News From the Pit

By Eddy Metal

This year has sucked really bad! And for more reasons than one! I've got to play only one show this year, and that will probably be the only one.

I'm older, so I've already had my fun, and experienced some amazing times in my day, so it's not so bad for me. But I hate seeing the young ‘uns not getting to experience the things that I have. There are some good young folk out there too. I really feel bad for them. It's been a bad year, but luckily for me, I had some money saved and have been doing okay, I guess. With everything closed, I have turned my attention to cruising my Jeep Wrangler a lot and experiencing the wonders of and nature and being outside a lot. That includes; lake trips, Red River Gorge, Mammoth cave canoeing, my sister’s swimming pool, and last but definitely not least - a trip to the northwest with a special new person in my life.

I always wanted to go to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons up in Wyoming and Montana, so we flew to Colorado, stocked up on goodies, hung out at RMNP and got a cabin overlooking beautiful Grand Lake Colorado (a place I wanted to really spend time at, as I only got to stay a few hours there in 2016), before heading northwest into some pretty remote and beautiful territory. I had never been, so it was an adventure for sure, and some really funny stuff happened along the trip, that decency does not permit me to talk about. Jackson Hole, Wyoming was a trip, and guess who we ran into in a tiny little tourist tee shirt shop there? Nikki “fucking” Sixx of Motley Crue! We walked in and there he was, three feet away. Wasn't no mistaking that M-fer. We would have said something or got a pic with him, but the idiot clerks in the store were making a big fuss and drawing all kinds of unwanted attention to him, and I could see he was quite annoyed with them because he had pretty much achieved incognito until they started acting the fool, so we just let the man be. I never really was much into bugging the rock stars much. We did get a picture of him pushing his baby stroller around, though. My girl was tripping out, and I've been a fan since 1984, so it was pretty cool. I told promoter Terry Harper and he sent me an article about Nikki moving to Wyoming to get away from the LA madness.

The northwest is amazing, though. It is a land of towering, snow-covered mountains, shrouded in mist and cloud, and an abundance of wildlife of all sorts, the likes of which I've never seen. It was cold, too! In Jackson Hole, it only reached 49 degrees one day! This was in early July! On July 4, it snowed and hailed! The weather conditions up there change so quickly, and as a born/bred Kentucky boy, you just aren't prepared for that kind of weather changes so fast.

Yellowstone was very interesting. I had never experienced volcanic stuff before, so this was all-new to me. Seeing those boiling cauldrons and geysers (we saw old faithful erupt), and the deadly hot springs were beautiful, but the sulfur smell was stinky AF! The incredibly beautiful multi-colored pools of thermal hot springs in Yellowstone made you really truly want to jump right in, but this is not Colorado, you will fucking DIE a horrible excruciating death if you jump in these! We saw wild bison, elk, moose, three bears, deer, rams, goats, huge birds pecking at windshields trying to get in, and even animals we couldn't identify. It was crazy. We then headed to Thermopolis, Wyoming to indulge in some hot springs that won’t kill you if you get in. It was very cool to me, knowing that the hot springs you were in, was once long ago a favorite spot frequented by a native American Shoshone chief named Washakie, that I read about long long ago. This was a great man!

We came back into Colorado and headed to Manitou Springs in Colorado Springs for a little fun at the base of Pikes Peak. As far as Covid-19 goes, we flew in a packed plane, were in huge, busy, busy, airports, stayed in numerous hotels, cabins, ate good at many, many restaurants, went to very touristy places, and here we are alive and well. We survived Covid-19, despite all the scaring and all the big fear-induced hubbub. We had suffered enough, were tired of being coped up, and were going to live our lives and try to salvage at least some of 2020! We only had one problem, visits to Rocky Mountain National Park had to be by reservation! You had to get a reservation for a huge park! We didn't have one and they were blocking us from crossing the mountain range. They wanted me to drive around a mountain range! I was tripping, that would've taken four hours at least! Luckily, I was able to sweet talk/weasel my way into them letting us through, thank god. That day turned out to be quite epic. We risked going on this trip despite all the warnings and closings. And you know what? It all turned out fine. Better than fine, actually. We had an amazing time! Such an amazing time, that as of July 20, I am in another relationship. Yeah, I'm that old-school romantic cheese-ball who still asks girls to 'go steady!'

As many of you know, I've had a rather rough last few years dealing with relationships. It's been one nightmare after another. It's very hard nowadays to find a faithful, loyal, anti-drama partner who doesn't have red flags fifty feet high. However, I think I finally met someone with my mentality, who does not like drama or fighting or entertaining ex's or negative social media horseshit. She is a good woman with her shit together, and I hope it works out between us. She is the type of woman who can make a good man into a great man. One who motivates and brings out full potential, so I'll be keeping my fingers crossed. We have not been together very long at all, but I am feeling very positive and have high hopes and good vibes. Wish me luck!

METALFEST!!

I had a lot of fun at Metalfest 9 “The Jeremy Wade Noe Cancer Fighting Benefit.” Thank god for Allen Ashbaugh for saving the summer! This was probably the best Metalfest so far. People were tired of all this virus bullshit, and wanted out to see some music, and Allen gave them a literal feast of good, unsigned music to dine upon. It was humid and hot AF out that day, and packing all my heavy music gear wore me out, had me soaking wet and looking like a drowned water rat before I even got there. It was a bit muddy with all the rain we'd gotten, and for a minute I thought I was gonna get stuck in the mud trying to get to the stage to unload, but with my superior driving skill, I bullied my way to the stage!

Acoustic rocker Abby Henderson broke in the stage before the full bands went on. That chick has good talent and a nice voice. A new band called From The Ash played and were pretty good. Nice vocals. They seem like good dudes. Shovelhead came on and rocked the place. I didn't know who it was a first, I thought the voice sounded familiar though. It was my former singer (of 13^th Level), Billy Burton's new band! I expected something more commercial, but I got some tasty heavyish grooving riffs instead, and I and others were digging it. Way to go Billy and friends! Sounded killer.

The Deacons Of Doom came on and jammed pretty good. I'm not a big fan of punk but they can def play, and brought the goods. Two Pump Chump came on next and killed as usual. What a fun band to watch, and they've always been cool dudes too.

Krosjoint was next, and we went up there and did our thing. I had a blast playing my own music and would not have it any other way. I messed up a few times (that no one would notice but me) because I couldn't see anything onstage, it was 90% blackness out there in the woods, and dark AF! That is my only complaint about the whole experience. Some of us rockers that are working with what limited skills we have need to see the fretboard on the hard parts. LOL. It's all good though, I am thankful I got to play! The crowd response to our set made it all worth it. Thanks to those who came to see our final show with vocalist Buzz Pile and drummer Jon Schindler. They needed a musical break and we have parted as friends always.

Overload came on next and tore shit up putting on an excellent performance. That Mark Jackson is truly Louisville's bass playing/vocal version of Lemmy! And yes, I made that shit up! The guitars sounded great. Tight and crunchy AF. Tight band overall. Nice.

By this time, I was feeling disgusting AF and needed to get home to bathe and unload all my expensive gear that was no doubt getting messed up in that horrible humidity and heat. I really wanted to stick around and see SxWxP and Fudgeknuckle kick some ass, but I had to get my shit home before my gear-hauling vehicle left without me.

So total props to Allen and his crew for all the hard work. Well done! I heard Saturday went really well, too. I'm sure the bands rocked then as well. Props to Mike Taylor for the sweet sound!

Another person I'd like to Thank is Marc Masden at Louisville Billiards for keeping things alive musically, and for combating this shutdown bullshit in the way you have!

The scene needed you to step up, and you have. You rock bro.

So, my band Krosjoint is now without a singer and drummer. Dilemas, dilemas. Do we call it a day? Or rebuild from the floor up? Krosjoint means something to me. It's my heavy side, but with feeling and emotion. Many great times, many great shows, many great memories, many great songs written. Some of my best music! I think the remaining members will rebuild a new version of Krosjoint. Still heavy, groovin' AF, versatile, and with all the elements of good stoner metal at it's finest. After all, I have written the majority of the band's music, so the nucleus is still there as long as I'm breathing. But replacing vocalist Buzz Pile will be a challenge. Dude is like a weird heavy metal Joe Cocker meets a redneck inbred Ronnie James Dio. I have always managed to find talented singers in my day for my bands, so I'm up for the challenge! I want a Southernish, redneck, heavy growl with actual singing skills. Octave range would be nice, too. I need fresh blood! Interested Singers and Drummers contact me at 501-609-1696. Never give up!

With this renewed Covid-19 spike thing going on again, and bars ordered shut down for two weeks, who knows what will happen. But I think this will all somehow mysteriously go away on November 5. Miraculously the numbers will instantly be down and things will start returning to normal. But we will see. I could be wrong, but I don't think I am.

Music is dying a slow tortured death, and we are having to watch it with no way to fight back against this bullshit. I cannot help but think that evil forces are at play here, with our lives as chips.

Stay strong my friends.

Eventually this has to end, and everything hopefully will go back to normal, and to all the freedoms we once took for granted.

Me? I'm going to live. Nature. Family. My new GF that I adore. My aging dog. Jeeping. And my music!

I'm content and happy, but I want my concerts and shows back! I miss reviewing concerts, taking pics, and seeing all of you crazy assholes all the time. I love my town and I will rejoice the day when everything goes back to normal.

God bless you all, and take care of yourselves. . .

The Metal Grapevine

New Feature- Dude, You Gotta Hear This Story!

I'm going to make this a monthly thing. Every month I will feature at least one good story about the regions rockers experiences, both good and bad. I want to hear it all! The time you fell off the stage during mid song, cuz you was hammered! The time you had a big booger on yer nose for half the set. The time yer fly was open and you didn't have undies on! Stuff like that. If it's good, I'll use it probably. You gotta impress me though. One rule is- you have to be an active musician playing out within the last few years! Any clown with a guitar cannot submit. Sorry. Send to Eddymetal1@aol. com

Guitarist Gary Kapfhammer - Saw Joe Satriani at the Ritz and went with a drummer buddy and his wife They went to get drinks at bar during last song before encore and, they all came out front. Johnathon Mover (drummer) throws drum sticks out by the left of mixer board right towards me! I was like, I'll grab this for my buddy, so I went for it with another guy jumping in front of me. He made it deflect right into my eyebrow splitting my wig a half inch from my eye!

Jeffery Custer- I was at Toy Tiger to see Ronnie James Dio, had back stage passes and I'm making my way down to stage, suddenly my leather jacket jerks back on my left side, I'm like what the f**k, I turn to see what’s going on and my zipper is caught in this girl’s hair and I had done about jerked her down by then and almost bald! The real kicker is it was a friend of mine. We lost it right there, so did Dio!

Eddy Metal - The year was 1999, my band Sideshow were invited to open up for thrash metal titans Overkill in London Ky at some community center hall. We were very excited and had this big elaborate musical intro complete with keyboards and effects samples box. Our time to come on came and we had smoke, lights, the cool keyboards, the effects box samples playing, and it was all building up to one big fancy musical crescendo, to which we were then supposed to rip into our heavy metal set. It was all so perfect building up, and right at the well-planned long powerful musical climax, when our singer finally says “WE ARE SIDESHOOOOOOOOW!!” The fucking power shuts off and the whole building went into complete darkness. Right at that exact moment! WTF. That timing was insane! What are the odds? So after that huge musical buildup our singer yells to the packed crowd in complete darkness “well, we WERE Sideshow. ”

Power was restored and we went on to kick some ass without the intro. Ha!

Despite the Fallen

New Kentucky Ugly