Tough few weeks for metal heads. Here's a roundup of some of the sad stories of Paul Gray, the bassist from Slipknot who died yesterday:
Blabbermouth.net, which is run by Slipknot's label, Roadrunner Records, has a bunch of info, including an interview with Hail!, the side project Gray was working on with ex-Judas Priest vocalist Tim "Ripper" Owens.
Slipknot's hometown newspaper, the Des Moines Register, has the nuts and bolts of what happened, as well as a timeline of the band's rise out of Iowa to becoming Grammy winners and one of the best-selling acts in metal.
Anyone who has ever hoisted the devil horn in the air in their life should be paying deep respects today to Ronnie James Dio, who is credited with bringing the hand gesture now synonymous with rocking to the metal world. In the great documentary, "Metal: A Headbanger's Journey," Dio explains how he brought the gesture to Black Sabbath and ultimately made it as important to metal as guitars, bass, drums, Satan, blow, leather and groupies. Love how he calls Gene Simmons a liar too:
I had the opportunity to cover Dio a few times in Boston, including when he played with Heaven and Hell in 2007 on the Loco Fest with Queensryche. Dio, who hailed from Portsmouth, N.H., cut a diminutive figure physically but was a massive voice, a trailblazer and a metal icon who will be greatly missed.
Poor guy went through seven rounds of chemo for stomach cancer but just couldn't beat it. RIP bro . . .
By Associated Press Sunday, May 16, 2010 - Updated 1h ago E-mail Print (7) Comments Text size Share Buzz up! Ronnie James Dio, whose soaring vocals, poetic lyrics and mythic tales of a never-ending struggle between good and evil broke new ground in heavy metal, died Sunday, according to a statement from his wife and manager. He was 67.
Dio revealed last summer that he was suffering from stomach cancer shortly after wrapping up a tour in Atlantic City, N.J., with the latest incarnation of Black Sabbath, under the name Heaven And Hell.
"Today my heart is broken," Wendy Dio wrote on the singer’s site, adding he died at 7:45 a.m. "Many, many friends and family were able to say their private goodbyes before he peacefully passed away.
"Ronnie knew how much he was loved by all," Wendy Dio continued. "We so appreciate the love and support that you have all given us ... Please know he loved you all and his music will live on forever."
The statement was confirmed by Los Angeles publicist Maureen O’Connor. Dio was being treated at a Houston hospital, according to his site.
Disturbing news out of British Columbia - Devon Clifford, drummer for dance-punk band You Say Party! We Say Die! collapsed and died onstage during a show in Vancouver. He was 30. In a statement posted by his band's record label, Paper Bag, his family said he died of a massive brain hemorrhage. Here's an excerpt from the family statement:
"Devon Clifford was an extremely gifted drummer and determined character. He loved his family, loved his band, loved traveling, loved being on stage and loved meeting people around the world. He was smart, witty, passionate, and music meant everything to him. He was also incredibly generous with his love and respected everybody he came into contact with."
RIP dude. Here's "There is XXXX (Within My Heart)," a slowly-building banger from their latest disc, XXXX:
Peter Steele was a lot of things but dishonest was not one of them. This interview below gives just a small snapshot into the complex, tortured Type O Negative frontman. RIP dude . . .
The rock star dream apparently faded long ago for Pete Steele.
"I just wanted to have enough money to have a house, wife, maybe four kids. I'm not at that place right now and I really don't see things changing very much," said Steele, the hulking, vampiric frontman for Brooklyn goth metallers Type O Negative.
"That's the main problem, is what am I doing here? I'm 41 years old, and rock is for youth."
While many bands spend interviews gushing about their latest albums, praising their bandmates as their best pals or thanking their lucky stars to be playing music for a living, Steele is brutally disenchanted and blatantly depressed. A former New York City Parks Department worker, he said he rues the day he gave up the salaried job to front the brooding metal outfit.
Now 10 years and five albums into the Type O experiment, he still lives in the same basement apartment, has no girlfriend and describes his life as one of disappointment and frustration. He claims he stays in the band only because of contracts and because he made a promise to the rest of the group: keyboardist Josh Silver, guitarist Kenny Hickey and drummer Johnny Kelly.
"I do it because I made a commitment to my so-called friends in this band that we would see this through to the end. I didn't realize it would be a life sentence," he deadpanned.
Formed in the bowels of Brooklyn's early 1990s goth scene, the group slithered out of the shadows and made its mark on the black- metal underground with 1993's "Bloody Kisses," a spine-tingling offering that went platinum. The group, which headlines the Worcester Palladium tonight, followed up with 1996's "October Rust" and 1999's "World Coming Down," neither of which lived up to "Bloody Kisses" commercially or in the eyes of fans.
Their latest, however, the aptly titled "Life Is Killing Me," is an instant classic, bursting with hypnotic, melodic hard rock, tongue-in-cheek potty-mouth speed punk and their signature dead-to- the-world metal. Brimming with bleakness and unflinching honesty, the album is burning up college radio and metal charts, but Steele isn't impressed.
"I wouldn't buy it," he barked.
While some songs, such as the mind-numbing "Anesthesia" and the crushing title track, portray Steele as a tortured intellectual on the brink of suicide, others, like the homophobic "I Like Goils," use black humor as a weapon. Musically, the disc sounds like Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath unleashed at an Irish wake. Lyrically, shrinks could write volumes analyzing the subject matter. Fresh off a miserable, if slightly profitable, European tour, Steele is candidly unexcited about heading out in a bus with his three brethren for a U.S. tour.
"It's like four people being married and all of them having their period all the time," he said of the band. "There's an old saying about husbands and wives getting on each other's nerves, like fighting about stupid things, like leaving the cap off the toothpaste. Well, let's just say the cap is always off the toothpaste."
Beyond the bus, he said, he detests playing the same songs every night: "I can't imagine how Ozzy (Osbourne) does it. I mean, how many times has he had to play `Paranoid'?
"I really hate being onstage," he continued. "It's usually a balmy 130 degrees onstage and I've got these french fry lights burning on my back. I don't like traveling. I just don't get anything out of it."
Fed up and angry? Yes. Giving up? Never. In fact, there's a clear, revenge-driven method to Steele's madness.
"I feel like I've been disillusioned," he explained matter-of- factly. "But it's no one's fault but mine. No one made me do this. Now my goal is to complain, annoy and irritate everyone around me until I get out of this band, die or someone kills me. My motivation is aggravation."
And check out a live performance for "Anesthesia" from 2003's Life Is Killing Me:
Some dude got capped at The Lit, an infamous Brockton drinking hole that has great pizza. Used to love going there but won't be returning anytime soon. The new mayor in Brockton has a lot on her hands as the city is spiraling out of control.
Shootings are up again and driving around there the other day, I've never seen more boarded up, vacant buildings in my hometown. Starting to look like Detroit . . . sad . . .
The newly inaugurated Brockton mayor this morning vowed a crack down on youth violence after two separate shootings last night left one man dead at a city bar and injured a teenager at the Westgate Mall. “Brockton is a safe community,” said Mayor Linda Balzotti, who promised to combat youth violence during her inauguration as the city’s first woman mayor on Monday. “These are targeted incidents and the individuals are known to each other. These are not random acts.” Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz told The Enterprise of Brockon a man was fatally shot at about 6 p.m. at The Lit bar on Ames Street. Shortly before the bar shooting, a teen was shot in the leg at a Westgate Mall entrance during an altercation with the alleged shooter, said mall General Manager Luciano Villani.
This story is insane - and now the cops have named the woman who allegedly doused her husband in alcohol and torched his sorry ass. She is Sharon Jones, 38, of Brockton. Read more in the Enterprise . . .
I'm a journalist who's covered news, mayhem, hacks, gender-bending killers, rock stars and tragedy, among other things, for the Boston Herald since 1999. I also write for DigBoston.com, SocietePerrier.com, Esquire.com and Lambgoat.com and have been a contributor to Revolver and Boston magazine. My first book, called "Boston Strong" (with co-author Casey Sherman), will tell the incredible stories of heroism and survival at the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. It will be out in fall 2014.
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