Geekwire Week of 03.10.26

Introduction

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Decibel Geek Podcast

1:18This is the Decibel Geek Podcast with Chris Sinzak and Aaron Camaro.

1:29When you need to know the latest and greatest happenings in the world of hard rock and heavy metal music, man, there's only one place to turn. You know it because you're already here. This is the Decibel Geek Podcast. My name is Aaron Camaro, completely oblivious to the world around me, but hey, that's why I got my good friend right here, Chris Sinzak, with his finger on the pulse of all the things, all the happenings, the good, the bad, the ugly, the stupid. It's all right here for us because this is GeekWire. What's going on, my friend? The finger is still on the pulse,

2:03but it's twisted this week, if you know what I'm talking about. I think I do. Yeah, some big news

Sebastian Bach Joins Twisted Sister

2:09coming out of this. Like, we were originally supposed to record this the other day, and what always seems to happen, and it probably will happen here again today, the moment we're done recording GeekWire, some big news story happens, but because we got pushed back by a day or two, we actually get to talk about Sebastian Bach joining Twisted Sister. Who would ever thought that? It's a weird, this is a weird situation because, you know, we talked about Dee announcing his retirement and that

2:40he wasn't going to be playing with him on the road, and then like most of us, you know, because the press release said that, you know, the rest of the band was going to discuss future plans if there are any, and we were like, well, of course there's not going to be anything. Right. And then they go and do this, and I have different thoughts on this. A, he is the right guy to do the job. I will give that. For sure. He's the right, he's even built kind of similarly to Dee and has a kind of the same type of stage presence. I'm not going to say he's the front man Dee is. I still think Dee's better,

3:15but if you're going to go out and fulfill these shows, I mean, it does harken back to the Axel joining ACDC thing. So. Yeah. And another person who not known for being on his best behavior, but was when he was put in that situation. So maybe that will work out this way. I mean, it's better for Sebastian if he's not in skid row either way. So I think he's got a better chance of this being a success than doing, going back with those guys. But, uh, I don't know,

3:47but like I said, in my Facebook post, I wonder how long it's going to take before JJ and Eddie are ready to ring, ring his neck. Um, but I, I hope that he'll be on his best behavior because the, the people that are going to go to these shows, I think if they can get along and he can get up there and do his thing, I think he could do a good job doing this. And we, you know, there's

Twisted Sister Discussion

4:06another member joining the band that we'll get to in a minute, but what, what were your initial thoughts when we, uh, we heard this? Well, like I said, when, when they made the announcement that D was basically, uh, retiring from twisted sister, we both kind of said, well, it's the end of twisted sister. I mean, who else can you get? I mean, D Snyder is one of a kind, you know, he kind of is twisted sister in a lot of ways. You know, he's the first one you think of he's by himself on album covers, you know, it's, he's the face of that band and without him,

4:37you think, well, no twisted sister without D Snyder. And then this got announced and same thing. I thought, well, yeah, you know, that makes a whole lot of sense. You know, Sebastian Bach out of anybody is going to do an awesome job and I would actually like to see it. My first thought went back to a CD that came out and had to been late nineties, early two thousands. It was a twisted sister tribute album had a bunch of different bands on it, but my favorite song on there was

5:07always Sebastian Bach doing a cover of, Oh, what song was it? Oh, doing a cover of you can't stop rock and roll. And it is awesome by far the best song on there. And he does an amazing job with it. And I thought, yep, he's the guy. And then I thought, I wonder if he's going to try to dress up like D Snyder. And I thought, no, no, he probably shouldn't do that. I've seen some AI pictures

5:39of people kind of super imposing like D Snyder's hair and costume and face paint onto Sebastian Bach. It's a, it's disturbing. Well, you know, when they, when they, well, you know, twisted sister has gone hog wild, making a lot of posts about it, but one of the posts they put out was a video file of just the logo with, you know, his name over it. And it was the music and him singing. It was that track from the tribute album. And I, and I forgot, I had forgotten about that tribute album and I'm

6:12listening. I'm, you know, I hit play on it and I'm listening and I'm thinking it's just the twisted sister version. That's how close it was. And it took me a second. I'm like, oh, that's Bach. So, I mean, like I said, he's, he's well equipped to do this. Um, but, but at the same time, I don't know. And I'm not a big twisted sister diehard. I'm happy for him though. Cause he was like one of the early, early big fans of there. So it's cool that he, it's kind of like Tommy Thayer getting to play a, so, you know, it's kind of cool that he he's getting this opportunity. I do wish him the

6:44best. Um, but you know, I don't know. I, I'll be, I'll be cautiously optimistic about, you know, his, uh, behavior. Cause if, even if he doesn't drive them crazy as being an asshole, he could also go the far, the other way and be like Chris Farley interviewing Paul McCartney and be like, remember when you guys released under the blade, that was awesome. That was awesome. I'm going to get tired of that. You know? Yeah. I think he'll probably be on his best behavior. Like, like you said about Axl Rose being with ACDC, you know, always showed up on time,

7:16did a great job. I still would have loved an album with that lineup. That would have been amazing. Didn't have to call it ACDC, but man, him singing those ACDC songs was great. And by all accounts, he was on his best behavior. So it's the difference between guys being with people that, you know, you would consider to be peers versus guys you consider to be legends. You know, Sebastian Bach hanging out with Skid Row, you know, he looks at them guys, his peers, maybe even a little less than himself. But when he's with, when he's with twisted sister,

7:49he's going to look at those guys as, you know, heroes and legends. So I'm sure he's probably going to be on his best behavior. Yeah. I mean, it'll be interesting to watch how it plays out and I don't know. We'll see what happens. I mean, I don't, I don't know. I don't think he's going to dress up like D. I really hope, I really hope he doesn't do that. And it's kind of sad when you're talking about a grown man going, yeah, I think I hope he'll be on his best behavior. What the hell? Why do we even got to say that? He's a grown man. Exactly. With a reputation. I'm not going to

8:20change my tune on Sebastian Bach, but like I said, I'll, I'll, I'll be cautious, cautiously optimistic, but if it all goes to shit within two gigs, I will not be surprised either. Yeah, I would definitely go see it. I bet you it'd be an awesome show. Well, I wonder what the plan is. I think that I don't know. Twisted Sister, the last 20 years basically has just been a festival act and mostly done Europe. So, um, I don't know. We'll see. I mean, M3 is taking a beating on the lineup. They did announce if they want to get back in people's good graces, they should book Twisted

8:51Sister with Bass, but, um, I don't, or Rock, LaHoma, which is no longer anything like Rock, LaHoma used to be. Yeah. It's, and then I see on here, it says that Dee Snider gave Sebastian his full blessing to do it. Yeah. And I think they're, they've been friends for a long time. So that's, that's cool. Um, I, I get the feeling, you know, JJ and Eddie got to pay bills. So, you know, I, I, I don't blame them. If you can make money and there's a demand, go make it. And especially if you get, if with Bach in the band, you've got a good capable front man that can still sing. So

9:24more power to you. I didn't put this in the notes, uh, in the, uh, the list for today.

Bon Jovi Update

9:31I'll divert for a second. Just now I'm thinking about it. You know, we just did the Bon Jovi best and worst part one. And, uh, right around the time we put it out, uh, John, the, the band Bon Jovi and John was interviewed, uh, on a Tony Robbins special on YouTube. I don't know why, but the interview is really good, but then it cuts to them doing song and the interviews about John getting his voice back and how he's doing so much better. And then they go, then they cut to the music where they play it, man. It's, it's, it may be this

10:02much like, and I'm putting two fingers very close together this much better, but it still sounds heartbreaking. It's okay to retire. Yeah. I mean, you made your money. You've, you know, should have retired. You should have retired at the end of a decibel geek best and worst of Bon Jovi 2002. That should have been it, right? Yeah. Hang it up. But I mean, it's in like, I'm not telling him what to do, but like go jam in a garage or build your own music room and just have fun. But I don't know.

10:35It's again, as I mentioned in that article, I wrote a long time ago. Um, as long as fans are willing to fork out hundreds and hundreds of dollars, sometimes thousands, then I guess it's hard to say no. Right. And the promoters, if they think the money's there, they're going to make offers to these guys where they go, well, shit, you know, I don't sound great. I don't feel great, but for that kind of money, I can't say no. Promoters don't look on how is this going to affect a band's legacy? They don't care. They just want to sell tickets.

11:06No. Right. But to revert back to twisted sister, another interesting announcement happened where fellow podcaster from podcast, rock city and shouted out loud cast and author and former ZO2 drummer, Joey Quesada is going to be the drummer for twisted sister for these dates. Right on. That's cool. I was like, wow. Good for him. Like he's had a lot of great opportunities come his way and he's taken advantage of all of them. So I'm really happy for that guy. Must be a pretty good dude because I mean, opportunities don't generally go to losers

11:41and assholes. So Joey Quesada must be doing something. I don't know if any Vincent did get a lot of gigs. Well, I mean, yeah, that was before Gene and Paul got their hooks in them. New single on the way. That's not in the news this week. Did the last single ever come out? Well, I mean, it came out on bootlegs 30 years ago. It's the same thing. Oh yeah, that's right. But did he never met his goal and officially released? I don't know if we ever followed up on any of that. I was reading on Kiss FAQ right before we started recording because there really isn't much to update because he never made any post. But like people on FAQ follow

12:13that page that he has. And apparently everything that mentioned that, like the thousand people and all that, he deleted and he turned comments off too. So I don't think he made his goal.

Ugly Kid Joe

12:26I suppose he probably got one order, maybe two. I just thought this was, well, I actually posted this. I put this on the list just because I wanted it to remind me of something else I saw. But Zach Wilde was asked on a Talk Shop Live interview because he's promoting Engines of Demolition, the new Black Label album, which I love what I've heard from it. Yeah. Some of his best stuff, honestly. And they asked him the typical kind of first time question, like, what was the song that made you want to pick up a guitar?

12:57And it wasn't a surprise. He picked Smoke on the Water. But I like the story that he picked. He's like, I remember seeing a band play at our high school. I think it was before high school, maybe eighth grade or something. But I remember this cover band was playing and I remember the guy playing Smoke on the Water and just the power and everything and hearing it live. It was pretty amazing. But hearing stuff and then seeing it live, I guess it's like seeing somebody doing a magic trick in front of you and then inspires you to want to become a magician, sleight of hand doing illusions and stuff like that. It's just like, wow, this is the most interesting thing I have seen ever. And I just, I love that he can

13:29still tap into that type of memory. And like, we all have those. And it's just, we're in a society now where there's so much noise, there's so much electric, electronic convenience and you're getting hit with stuff left and right. But like, just remember a simpler time when you would just, you'd be at a high school talent show and you'd see a band and all of a sudden you'd be like, I want to do that. You know, I just, I thought that was cool. But what remind, what this made me remind me of, like he did an interview, I think it was with Loudwire. So Zach Sabbath is opening for Black Label on the upcoming

14:00tour. Did you know that? Yeah. So he's playing twice and they decided to make it kind of a fun question. They said, so you're opening for Black Label Society on this album, like speaking to him, like he's just in Zach Sabbath. And he's like, that's got to blow your mind. Like, what did you think about getting that gig? And how do you feel about the upcoming tour? And Zach goes, well, you know, opening for Black Label Society is a big job. It's a big honor. But the truth is, I really, I really am attracted to Zach Wild's wife. So the whole

14:35point of me taking that gig was just knowing that I'm going to bang Zach Wild's wife on this tour. That's funny.

14:47How do you not love him? Yeah, I read that whole answer to that question. It really cracked me up talking about banging his wife. Well, yeah, he's, it's your wife, you know, it's funny. He's a funny dude. If anyone should start a podcast, it should be Zach. Yeah. Yeah. He'd be good and have a shit ton of awesome guests to come on. Amen. And so next story, this is because we always talk about like anytime we, it seems like anytime we look back on bands, we were excited about that were young, early, fresh blood type bands. A lot of times they just fall apart. And this is a case of a band we

15:23used to cover that they did fall apart, but now they're back. And it's a band called Sister Sin that we featured pretty early on in the show. And they're from Sweden. And they've released their second single, Drive, to follow up to last month's Suicide Hill, which marked their first new music in 12 years. So they've kind of, their existence kind of tracks with our existence. And, uh, I just think it's cool that they're a really good band. Check them out. And I'm excited to hear this new stuff. I haven't had a moment to listen to it yet, but, uh, Liv Sin is the singer and I think she's the guitar player. And, uh, our

15:57good friend, Dave Tedder, uh, he used, used to represent them. I'm not sure if he still does, but, uh, I saw this in the blabbermouth headlines. I'm like, let's, let's highlight this because that this is something that's good where some of these bands are coming back and given, given another bite of the apple, you know? Right. Cause it's the same old stupid story about how, you know, I had an idea for an episode of like, Hey, kind of like a, where are they now that we'd go back and look at our early fresh blood episodes and bands that we championed when the show first started and see what they're up to today. And so I get

16:29to looking at it and like, Oh, this ain't going to be much of an episode because these bands are all gone. There's none left. So it's cool to see one coming back around again. Yeah. So, you know, we'll see. Maybe, uh, maybe there's hope for some of the other ones, but yeah, I mean, I just, either way, if, if your band's still not together and we played you, just know we appreciate you and thanks for the great music. Yeah. We're all waiting for that 210 to Lowell reunion. Yeah. Oh, that would be nice. Yeah. What was the band that put us, uh, Oh, I was at Acer Fury. Yeah. That was the first band that put us in their liner notes

17:04on their album. And I was blown away by that. Yeah. That was Rich Dillon helped us with that. I remember. Yeah. I still have the CD. Uh, yeah, me too. Where are they? I don't know, but they were a great band. I'd love to hear more from them. Uh, so, uh, going back to a band you've definitely heard of Metallica, uh, as I kind of predicted not long ago, uh, has revealed

Metallica Residency

17:24the details of their newly added, uh, wallet burns. I mean, life burns faster sphere residency in Las Vegas. That's funny. Uh, yeah. Cause I did look at prices and then I, then I closed the window. It was like, no, not going to take out a mortgage to go see Metallica. Uh, I would love to see this, but man, it looks expensive. It's very expensive. Um, due to an unbelievable demand, six new shows have been added to their residency. And, uh, it looks like they're doing

17:57the weekends and they're doing the no repeat thing where they do a show, take a day off, do another show. And they play different set lists between the shows. That's good. So they're doing October 8th and 10th, November 5th and 7th. November 5th is my birthday. And, uh, January 28th and 30th in 2027. Those are the newly added ones. But I've been, I've been following this and looking at, um, the, the, uh, prices. And I think the one that they had where you would get three nights at the Venetian and a ticket to at least a show. I don't know

18:30if it's for three. Um, that was what? Three grand a person. Wow. It's like live entertainment is not for the, you know, average people anymore. It's like, you gotta be part of a ruling class to enjoy live entertainment these days. Or you just go massively in debt with credit cards. Yeah. I mean, like you go to the poor house and they go, what are you here for? I went to a Metallica concert. Can you please help me save my home? There's people that really

19:05do that. Thank God for bands like Faster Pussycat. It's so much more affordable. That us poor's can go see great live bands still in this day and age. You saw Jackal got added to the Mountain Festival, right? Yeah. I like that. That lineup is shaping up pretty nicely. See, and that one ain't so bad for its price, you know, for all you get for it. No, it's a good deal. And it's a great location too. Yeah. Um, okay. So very cool. You should put say you should

19:41put that out there, you know, tell them where to get the, well, you should get your tickets for that monsters on the mountain. What is it? August. Yeah. It's like mid August. I think. Yeah. Chris and I are going to it. The Mooger Fugger is going to it. As far as I know, we've had some friends ask us about if we're going to be there. We're going, we want to have fun. We want to hang out with everybody. It's a great concert. It's been fun. The other time we went and you know what, you know, it's a good chance for all of us to get together at a rock show. That's really awesome. It's in Gallup or it's in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, which is like, uh, like the, the tourist place

20:18that everybody comes to when they visit Tennessee and there's so much to do around it. And then the concert itself was amazing last year. We had such a good time. And so like, if you're thinking about doing something fun this summer and you're trying to plan it out, you can come hang out with us. We'll even, if you private messages, we'll even tell you what hotel we're staying at and stuff. So, I mean, you could stay real close and hang out. We could all hang out all weekend and rock our asses off. And if enough of you show interest, we might even do some recording with you. Yeah. We're planning on doing some recording. We could do

20:51some extra recording if you're, you know, friends of the show. Yeah. I think that would be fun. Yeah. I mean, uh, yeah, I would say we're living in Senate the Holiday Inn, but I don't think there's a Holiday Inn up there. So. No, but we could all still be living in that's for sure. But yeah, I, uh, I think my liver should be fully recovered from the last one by the time we get there. In, out, in, out. Just be careful with the bloody Mary's. Shut your mouth. You have to admit I went a lot easier on you than I could

21:22have with that. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Um, so the next couple of stories, like, it's just amazing to me that, uh, you know, we lost Ozzy last year, but, uh, you know, his, his

Ozzy Osbourne Statue

21:33presence still looms large and it, and it will continue for, you know, continue for a long time because it was announced that a massive Ozzy Osbourne statue will be unveiled at this year's, uh, edition of France's Hellfest. Nice. Is that like a permanent statue? It'll be there forever. Let's see what it says here. Or is it one of them inflatable deals that they put out in front of that concert? Sharon shared the first photo of the six meter tall statue, which will be placed near the Hellfest entrance during a February 6th appearance at

22:05or whatever. She said, Oh, there he is. Look at him. A rock God that's going to debut at Hellfest. And that is June 18th. And the whole family will be there. And it's such a great tribute. Uh, I don't know. It doesn't really say if it's going to be a permanent thing, but like the, uh, in 2022, a statue of Lemmy was unveiled at that year's Hellfest. Yeah. They probably put it there. And then when the show's over, maybe go put it somewhere else to be permanently. Maybe that's the vibe I'm getting from what Sharon said. So it'll be, it'll debut

22:35at Hellfest and then it'll probably be put in Birmingham. I'm assuming. Um, this story is making me think about how I hate AI. Cause I saw a picture earlier in the week and it made it look like Sharon and Jack and, and Kelly were standing out in front of like this Alzheimer's clinic and had this statue of Ozzie and it looked real. And then I looked a little closer and like, ah, this is bullshit, but it should be real. Yeah. Well, the thing is Ozzie's getting a statue. Lemmy already has a couple of statues cause there's the one at the rainbow also. Um, so if we end up

23:10having like nuclear Holocaust, the aliens will come down to earth to see what's left and they're going to see statues of Lemmy and Ozzie and they'll think those were our gods, which they kind of were. Yeah. We'll be well represented. They're like, man, I'm so sad. They blew each other up themselves. You know, they killed each other. It's too bad. They seemed pretty awesome based on these statues. And, uh, also Ozzie related, uh, which we kind of saw this coming and I'm glad it's happening, but if they follow the pattern they used to with trying to expose

23:41people to new bands, Sharon has said that Ozfest will 100% happen in 2027. Yeah. Good. Well, I mean, there's a lot of bands. You could go back in the past and see which bands are still alive that did Ozfest in the past and try to bring them back for it for a modern thing. And then plus, you know, put in some new bands, but you get ugly kid Joe on that thing. Hey, that'd be sweet. I saw ugly kid Joe on a bill that didn't really fit them for everyone else. I'm trying

24:12to remember what show it was. Um, like something recent or something from, no, it's something that's coming up. I can't remember what festival it is, but like the rest of the festival doesn't really, Oh no, it was for, um, it was for Rocklahoma. Oh yeah. Yeah. That's right. I did see that ugly kid Joe, like down the, down the list of ways, but they're on like, like Buck cherry, I guess the only other thing close, but like, it's a lot of like God smack and stuff like that. I think Slayer's the headliner one night at Rocklahoma. I'm like,

24:42why are they the headliner at Rocklahoma? Which I know they, they want to sell tickets. Rocklahoma used their lineups used to be so amazing. Yeah. Cause I was watching a story about it and the person doing the video showed the, the, uh, first year's lineup. And it's like, Holy shit. Why didn't I go to that? Cause it was a great lineup. Yeah. So whoever started that thing, like they knew us and said, what, what would Chris and Aaron, what if there was a decibel geek fest, what would it be in that first year is basically that lineup? Uh, a little bit of ACE fairly adjacent news. The guys that we all know and love from

25:18ACE's previous band before he passed included, uh, you know, Ryan Spencer cook, Jeremy Asbrock and Phillip Schaus, and also on drums, Christopher Williams. Uh, in addition to the awesome show that we both can't wait for next month in Nashville, uh, they're going to do a run of Australian dates and, uh, honoring ACE and they're going to perform the 1978 solo album in full, uh, along with Fraley's Comet anthems and other ACE solo songs in deep cuts. So, and

25:49you know, these guys, I can't wait to see what set list these guys bust out when they, cause they're completely off the leash, you know, and, you know, the thing is just, you know, ACE, God rest his soul. ACE was less interested in mixing up his set list than Gene was good. You know, he, Gene let them, let them really have more influence over what he played. ACE was very regimented in what he wanted to play. He didn't like to, you know, he did, they did get him to loosen up a bit through that time. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. But, uh, but most of the

26:21time it was like, no, we're sticking with this set list that works. And that's an old showbiz trick. If you have a set that works, stick with it. But also we know these guys are as big a kiss nerds as we are. So I can't wait to hear what the hell they pull out. I'm going to go ahead and text Ryan soon and say, I have to hear dolls live. And I can't wait. Yeah. Me and Aaron will come sing back. We'll come do Monique's part. Yeah. I wouldn't hold my breath for that one. But yeah, we got our tickets already. It's funny because they

26:54made the announcement for that show, the ACE Fraley tribute by the ACE Fraley band here in Nashville. And I was like, I want to go so bad. And then I look at the date and it's like, it's my wife's birthday. This is going to be a hard sell. Her birthday is the 17th. And I said to her, I go, Hey baby, I know what I'm going to take you to do on your birthday is special. It's going to be awesome. And I told her and she's like, really? And I was like, yeah. And then I explained to her, like, look, it's Brian and those guys, you know, she's like, Oh, okay. That sounds fun. We can go do that on my birthday.

27:25Yeah. My wife's even excited for that one too. Yeah. It's, it's very cool. I'm so glad they're kicking it off here in Nashville, you know, and you know, they really did. Those guys are such big fans, you know, they all grew up kiss fans and they're the ones that would pitch Gene and ACE songs and be like, Hey, what do you think about this? They play a little bit of it. Huh? We can do that. What do you think? You know? And sometimes you get it and we can try it. And sometimes we're like, nah, we're not doing that, you know, but that's the kind of fans they are. That's how any of us would be like, come on, man, you know, let's try this one time. I still can't believe they got Gene to finally play. It's my life

27:57live. Like that's, that blew me away when I saw the video for that. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. And then we should say it too, since we're talking about kiss, like Gene Simmons is out there doing ACE Fraley covers. Yeah. He's doing a rocket ride now on his set. I wish he would sing it. Yeah. He's got Brent Woods singing. I watched a clip of it yesterday, which is cool. You know, Brent's a good singer and everything, but it's the same old story when you're buying a ticket and this goes for

28:28anybody, no matter how much I love them. If you're going to see ACE Fraley, you want to see ACE Fraley sing all the songs. If you're going to see Gene Simmons, you're paying them buying that ticket. Cause you want to see Gene Simmons sing all the songs. And I get it. He needs a break in between, you know, freshen up that voice and keep it going. But dang, you know, even though I love Todd Haworth, you know, I, we, when I was young, I was like, get them Fraley's common albums. You're like, why is this guy taking up time on an ACE Fraley album? Then at the, at the time I just didn't get it. And I could never, you know,

28:58and then I, I like them and I like his songs and I like the stuff that's on there. But man, when you're paying for ACE Fraley, you want ACE Fraley. When you're paying for Gene Simmons, you want Gene Simmons. Well, and then trouble walking came out and it proved you right. Yeah. Trouble walking was my favorite. It was like, finally, you know, only one song for Richie Scarlett. Yeah. But you know, he, but he had, Richie even had a voice more suited to ACE's stuff than Todd did. Well, and then, and it didn't matter because at the time I thought it was Peter Chris. So I was totally cool with it. It was only years later that I realized, well,

29:31that's not, that's Richie Scarlett singing that. Well, I think Peter only sings like backing vocals on like one song, but they promoted it. Like he was singing lead on a song. So we all just was like, well, I guess that's Peter. I bet you that was kind of planned that way. Like, don't, don't say nothing. And people, and he sounds a lot like Peter, you know, people are just going to assume it's him and that'll be really cool. So, I mean, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if that wasn't like a strategy that was thought out or at least heard the song when it was done be recording. And we're like, eh, you know, if we don't say what Peter did on here,

30:04we just say he's on the album. People are going to assume that's him. Richie Scarlett was like, man, I don't like this idea. They're like, eh, that's the way it's going to be. I would say it was Eddie Trunk's idea, but he would have taken credit for it by now.

30:19I gave Richie Scarlett his big break. Yeah. That was my idea. Eddie Trunk breaking the Twisted Sister news, by the way,

Rush Reunion

30:27just in case you didn't know it was Eddie Trunk who broke that news. And then every other person I'm friends with on Facebook immediately afterwards.

30:37Rush. I don't know how it's interesting. Let me read a little bit of this. So in a new interview with the Guardian, Geddy Lee and Alex spoke about the decision to reunite for this tour coming up this year and next. It's a run of dates. Their first show under the Rush banner in 11 years. It's been 11 years. Holy shit.

30:57We'll begin at the Kia forum in LA. site of the last Rush concert on the R40 tour and joining them will be Anika or Anika Miles or Niles who toured with Jeff Beck in 2022 and has been rehearsing with them in preparation for the tour dubbed 50 something, which will celebrate their music legacy and the life of Neil Peart. Asked about the first rehearsals that took place last year in March and whether Rush

31:27wanted someone to reproduce Neil's parts. Alex said it has to start there. They have to be true to the arrangements because that's the expectation from the fans, but we don't want to place any restrictions on her. When we see when she is comfortable and confident in the arrangement, she's free to enhance them with her own spirit. And she will, Lee added, but I don't think she knew when she arrived what our expectations were, to be honest. When we started playing with her, something felt wrong. And I was, of course, thinking this is not going to work. Those seemingly impossible fills were not a problem for her at all.

31:57What was difficult was understanding a relationship between snare based drum and hi-hat that's different from her training. The first four days were up and down and she was nervous and she was jet-lagged and we were unsure. We had a little chat before the last day. I don't know, Al, is this going to work? We talked about the things we liked about her and what a work ethic she has. Nice person and deep knowledge, deep technical ability. So there's a lot of positives, so let's not be hasty. And we went into that last day and she just fucking nailed it. She suddenly understood what we were talking about that whole week.

32:30Not about the technical aspect, but about the stuff in between the big stuff. That Neil was just so amazing at. And those internal dynamics that only another drummer can understand. And it clicked in her. So it sounds like it's come together pretty well. And she's playing. I've watched this girl play with other stuff. And she's incredible.

32:49It's not going to be the same without Neil. But at the same time, personally, I can't begrudge Geddy and Alex for wanting to play together again.

32:59Well, and again, it's the promoters coming around going, Hey, what would it take to get Rush back together? We're like, ah, we can't do it without Neil. And we're like, I'm going to slide this little piece of paper that's folded in half across the table. And you just open that up and take a look at it. And they open it up, look at it and be like, yeah, we'll find somebody. No problem. I want to believe it wasn't just about the money. With these guys, I think they just missed playing. So I mean, because I mean, they were well off for years ago. So if that was the case, they could have just came out with an album that was, you know, Lee Lifeson.

33:37And had different drummers play on it if that was the case. No, it's the money. That's why they're calling it Rush. Well, that's why they're calling it Rush, sure. But I don't think that's their pure only motivation for doing it. To hang out with a hot chick that can play drums? No, I think those guys are best friends since middle school and want to get out and play music together again. Yeah. I mean, they could have done that without calling it Rush. Well, that's true. So you're not in favor of this? I don't care. I guess you're not a big Rush guy.

34:07I don't care either way. I'm really not. I mean, I like Rush, but some of it, not all of it, I was never a huge Rush fan. That was something I had to kind of learn to appreciate. Like, all the smart kids liked Rush.

34:23Then us dirty kids smoking cigarettes in the park, we like kids. You were busy taking our lunch money. Yeah. But, no, I never did that. But, I don't, yeah, I mean, it's cool, I guess. I mean, like you said, you know, everybody's got the right to make the money, and when the promoters are willing to pay it, and your diehard Rush fans are willing to pay $1,000 for a seat at this thing, you know, shit, go out and make that money while it's available. Yeah, and they will, which, even if they come to Nashville, I won't be going, because the prices I've seen are insane.

34:57But I wouldn't be opposed to Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, like, working on a new album together, but they definitely shouldn't call it Rush, because without Neil there writing the songs, it's not Rush. So, the only way you can really get away with even calling this Rush is the fact that it's two out of the three, and they're playing all the old classics. You know, it's a fun trip down memory lane for the fans to go see it, and I don't think there's nothing wrong with that, but, yeah, definitely don't be trying to come out with no new albums called Rush. Yeah, I would hope they wouldn't take that step and call it that.

35:30We'll see. Unless they've got a bunch of stuff in the archives that Neil wrote that they could pull out, then that's different. They'll say, hey, all these songs were written by Neil, they were in the archives, we're calling it Rush because they're Rush songs, were intended for us, and that's different. I'd accept that. But even that, that even comes off opportunistic. But anyway, that's an argument that can last for a while. Right, but then the Rush fans are just getting more Rush music. So, I mean, I don't see a problem with that either.

36:02And it seems like most Rush fans, I haven't seen too much resistance to it from Rush fans. They seem to be embracing it. So good for them. Nah, Rush fans are pushovers. They'll accept anything. Ooh, I can't wait to hear from all the Rush fans in the comments.

36:17I'm just teasing. They're not all wimps. Oh, man. That drummer's really good. He's no Peter Cris, but he's really good. Yeah, if they were ever going to be driven to violence, it would have been in that moment when you said that at that concert in front of all those Rush fans. I guess I prove that you will not get beaten to a pulp if you say something so ridiculous at a Rush concert. Yeah. So, I got one more. And I don't know. Did we touch on this subject? It may have been since we did this. No. Alex Van Halen had talked about digging out Van Halen archive tracks like you were just talking about

36:53and that he's been working with Steve Lukather on, like, making them into a finished album? That's wild. I mean, but then the question becomes, you know, what are they? Are they, like, David Lee Roth era stuff? And you want to bring Dave back into the studio to work some magic? Maybe use a little AI. In this situation, it might be okay to use a little studio magic to help Dave out and make these songs, like, complete. Are they Sammy Hagar songs?

37:23You want to bring Sammy back in? No. He don't want nothing to do with either one of those guys. Yeah, because in a new interview with Rock of Nations with Dave Kinchin and Shane McEachern, way to put your whole names in the title, guy. But the former Van Halen members Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony were asked about possible involvement with the new album. And last year, Alex Reveldi was putting together an album from incomplete tracks meant to become the next Van Halen record before Eddie died in 2020. Okay.

37:53All right. Well, that answers that question, then. But then it says, The drummer has since teamed up with Lukather to complete these recordings, which contain drums, guitar, and bass, with only the vocals missing. And I have to mention on that, because I saw Steve Lukather had to respond to that, because a lot of people were like, What is Lukather, like, you know, completing Eddie's tracks and playing in place of Eddie? And he had to say, he said, No, nothing guitar-related on this album will feature me playing on it. It will always be Eddie Van Halen. So I think he's helping from an arrangement standpoint, I believe.

38:27I was going to say, Steve Lukather ain't going to be the singer, I hope. No, no, no. I think he's helping Alex dig through the tapes and then probably maybe arrangements and stuff like that in production. I can't see him being a guy playing, because even he gets the gravity of that. He doesn't want to replace Eddie Van Halen. No. But earlier this month, Alex told, I'm not even going to try to pronounce this Brazilian guy's name, that most of the recordings feature bass playing from Wolfie,

38:57because these are recordings that were made ready for the next Van Halen record. Asked if Sammy and Michael are involved with the upcoming LP, and if not, whether they would like to be. Hagar said, No, we haven't been asked. Number one, I can tell you the day I walked in the studio in 5150 to basically, if you want to call it an audition, but to meet the guys and to play music, we played for about eight hours at least, and we recorded everything. Well, that's all trip down memory lane. I don't need to read all that. But, and the mic says, Yeah, if this material that we jammed on or whatever,

39:31I'd have no problem coming in and singing or playing on bass or whatever. It's all good there. I don't know. It seems like it's murky about what this is. I guess it was tracks that Eddie was working on before he passed, and Wolfie was helping him with it. Yeah, so I always assumed that that was meant to be their last album. Yeah. That last one with Dave, but apparently not. Apparently they had plans going forward to do something else. Now, did those plans originally, being that it was a follow-up to a different kind of truth,

40:03did those plans include Dave? Did they intend for these songs to be sung by Dave, you know? Or did they have some completely other idea, like, hey, let's go get a whole other singer again? Yeah. Well, the way Alex has talked about Dave lately, I get the vibe that Dave was still in a good place with those guys. So I think it would have been the next album with Dave, which I still don't get. Like, why did they do that live in Japan album?

40:34Because it sounds horrible.

40:36Yeah. You know, I don't know why they bothered releasing that. I almost think Eddie was pissed at Dave at the time they released that, and he put it out purposely to make him sound bad. I don't know. Have you heard that Tokyo album they did? Is that the one with the boat on the cover of it? Yeah. Yeah, I always looked at it. I'm not big on live albums unless it's, like, stuff I listened to when I was a kid. It's awful.

41:00Man, I wonder then, I mean, if these were songs that were intended to be the follow-up to a different kind of truth and were intended to have Dave sing on them, I wonder if that's what he's thinking of. Like, that's the way it should be. It cracks me up, though, that Sammy's like, we haven't been asked. But I mean, I guess somebody's going to ask them in interviews, though. But, like, Alex has, you know, he stated in a recent interview, I always feel that the best material we ever did was with Dave. I mean, I just think it's his preference.

41:31And that doesn't, and that's the other thing. Like, as much as we bust on Sammy on this show, that doesn't mean that he hates Sammy, though. He just says he prefers the Dave era. That's all. And then, if that's what this is, then, I mean, Michael Anthony and Sammy Hagar weren't even in the band when this music was recorded. So there's no way that they were intended because Wolfie plays on it. Well, that, you know, that tells you right there, Michael Anthony's got nothing to do with it. And Sammy wasn't even in the band at that time. So, come on.

42:04Get Dave. One more awesome Van Halen album. I heard one thing, though, that Alex was trying to recruit Paul Rogers to sing on this. And Paul Rogers was like, I don't have it in me to sing it. Yeah, yeah, because he's got some health stuff going on, too, I think. Yeah, and he can't sing like he used to. It's just age. But Paul Rogers has got to be 80 by now. But if you wanted Paul Rogers to sing on a Van Halen record, that's odd. So I don't know what's going to happen.

42:35I would hope that Dave gets to sing on a Queen album. But that was odd, too. It's horrible. That album's a couple good songs. I don't like that record at all. A couple good songs on there. What was it? I don't even remember the name of it. It had something to do with Mars or something. Was it? What the hell was the name? I can't. Was it Music on Mars or something weird? I don't. No, it wasn't that. I can't think of it. That's how important of an album that was. Boy, I remember listening to it one time, and I'm like, yep, that's not Queen.

43:07Turning that off. Right. But, I mean, it's never going to be Queen. You know, when I – because, like I said, there's a couple songs off there I like. So when I pull those songs and put them on my iPod, it's put under Paul Rogers. It's not put under Queen. Yeah, but I don't know. This will – it'll be interesting to see what happens. But at the same time, like, I don't know. Are people hoping that Alex becomes a different person as far as releasing this goes? Because Alex was also there the whole time that Van Halen was withholding how much music for how many years?

43:38Because, you know, he was just as involved as Eddie was. So I'm not getting my hopes up. Yeah, but I got a feeling that – I got a feeling at the end of the day, Eddie was the one that had the final say on that stuff. Well, that's what people think. But we'll see if Alex delivers. I mean, he did get the book out pretty quick. But, I mean, music might be a different story. Hopefully he's open to Wolfie helping him with it, and Wolfie would be interested in getting it out just to preserve the legacy and get those – you know, to take care of those tapes, but – Well, you got Steve Lukather already involved, so if it was – if it

44:08wasn't serious, you wouldn't be bringing that guy in to help you put it all together. Yeah, so maybe it gave him a wake-up call where he's like, I need to get this out while I'm still around. Well, that's what I got for GeekWire for this time. All right. Well, all kinds of stuff going on in the world, and when new things happen, probably any moment now as we're about to wrap this up, we will talk about it next time. But in the meantime, we've got the times coming up, and, you know, we're always grateful for you guys' feedback on everything. So give us your thoughts on these stories in the comments section, and the next time

44:41we do one of our main episodes, then we might read your comments on there. So let us know what you think of this stuff. Who should Alex Van Halen get to complete these songs, to be the vocalist on it? I'm voting for Dave. What do you think? Let us know. Other than that, you know, as always, brought to you by Pantheon Podcast. And grateful to be in your ears. We are Decibel Geek. See ya.

45:16300 Favorite Albums with James Campion I don't think there's an album I know better front to back. I learned how to play guitar to a lot of these songs. If I could pick one record to hand someone and say, this is what it feels like to be a woman, it would be this record. You know, the engineer that was recording the album for us was a novice engineer. He was really the janitor. The first half of these sessions for the album were totally improvisatory in the sense that they went into the studio and just dealt with whatever happened.

45:48There was space that was left for these listeners to kind of discover it for themselves. That they would say, yeah, my parents listened to it, but I had to build my own relationship to it. Happiness, good living, peace, love, rock and roll. I just feel like this album is such a wonderful translation of that concept. People understood they were in a world historical moment and it felt like it was going to last forever. In fact, the infinite spaces that they explored in The Giant Now is part of what made that explosion so huge.