BLACK SABBATH was honored with a Grammy in the "Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance" category in the pre-telecast ceremony at the 56th annual Grammy Awards on January 26 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. BLACK SABBATH was nominated for the track "God Is Dead?", from the band's 2013 comeback album "13". BLACK SABBATH's "God Is Dead?" also picked up a nomination in the "Best Rock Song" category. In addition, "13" earned a nod for "Best Rock Album", alongside LED ZEPPELIN's "Celebration Day" and QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE's "…Like Clockwork", among others.
In a posting on his official web site, BLACK SABBATH guitarist Tony Iommi writes: "Well, the dust has settled on the Grammys now. [It was] great to win another one, but what a palaver. As the East Coast is three hours ahead, the televised part begins at 5 p.m. so you're leaving the hotel at lunchtime, all dolled up and ready for the red carpet! It was good, though. [There was] plenty of interest in the album still and endless questions about what we're doing next. Well, it's shows in the U.S., Canada and Europe, so far too busy with that to be thinking about more recording."
Speaking to the press backstage at the Grammy Awards, BLACK SABBATH singer Ozzy Osbourne stated about the possibility of the band recording another studio album, "We're going back on the road. We haven't really spoken about it beyond that. I'm down for it."
"Absolutely," added Iommi.
Iommi said in a recent interview that he was not sure if making a follow-up to "13" would be a good idea for the group. Iommi said in Revolver magazine, "I don't know if that would be an anticlimax if we wrote another album. I'd like to, but we haven't actually spoken about it, you know? I don't know if that would be a good idea after this one, because this one's done so well. I'm sure we'd all like to do one. But I don't know. Maybe I should talk to the others about it."
Bassist Geezer Butler added, "I really haven't thought about it. I'm just glad that we made this one. It can't be something where you go in and go, 'Well, that one was No. 1, so let's do another No. 1 album.' I think we'll know if we can do it or if we can't. If we have to force it, then we won't be doing it."
"13", the first SABBATH album in 35 years to feature Iommi, Butler and singer Ozzy Osbourne recording together, went No. 1 around the world, earning the band their first chart-topper ever in the U.S.
According to The Pulse Of Radio, Ozzy said about the prospects of making another record, "I don't want to say there's going to be another album, because I don't want you to ask me in another year, 'What happened when you said you were going to do another record?' I'll leave it open. I'm open for anything. I have three albums to deliver of my own solo thing to my record label."
Ozzy added, "We'll all still be doing music. It's been a lot of fun doing it with BLACK SABBATH, and I'm not sorry at all for getting back together."
The making of "13" was marked by several dramatic events, including drummer Bill Ward's withdrawal from the project over a contractual dispute and Iommi's cancer diagnosis.
Butler told Revolver that he started writing a song for "13", called "Hanging By A Thread", that was inspired by Iommi's illness. He explained, "It was very much about dying, about giving your last breath and passing your spirit on." But the track didn't make it onto the album because, Butler said, "We never came up with the finished thing."
BLACK SABBATH will return to North America this spring for 10 shows that will be among the last in support of "13".
Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein — the former guitarist of both the old and new MISFITS and current leader of his own horrorcore/metal band simply called DOYLE — says that he is intent on reuniting MISFITS' original lineup for a tour and possible new album.
The original MISFITS band broke up in 1983, and bassist Jerry Only brought forth a new version of the MISFITS in 1995. Various members have come and gone, but Only, along with BLACK FLAG's Dez Cadena, has kept some form of the MISFITS in the recording studio and on the road for most of the last two decades.
After the original MISFITS disbanded, vocalist Glenn Danzig went on to form SAMHAIN and then the eponymous DANZIG. Several albums of reissued and previously unreleased material were issued after the group's dissolution, and their music became influential to punk rock, heavy metal, and alternative rock music of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
"I'm the only one that's gonna get the original lineup back together," Doyle said in an "Idol Worship" interview Alternative Press arranged between him and BLACK VEIL BRIDES frontman Andy Biersack. "So I think I'm going to work on that, and hopefully I can pull the two bulls together and get them to fucking stop."
He continued: "You know what? I've just decided this week that I am going to make an attempt, and I wanna do it. I'll put what I'm doing right on the fucking side. I'll go do it tomorrow."
Doyle also spoke about previous meetings he, Danzig and Only had had in 2002 discussing a possible MISFITS reunion, plans for which were aborted when an unknown party leaked the news. "It didn't happen and it's a shame," Doyle said. "It's stupid that we're not doing it. It would be huge."
In a 2011 interview with RollingStone.com, Only stated about the prospect of reuniting with Danzig: "I would say that if Glenn went and got baptized again, maybe we could talk.
"The thing is, I know Glenn, and he's very much about what he's doing. I've seen that. And me, I'm very much about what I'm doing, and I wouldn't want to — I don't want to say the words 'watered down' — but I wouldn't want to take away from the enthusiasm that we're running on with these new projects. These new projects are, in my opinion, a pinpoint on a laser beam of MISFITS thought.
"Doing it with Glenn may work on a short-term basis. I could see us getting together and lining up a bunch of big festivals and a bunch of big shows. But then, when you think about it, where would it leave you when you're done? It wouldn't leave you in a position where your credibility would be half as good as it is. Sometimes it's better to be small and secure than it is to be extremely large and totally volatile. And I think our fans are owed the respect of one thought and one vision, and it's not a parade or a circus for the rest of the world to throw money at. I'd rather be touring happy than rich and miserable."
Speaking to Eric Blair of "The Blairing Out With Eric Blair Show" in November 2010, Only had the following to say about Glenn Danzig: "I like Glenn; I never really disliked Glenn as a person. But we do have a lot of influence on people and I won't — for profit or for fame — jeopardize the safety of my fans to make money and to promote something that I don't think is right for them. Glenn got into this whole Satanic outlook and I wouldn't throw that on my kids and I won't do that. If Glenn wants to go to church and repent, I guess we're good to go.
"I don't think Glenn is the devil, and I think he kind of promotes himself as the devil, and, to me, that seems absurd. It just seems to me that if kids are buying all this crap, it's like [he's] marketing something that shouldn't be marketed, in my opinion. I'm not about that. I was brought up totally Catholic with my grandmother. I see these kids at the show — they look up to me. We keep a clean program; we don't party, we don't drink, we don't have hookers in here and all that stupid shit. We're a family band, and we kind of keep the American dream nice and solid and real. And the kids like that . . . I'm not saying that Glenn is anti all that stuff, it's just that when you have albums [with titles like] 'Son Of Satan' and all this kind of stuff, it's a message that a lot of kids may take the wrong way and a lot of kids may get hurt because of it. And a lot of kids may argue with their parents over the subject matter that they're bringing into the house and have a bad relationship with their folks. Why? Is that something I would want to impose upon them? Make them have a bitter relationship with their parents over my music? No.
"The thing is you can go see a horror film — something really gory and bloody and all kinds of stuff — and have a good time with your friends. It doesn't mean you're gonna behave as such. And that's the difference between me and Glenn — Glenn is trying to impose the behavior aspect upon the people in real life. And thing is we're a sci-fi band — we've got subject matter from here to Kingdom Come — and we don't need that.
"Glenn's very talented. I don't think that musically we're in the same zone anymore. But look, I've got a lot of respect for Glenn. I always thought that Glenn had a lot of talent. And I just think that Glenn... I don't wanna say he's misguided, but I think that he's got a message that's not productive for the people who get it."
In a 2008 interview with Riverfront Times, Danzig stated about the possibility of a reunion of the original MISFITS lineup: "It's not gonna happen… People had talked about it. But nothing ever happened with it… It never even
Da Capo Press will release LAMB OF GOD vocalist Randy Blythe's memoir, "Dark Days: My Tribulation And Trials", later this year. Random House has purchased the foreign rights to the book and will act as publisher in the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
The memoir, which puts emphasis on the past year of Randy's life, is an incredible, harrowing, heartbreaking, and redemptive story told in Blythe's already well-recognized writing style.
Blythe has launched the official blog for "Dark Days: My Tribulation And Trials" at this location. His first blog entry reads as follows: "Obviously (as the name of this blog will lead the more astute amongst you to deduce), this is the official blog of my upcoming book, 'Dark Days', scheduled for publication later in this year of our lord, 2014. I even state that fact in greater detail over in the 'about the author' section (the little box to the left of this post), just in case there is any confusion about what in the hell is going on here. In that box it also says 'PROCESS. PRODUCTION. PUBLICATION.' That is because those are the three phases the life of this book will go through, and the three phases in which this blog will be chronologically updated. More on that shortly.
"First, a brief explanation about myself and the basis of my book for those of you who are unfamiliar with me or the recent events that have occurred in my life during the last year and a half or so.
"My name is D. Randall Blythe, known to most simply as Randy. I make my living singing for the four-time-Grammy-losing international touring heavy metal act LAMB OF GODWe've been around for almost twenty years now, have several critically acclaimed albums (well, at least by a few critics at a couple of metal magazines), and have played on every continent on earth except Antarctica. It's a good life. I am also a sober alcoholic who hasn't touched a drink or a drug (other than caffeine and nicotine) for well over three years as of this writing.
"For twenty-two years, I drank herculean amounts of alcohol (and drugged on the side just to make sure I was truly screwing myself up) in an attempt to alter reality to the point where I could deal with it. Surprise, surprise — that strategy did not work. That was NOT a good life, and I barely survived it. I'm much better now.
"Everything was going just hunky-dory until about a year and a half ago.
"On June 27, 2012 my band flew from Norway to the Czech Republic to play a show. Upon landing in Prague, we were met at the end of the jetway by five masked and heavily armed large men in body armor, along with four plainclothes detectives. To the immense surprise of my bandmates and myself, I was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter concerning the death of a LAMB OF GOD fan.
"We had played Prague two years previously, and unbeknownst to any of us, a young man had sustained an injury to the head during our show, dying a month later. The police said that I was the cause of that injury. I was promptly incarcerated and spent the next thirty-seven days in a 123-year-old crumbling prison on the outskirts of Prague.
"After a long and complex process during which my band had to borrow almost half a million bucks, I was released on bail and returned to the United States. Instead of hiding like a coward in the U.S., safe from extradition (the U.S. government had refused to cooperate with the Czechs after they requested assistance in investigating me immediately after the young man died. My government also did not deem it necessary to inform me that I was a wanted man in a foreign country. Your tax dollars at work.), I returned to Prague in early 2013 to stand trial. I did this for several reasons, first and foremost being I felt the family of this young man deserved some answers, and I was the only one who could provide them. I felt it unethical to hide from my problems while they grieved the loss of their son. As the father of a dead daughter, I understood their pain in a very visceral way. I had tried to hide from my problems for over twenty years by crawling into a bottle. I do not live that way anymore, so to hide from this would have been intolerable for me. I believe it would have lead me back to the drink, and from there, I would have surely died.
"On March 5, 2013, I was found not guilty and acquitted of all charges. I have remained a free man every since.
"This book will tell that story, the whole story, for the first time ever. I'm the only one who lived it, so I'm the only one capable of telling it. However, the tale of my arrest, incarceration, release, and trial are merely the vehicle I will be using to convey what I feel is an important message in today's fast-paced, high-tech, self-centered world.
"I have something to say, and life has presented me with a tragic way to illustrate my point without being preachy or pedantic.
"I will not moralize or shout from some ludicrous ethical pedestal (I didn't win the Olympics or cure cancer, I went to prison, for Pete's sake) — I just want to relate how I got through a very scary time and came out with my head held high. I think there is a lesson of value in the telling of my story, if only for myself. Therefore I will write it, and I hope some of you will read it."
The rights to Blythe's book were sold to Da Capo executive editor Ben Schafer by Marc Gerald at The Agency Group.
"While I've dreamed of being a published author almost since I began to read, I never imagined my first book would center around such a sad topic," said Blythe. "Sometimes though, life unexpectedly provides you a story that needs to be told. I believe this one does (for several different reasons, not just for the benefit of myself), so I will tell it with the respect and dignity all involved deserve. This will be a good read, I promise you, and I h
