During the question-and-answer portion of his February 11 spoken-word show at The Vic Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, Bruce Dickinson was asked why IRON MAIDEN always uses UFO’s “Doctor Doctor” as its “entrance music” at is concerts. He responded: “It has the added advantage that everybody knows we play ‘Doctor Doctor’ before we go on stage. So, before the intro tape, there’s five minutes of ‘Doctor Doctor’. It’s brilliant, so people go, ‘Oh, quick.’ Stop having a piss, drink the last pint, get to your seats. ‘Doctor Doctor’ is playing. They’ll be on in a minute. And for the road crew, it’s also brilliant. It’s, like, ‘Stop masturbating in the toilet. Wipe your ass.'”

Last year, MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris named “Love To Love”, from UFO’s 1979 album “Strangers In The Night”, as one of the eight songs that changed his life. He explained to Metal Hammer magazine: “UFO have loads of great songs, and loads of great albums, but this version in particular, on ‘Strangers In The Night’, really struck a nerve with me. It’s the light and shade and the dynamic build-up which does it for me.

“I used to listen to ‘Strangers In The Night’ when I was driving the kids to school in the morning and it gets you fired up for the day.

“UFO always had fantastic guitar players — Michael Schenker and Paul Chapman were brilliant — and Phil Mogg is a great singer.

“MAIDEN played two gigs supporting UFO in 1981, in Long Beach and San Bernardino in California, and we’d have loved to have them out with us, but for some reason it never happened.”

Dickinson’s two-month North American spoken-word tour kicked off on January 17 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and will run through the end of March.

Bruce’s spoken-word show is split into two parts. The first section sees him take a humorous and often satirical look at the world from his own very personal perspective, treating the audience to private insights into his drive and ambition, peppered with plenty of MAIDEN anecdotes, and a myriad of other experiences encompassing not just the giddy heights but also the extreme lows, as told first-hand in his inimitable anarchic style, punctuated with photographs, videos and sometimes even erupting into song a cappella, to illustrate a point. The final section of the evening is devoted entirely to the aforementioned question-and-answer session, with the opportunity to pose questions on any subject whatsoever. As Bruce’s answers are all completely improvised — the more left-field and quirky the question, the more interesting and compelling the response is likely to be.

Dickinson is considered one of the world’s most storied musicians. Aside from decades spent delivering high-octane performances with his larger-than-life persona in IRON MAIDEN, Bruce has lived an extraordinary off-stage existence too. A true polymath, his accomplishments include: pilot and airline captain, aviation entrepreneur, beer brewer, motivational speaker, film scriptwriter, twice-published novelist and Sunday Times best-selling author, radio presenter, TV actor, sports commentator and international fencer — to name but a few.

Dickinson, who had a golf gall-size tumor on his tongue and another in the lymph node on the right side of his neck, got the all-clear in May 2015 after radiation and nine weeks of chemotherapy.

Bruce will hit the road with IRON MAIDEN for a new North American leg of the band’s “Legacy Of The Beast” tour in September.

Our favorite birdbrain returns to distract you from the horrors of earth with the horrors of extreme metal.
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HALESTORM frontwoman Lzzy Hale spoke to Andy Hall of the Des Moines, Iowa radio station Lazer 103.3 about the inspiration for the title of the band’s upcoming fifth studio album album, “Back From The Dead”. Due out May 6 via Atlantic, the follow-up to 2018’s “Vicious” was produced by Nick Raskulinecz (FOO FIGHTERS, MASTODON, ALICE IN CHAINS) with co-production by Scott Stevens (SHINEDOWN, DAUGHTRY, NEW YEARS DAY).

“When we first wrote [the] ‘Back From The Dead’ [title track], we were just, like, ‘Oh my God. This is exactly how we wanna come back out. This is exactly what I wanna say on a stage,'” she said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). “When we were writing it, it was, like, ‘If we ever get on a stage again, this is exactly what we’re gonna say.’ So we kind of had it as the working title for the album for a long time and we kept trying to beat it with something more clever or whatever.’ You know how it goes — you get a list of, like, 60 titles, and then you’re, like, ‘Oh, these are crap.’ And so we ended up just deciding on ‘Back From The Dead’. And this entire album is like that; it is a journey of rediscovery of either yourself or what the world means to you, what humanity means to you. It’s also [about] survival. There’s a lot of mental health issues that I go through on this as well. But basically, it’s a true reflection of that journey that we all went through. And not just we as the world but all of us personally in the band.

“I can’t wait for people to hear it,” Lzzy continued. “I know that a lot of people are gonna see themselves in these songs. And I just can’t wait to see which of our fans, and even people that aren’t our fans yet, gravitate toward some of these songs.”

Earlier in the month, HALESTORM released the official music video for “Back From The Dead”‘s second single, “The Steeple”,

The “Back From The Dead” title track, which came out last summer, marked HALESTORM’s sixth No. 1 at rock radio, and met rave reviews: Rolling Stone called it “a biting, cathartic howler about overcoming obstacles — even death,” and Consequence praised Hale’s “powerhouse pipes” and lead guitarist Joe Hottinger’s “blistering solo.” Revolver declared it a “raucous, hard-rock rager about staying strong in the face of crushing adversity.”

The official “Back From The Dead” music video, directed by Dustin Haney (Noah Cyrus, Luke Combs) and produced by Revolution Pictures, featured Lzzy and the rest of the band in a morgue and cemetery somewhere between life and death.

Lzzy and her brother Arejay (drums) formed the band in 1998 while in middle school. Guitarist Joe Hottinger joined the group in 2003, followed by bassist Josh Smith in 2004.

In December 2018, HALESTORM was nominated for a “Best Rock Performance” Grammy Award for its song “Uncomfortable”. Six years earlier, the band won its first Grammy in the category of “Best Hard Rock/ Metal Performance” for “Love Bites (So Do I)”.

Your body’s numb and your throat will be dry after sampling Robinsons Brewery’s Trooper IPA.
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DISTURBED’s David Draiman was one of the musicians who joined Lou Brutus of HardDrive Radio to celebrate the 30th anniversary of PANTERA’s classic sophomore major label album “Vulgar Display Of Power”. Speaking about the impact the LP had on his musical upbringing, Draiman said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “[PANTERA] really, I think, at that point, had honed the whole groove metal thing that they had pioneered; they had gotten it to be so, so perfect. And look, that record was songs we covered, songs we adored, songs that were the soundtrack to many a late-night bit of Sodom and Gomorrah on the bus [laughs] — all kinds of craziness. There was all kinds of moments that those songs are literally part of the soundtrack to our upbringing.

“A lot of people don’t really know this, but I don’t think that there would be a DISTURBED without PANTERA,” he continued. “I mean, the band that was DISTURBED before me that used to be called BRAWL had a singer by the name of Erich [Awalt], and he was very much in the Phil Anselmo school. [Editor’s note: A four-song demo from BRAWL can be heard below.] All the stuff that I heard when I went to audition for the DISTURBED guys originally was much, much closer to old-school PANTERA than it was modern-day DISTURBED. And I was not sure I could even complement it properly at the time; I didn’t know if my voice could be as ferocious as the music seemed to call for.

“I told Phil this when I saw him — I think the last time I saw Phil was actually in Texas; he was opening up for DANZIG with SUPERJOINT, I think, at the time,” Draiman added. “And I told him that. I’m, like, ‘Look, dude. You know it, I know it — I learned so much from you over the course of years.’ He looks at me and goes, ‘I know.’ [Laughs]”

Back in July 2018, DISTURBED paid tribute to late PANTERA drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott by performing a cover version of the PANTERA classic “Walk” at that year’s Rock Fest in Cadott, Wisconsin. Prior to launching into the song, Draiman told the crowd: “Our very first Ozzfest, PANTERA was on the main stage. And every night — every night — somehow, I ended up finding my way backstage to the PANTERA dressing room; in fact, I think most of the band did. And they were always so welcoming — they had the warmest heart, and Vinnie especially. Don’t get me wrong, I will always love Dime [late PANTERA guitarist ‘Dimebag’ Darrell Abbott], and everyone will always love Dime — he is one of the greatest legends to ever grace the face of the planet. But personally, I don’t feel enough has been said about the incredible heart, the majesty and the unbelievable level of musicianship that just came from Vinnie Paul.

“It’s funny, because as I was hanging out with them, Dime wasn’t really into our stuff,” Draiman continued. “He was all telling Vinnie, ‘I’m not into all that jumping-up-and-down shit.’ Well, we’re all about the jumping-up-and-down shit here. And Vinnie said, ‘No, no, no, Dime, I’m telling you, you’ve gotta give these guys a chance. You’ve gotta give them a listen to.’ And by the time our second Ozzfest came around, we were lucky enough to open up the second stage in our hometown of Chicago. And Vinnie and Dime made it out to the show just to come see us. They weren’t playing, PANTERA wasn’t on the bill — they came to see us. And an area that could probably accommodate maybe 10 thousand people at most at that side stage was swarmed with 25 thousand people that day. And I’ll never forget, after the whole experience went down, which was met with a mixture of both shock and wonder, and some regret, because it wasn’t the safest situation. But Vinnie and Dime were both blown away, and Vinnie became such a dear friend and such a huge supporter. And I miss him so very, very much, and I know you guys do too.”

“Vulgar Display of Power” was certified double-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 2004, signifying shipments of more than two million units in the U.S. since its February 1992 release.

Vinnie passed away on June 22, 2018 at his home in Las Vegas at the age of 54. He died of dilated cardiomyopathy, an enlarged heart, as well as severe coronary artery disease. His death was the result of chronic weakening of the heart muscle — basically meaning his heart couldn’t pump blood as well as a healthy heart.

Vinnie Paul and his brother co-founded PANTERA. When PANTERA broke up in 2003, they formed DAMAGEPLAN. On December 8, 2004, while performing with DAMAGEPLAN at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio, Dimebag was shot and killed onstage by a troubled schizophrenic who believed that the members of PANTERA were stealing his thoughts.

Up until his death, Vinnie remained on non-speaking terms with Anselmo, whom the drummer indirectly blamed for the murder of Dimebag.