’t even tell me. So I help here. was playing guitar to it and I started laughing.

What is the name of this new project?

I had this idea and the words just came out that went along with the song and so I sang Chris: The name is CHP, California Holmes it, but if someone was listening outside the Patrol; there will be a bunch of things that it door I couldn’t do it. I was at this rehearsal stands for. And I like the CHP because they studio and I could do it, but I kept wondering never arrested me. The other law enforceif someone was outside the door, if they were ment I have less desire for. listing, because the only thing you can hear is the voice when your recording. I sang it and I RNR: We won’t go into that path. brought it back to Phil and he said it sounds Chris: That would take too long, that’s angood. And it’s the first time I ever sang and other book. one thing led to another. It seems kind of Speaking of books, you have an interview funny putting words together on certain in the book Tales from the Stage, what can things. And I had nine of them. the readers expect to find in that book?

So you wrote all of them and sang them?

Chris: He asked me things like who is the Chris: Ya, and it’s not a cookie monster voice, worst person in Rock N Roll, I don’t think he I was down in Florida two years and I had to asked who the best was, it’s all opinion, and judge. There were 15 bands, 12 of them were opinions are like rear ends, everybody’s got cookie monster bands, where they screamed one. But you would have to read the book. as loud as they could. I couldn’t understand When should we expect to see this album any of them. Man is this where the new out? Also I have heard there are music music is going? I couldn’t understand any videos? of them so I gave everybody a hundred, because they were all horrible. I personally Chris: The song called the Way I Would hate my voice; I can’t stand listing to it on the Either Be and the song called the Old Lying answering machine. When I sing the songs it Cheat are both going to have videos, I’m gosounds a little different, there’s a few songs ing to put one on YouTube that I sang. on there that will make a few people mad, Keep a look out on his website or Facethat I intended to make them mad, they will book.com/ChrisHolmesOfficial for more know who it is when they hear it. info. Tell us about the other project that RNR: Revenge through song? you have been playing with.

Chris: Not really revenge, it just comes after Chris: It’s called WAS, Where Angeles Suffer, the song I wrote called The Old Lying Cheat, I’m working with this guy Randy Piper. He it’s called the Mormon Moron; I use to be was the original guitar player in WASP, he a Mormon until I was sixteen. I was thinkstarted it and I was the last one to come into ing how do I start this thing? So it’s just the the project, we did some shows and have an things in life that you go through, you just album then there was some disagreement put them in words. This song’s about Joseph between Randy and the rest of the guys and Smith and about a pedophile, Have you ever the next thing I know he’s thrown out of the heard of Warren Jeffs? band, I tried to keep him in the band, I have known the guy all this years and I know how RNR: No he is, but the other guys couldn’t tolerate Chris: He’s a FLDS Fundamentalist of what he was doing. Then we got another guy Latter-Day Saints, Latter-Day Saints are called Ira Black he has played with a few Mormons, Fundamentalist are his Church. groups. And about the same thing happened

with him.

What’s your instrument of choice?

Chris: Guitar with six string, I like Marshall amps, I don’t like the digital stuff that’s around now a days, I like the tube amps, the clean with a nice distortion because there are harmonics in distortion and if you mix the wrong ones it sounds real bad and starts clipping in your ears. There’s certain ways of doing it, the kids that do guitar today, they don’t understand about the sound and how when you over drive you over drive the amp a certain way. Loud is beautiful when it’s clean. If it’s not it’s just not beautiful.

RNR: Well they just don’t have your years of experience, they’ll learn right?

Chris: Some do, I like Black Sabbath, I have always liked the sound of them. It’s a guitar sound I like, I don’t like raspy guitar sound, if you turn it up load is makes my ears run and my nose bleed.

Your influence for your life style and living like a rock star profile in the movie, “The Decline of the Western Civilization Part 2”; is that still an accurate portrayal of yourself?

Chris: I know you don’t answer a question with a question but what’s a rock star suppose to live like?

RNR: You tell me?

Chris: I always think that Rock Stars like Gene Simmons or something, the Cars, what they show they can have. When I was younger it was how hammered I could get and still walk. And I would have a good time until I passed out.

RNR: Is that still the rock star you are today?

Chris: No, (laughing) I would like to say ya but no. In 1996 I got a DUI was the 6 one, I just drove over a center diver and they pulled me over, before they said do you want to do a field sobriety test, I said man you guys just take me in. I remember the guy asking are you refusing the field sobriety test, I told him no, I’m not refusing but you’re going to take me in anyways so let’s just go. That DUI made me quite, I went to the classes after that and I haven’t drank since.

RNR: So it was a blessing in disguise?

Chris: I had a fun time when I drank so I can’t say that. But I see things different now, my priorities have changed. I have gone out with my friends and watched them get hammered and gone that’s so stupid, and I went I must have acted so stupid. And makes me want to act less like that, I caused a bunch of shit in WASP, I couldn’t even imagine all the shit that I did. You don’t do anything smart and constructive when your drinking, when I drank I thought you did.

Anything else you would like to say?

Chris: Check out my new music, you might like it.

I’m not going to be like everyone and say that it’s better than my last, just give it a listen.

Rock N Roll Industries Magazine 43

PANCHO TOMASELLI

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H

ello Folks today’s events included the visit of one of music’s hardest working bass players in the business, Pancho Tomaselli

Who are your influences?

Pancho: Well I always looked up to the main cats in the Metal scene Steve Harris, Tom (from Slayer). But then, it just got really, expanded, I started to listen to a lot of stuff because of the nature of my career and what I had to do, to learn all of these different styles of music in order to make a living.

Tell us about being in studio time you had with Carlos Santana?

Pancho: That was just a studio session actually. Cyndi Lauper was singing for one of Carlos’s albums, and he just came out and laid a solo. I came down and played the bass.

Nothing big, just another day at the office. You know like many of us here in this business you just go there to record and like oh my god that guy is famous. He just shows up like nothing and you just play, you go home and you get a check.

You like seeing them of course as an influence as well as collaboration, this is amazing who you are and doing the work you love.

Pancho: It’s funny cause I’m from Ecuador, and man I get really star struck like really bad, I can’t help it, but I have to help it, I still get star struck from playing with Dave you know, fuck I turn around and its fucking Dave Lombardo on the drums, I’m like man W.T.F. you know it’s fun and I hope that never goes away because that is the best part about meeting and working in Hollywood and just meet all of these famous people, and I hope I don’t get jaded be like just whatever. Cause I enjoy being a fan boy sometimes.

Pancho, You stand before us and carry a past of great accomplishments, with such legendary songs with WAR. How long have you been playing for them?

Pancho: Well it’s been over 10 years! It’s been a great run.

I pretty much learned how to play Bass with Lonnie Jordan, and Sal the drummer. Cause when I joined their band I didn’t know shit and they took me in and taught me well and now it’s good, and it’s legit.

What is the meaning behind the band name WAR? Pancho: I asked Lonnie that, he said, ‘It means completely the opposite like a War on War,’ They just wanted to be drastic and come up with a name that people would ask about.

Tell us a great tour story that you found yourself somewhat embarrassed?

Pancho: God damn there’s so many! Well the embarrassing part is I just fell off the stage a couple of weeks ago. In Ohio I cracked my shin and pretended it didn’t hurt, but it hurt like a bitch, the one time that I’m wearing shorts, I had to fall and hit my shin.

Well you know cool stories I was playing with ERIC BURDON from THE ANIMALS at Royal Albert Hall in London, and I met this old hippy he’s probably in his 60’s and comes up and gives me a cassette tape with a recording of JIMI HENDRIX and WAR the night JIMI HENDRIX died.

That’s one of the coolest things ever. I remember that night with my wife and friends. One of my friends, he has a cab-

44 Rock N Roll Industries Magazine

bie in London we drove all over London eating at a Pakistani place and listening to this WAR and JIMI HENDRIX tape.

metal-esque.

The amazing thing about JIMI HENDRIX, he would have a guitar on his back and just simply plug it in and start playing, make anything work like a simple musician they do that.

Pancho: Nah, I don’t think there is nothing deathy about us, with the exception of the speed of the beat and the franchise, the Lombardo franchise, but its not death it’s trash, we don’t even go “brrlerrrgh” and stuff like that

What’s the dedication right here on your arm?

Pancho: When my daughter was born. Well that was that a little later, my first fathers day, when I was on the road took me to Sports Chalet and I bought a machete. So I tattooed that machete on my arm with my daughters name on it on the blade.

So every time there is some difficulty in life you pull out the machete and you chop through you know.

What other things do you have going on when not touring with WAR? Pancho: I play with PHILM which is actually about a 120 beats per minutes difference in time alone than with WAR. Cause DAVE LOMBARDO is playing drums, you know and the harmonies are weird cause of GERRY NESTLER, He’s a great weirdo harmony guy.

So tell me of this collaboration? How did it come to be? What was this whole meeting like?

Pancho: Dave called me on the phone, Cause they couldn’t find their bass player. Asked me on the phone if I wanted to play I said “of course!”

Now he’s my daughters godfather so I guess we’re good. You know we have become real good friends Gerry, Dave, and myself. We have become extremely close. Music is a very intimate thing.

Didn’t GERRY NESTLER, Dave and yourself play at the infamous TRI STUDIOS owned by BOB WEIR from the GREATFUL DEAD? Pancho: Yeah, I got the opportunity to go work at bob’s a couple of times; we became really good friends with that whole TRI family, which is a research institute actually, not a studio. Which makes it even better. They came up to me and they said they wanted to bring PHILM as the heaviest thing they have ever brought up there. It was amazing, it was like going to fucking Willy Wonkas house, I swear man everything you want in music is there “hey man I need a B3 organ” a B3 Organ is a vintage apparatus that are worth 20,000 bucks, they have a couple of them.

They have everything you want, like each microphone is top of the line – and you know it’s the Dead’s gear so you know whatever you are using fucking the Dead used it to record their stuff - there is so much history. Every time we go there, there is always someone really cool who comes up to say hi.

What does PHILM have coming up?

Pancho: We are going to be playing at like an aircraft carrier on August 25th. We are stuck in the middle of a huge death metal show which I love cause we aren’t death metal but we are death

How about death melodic maybe?

But we are a heavy band in a different way – I mean – you’ve seen PHILM a couple of times - we call it bass heavy, you know you feel the rumble, but the guitars are really not that heavy yet they are still heavy.

It’s the best time to see us. I mean the cd is great, and we accomplished what we wanted which was in the production, but a performance, the best time to See PHILM is live. I mean you can see the broadcast, the tri broadcast on yahoo music. You can load up Rick Kosick who did a really kick ass documentary about how we did the album – you can see that it is everywhere online. But again, we are a live band. You can hear in the record we left all mistakes and we didn’t edit nothing cause I feel it’s important to recognize who we are, after all we’re only fucking human. You know what I’m saying?

“We are a live band. You can hear in the record we left all mistakes and we didn’t edit nothing cause I feel it’s important to recognize who we are” So you’re up in Frisco, how is that scene in music up there? That whole vibe that is the TRI studios, was that amazing being around that whole scene?

Pancho: Its awesome, I mean everything just rips up there I mean the food, the coffee, the people are nice, it’s just different. You make it in LA and go on vacation in SF; you can’t make it in SF. You make it in LA, you make it in the whole world and that’s why we are here on the record.

How was your visit to Graceland? How was that for you, any tipes for the road?

It was crazy Beale Music St. Festival; THE BLACK CROWS, BILLY IDOL, Lisa Marie Presley, and the roots there were 50,000 people and our monitor boards burned so I had no monitors, so I went and put my shin against the bass drum and kept it there so I could feel when the bass drum hit, cause I couldn’t hear shit when I had to sing. I had to run back to the microphone, and sing and go back, by the end of the show I had a bruise all over my shin cause of the rim hitting it. I made it onto the front cover of the newspaper that I grabbed it going to the airport that morning. I have the clipping somewhere. And there it is on the entertainment part, a huge picture of myself. I had my long hair and an army beret and it was cool as fuck. Always meet the photographer and the Associate Press people

at your shows, I did that in Hawaii, my wife was like the best representative for me, I went to pee and I gave her my bass, and when I came back, (and I have to brag she’s pretty hot)! There’s like all these photographers taking pictures of her. One of them was the Associate Press people. This lady she met her, conversed with her, and she took a picture of me, I was like this with my hair while I was playing in front of a crater in front of 12,000 people, and that picture with the Associate Press made it around the world.

My mother in law from Boston called me crying cause she’s got the Boston Herald with a picture of her son in law, and so I say to everyone at the big festivals meet the photographer and give them your name spelled correctly because one time I didn’t, for something I did with a live magazine and I trusted back then the damager (not the manager the damager) to make sure they had my name right and then when the picture and magazine came out my name it was not even close, it was Francisco, my first name and instead of saying Tomaselli, it said Francisco Pancho Tomas Elliot.

Definitely find out who the production managers are. I have a lot of trouble getting in if I don’t have my pass no one believes me that I play with WAR. They’re like “yeah right” kind of thing thing?

Pancho: Yeah nobody – I have to search on the Internet and say look here’s a video. Then it’s okay, but yeah always have the production and tour managers numbers in hand and when you leave the hotel get a card from the hotel lobby just in case you detach from the pack and you got to take a cab home and you don’t know where the hotel is. Just show the cab driver the card and say take me there you don’t even have to talk to the dude.

Well recently you got some new endorsements, tell us about them and why you chose these companies?

Pancho: Well, ESP gave me this signature bass that just came out this year at NAMM and I chose them for a couple of reasons. Number #1, because they treat their artists really, really well – whatever I want I get. If I need a fucking 23 string bass they will build it for me. You know whatever I need.

They have put me in BASS PLAYER MAGAZINE for the past 5 months. They love me and they are hooking me up with these other endorsements. I signed a big deal with SAMSON, HARTKE and ZOOM, I’m using HARTKE amplification right now, I got CHUNK PEDALS Bass systems for distortion, D’ADDARIO STRINGS, BABICZ HARDWARE, PLANET WAVES straps and accessories, LOST CLOTHING which is great, I need new clothes LOST. MONSTER ENERGY DRINKS, they endorse PHILM. They really take care of the band It’s cool it took me a little bit to get here. Like a good solid 10 years, non-stop touring to get the name out of this company, start believing in what you do.

I’m 38 years old you know, but it’s happening now.

Like I said PANCHO TOMASELLI one dedicated musician.

Rock N Roll Industries Magazine 45

GERRY NESTLER

Gerry- Yeah I’m from LA. I have just been playing in bands in LA for you now over 25 years or more.

Tell me about that the TRI studios performance?

Gerry: We went up there after the album was released May 15th, we did a show at THE VIPER ROOM. The day after we headed up to you know San Francisco, the bay area to do a live broadcast. Live broadcast through Yahoo music.

It was real cool. It was about an hour-long performance live and it’s probably one of the best ways to experience the group. It’s a great way to see the group for like an hour long, It’s completely live. (Laughs).

How was that road trip?

Dave drove, they did have a beautiful piano there you know. We as PHILM do lots of things without much preparation.

It’s not like we haven’t done it before. We’ve brought in a piano to the studio before and I played it and Dave and Pancho have. I played together in a trio setting with me on the piano.

It’s not the first time.

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I noticed the “HARMONIC” album Pancho and you have piano credits. I mean is this the beginning? Or is there going to be more of that you think?

Gerry: Yeah probably, probably a lot more than that. But you know the trio, The Power trio thing is pretty much the focus and we stay with that.

We are working on the next record.

These 2 people interviewed have a backing all in the roots of any type of music generation of all ages can appreciate in all aspects. From the roots of WAR, to the blood that Reigns that is SLAYER. Cause even the GRATEFUL DEAD founding members gave this power trio of 3 and change to have one of the heaviest artists to date play there location in the bay area. This itself is one huge accomplishment. Life in music is always important even like as one movie quote from one calling himself McLovin “a Tri-pod of 3 holds the certain cameras in place.” PHILM will indeed make its presence in music as being already recognized.

Joaquin Sahagun

Joaquin Sahagun

Tell me about your history in music before PHILM? Aren’t you from LA?

S u m m e rS h r e d s

Rock on the range was two packed days of rockin music with three stages running simitalisly. Although it was hot and humid in Ohio that didn’t stop anyone from showing up at 11 for the opening bands. Rushing from stage to stage to catch all the action and let’s not forget crowd surfing there way to the front. Luckly for the crew at Rock N Roll Industries; Monster Energy was the sponsor of the main stage so there was plenty of energy drinks so that we could keep up with all the action. Not to mention kick back VIP between shooting and signings.

The lineup was in no particular order: Incubus - Rob Zombie - Shinedown - Marilyn Manson Five Finger Death Punch - Slash - Megadeth - Chevelle Cypress Hill - Mastodon - Theory of a Deadman Volbeat, Down - The Darkness - Halestorm Escape The Fate - P.O.D. - Lacuna Coil - Adelitas Way Black Stone Cherry - Cavo - Attack Attack! - Trivium Bobaflex - Falling In Reverse - Redlight King - Aranda Emphatic - Otherwise - James Durbin - Black Tide

Alex Kluft

Kyng - 12 Stones - SOiL - Rival Sons - Eve To Adam

Rock N Roll Industries Magazine 47

/ We caught up with Dylan Rosenberg after performing at Rock on the Range with James Durbin, as this issue came out Dylan changed focus from the James Durbin band to his first project Archer who has opened for bands like Black Label Society. To check out a upcoming show check out their website at Archernation.com.

How did you prepare for Rock on the Range?

Honestly, same as always. We were towards the end of the tour and had developed a solid routine by that point so when we got to Columbus it was all excitement without the stress or whatever. Without a doubt, our first trip to ROTR proved to be a blast and it was great to see ya there!

Any funny stories that happened on the trip?

Every night, every gig, every town is a different experience. Get 5, 6, 7 guys in a bus or van 24/7 and you’re bound to get some good material.... Singling out one night would be difficult!

If you could tour anywhere, where would you like to go?

I’ve never been to the U.K. That’s somewhere I can’t wait to tour.

There’s so much rock and roll history over there with Zeppelin, Sabbath, the Stones and the Beatles, Priest and Maiden, it’s endless!

Plus the legendary venues.... Visiting those places would be a privilege I would very much appreciate.

James Durbin

What are your plans for the rest of the year?

Alex Kluft

Archer is busy writing a few more tunes for our upcoming record and are in talks with some well-known potential producers to man the sessions... Very excited about new music as always! After the record’s done we’ll start touring early 2013 and support the record throughout the year. We can’t wait to get back on the road and give the fans everything we have every night. That’s why we do it it the first place.

Dylan Rosenber

g

Cruefest 2012

Members of Armored Saint including: Jeff Duncan, Phil Sandoval & Gonzo Sandoval. Along with members of DC4 48 Rock N Roll Industries Magazine

The Sunset Strip was rockin’ and rollin’ 1986 style thanks to the hard efforts of Nick Culves as he hosted the 11th Annual Cruefest at The Whisky A Go Go, benefiting the Skylar Neil Foundation on July 28, 2012. Rockers joined together to help raise money the best way they could...that’s right, kickin’ ass on the wild side. Artists featured that evening included members of Tuff, Armored Saints, London, with a special appearance by the one and only Jack Russell. Stonebreed, White Lie, and DC4 rattled The Whisky along with several other bands lined up for non-stop rock. Generous donations gave way to exceptional raffle prizes, including two (signed) guitars, an original Vince Neil sketch, and a one of a kind Mötley Crüe concert shirt. Fans, bands, photographers and promoters

alike made it a memorable night!

Nicole DeMarco

Jack Russell

W

hat better way to spend Memorial Day weekend then with and A** kicking rock festival.

With bands like Creed, Slash, Chickenfoot, Rob Zombie, Queensryche, Megadeth, Volbeat, and Puddle of Mudd. Rocklahoma 2012 sure made everyone bang their heads, mosh, and crowd surf. Who better to host than That Metal Show’s Eddie Trunk.

The baddest rock festival in the Midwest kicked off on May 25th in Pryor, Oklahoma with 4 stages of nonstop Rock. Adelitas Way opened the Main Stage up at 4:25 P.M. the Hard Rock Stage with Beneath The Retrospect Records stage with Australia’s Sunset Riot, and Absence of Ink on the Axis Campground Stage. Throughout Sco� Stapp the day the Main Stage also hosted Cavo, Chevelle, Slash, and Creed.

St Louis’s Cavo put on a great performance as well as Chicago’s Chevelle.

Who better to be part of this awesome rock fest than former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash with Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators. Playing songs from Slash’s Snake Pit, Velvet Revolver, Guns’ N Roses, and Slash’s latest solo album “Apocalyptic Love,” Slash sure had the crowd going. Slash’s set included Velvet Revolver’s Slither and the GNR classics “Night Train,” “Sweet Child of Mine,” and “Paradise City,” which were all sing alongs for the audience. Snew led by Black Sheep bassist and singer Willie Basse, Lynam led by Jacob Bunton, the singer for Steven Adler’s new group Adler, and NYC’s Eve to Adam kept the fun going after Creed closed the main stage for the day.

Rocklahoma day 2 was the heaviest day out of the weekend with a lineup of Thrash Metal titans Megadeth, Shock-Rock icon

Puddle of Mudd moshers.

Day 3s main stage had Black Stone Cherry, Puddle of Mudd, Jackyl, Queensryche, and Chickenfoot. For those who don’t know Black Stone Cherry, they are on tour with Chickenfoot and sure know how to deliver a rocking performance. Puddle of Mudd’s Wes Scantlin sounds even better than when they started 20 years earlier and gave a great performance, Jackyl’s set had everything you’d expect from a Jackyl show especially Jesse James Dupree sawing a wooden stool and setting it on fire.

Queensryche gave what may be their last performance. The moment Geoff Tate came out the audience started going crazy, and we knew it would be a memorable performance. Chickenfoot was the prefect band to close Rocklahoma, with veteran rockers Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony (ex-Van Halen), shred master Joe Satriani, and studio legend Kenny Aronoff. Playing songs like “Turning Left,” “Oh Yeah,” and “Soap On a Roap.” Chickenfoot really had the crowd going and Jesse James singing along.

Alex Kluft

David Ellefson

Alex Kluft

John 5 Rob Zombie, Danish rockers Volbeat, and heavy metal rockers Trivium.

Dave Mustaine and Chris Broderick of Megadeth wowed the audience with their lighting fast guitar skills on “Symphony Of Destruction” “Peace Sells,” and an encore of “Holy Wars.” “Sweating Bullets” featured David Ellefson’s unforgettable bass intro. Of all of Megadeth’s lineups, this easily was one of their strongest ones. Volbeat’s mix of rockabilly, rock, and heavy metal is what gives them their unique sound. Volbeat had a quite a crowd of moshers and crowd surfers. Trivium easily had one the craziest crowds as well. Being one of the heaviest bands at Rocklahoma, Trivium was bound to have extra security in the pit because of all of the crowd surfers and

Ma� Heafy Rock N Roll Industries Magazine 49

W

hat is the best metal festival in the United States? Fortunately, this question has been getting easier and easier to answer every September that passes. Other than the festival I’m going to name here, there are a growing number of other reasons. Simply put… supply and demand.

While there may be a constant and perhaps even growing demand for quality metal bands to play live in this country, unfortunately the business people who run corporate media, record labels, venues and promoters don’t see ‘metal’ as a viable opportunity for maximum demographic appeal and dollar signs. Therefore the supply is reduced to pop stars and recycled bands from previous era’s of music.

If these festivals of old school bands and radio friendly music satisfy your appetite for metal music, than that’s fine, to each, their own. However, the passionate music fan often yearns for something beyond what is traditionally fed through the ‘lame-stream’ channels of entertainment. If you’re just the average fan without VIP access, or a Press pass, it’s likely you won’t get to hang out with the bands, talk to them, share a beer or breakfast with them, get free stuff from any multitude of CD distributors, or have opportunities for exclusive private events featuring world renowned musicians. Less we forget a 3 day party on the patio that takes place in the hotel courtyard, then I guess what I’m about to share with you as one of the best kept secrets in the USA won’t be for you.

2 FULL DAYS OF PROGPOWER

T

here is hope for the passionate metal music fan, where quality bands matter over quantity. How about a metal festival that’s intimate, sounds fantastic, features up to 14 headlinerquality bands over the course of 3 days and for a price that’s often less than what you would pay for any of the tickets to the summer fests. What if this festival offered you the ONLY opportunity to see your favorite or otherwise amazing band from across the ocean play live in the USA? What if there wasn’t a bad seat in the house?

What if you had a chance to hang out and talk with the bands and get their autographs? What if the fans were all friendly and treated you like family? What if you even had a chance to earn

50 Rock N Roll Industries Magazine

VIP status by sponsoring a band of your choice?

What if you could find that hard to find Collector’s Edition CD from some obscure band out of Slovenia? What if the water was free and the lines for food and drink were minimal? What if the promoter of this event even took time out of his busy schedule to correct a mix-up in your hotel reservation? Impossible? Not since 2001. It’s all very possible at ProgPower-USA.Since the festival known as ProgPower-USA began in Chicago in 2001 bands like Evergrey, Symphony X, Nightwish, Kamelot, Redemption, Circle II Circle, Fates Warning, Pagan’s Mind, Circus Maximus, Brainstorm, Edguy, Iced Earth, Epica and so many others have graced the stage at this exclusive event. With every year, the hard work and dedication of the promoter to make this event like no other metal festival in the world has been paying off. The success of these bands has relied on the European metal scene and the underground metal fan in the USA. Needless to say, their success speaks for itself when listening to anything from their immense discographies.

The time has come to poke our heads up from under-ground in the USA and pay attention to these great bands!

“to turn ProgPowerUSA into a culture, not just a concert” Originally set on one stage over the course of two days, ProgPower-USA has evolved over the last decade into one of the best organized, responsible and accommodating festivals in the world. The growing success of this festival has allowed ProgPower-USA to expand beyond the original format of 2 days of top-quality musicianship. While ProgPower USA is still officially only 2 full days of Progressive and Power metal bands, the reputation of the event has allowed supporting events to be added to the same venue during the same week. Often referred to as the ‘Kick-off show’ or ‘Show-Case’, more headliner caliber acts and exclusive one-off shows occur on the nights before the festival and can be an experience that leaves a fan wondering how in the world it can get better than that! The festival hasn’t even officially started yet. Or has

it? The addition of these ‘Pre-events’ essentially have turned the festival into a 4-day celebration of the most amazing rock music in the world.

Now set in Atlanta, GA. ProgPower-USA is held at unique theater-style venue that can only seat about 1050 people. Within this venue, there are alternate areas and side stages for unique intimate events such as Acoustic shows, guitar clinics and ‘metal karaoke’. Also there’s a full bar with a restaurant that doesn’t serve pig-slop, and during the event, a vendor area is set up where attendees can browse through thousands of CD’s, DVD’s from distributors like Nightmare Records, Century Media and Metal Ages. There are equally hard to find band T-shirts and other swag from participating bands unique to this concert appearance.

Glenn Harveston is the promoter and brainchild behind this festival and has spent over a decade fine tuning the experience to be one of the most fan/band-friendly and unique music festivals in the world. Since the success of ProgPowerUSA, there have been several imitators, but no one has been able to book the bands that consistently define the progressive-power metal genre like Glenn has. He has invested his own hard earned money and with the help of his wife Jen, they have been able to turn ProgPowerUSA into a culture, not just a concert. He’s as passionate about spreading the word about these amazing bands to the US audience as the fan is about getting there!

However, the success of ProgPowerUSA depends on the fans, not just the promoters to continue to be successful. Most of us are aware that some of the most talented bands in the Progressive and Power metal genre do not receive a lot of promotion in this country, particularly through the main stream promoters and marketers of concerts. They would rather focus on how many seats they can sell rather than how much ‘headbang for the buck’ the fan receives. One of the reasons the festival has remained in an intimate venue is so that the experience is phenomenal, not just loud.

Details like the venue itself being carefully selected for its proximity to public transportation is one of many things not overlooked.

Getting to Atlanta, getting on the train at the airport, getting off in front of your hotel, which is right next door to the venue, is a pretty sweet set up. You won’t even need a car the whole time you’re here. It’s in the trendy arts district of North Atlanta and there’s plenty to do when not at the show. There is no detail overlooked by Glenn and his hard working crew. They go to painstaking efforts to make sure the bands, fans and even the accommodating venues such as the hotels and restaurants in the area benefit from this event.

Attending ProgPowerUSA is like a trip back in time, where metal fans treat each other like family, and they’re there to celebrate the music, not take out their aggressions on strangers. ProgPowerUSA is an event like no other in that it keeps true to the metal spirit of celebrating the best in the genre and providing fans in the USA a rare opportunity to experience bands that otherwise would be inaccessible without having to fly overseas to see them in Europe. It’s because of this, that ProgPowerUSA needs your continued support; if not only to see the amazing bands, but for the experience itself. Become part of the ProgPowerUSA family and it could change your whole perspective on what it means to attend a concert. If you’re anything like me, it becomes ritual. Tickets often go on sale months in advance to provide everyone a fair shot at attending.

n’s Mind Nils K Rue- Paga

Therion

This year we have the opportunity to see Nightwish and Kamelot for two days for the kick-off shows and the actual festival has bands, Symphony X and Epica headlining as well as Serenity, Amaranthe, Mystic Prophecy, Pretty Maids and Redemption gracing the stage. Tickets are still available now at www.progpowerusa.com. Poke around on the forum and see what the buzz is about. Come join us for the concert of the year and an experience of a lifetime. You might even make a new friend, if not discover a new favorite band to replace that dusty old Metallica collection.

Taylor Hicks

Leah Burlington

Primal

Fear

Ralf Sh eepers

Evergrey

& Pame la

Moore

Rock N Roll Industries Magazine 51

SUMMERFEST

45 years strong 1968-2012

Every summer, from late June into early July, Summerfest comes alive with a bang, a “Big Bang” as they say. The “Big Bang,’’ is the fireworks show during the incarnation day, every year at Summerfest, and if you miss it, well there is another amazing fireworks display on July 3rd for your viewing pleasure.

During the 11 daylong event which runs from noonmidnight daily, The Marcus Amphitheater, which boasts 23,000 seats, and 10 other grounds stages, host 700 bands and performers, from emerging talent, regional favorites, to the hottest touring acts today! Come hungry and thirsty, as you can indulge in over 40 diverse food and beverage vendors, I happen to know, the corned beef at Michael Schenker John Hawks Pub to be outstanding.

Have a specific style you’re into, with four unique marketplaces to choose from, you’re sure to find something you like. The 75 acre festival grounds breathtaking views of scenic Lake Michigan on one side, and the Iron Maiden downtown Milwaukee skyline on the other. You’re sure to be amazed with such an experience.

Now being a Wisconsin native, I’ve partaken in the festival’s activities countless times. I kicked it off at my favorite stage, the Summerfest Rock Stage, and enjoyed some great blues music by Gary Clark Jr. Then jumped in head first and attended the Scorpions show at the newest stage on the grounds, the BMO Harris Pavilion. This was one spectacular stage; it offers a capacity of over 10,000 with high quality seats with cup holders and bleachers, as well as more than 5,000 people standing room to the side. It has state of the art production capabilities, a large bar, and a wave-shaped roof that’s over 50,000sq/ft. to provide protection of the elements.

The BMO Harris Pavilion took about two years to finish, and cost an estimated $35 million dollars, one of the best seats on the grounds. Vendors handed out free Miller Lite during its opening day.

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I headed back down to the grounds to see Skillet perform at the Harley Davidson Roadhouse stage. They are a great band to see live, and a Wisconsin favorite, as most members are from southeastern Wisconsin. They delivered an electrifying show, with flame 25ft. tall flame throwers, and explosions. About ¾ of the way through the show, both guitarists, and the drummer, started rising in the air, each on their own platform, until they were about 25ft. up. What a kick ass show. We were back the next night and we had a lot to accomplish. You see, with so many great bands and performers, often the case is having to prioritizing one over the other, or in our case, see them both.

I had a mission to shoot both shows, the first being IRON MAIDEN with special guest Alice Cooper at The Marcus Amphitheater, and to be back in time to shoot 311 at The Harley Davidson Roadhouse again, and we somehow pulled it off. It was the 4th of July, many people spend the day with their families, so the grounds weren’t as packed as normal, but the crowds for the concerts were still huge.

The last two days were the same way, multiple bands to shoot and see in one night, makes for a very fun and busy night. The second last night I shot Chevelle at the U.S. Cellular Connection stage, and made it in time for Hollywood Undead at the Rock Stage, both shows were great. The final day, went to watch Sublime with Rome, and made it back in time to shoot Halestorm. The

Nick Hexum

Sublime with Rome show was intense, not something someone with claustrophobia would enjoy, seemed to be a smokey haze throughout the air as well. I was relieved at the Halestorm show, luckily a photo pass gets you up close and personal with room to breathe.

Just about all 11 days were hot, and Summerfest brought Milwaukee Public Transit System’s new clean diesel buses, with nice cold air conditioning.

It allowed people a place to escape the heat, have a cup of water, and cool down, and we definitely took advantage of that opportunity. All in all, I had a blast, I am just about recovered from the long days and nights. Remember to save the date for next year’s Summerfest, June 26th-30th, July 2nd7th. You heard it first here in Rock И Roll Industries Magazine, and have just about a year to prepare, Korey Cooper trust me it will be worth it. Until then, we’ll see you at a stage soon. As always, “rock all night, sleep when you’re dead!” – Justin Edward

Justin Edward

W

ell the summer isn’t quite over yet, however Summerfest has come and gone for this year, and what a spectacular year it was. Each year, within the Henry Maier Festival Grounds, which sits along the shore of Lake Michigan, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the “largest music festival in the world” happens, and it’s called SUMMERFEST. If you have been there, or have read our last issue, you know what I am talking about. It is 11 crazy days, you think you’re ready?

A

t over 26,000 attendance this was the biggest turn out that The Rockstar Mayhem Festival has ever seen! It was mayhem from start to finish, as soon as you pass the dreadful traffic, park your car and hike through the dirt field then finally reach the entry gates to San Manuel Amphitheatre, you noticed there were no ticket scalpers to be found. The line up was insane! Slipknot, Slayer, Anthrax, Motorhead, As I Lay Dying, The Devil Wears Prada, Asking Alexandria, White Chapel, Upon a Burning Body, The Breather, Betraying the Martyrs, Dirtfedd, and a huge congratulations to the local

Frank Bello, Joey Belladonna second stage is where the show started, and making your way around everybody there to get as close as you can for the anticipated moment.

For that curtain to drop, and have consecutive awesome bands going off for over ten straight hours! Headlining the second stage was one of the big 4 Anthrax! Jason Bittner will be filing in for Charlie Benante for the first few weeks of the tour, Charlie is recovering from a minor hand injury.

Alex Kluft

Kevin Lymann, John Reese, and John Oaks formed the festival. This tour marks the 5th Anniversary Lemmy and growing bigger and stronger by the year! Presenting over 75 picks; Thrown Into of the best bands of our time, hitting 27 cities Exile and Sangre who both fought to earn a piece all around the United States alone. Over 1.5 of the spotlight in San Bernardino exclusively.

Million fans have indeed made an impression There were tailgate parties all over the parking in the metal community to show metal is here lot, with truckloads of metal heads warming up to stay! When the circle pits of dust and all the their vocal chords for the show to come. The dust chaos is at it’s highest, and the band is playbowl of mosh pits and chaos started as early as ing fast and heavy, you always see the crowd the first band ruled the stage. In between sets, motivated to vent all the aggressions to mainMetal Mulisha started smashing up the ramps tain sanity. Music is a therapy for everyone in with their stunts shooting for the moon! The any form and style. Being in San Bernardino

San Manuel Amphitheatre, San Bernardino, CA

in mid summer, dehydration and exhaustion is very easily to come across. Especially if you’re active in the pit, the heat will get to you. There is no way around it but to drink plenty of water or fluids from potentially passing out or worse.

To the one who was lost this year, we give our deepest gratitude’s and respect from everyone here at Rock N Roll Industries. Nothing is more precious than life, and to loose one of our own is taken to the heart. Jonathan Downey was a DJ for KKSM, the staff is completely devastated and Olivia a dear friend will be arranging a benefit concert as well as setting up a donation site for Jonathan’s family to pay for funeral costs.

Manny Rivas & Joaquin Sahagun

Kerry King Rock N Roll Industries Magazine 53

Interview with Clown about new book

Mayhem Festival kicks off tomorrow! Are you excited about that?

Sean: Yeah! I need it badly, and I am looking forward to it. I still have a lot of inter personal pain, color, and air that needs to be let out. I love to share the church of Slipknot, the alter of Slipknot, to give the sermon of Slipknot to the congregation of Slipknot. I think that we all heal and regain salvation for peace. It’s much needed, I can’t wait. We had three days of great pre-production, and bringing some new stuff. I think everybody’s going to be very happy with, and if they are not, I really don’t give a crap because I do it for us, and in return we do it for you. Hopefully we can see eye to eye because you can trust me and I can trust you, we get what we get out of it and move on.

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Apocalyptic Nightmare Journey, your new book! What can you tell us about it?

Sean: It is my first book, I am on MTV press, I am an MTV baby. There is a picture of a clown on the front, it’s one of the first twelve pictures I took because the first eight were completely black because I didn’t pull the little silver thing out. It’s a medium format Polaroid. There’s small format 35mm, medium format 120mm film, large format 8x10, this is medium. What’s crazy is when you pull the Polaroid out, there are a couple rollers that put the emulsion on to the Polaroid and I deconstruct them. I bend them and break them, urinate on them, throw them in the microwave, leave them outside for a day or two. I let people do what they want, I let people step on them. And if you go through the book, and you see little half moon blue guys, that’s my wife’s claws into the picture. You have about three to ten seconds to manipulate that emulsion before it finalizes. I don’t want people to get the impression that it’s photoshoped. These are real Polaroid’s, the only thing we did do was blow them up so that you could see a little more detail. Also turned up the contrast and make the blacks black, and the whites white, so we could make the color pop out more, and that’s it. What you see is what you get. Its very blunt, sexual, hateful, there is a lot of pain in here, but there is also a lot of love in here.

Would you say this is another outlet for you?

Sean: It always has been. When you take a look at it, you will get a stare or two into my brain, I am not going to let anyone all the way in. This

is a beginning, but by the time I am an old man and this beard finally turns all the way gray, and my hair gone, and I am in Tahiti with my wife and she is topless, I am wearing some god awful thong and we are drinking Coronas, falling over like Peter Griffin from family guy! Only then will I probably let you all the way in.

Obviously this tour is going to be very different, since the passing of Paul Grey. I did a little digging up and saw that Donnie Steele is going to tour along with Slipknot.

Sean: Yeah, he has been there since last summer. Donnie was the original guitar player along with Paul and then he switched over to bass.

What’s really cool is that Donnie being a guitar player picked up the bass to give Paul respect.

It feels natural, he is an Iowa boy, he is one of us, and he was probably one of the last people to see Paul alive, they where writing a record.

He is Family, he is a great guy, and that’s the only way we do, we keep it real, we keep it family, and we keep it straight, and he is helping out. That is the way Paul would have wanted it, there is no other way to look at it, and he has been with us since last summer. He was always the first one at the venue, always practicing the songs, and I am thinking “ damn, you have played these songs for over year! What are you doing?” Donnie says “Hey man, its all about Paul, I have to pick up all those little nuances as if he was here today,” Donnie really represents, so that’s good.

Manny Rivas

Chad Lee

S

ean Crahan also known as Clown, no pun intended, is the percussionist and one of the founding members of Slipknot.

Sean has always been obsessed with film and photography and directed some of Slipknot’s DVD sets including Disasterpieces, Volminal: Inside The Nine, Of The (sic), and (sic)nesses: Live at Download, and co-directing All Hope is Gone music videos: Psychosocial, Sulfur, Snuff, and Dead Memories. Aside from film and directing another side of Sean’s passion is producing.

Bands like Gizmachi and Dirtfedd, also executive producer to Mudvayne. In addition, Sean made a book of Polaroid’s where he demolished, bended, cut, ripped, and anything else he can think of to these pictures to make beautiful Disasterpieces and called it The Apocalyptic Nightmare Journey.

Evan Seidlitz

Thrown into Exile Escapes Mayhem!

H

ow was it playing at Mayhem knowing that it was sold out?

Evan- I didn’t know it was sold out until the day after, that’s probably better that way though, haha, but when I found out it was the biggest crowd in Mayhem history, I was very grateful to have been a part of it and to have played for as many people young and old as we did.

Chuck Gloria- It was nothing short of pure excitement to expose ourselves to that many people.

David Gentry -Whether a show is sold out or has 5 people in the crowd I put on the same performance.

Jazmin Monet Estopin

Slayer, Anthrax, Motorhead, Slipknot definitely influences for all of you?

Evan-Most definitely! Slayer, Anthrax & Motorhead laid the foundation for bands like Slipknot who have taken metal and even more so the live performance of metal to new heights, and let’s face it, if you’re a touring band, live performance is everything.

Mario-For me slayer, slipknot and anthrax are 3 of my biggest influences. My first concert ever was slayer, I was 13 at the time, my first pit was anthrax, and my first arena show was slipknot, those bands played such a huge influence on my playing but also on my life, I was fortunate enough to hang and got some life changing advice and inspiring words from Shawn “clown” Crahan (Slipknot), Dave Lombardo (Slayer) and Frank Bello (Anthrax) on different nights of course. Being on the bill with them was a childhood dream come true.

Chuck Gloria-All guys that have been playing consistently hard and fast for at least a decade; absolute influences.

David Gentry -I think anyone involved in heavy music is influenced by all those bands is some way, shape or form. For me Slayer and Slipknot

have held a special place in my heart.

Tell us the story about what it takes to get to this point of playing shows like these?

Evan-Since I’ve joined the band it’s been nothing but hustling and working our ass’s off to get to where we are currently, nothing good comes easy and keeping it real with everyone is key. To me it’s about gaining relationships and keeping them. Being nice and approachable speaks volumes over being a dick. And who ever said you can’t be in a metal band and be nice should be slapped repeatedly. Haha!

Mario- It takes a lot of time, dedication, phone calls, promoting, emails, just wanting it bad enough. Having the right people in your band that want it just as bad as you do, I’m beyond happy to be in a band with these dudes. Most importantly our friends, family, and everyone that buys tickets to our shows, they are the reason these shows are possible for us, because of their support they helped us get to where we are today and we can never thank you enough for that.

Chuck Gloria-WORK. One must not be above scalping tickets to their own show outside the venue, AFTER you’ve played, WHILE a notorious band you opened for is playing.

David Gentry -Persistence and dedication. If you truly love doing what you do, and are willing to work harder than the next guy, you will be rewarded with shows like this.

Sumerian Records stage how was playing that?

Evan-It felt great to open Sumerian Stage not even being a Sumerian artist, gave Thrown Into Exile a huge opportunity to play for a lot of people who have not had a chance to hear or see us otherwise.

Mario-Playing the sumerian stage was fucking

Mario Rubio awesome! They treated us really well and the best sound check, we’ve ever had. Big thanks to Ash Avildsen, Shawn Keith, Dan Tsurif, Mike Gevorgian and everyone at Sumerian for putting on the headbang for the highway competitions together.

Chuck Gloria-The size of the stage was very deceiving because it sounded awesome. The engineers gave us the most professional soundcheck we’ve had. It was all an honor.

David Gentry -Awesome, Im a big fan of Sumerians roster.

Tell us a great dust pit story you all remember seeing?

Evan- I think it was our closing song, Marisa Tellez was in front recording video for us and I remember seeing the pit just explode and the barricades and her start falling forward towards the stage, security just got there in time to keep it from falling over, but damn that was pretty intense. Metal. Haha.

Chuck Gloria-We had 2 small pits that merged into one, like galaxies colliding. It was nature at its most beautiful.

David Gentry -While one pit was going off, I looked to the side and saw a couple just making out like they we’re at a D’angelo concert oblivious to all the dust and sweaty dudes What coming up after this tour stop?

Evan-The release of our EP and many more shows to come. Thrown Into Exile and it’s members are involved with a lot of fun exciting different things, and we intend on making a positive mark in the metal community.

Mario- Working on a music video, there’s a couple shows in the works but I can’t say.

Chuck Gloria-A furthering intensity to our live shows.

David Gentry -Brutality across the nation.

Joaquin Sahagun Rock N Roll Industries Magazine 55

What began as the “punk rock summer camp” that the Vans Warped Tour has evolved a great deal over its 17 years of operation, offering up a variety of genres to music lovers of all ages.

Less in punk as the years went by, but hardly much to complain about. It’s not to say that punk rock is dead, but that there is plenty of room for so much more. Along with punk, rock, alternative, hip-hop, electro, hardcore, and reggae, tour organizers have added an “Acoustic Basement” tent this year. On this date of June 21 in Irvine, among the highlights were acoustic sets by Mike Herrera of MXPX, Kristopher Roe of The Ataries, Anthony Ranieri of Bayside, and Transit. Artists performing at the tent drew a good-sized crowd throughout the

POMONA WARPED TOUR Laura Chen day, sometimes just beyond capacity. Not only did it give fans an intimate side to the way the music was usually heard, but also some refuge from the blistering sun. . . This year’s lineup between the two Kia Main stages and the side stages, showcased plenty of talent worthy of giving a listen. It is advised to keep an open mind, among the gems in the rough of up and comers were LA-based rock band Dead Sara, the rap/rock of Hyro Da Hero, and punk band Polar Bear Club. It was a given for many to bounce between the stages for Mayday Parade, Blessthefall, Of Mice and Men, Motionless In White, Senses Fail, Falling In Reverse, Memphis May Fire, Anti-Flag, New Found Glory, Yellowcard, The Used, and Taking Back

Sunday. All in all, a great day of music. Friday morning in Pomona, California the line wrapped around the parking lot with anxious fans waiting to rage at the Vans Warped Tour.

At every stage you could just feel the energy of the crowd and seeing everyone’s fists in the air just made you want to forget everything and rock out in the mosh pit. The bands at the Vans Warped Tour really interact with the crowd aren’t afraid to even dive into the crowd as they scream into the microphones. The bands really brought it out by playing their old songs and squeezing in some new songs that have never been heard. The crowd looked like an ocean of people as they crowd surfed from the back to the front of the stage, trying to get closer to their favorite bands. Fans were able to meet and greet their favorite bands and buy unique band merchandise that isn’t sold in stores. People could enjoy food, body paint, water guns, buy merchandise, skate, and more.

Along with the main stages, there were side stages that offered unique ways to interact with the artists called the Silent Disco. People are handed headphones as they enter a quiet tent with everyone wearing headphones including the DJ, giving a truly exclusive performance that could only be heard between those wearing headphones. Additionally, there were tents set up to teach people how to play guitar where band members would come and teach how to play. The Vans Warped Tour offered many diverse side tents including a tent dedicated to acoustic performances where band members would perform acoustic songs as fans relax in the shade and listen. As the sun went down, the party kept going as bands raged on and flooded the airwaves with their performances. It was great to see people of all ages come together through the power of music.

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1,3 & 5 Lan Nguyen 2 & 4 Laura Chen

IRVINE WARPED TOUR Lan Nguyen

1

2

Make Music Pasadena had a 150 performances on 35 stages, all on one day for a free, all age’s event! The day was hot and the bands and sponsors rocked. You could enter to win a ESP guitar at the MI Musicians Institute booth, or pick out a record at Amoeba’s booth. Rock N Roll Industries sponsored the stage at the 35er bar with a whole day of music from the Original MAD PARADE, Raushi, DayZero, Dreadai, My Own Holiday, Seville Street Blues 3 and Jonny Come Lately. This was the first show that MAD PARADE had its orignial members get together in 6 years. Raushi’s lead singer Dani went to the PEPSI stage and drew in spectators from the crowd with her mega phone as they opened their set.

1- Inside 35er bar 2- My Own Holiday 3- Stevo bassist of MAD PARADE 4- DayZero 5- Crowd at Make Music Pasadena 6- MI Musicians Institute booth 7- Amoebas booth 8- Dani singer of Raushi

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THE 2012 SUNSET STRIP MUSIC FESTIVAL

AUGUST 18 “SSMF: 5 years running, still Rockin and Rollin” Even the blazing hot 100 degree weather couldn’t stop all these hardcore metal heads, rockers, hipster’s and hip hopper’s, both young and old, from gathering in unison at the 5th annual Sunset Strip Music Festival (SSMF) this past Saturday August 18, 2012 to join in music harmony the sounds of Dead Sara, Black Label Society, Bad Religion, The Off Spring, Steve Aoki and Marilyn Manson! Just to name a few!

“The Doors were a band born on the Strip and that was honored throughout the 3 day festival”

Monster Energy east side stage had a pretty good crowd as well with Steve Aoki “in the house.”

What is a festival without a Bud Light beer garden, food trucks, and a very special Gibson Guitar Town art guitar installation and interactive experience! We at Rock N Roll Industries set up a pop up gallery on the legendary Sunset Strip! The location was ideal! Directly in front of the main stage left! The infamous Al Bane had his custom leather goods, Revolution jewelry, Metal Babe and Rockwood Saloon were killing it selling their rockin apparel to the SSMF masses.

The highlight of the night, the notorious and often misunderstood, Marilyn Manson dominated the stage with Twiggy and Jason at his side! What I liked about Manson’s set is he played selected songs from “Portrait of an American Family,” and “Anti-Christ Super Star.”

Manson slurred and rambled about drugs and how he was not on drugs, but accused the crowd of being on drugs. This was all building up hype to lead into his sing a long industrial rock classic “The Dope Show.”

Some rock star magic happened on stage with Manson. Out of thin air appeared Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger of the Doors to play three songs “People Are Strange,” “Love Me Two Times,” and “Five to One.” The Doors were a band born on the Strip and that was honored throughout the 3 day festival starting on Thursday at the House of Blues private party honoring the Doors.

This being my second SSMF I knew exactly what I was in for.

This time around I had planned it out with bands I really wanted to check out. The first show I hit up was at the Roxy. I needed to get out of blaring rays of the unforgiving sun and I made it just in time to see Wallpaper.

I would describe this dynamic 5-some as glitzy-pop and raunchy rap with anthem like rock and electronic funk, done well! The crowd was energized and going bananas to the heavy drums and base sounds coming from the two drummers in the band. There was constant movement, lights flashing, legs and hands flaring everywhere covering the whole stage! Never a dull moment with Wallpaper! Over all this was another Sunset Music Festival for the books. The There must have been 10,000 over whelming music varieties plus people at the SSMF. attracted a large crowd of Everywhere was packed! The different genres of music lovers.

VIP area on top of the Bank of With such a large music variety America became my home for it was only fit to have a musical a while. Jack Daniel’s and an outcast like Marilyn Manson to Oyster bar, what more could close such an amazing event you ask for? There was a sea of and really give meaning to the people below the VIP area, all phrase “People are Strange.” fist pumping and head banging to the main stage bands. The

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Raquel Figlo

Marilyn Manson West Stage (Outdoors) 2:30-3:00 p.m. Dead Sara 3:50-5:05 p.m. Black Label Society 5:50-6:50 p.m. Bad Religion 7:30-8:45 p.m. The Offspring 9:30-11:00 p.m. Marilyn Manson

3:20-3:55 p.m. The Stone Foxes 5:15-5:45 p.m. California Windfall 6:00-6:30 p.m. Vicci Martinez 4:05-4:30 p.m. Terraplane Sun 6:45-7:15 p.m. True Press 4:45-5:20 p.m. Matt Skiba 7:30-8:00 p.m. Patience Price 5:35-6:05 p.m. Wallpaper.

8:15-8:45 p.m. Brandon And Leah 6:20-7:00 p.m. Das Racist 9:00-9:30 p.m. Many Of Odd 7:30-8:10 p.m. Love And A .38 8:30-9:00 p.m. Street Drum Corps Nature 9:45-10:15 p.m. Blackburner 9:15-9:45 p.m. Filligar Monster Energy East Stage 10:30-1:30 a.m. After Party Dim Mak Stage (Outdoors) Whisky A Go-Go 10:30 – 11:00 p.m. Bones 2:00-2:30 p.m. The Mowgli’s 11:00 – 11:45 p.m. Yung Skeeter 1:05-1:30 p.m. Nature by 3:10-3:50 p.m. T. Mills 11:45 – 12:35 a.m. PeaceTreaty Numbers 5:00-6:00 p.m. De La Soul 1:45-2:15 p.m. Tempting Fate 12:35 – 1:25 a.m. Clockwork 6:50-7:30 p.m. Far East 3:00-3:30 p.m. The Untouchables 1:25 – 2 a.m. Secret guest DJ Movement 3:45-4:15 p.m. Hardly Dangerous 8:15-9:15 p.m. Steve Aoki Key Club 4:30-5:00 p.m. The Rocketz 1:30-2:00 p.m. V Sevani The Roxy 5:15-5:45 p.m. Cold Blue Rebels 1:15-1:45 p.m. The Knife Outline 2:15-2:45 p.m. Arson-Strike 6:00-6:30 p.m. Leif Garrett 3:00-3:30 p.m. Betty Moon 1:55-2:20 p.m. The Burning of 7:30-8:00 p.m. Hurricane 3:45-4:15 p.m. Venrez Rome 8:15-8:55 p.m. Dynazty 4:30-5:00 p.m. Nylon Pink 2:35-3:05 p.m. Caught A Ghost

Zakk Wylde Black Label Society

9:10-9:40 p.m. 45 grave Motion Potion, DJ Wolfie & 9:55-10:25 p.m. Beowulf Special Guests 10:40-11:10 p.m. Bitch 11:25-11:55 p.m. Hotel Diablo Plush Lounge @ Key Club 2:00-2:40 p.m. Force with special guest Nik Kai Multiplied 3:00-3:40 p.m. 210ToLowell 98-7fm “Close To Home” 4:00-4:40 p.m. Soul Sign Stage (Outside of The 5:00-5:40 p.m. Uncle Daddy Roxy) 6:00-6:40 p.m. Vyrus 1:00-1:30 p.m. The Bolts 7:00-7:40 p.m. Lit Soul 1:45-2:15 p.m. The Vim 8:00-8:40 p.m. Holding Harlot Dicta 3:00-3:20 p.m. Jared James 9:00-9:40 p.m. Barbarian Overlords Nichols 3:30-3:50 p.m. Cherri Bomb 10:00-10:40 p.m. Mad Temple 5:20-5:50 p.m. Midnight 11:00-1:00 a.m. Breaking Hour 6:55-7:25 p.m. Family of The Law the Year On The Rox VIP Lounge 8:45-9:20 p.m. JJAMZ 10:30 p.m. Silent Frisco’s 12:00 a.m. Metalachi (“after party”) Silent Disco featuring DJs

FORCE ROCKS WITH KISS IN NOBLESVILLE

R

ising NHRA driver Brittany Force, star of the A&E reality series Driving Force and daughter of 15-time NHRA Funny Car champion John Force, was recently in Indianapolis for the NHRA Mac Tools US Nationals at the same time KISS was playing in Noblesville, Indiana just up the highway at the Klipsch Music Center on Saturday, September 1st. The 26 year-old aspiring Top Fuel Dragster driver was excited to have the opportunity presented to her during the most prestigious NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event in the country.

Prior to the show Brittany along with John Force Racing Director of Strategic Marketing, Steven Cole, and Marketing Coordinator, Stephanie Fernandez met “the hottest band in the world” before they took to the stage.

Bri�any Force & Stephanie Fernandez with Gene Simmons, Eric Singer, Paul Stanley & Tommy Thayer “It was unbelievable. We have raced KISS Funny Cars in the past with Tony Pedregon and my dad, John Force, but to meet the band in person was amazing. As soon as we met them it was a surreal experience. We got our pictures taken with them and I thought Gene was going to lift me over his head,” said Force, a graduate of Cal State-Fullerton.

John Force Racing has had a marketing relationship with KISS through collectible die-cast company LionelNASCAR as well as Mac Tools. In 2002 former JFR Funny Car driver Tony Pedregon campaigned a Castrol SYNTEC/KISS 30th anniversary Ford Mustang Funny Car. “Once the show started I was blown away.

We were right at the front of the stage and at one point Gene was throwing water bottles at us. The KISS concert has to be one of the best shows ever. To see them with Motley Crue was so much fun. The guys in the band were really great and they asked about racing and we asked them what it was like to be one of the most famous bands ever. We both thought the fans were what it was all about which was cool,” added Force.

After the concert and weekend in Indianapolis Force immediately turned her attention to her upcoming testing schedule. She will continue testing in Charlotte, Reading, Penn., and Las Vegas to close out the season behind the wheel of her 8,000 horsepower BrandSource Top Fuel Dragster.

Rock N Roll Industries Magazine 59

MISS KATONIC Talks with GWAR Miss Katonic:

It feels like millennia since you guys crash landed in my dimension. Those were fun times! What have you been up to since then?

What HAVEN’T we been up to?

Death, carnage, enslavement of the human race. It never gets old.

Getting banished to Earth was definitely a low point in our lives. That place reeks! And no matter how many people we kill, the smell just never goes away!

Miss Katonic: Oderus! You’re looking much

healthier these days since you grew your head back. You guys recently agreed to become my Agents of Destruction. How’s that been working out for you?

Yeah... without my head the Cuttlefish took over and had its way with an entire solar system or two. Don’t remember much, but I was told I really got around. Luckily for my bandmates, it grew back before I caught up with them. But it was pretty touch and go for awhile.

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As for being your Agent of Destruction, I’ve always enjoyed slaughtering the primitive monkey filth on this disgusting toilet of a planet, but something was missing. Now, instead of their twisted souls just scattering to the winds, they actually have a useful purpose. Food for a hot dark Goddess.

off original exclusive artwork, behind the scenes images from our glorious photo session, information about the series, an exclusive interview, and samples of the awe-inspiring photos we took together with that hot shadow vixen. The humans would be wise to trade some of their worthless green paper for a copy of that issue!

Miss Katonic: Awww, you’re too sweet. So word is you’ll be joining me for the inaugural issue of my upcoming comic book series.

Miss Katonic: Sounds great. Well, until then, there are a lot of souls to harvest. Back to work, you lazy wretches, before I decide to allow Yaag to assimilate your putrid carcasses! And to our studio audience, you get an all expenses paid trip to the soul harvesting factory, where your bodies will be flayed for eternity and your screams will be heard even in the vastness of space! Goodnight, everyone!

Yes. The promise of dealing death on a massive scale was naturally a draw.

Plus, I’ve seen the art.

We look exquisite. And the number of naked and near-naked bodies filling the pages was quite noteworthy.

Miss Katonic: Yeah, it’s an incredibly sexy series. And Rock N Roll Industries Magazine will be talking about it a lot in an upcoming issue. We certainly don’t want to spoil anything here, but what can people expect to see?

Well, when I was torturing their editors earlier today, they revealed that they’d be showing

Miss Katonic created by Jamie Katonic Art by Zak Hennessey Story by Jamie Katonic and Zak Hennessey

RNR with Miss Katonic RNR:Tell us how Miss Katonic spent Comicon?

Miss Katonic: It’s incredibly hard for me to travel among so many humans without just strangling somebody, so I allowed my host body to travel to the con on her own.. unattended by me directly, but still tethered to my subconscience. Jamie only gets the time on her natural Earth that I allow her these days, and occasionally I allow her to experience some fun, just so I have something more to take from her later. I do believe Jamie’s favorite parts included taking silly pictures with the large Hobbit Troll statues, getting fifty free hot wings from a local restaurant where the girls wear skimpy outfits, and getting to see Oderus Urungus’ human slave, Dave Brockie. The after con parties were great as well.

RNR: Working with Oderus from Gwar is exciting - how did this collaboration get started?

MK: A span of what seems several thousand or more milennia ago in your linear time, the group GWAR

crash landed in my dimension after a mishap during their travels across the galaxy. This was the very first time anyone had ever crossed into my world before... and they now belonged to me. Their simple presence intoxicated me. Originally I thought simply to consume them, so I could feel their lifeforces slowly fade inside of me... but Oderus had a better idea. I let them live in return of the favor... eternal servitude as my Agents of Destruction upon my arrival on Earth. The price of their freedom was the head of Oderus Urungus. It appears he grew another one back shortly thereafter, but the original has been an endless source of amusement for me.

Welcome the new face of Terror! Jamie Katonic

Miss Katonic

The Comic

GWAR

Zak Hennessey

RNR: When can we start looking for the new comic?

MK: Major updates are coming your way soon. Information will be made available at www.misskatonic.com and facebook.com/OriginalMissKatonic. We plan for the first full prophecy of your impending human doom to be finished and ready for you to purchase by the beginning of 2013.

www.misskatonic.com facebook.com/OriginalMissKatonic Lucid Dreamer Productions presents a new comic book series from the dark minds of Jamie Katonic, Zak Hennessey, and the legendary demons of rock, GWAR! Terror unfolds as a young woman with otherworldly dreams falls under the control of a madman running an insane asylum.

Her ‘treatments’ release the all-powerful Miss Katonic entity, who sees the Earth as a feast of souls and enlists GWAR to harvest them for her.

Rock N Roll Industries Magazine 61

A Taste of ROCK

Showing ID to prove you are 21 and over is commonplace in all drinking establishments.

It also happens to be something that people quite often get upset over. The bartender did not make the law. The liquor license for my particular establishment mandates that you can’t even be in the building unless you’re of age with proper identification, regardless of whether you’re drinking or not. That is the case with most bars and nightclubs.

Eating and recreational establishments vary depending on their type of license. I recently had a woman bring her child, in a stroller, through the doors of my bar. When I told her she had to take her child and leave, she became rather annoyed and in a very bitchy tone asked “Why?” In a very matter of fact tone I replied “because this is a bar.” It’s amazing how often I have to state the obvious.

Drink prices are another issue that bartenders have to contend with. Unless the owner and/or manager are waiting on you, getting upset with the bartender over drink prices is useless. We don’t set the prices. There are times when I don’t agree with the price but my job is to sell the product at the prices set by the powers that be.

Other issues that come up 62 Rock N Roll Industries Magazine

quite frequently are credit card minimums, dress codes and policies regarding removal of problematic clientele. Again, these are not things established by the bartender. I’ve previously mentioned policies regarding over serving and feel it necessary to reiterate.

Serving an obviously intoxicated person is against the law!

It doesn’t matter if you’re not driving. Over serving is subject to large fines for both the bartender and the establishment.

I understand that there are times when one has to deal with an unpleasant service worker. I’ve had many occasions to question why the person serving me even has a job.

I usually just go somewhere else or go to someone else.

It’s not worth the energy to deal with a person who is clueless to the fact that the customer is their bread and butter. I think it’s also important to remember in dealing with anyone, in any profession, that these are human beings with lives outside their job. I myself have had to go into work the same day as a very dear friend passed away. I’ve worked side by side with people who still made it to work after some of the most devastating of circumstances. Yes, you should leave your troubles at the door, but sometimes these things can be overwhelming. You never know what’s going on with that person who you just snapped at because of a drink you thought was too pricey.

We’re all out there trying to earn a living and support our livelihood. A favorite saying of mine comes to mind. “Do onto others as you would have done onto you.” This is something to remember in all facets of life. As always, have fun and drink safe.

http://villagepizzeria.net

Steve (owner) with Zakk Wylde

Fan Favorite

I

n every issue we host a facebook voting event called “Get Your Band Seen.” Everyone in a band is able to compete, all that needs to be done is have the public like the band once we upload them, in the end the band or artist with the most likes wins the chance to get covered on the next issue. The rules are that simple…

Shockingly on this issue, not an ordinary band won. This time, with 1,431 votes a very well supported and known tribute band won. Their name?

Rhoads to Ozz. They are exactly what the name sounds like, a tribute to Randy Rhoads and Ozzy Osbourne.

SCOTT TONKIN on vocals, RANDY CHAMBERS on guitars, CHRIS COTTON on drums,

and JEFF BRENT on bass. We had the pleasure of Jeff explaining to us a little history on who they are and how they came together.

Jeff- Our band was formed on January 1, 2007 at a New Years Eve party, and consists of four lifeling Randy Rhoads fans, and former music students of Ms. Rhoads. RTO performs the music from Ozzy’s “Blizzard Of Ozz” & “Diary Of A Madman” LP’s, and presents a throwback to the sound, stage, tour & gear of Randy Rhoads; Complete with Polka Dot V, Les Paul and Jackson Guitars, Marshall Amps, Castles & Bats & much more.

At times we are lucky enough to have Randy’s family participate in some of the concert events with us, and have been privileged to have shared the stage with Randy’s own brother Kelle

Rhoads a few times. Kelle Rhoads is our brother, and honorary RTO 5th Beatle; he joins us for the larger shows.

We are very appreciative to our family & friends, and loyal Randy Rhoads fans who have stumbled across our band and decided to give us a listen.

We only hope to honor our fallen hero Randy Rhoads, and hope we do the music justice. We hope to keep on jamming Randy’s music on the live concert scene stage. And finally a very special heartfelt Thanks to Ms. Delores Rhoads.

If you haven’t yet you can hear them or watch them on the links below. They will be expected to have the Randy Rhoads Birthday Tribute Show in December of which details will be posted as the date gets closer. www.RHOADSTOOZZ.com

Rock Shotz photographhy

On countless occasions I have posed this question to various customers at the bar.

“What good could come out of treating your bartender like crap?” I’ve yet to get any answer other than “nothing.” I’m sure most people would be rather surprised just how often customers treat the bartender unkindly. Most often it’s over things we have absolutely no control over.

Looking for the best pizza in town? Go where the stars stop to grab a slice! Village Pizzeria located caddy-corner from Capital Records and right down the street from Zloz photography studio, it has been the pizza Choice for many including Zakk Wylde and Slash. This picture came courtesy of Zloz himself. As for the pizza its self choose from Brooklyn style Neapolitan or Sicilian thick crust, whichever your choose it will be delicious. My personal recommendation is the pesto Neapolitan, but if you’re more of a meat lover then you have to go with the homemade sausage pizza. So hurry and stop by the famous Village Pizzeria today, located in Larchmont and Hollywood CA.

Neil Zlozower Atlas Icons.com

Village Pizzeria

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Rock N Roll Industries Magazine 65

I have heard a lot of praise about your recent project, the Steve Slate drums tell us a little about the process of creating the sound?

Engineers that prefer analog devices, you have a full range of those, tell us about the Dragon?

Well drums are a passion of mine, since I’ve heard Nirvana’s Nevermind album, when I was just a child. Getting the drum sounds for this new project took about 2 years. We recorded over 30 drum kits, of which only 15 made the cut. I researched and experimented a lot of how to capture sounds that inspired me as a musician and that I thought would inspire other musicians to make music.

The Dragon is an analog piece, it’s a dynamic processor and again because I love this industry so much and I’ve had so much analog years throughout my career, it’s just something I find to be a lot of fun, so I got some of the greatest analog designers together and

You’ve also created the Virtual Tape Machine, tell us a little on how that adds to the recording?

The virtual tape machine is something that I created with my partner in Slate Digital- Fabrice Gabriel. What we did was take 2 of the most classic tape machines in the industry and spent a year and a half meticulously modeling them, modeling their characteristics, and what happens when you put audio on to these machines.

It’s called Virtual Tape Machines, it just came out only a few weeks ago. People could find that at slatedigital.com or any major music retailer around the world.

What made you get into creating these plugins?

I’m a musician, a songwriter, also a recording engineer, a mixer, so this was a natural evolution for me as a musician, a recording engineer wanting to help the industry that I’m so passionate about. I started the company because I felt like I could add something to it, and maybe there are some products that I could develop that would help the industry.

And

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for

Music

plugins, and you can easily incorporate our micpre’s and our compressors as well.

What other projects are you working on right now?

I always like to keep working on projects, as well as developing different tools for the companies and I am mixing this great artist named Brittney Bouchard. She’s fantastic, she has aspects of singer/song writer, but has different elements.

A lot of fun projects being produced by Justin Glasco. Last year we finished George Lynch’s rock album called ‘‘Kill All Control’’ which went number 1, and we’re really happy about. We have done a lot of fun stuff here, I like to take the time to work on projects.

Tell us what inspires you to keep going on as a musician?

we built this really cool analog called The Dragon, it’s been used on everything from Van Halen, Bush, to Taylor Swift and kind of everything in between. It has a lot of success, and on the other end, we built a mic pre-amp, called The Fox Quad Tone Mic-Pre and what’s cool about that is it gives engineers four different sonic options because we got different circuit paths in each channel that allow you to have different sound qualities at the flick of a switch.

How easy is it to incorporate?

It’s really easy cause It’s as simple as getting one of our formal plugins called the RC-Tube, it can help warm up your mixes, super cheap, super easy to use. If you have any type of digital audio work station, you can use any of our

I think everything in this industry revolves around music. Music is where I come from and the first thing I did was not record stuff, It was write music, and play music. I still play music to this day, I’ve been in bands throughout the past 20 years, and I just started a brand new project and hopefully if I get some time I’ll be able to record my new songs. I don’t even have a name for the project yet, I do have about 6 or 7 songs I’m really proud of to record.

Where can we find more information on what you do?

If you go to StevenSlate.com that’s kind of the nick of where you can branch out to everything. You’ll be able to find the company websites, digital websites, I’ll put a music link, once I get some tunes up.

Thin Body Cutaway Acoustic/Electric Guitar • Nato Back and Sides • Laminated Spruce Top • Bound Rosewood Fretboard • Rosewood Bridge and Fretboard • Natural Gloss Finish • Enclosed, Die-cast Machine Heads • Full Binding on Body, Neck, and Headstock • Active Pick-up System and 3-band EQ List $229.90

What’s up guitar players? Today we are going to be taking a look at the Kona K 2 series thin body acoustic electric guitar.

The model sent for us to check out here at RocknRoll Industries came with a high gloss red transparent finish. The guitar features a spruce top, rosewood fret board, dot plastic inlays, and a nice cream colored 4 ply binding around the body, single ply on the neck and even on the headstock! This is a really thin guitar only 3 inches. 25.75 scale with 20 fret design, Gold die cast tuners, D’addario Strings, rosewood bridge, 3 band EQ, volume and battery compartments are all located right on top where you need them.

The guitar has a nice sound for being so thin, this guitar plays wonderful, it comes with the truss rod wrench and instructions. This is a plus, I’ve had students and clients ruin a nice guitar by taking a truss rod the wrong way, but Kona was nice enough to let you know how to do it

right! This guitar is really fun to play with, I really suggest this guitar to parents looking for a guitar to start their kids on that plugs in and can be played acoustic, or even the gigging musician that needs a second inexpensive guitar to carry along with him. I’ve personally dealt with Kona guitars for the past 10 years.. I sold a lot of these in my music store and when I had one come back with a problem the company made it right very quickly and free of charge.

In closing this is a great little guitar for the price, the thin body makes it a plus for kids and smaller girls to. A lot easier to get around the body for smaller arms, so do yourself, or a friend a favor and pick up one of these Kona K 2 guitars, they make a great gift, even if it’s for yourself, and keep watching RocknRoll Industries Gear page for more great gear coming up! For now... as I’ve always’s said, ‘Keep your strings clean, and your riffs mean.’

Michael G.

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Hello fellow guitar players!!! Welcome to another installment of Music with Michael G!!!

In today’s lesson we are going to touch on some things that you have to know before playing clubs, bars, or even bar mitzvah’s! First and foremost, know your gear.....this is up to you, not your friend with the PA, or the guy running the sound, your equipment is your equipment!

1. Guitar’s and bass- always stretch your strings before you play. The lights cause heat that can make your guitar fall out of tune, have at least one backup guitar on hand just in case you break a string. You can switch guitars and easily carry on the song without too much of a cluster f&^%$ don’t panic, just put your amp on standby, and switch the cords. If you do not have a standby on your amp, be very careful just pulling the instrument out of the guitar or bass while the amp is full of juice, it can blow your amp up! Turn it off for just a second if you don’t have a standby, even if you have a backup amp! Which is never a bad idea!

2. Strings- always keep extra strings.. you never know when one might break... nothing can ruin a gig more than a guitar player trying to get by without strings!!!! Not to mention your guitar will

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change tuning when another string breaks, especially if you’re using a floating tremolo like a Floyd Rose.

3. Pedal’s- be willing to play without them if need be, have extra batteries, cables, short cables are favored because you don’t loose as much signal through a short cable, most are called patch cables...get some, but like I said be ready to play without them. Get to know your amp’s settings and be able to use only your amp if need be. A simple a+b switch works, most amps from clean to dirty.... or dirty to dirty, depending on what you’re playing!

4.If you’re not using a wireless system, run your cable through your strap, this simple trick can stop your singer, or anyone else from unplugging your guitar unexpectedly, easy fix.

5.If you have CD’s or swag from your band to sell i.e. shirts, hats, etc... have someone handle it or at least watch it while you’re playing... some gigs, that will be where a lot of your money will come from don’t expect people to buy it, but be grateful when they do.

6.Try not to drink away your profit, this is important, a lot of club owners don’t mind paying $500 to $1000 a night, because the band usually drinks that much not a good move financially or for your liver... time to party is after the gig is over, if you open a tab right away, it is amazing how fast drinks add up, and you go home with nothing, but a hangover.

Magic number 7, my favorite number- Enjoy yourself... if you’re not having fun.. you’re not doing it right, music is about expressing yourself, even death metal!!!! In closing, I like to remind everyone to keep up the practice and keep writing in. We here at Rock n Roll Industries love to hear from you.!!!! And remember in Rock you’re playing 3 chords for 30,000 people, in Jazz you’re playing 30,000 chords for 3 people!!!!!!

A little music humor there, remember, hit us up on Facebook and keep the questions coming, til next time, keep your strings clean, and your riffs mean!!!

Michael G out....

Tsunami Cables would like to thank all of the artist and supporters for helping, believing, and just being there for the last 5 years. If it was not for all of these people we would not be here today!!!! Thank you so much and with your Continued support we will keep growing like crazy.

Again Thank you to everyone and anyone that has helped and is not on this page.

Our sincere apologies to anyone we may have left out, thank you for your support as well www.tsunamicables.com ~Keith Stickney - Owner~ ~Leilani Espinoza - Promotion Manager~ ~Bob Jaffe - Sales~ ~Gordon Sluder - Manufacturing~

Rock N Roll Industries Magazine 71

Poor Kids Records DEMOLITION

Thirty 9 FingerS I AM WAR

Madison Rose OVER YOU

Attika 7 DEVILS DAUGHTER

Featured Video Municipal Waste

With resources running dangerously low, a failed space mission leads to the gruesome cannibalization of the Captain and his crew.

Witness this epic Sci-Fi bloodbath and face the wrath of Waste in Space!

Band: Municipal Waste Album: The Fatal Feast Track: The Fatal Feast Label: Nuclear Blast Director: Jeff Speed Production Design: Chris Speed Produced by Halo Of Flies

Internal Corrosion LEGACY OF BLOOD

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Rock N Roll Industries Magazine 73

Chad Smith’s Bombastic Meatbats Live Meat & Potatoes

6 out of 10 Genre(s): Rock, Funk Label: Marmaduke Records Band Members: Drums: Chad Smith Guitar: Jeff Kollman Bass: Kevin Chown Keyboard: Ed Roth

A Los Angeles based band, Bombastic Meatbats is comprised of members of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Chickenfoot, Cosmosquad, Uncle Kracker, Tarja Turunen, Coolio and Ronnie Montrose. All one has to do is listen to discover that each member is extremely talented. Every individual has their time to shine throughout the completely instrumental double cd set. This, their third album is the first LIVE release from this group. The set contains 15 songs, including such titles as ‘Lobster Legs’, ‘Breadballs’, ‘Pigsfeet’ and ‘Oops, I spilled My Beer’. However, each song averages over 7 minutes and even though the music is exceptionally good, it becomes monotonous since several of the tunes contain the same or similar riffs and/or structures. The total playing time of the 2 cds is just over an hour and 47 minutes. By the time it’s finished, you are ready for a change.

This recent release by Chad Smith’s Bombastic Meatbats will appeal to those diehard fans of Rocking Funk who can’t get enough of the stuff.

Peggy Murphy

Steve Vai The Story of Light Three-time Grammy Award winner, guitarist/composer Steve Vai is ready to release yet another cd; Currently available for online pre-sale orders, Vai’s sixteenth solo cd The Story of Light will be officially released on August 14, 2012. The Story of Light is actually a continuation of Vai’s 2005 solo cd entitled Real Illusions: Reflections. “The Story of Light... is based on the amplified mental exaggerations of a truth-seeking madman who sees 9 out of 10 the world through his own perceptions”.

Amid the awe-inspiring instrumentals, the Genre(s): Hard, cd contains guest vocalists as specified Instrumental, progressive below. Steve Vai has envisioned a future Rock release that, paired with the other two albums mentioned above, will form a Label: Favored Nations trilogy of operatic proportions.

To support the release of The Story of Light, Band Members: Vai will be on tour with his band throughout Guitar: Steve Vai North America from August 15th to October Guitar: Dave Weiner 13th. For dates and locations check the Bass: Philip Bynoe web site.

Drums: Jeremy Colson Obviously a master at what he does, Vai’s Vocals, Keyboards, eloquent composition and exceptional Harp: Deborah Hensonperformance have once again come to Conant light through this latest release.

Want to see you band here? Submit your digital press kit to review@rocknrollindustries.com or mail one to the main office.

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Peggy Murphy

(not all media will get reviewed)

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From New York City to Donington Park, Hartke gives David Ellefson all the power and tone he needs for the biggest stages in the world. © 2012 Hartke | hartke.com | Check out Megadeth’s new release, “Th1rt3en” available now.

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