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DRUMMER CARMINE APPICE RECOUNTS THE INFAMOUS LED ZEPPELIN MUD SHARK INCIDENT

Larry Getlen of the New York Post reports:

Rock drummer Carmine Appice co-wrote a No. 1 song, Rod Stewart’s Da Ya Think I’m Sexy; played with everyone from Jeff Beck to Pink Floyd; befriended his idol, drum legend Buddy Rich; and even, to hear him tell it, influenced Led Zeppelin.

But one of his stranger achievements was patrolling hotel hallways as a member of the “Sex Police.”

The group — consisting of Appice, Stewart and other members of Stewart’s band — would listen for anyone in the band or crew having sex and sabotage these encounters any way they could.

…[When] Led Zeppelin and Vanilla Fudge toured in 1969, in Seattle, that both would participate in the most notorious groupie incident in rock history.

Appice was there, and gives a full, disgustingly detailed recounting of the infamous Led Zeppelin mud-shark story, wherein Bonham and/or Zeppelin’s tour manager, Richard Cole, have long been said to have pleasured a young woman with a shark.

According to Appice, the story is not only true but much more intricate and debauched than most tellings have conveyed.

As Appice tells it, he, his bandmate Tim Bogert, Jones and Plant and Plant’s wife, Maureen, were getting high in Jones’ room when there was a knock at the door. Scrambling to hide their pot, it turned out to be a girl Appice had had a series of dalliances with (described in minute detail in the book) the day before…

…Appice, too high to deal with her, went next door to hang out with Bonham and his wife, Pat, Cole and two crew members, several of whom were fishing out the window. They had a “mini-aquarium” in their bathtub, including “a 2-foot-long, dead-eyed, ferocious-looking mud shark.” He told them about the girl, then later returned to the first room.

There, Appice and the rest listened to music as again, there was a knock at the door. When they opened it, Bonham, Cole, and the two crew members barged in, with Appice’s bandmate, Mark Stein, “holding a Super 8 camera and lights.”

From here, Appice writes, it was “carnage,” as Bonham and Cole went right for the girl.

“ ‘You want to make a f—ing movie?’ they asked her. ‘OK, let’s do it right now! Take your clothes off!’ ”

As she did so, Appice realized that the camera and lights weren’t all they had brought from the other room. They also brought the shark.

Cole and a crew member threw the girl on the bed. With Stein filming, Cole took the shark by the tail and “started whipping the girl with it, beating her again and again as she writhed around the bed.”

Each time the shark made contact, Appice writes, “its teeth ripped her skin and left tiny blood-red scars all over her back.” Throughout, the girl “was bucking and screaming with pleasure,” as if in the throes of orgasm.

Soon, the shark was being used differently, having sex with the girl as Appice and the others “were all doubled up with laughter as the insane scene developed.”

The noise attracted the attention of the hotel manager, who burst into the room, saw the scene, and demanded they stop at once. Appice, Jones and Bogert scrambled out of the room in hysterics.

This is only the first part of the story. The second part is even more depraved, as roadies used the woman and humiliated her further. Jones finally had to leave in disgust, and Appice says he would have done the same had it not been taking place in his room.

The next day, Appice saw Frank Zappa at the airport and shared the story with him, and Zappa immortalized the tale in a 1971 song called The Mud Shark. (In the song, Zappa says the story was told to his keyboardist, Don Preston.)

Appice played in many bands over the years, both his own and others. Vanilla Fudge was followed by Cactus, then by Beck, Bogert and Appice, in which he had many disputes with guitar icon and on-again/off-again friend Jeff Beck.

He played in Ozzy Osbourne’s band for a time but writes that Osbourne’s manager/wife Sharon was angered by increasing attention he received for his special-effects-laden drum solo on the tour.

Previously told he could sell his own merchandise, he arrived for one show to find that his face had been cut out of his T-shirts — on every single shirt. When he asked who had done this, the answer was, “Ask Sharon.” That night, as he began his solo, his special effects failed. He was fired from the tour soon after…

…Appice was married, to five different women, for much of his groupie-loving existence. Now, he has been in a relationship with a New York rock DJ named Leslie Gold — known as the “Radiochick” — for 13 years. At one point, Gold insisted on figuring out how many people he’d had sex with in his life. Her own total was seven.

Using a spreadsheet, she arrived at the number 4,500.

Now 69, Appice insists he has always been faithful to Gold.

“Leslie asked me a loaded question, and the shocking answer was 4,500,” he writes. “But number 4,501 was the one that mattered most.”

Read more at the New York Post.

Carmine Appice will be releasing a memoir called Stick It!: My Life of Sex, Drums, and Rock ‘n’ Roll on May 1st through Chicago Review Press that contain the stories referenced above and many more. The book is available for purchase at Amazon.

source: nypost.com

ROB ZOMBIE DISCUSSES HIS NEW ALBUM, “THE ELECTRIC WARLOCK ACID WITCH SATANIC ORGY CELEBRATION DISPENSER,” AND SAYS, “IT’S A SHORT RECORD, AND THE SONGS ARE SHORT”

Rolling Stone reports:

Rob Zombie [has released a new album on April 29th], and it has a psychedelic, eye-popping title, The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser. “To me, that [title] is what the record sounded like,” he tells magazine.

…When asked about how he challenges himself while making LPs some 30 years into his career, counting White Zombie, he says his main goal is to make something interesting. It’s an objective that applies to his whole outlook on life. “I live in such a fear of being boring,” he says.

It seems the only thing he has time for is song and album titles. “With this record, one thing I tried to do is keep it short. It’s a short record, and the songs are short,” he continues. “Whenever I go through records that I love and I listen to over and over and over, I go, ‘Man, this record is short. That’s why I loved it so much. It’s 30 minutes, so I’ve listened to it 9,000 times.’ … I go back and look at Beatles records, the songs are a minute-and-a-half long. … I love long songs, but if you’re going to write a song that long, it better be Freebird or Stairway to Heaven.”

Watch a clip of In the Age of the Consecrated Vampire We All Get High and lyric video for Well,Everybody’s F–king In A U.F.O, below.

Rob Zombie will be touring with KORN this summer, see dates below.

To read more, and to watch a brief interview with Zombie, go to Rolling Stone

Rob Zombie/Korn Tour Dates:

July 19 – Englewood, CO @ Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre
July 20 – Salt Lake City, UT @ USANA Amphitheater
July 22 – Albuquerque, NM @ Isleta Amphitheater
July 23 – Phoenix, AZ @ Ak-Chin Pavilion
July 24 – Irvine, CA @ Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre
July 26 – Nampa (Boise), ID @ Idaho Center Amphitheater
July 27 – Auburn, WA @ White River Amphitheatre
July 29 – Mountain View, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheatre
July 30 – Las Vegas, NV @ Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino

August 2 – Austin, TX @ Austin 360 Amphitheater
August 3 – The Woodlands, TX @ Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
August 4 – Dallas TX @ Gexa Energy Pavilion
August 6 – Noblesville, IN @ Klipsch Music Center
August 7 – Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center
August 9 – Maryland Heights, MO @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
August 10 – Kansas City, MO @ Sandstone
August 21 – Clarkston, MI @ DTE Energy Music Theatre
August 23 – West Toronto, ON @ Molson Canadian Amphitheatre
August 24 – Cuyahoga Falls, OH @ Blossom Music Center
August 25 – Burgettstown, PA @ First Niagara Pavilion
August 27 – Syracuse, NY @ Lakeview Amphitheater
August 28 – Boston, MA @ Xfinity Center
August 30 – Holmdel, NJ @ PNC Bank Arts Center

September 1 – Hartford, CT @ Xfinity Theatre
September 2 – Camden, NJ @ BB&T Pavilion
September 3 – Bristow, VA @ Jiffy Lube Live

source: rollingstone.com

TREMONTI RETURNS WITH LATEST ALBUM “DUST” NOW AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE

Mark Tremonti’s latest album Dust is now available worldwide.

The album is the third full-length offering from the band comprised of Mark Tremonti on vocals/guitars, Eric Friedman on guitars, Wolfgang Van Halen on bass and Garrett Whitlock on drums. The newest album comes just 10 months after the sophomore release Cauterize.

The album is available through iTunes and Amazon.

The first single from the album is the title track Dust. A lyric video was released last month and it has been viewed over 288,000 times since it was release. The song itself is moving up the hard rock charts and getting new station support weekly. The lyric video can be seen here.

Tremonti has also released a retrospective video chronicling the band through the years from the first album to present day. That video is now live and can be seen below.

The band will be heading out on a European tour next month. The tour begins May 27th in Germany and lasts four weeks before wrapping up in Denmark on June 24th. The band will be playing Sonispehere, Download, Hellfest and Graspop as well as headline shows overseas. They have also been tapped to open for Iron Maiden on some of their European dates.

Tremonti on the web:

marktremonti.com
facebook.com/MarkTremonti

SCORPIONS RECRUIT MIKKEY DEE TO FILL IN ON U.S. DATES

The Scorpions will hit the road in May for twelve North American headlining dates with Mikkey Dee formerly of Motörhead sitting in on drums for James Kottak, announced today.

Kottak is currently on break while he seeks medical attention.

Swedish-born Mikkey Dee joined Motörhead in 1992 and is well-respected among the rock and metal community. Scorpions singer Klaus Meine states, “We would like to continue our Return to Forever tour with James, but we have to realize that his health is priority. We wish James a speedy recovery and he will be back to Rock with us very soon! We look forward to seeing all our fans this month.”

Scorpions North American Tour Dates:

May:

6 Carolina Rebellion Charlotte, NC
7 Chastain Park Amphitheater Atlanta, GA
9 Grand Ole Opry House Nashville, TN
10 Fox Theatre St. Louis
13 The Joint At Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas, NV
14 The Joint At Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas, NV
18 The Joint At Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas, NV
20 The Joint At Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas, NV
21 The Joint At Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas, NV
24 Don Haskins Center El Paso, TX
25 Isleta Amphitheater Albuquerque, NM
28 Rocklahoma Pryor, OK
29 River City Rockfest – AT&T Center San Antonio, TX

See Mexican, and European, tour dates here.