Did you catch Dee Snider in Radio Shack’s Super Bowl commercial?
The spot, which was a huge favorite among viewers (#1 in a Today Show poll, #5 on USA Today), featured Dee and a host of ‘80s era stars and icons including wrestlers Hulk Hogan and Sgt. Slaughter, actor Erik Estrada as Ponch from C.H.i.P.s., Alf, “Cliff” from the TV sitcom Cheers, Teen Wolf, Chucky, Bubo (Clash of the Titans), the California Raisins, Jason (Friday the 13th), a Solid Gold dancer, rappers Kid ‘N Play, Slimer (Ghostbusters), Q*Bert, gymnast Mary Lou Retton, and more. Check it out on the HOH website, here.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers churned up some controversy this week after miming their performance with Bruno Mars during last Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime show. Bassist Flea wrote a long explanation of the ins and outs of performing for that kind of event, and Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose even weighed in.
Wrote Axl in an op-ed piece on Billboard.com, “I enjoyed the show and I’ve no idea what the real story is nor would I want to suggest or imply anyone wasn’t actually performing or that what they were playing wasn’t what we actually heard. That said I feel it’s important to always look on the positive side of things and to give the benefit of doubt. So consider that maybe sometime before their actual performance that rather than use a guitar cord or standard wireless, that in the name of science and for all mankind Flea courageously had a newly invented breakthrough in microchip technology installed in his ass that picked up the frequencies of his bass and transmitted them to his amplifier. Maybe they all had microchips installed in their asses to not only pick up the frequencies of their instruments but get Direct TV and the internet, too! Like Google Glass…Google Ass! They could be ‘Scientific Pioneers!’ Like Buzz Aldrin and s***! True (pardon the pun) ASS-tro-nots! Or like Super Bowl crash test dummies for bands kinda like those cars that drive themselves!
And besides…if the band wasn’t really playing or wireless or whatever and Anthony [Kiedis, singer] was really singing they may have set a new world record for the largest karaoke audience ever! Awesome! So relax and show some pride! This is probably all just Google finding new ways to enrich our lives with the selfless volunteering of the Peppers and the ever-ongoing creative process of true innovation or perhaps a new lounge bar record of super magnificent proportions and a new pinnacle of human achievement not seen since the sign language guy in South Africa!
God Bless America, the Peppers n’ technology… PN’T! –Ax
And while we’re on the subject…it looks like Guns N’ Roses will be returning to the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas for another residency (look for an official announcement soon).
In case you missed it last week…Poison frontman Bret Michaels made a special guest appearance on NBC’s post-apocalyptic, oh-no-the-lights-went-out series Revolution. Check out a behind-the-scenes piece featuring Bret singing to “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”.
When the show aired, one of the series’ main characters says, “The world’s gonna end and there’s gonna be nothing left but Bret Michaels. Him and the cockroaches.” Watch this behind the scenes video of Bret, too!
The always-busy Poison frontman was also a guest recently on the Home Shopping Network, hawking his newly launched cologne, Roses & Thorns.
The scent, says Bret’s own website, will “make your perimeter excite and ignite the senses!” It’s described as “an exhilarating scent with a mysterious kicker… leading to sexy results! Let your reputation of smell good proceed you, get the cologne that both men and women love.”
So, what’s Mötley Crüe guitarist Mick Mars’ plans after the band calls it quits in 2015? A solo record,” he said in a recent interview.
“People have been asking me for that for years and years and years. And ‘Why hasn’t Mick written a book?’ So that, of course, is gonna be in the works. I haven’t started anything or figured out who I want to write with me, or help me write it. But doing that kind of a thing. Putting together, probably, a cool band with some cool friends of mine and stuff, and going out and doing some… you know, a few weeks here and a few weeks there, touring… but not as the Mick Mars Band; I won’t do that. [laughs] You’ll see, like, a name, and you’ll go, ‘Hey, who’s that?’ ‘I don’t know’ That’s the name of the band.”
About the band’s $18 million concert/concept film, Metallica Through The Never, guitarist Kirk Hammett said he was surprised it didn’t do better in theaters (it was released just last week on DVD). “You know, I really, really felt that we had put our all into this movie,” he told The Pulse Of Radio. “I mean, we spent a lot of time making it, we spent a lot of time editing it in post-production and making sure that it was exactly what we wanted it to be. We spent a lot of time making sure it sounded up to par with, you know, all our other stuff. And, you know, it’s just amazing because other than our fans, no one else was interested in the movie. [laughs].”
Ratt is hard at work on a new studio album. “We’ve actually been writing for the new record for quite some time,” admitted singer Stephen Pearcy in a recent interview. “Warren [DeMartini, guitarist] and I actually went into the studio and cut a song. So hopefully a new Ratt record this year is what we want. Our 30th-year anniversary and our tenth record, so it’ll be okay.”
He added, “Warren and I are spearheading the next record to be what it should be — more [of an] EP [1983] and Out Of The Cellar thing. Just real hardcore, basically. We’ve already recorded [a track]…and if this song we recorded is the only song ever released, I’d be way happy.”
Britain’s Prince Harry is a headbanger! Actor Dominic West was on a recent a trek with the prince (the Walking With The Wounded expedition to the South Pole), and says Harry’s iPod is crammed with bands like Megadeth, Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax.
Fussed West, “Harry has a terrible selection on his iPod. It is the sort of thing soldiers listen to. Hardcore thrash metal.”