Getting ready to fly to Sacramento for the first time ever in a few hours with Don & Jim. Thunder Valley Casino is putting on a concert tomorrow night we are hosting with Anthrax, Living Colour, Corey Taylor and Burn Halo. I’ll also be selling and signing both books on site and will have merch available at the band merch booths. We will also be there hanging Saturday. If you are in the area and coming out or would like to meet and grab a book just follow on Twitter and I’ll post specific places and times I’ll be available. I would assume during most of the concert there may be time as well while the bands are playing. Should be a fun weekend.
Saw Ted Nugent in NJ on Tuesday night. I realize Ted is a polarizing figure to many. When we had him on TMS had a massive amount of equal love and hate for him being on. My position on Ted is that I love his music and his guitar playing. That’s all it’s about for me. On some of his other stuff I have mixed feelings, but the guy is still a machine on stage and his band kicked ass. Derek St Holmes still sings amazing and Mick Brown and Greg Smith were locked in strong. Really fun show. I appreciate Ted’s very vocal support of TMS as well which he expressed from the stage. That support from the fans and the artists is so cool and important to what we do. Me, Don & Jim hung with him some pre show (pics on my Twitter and Instagram) and he was as entertaining as always. There were a few protesters in front of the gig. One interviewed Don. He told them he was also protesting….that Rob Grange wasn’t in the band. Seeing this guy try to figure out what Don was talking about was hysterical. Like I said, for us it’s about MUSIC above all and Ted rocked!
Caught Queen with Adam Lambert last night in NJ. Pretty remarkable that for the most part Queen are filling arenas (sold out MSG and The Forum in LA) with no opening act against all the competition out there this Summer. Speaks to the power and timelessness of their music. I have seen the band with Freddie, Paul Rodgers and now Adam Lambert. Stating the obvious, nobody is Freddie. But I liked Paul very much in the gig and Lambert was totally different, but also very strong. Lambert is way more flamboyant and really gets into the Freddie pageantry of the frontman role. His voice is pretty remarkable and he was clearly moved to be able to sing Freddie’s songs (as he stated) and play in a band that was important to him and so many around the globe. Queen are MASSIVE outside of the US. Here they are an arena act, everywhere else stadiums. As a matter of fact they recently did a gig in front of 500,000! Queen in 2014 is more a celebration of the music and a tribute to Freddie. Lambert is very much his own guy in the role, careful not to impersonate (no half mic stand or similar clothes, etc), but also very much about doing the material as close to Mercury as possible. Different from Rodgers who put more of a bluesy spin on it. I interviewed Brian May before the show and he told me they wanted to get back to being a little heavier and more classic Queen. The show had a little bit of a too long middle of ballads and solos, but with the two key guys being in their mid 60’s, and playing over two hours, it gave others a break. Highlights for me were “Now I’m Here”, “Stone Cold Crazy”, “Fat Bottom Girls”, and many others. Just amazing songs! Brian is one of a kind in his playing and sound and Roger sings and plays very well, especially for his age. He had an assist from his son at a few points in the show as well. Brian told me he is unsure how long he and Roger can keep doing it and where it goes from here, but loves Adam and said he thinks Freddie would have also. The demand is there for more shows and maybe even an album but seems nothing is set yet. Had a great hang after with Roger and Brian and they are just class gentlemen as well as rock icons. You will hear the complete Brian May interview in my podcast very soon as well as clips of it in both radio shows. In the short time I had with him we got into some great stuff.
Speaking of my podcast episode 3 is up now on Itunes and at www.podcastone.com with Brad, Kelly and Jack from Night Ranger. This is all new and has not aired elsewhere. We discuss lots of stuff including Brad’s time in Ozzy. It is free worldwide so download it now and be sure to subscribe to hear it each week. Thanks.
33 Responses
What Don did was funny. I can’t remember who it was, because I read about it over 25 years ago in either Hit Parader or maybe Circus, but a band was being protested and one of the band members made a protest sign that had “Have A Nice Day” on it and walked around with the protesters and they didn’t pay him any attention. I do clearly remember an interview with Billy Milano ages ago where he said he joined a protest line outside at his show, I just don’t remember if he was the one that carried the Have A Nice Day sign. I don’t think it was Billy, although, being the cut up he is, it sounds like something he’d do. Come to think of it, it may have been Ozzy. I don’t remember who it was. Damn, old age memory!
People who protest Ted need to get a life. His hunting shows disgust me, but I’m not gonna hate the guy over it.
Seen Queen in Houston(Sold Out) Adam was Great as well as others. Not fare to compare Adam with Freddy as a whole. In concert You can and both are really good vocally(great range) and put on great shows. But Freddy was a Musician/song writer/song arranger before Queen, Adam was mostly a Musical/Stage Guy performed in a few bands and wrote with Monty Pittman on a couple of occasions. Seen people lambasting Ed because he liked Adam and people tried to compare it to the KISS Issue. Again not fair Adam is NOT pretending to be Freddy. Would be interesting to see what they do with new recordings. Down Side Ticket prices were high because of Snubhub crap they bought up good seats and resold them for 300-500.00.
Tommy and Eric are not “pretending” to be Ace and Peter either! They have taken over the characters, that’s all! I’m sensing a double standard here–amazing. Call it whatever you want–I know you will–but there is nothing wrong with what Kiss is doing with the characters.
Incase no one has heard of Monty Pittman Check this guy out crazy guitar player and sort of Blue Murder Like Vocals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wc50pfFjOq8#t=314
Ed,
Thank you so much for the podcasts. All three have been great. I wasn’t all that familiar with Overkill, but the interview with Blitz was outstanding. There’s no doubt that will continue to dominate the ITunes podcast rankings for many, many years. I fully excpet an exclusive one-one-one with interview with Eddie Van Halen. I know it probably won’t happen, but I can dream. Whatever medium- please keep up the fantastic work.
I know we’re both excited for the upcoming NFL season, but I have bad news. This is Romo’s year to shine. It is our time. My ‘Boys & Romo will finally win it all. Good luck to your G-men.
TJ