static-x

Lajon Witherspoon is a singer and songwriter and the frontman for Atlanta based rock band Sevendust. The band has been on both the Vans Warped Tour and Ozzfest, as well as touring with Metallica and Godsmack, among others. They will being doing shows with both Mammoth WVH & Alter Bridge as well as Static-X and Dope to support their latest record Truth Killer. We discuss the new record and tour plus, success, Lajon’s voice, meeting Robin Williams and more!

00:00 - Intro
00:55 - New Album Truth Killer
01:30 - Response to Pandemic
02:42 - Growing as Musical Artists
04:00 - Song "I Might Let the Devil Win"
05:20 - Voice Has Gotten Stronger
06:22 - Song "No Revolution" & Sounds
07:35 - Song "Superficial Drug" & Lyrics
08:55 - Sammy Davis Quote
09:30 - Path of Success
10:30 - Tours with Alter Bridge & Static-X
11:55 - Playing Ozzfest & Vans Warped Tour
13:00 - Song "Everything" & Lyrics & Advice
14:45 - Working Together as a Band
16:10 - Family & Kids
17:50 - Getting Back to Normal
18:45 - Static-X Reunion
19:10 - Cool Memorabilia & "Mantiquer"
20:15 - Meeting Robin Williams
21:57 - Charities
22:46 - Outro

Sevendust website:
https://sevendust.com/

KC Pet Project website:
https://kcpetproject.org/

National Down Syndrome website:
https://ndss.org/

Chuck Shute website:
https://chuckshute.com/

Thanks for Listening & Shute for the Moon!

Tripp Eisen is a guitarist & songwriter, formerly with the bands Static-X, Dope & Murderdolls. He is currently with Teeze/Roughhouse, Face Without Fear, and his new band, Project-X that will do Static-X material. He is very open in this interview about his legal issues, his feelings towards his ex-bandmates, his current musical projects and more. 

0:00:00 - Intro
0:00:43 - Tripp's Background
0:02:25 -Joining Teeze/Roughhouse
0:04:31 - Producer Max Norman
0:05:20 - Popularity of Roughhouse
0:07:10 - Bands in the 90s
0:08:10 - Audition with Marilyn Manson
0:10:40 - Mistakes w/ Roughhouse & Musical Styles
0:12:35 - Stuffed Doll & Trent Reznor
0:14:10 - Halloween & Manson Show
0:16:15 - Dope Formation & Gap Between Bands
0:18:35 - Dope Launch & Touring, & Broken Foot
0:23:16 - Joining Static-X & Murderdolls &  Leaving Dope
0:31:05 - Static-X, Touring, Girls Backstage & Rockstar Life
0:32:35 - Irresponsible Behavior, Arrest & Remorse
0:40:12 - Prison Experience
0:44:10 - Learning Experience & Preventing Mistakes
0:47:27 - Working Through Guilt & Moving Past Incident 
0:51:10 - Hiatus from Music & Keeping Low Profile
0:54:35 - Rebuilding & Offers to Rejoin Dope & Static-X
0:59:30 - Songwriting Disputes with Static-X
1:05:14 - Tripp's Version of Static-X Called Project-X
1:13:30 - Inspiring Other Musicians & Drugs & Alcohol
1:15:18 - Rock To Recovery
1:16:40 - Website, Social Media & Podcast
1:19:15 - Outro

Face Without Fear Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/facewithoutfear/

Rock to Recovery website:
https://rocktorecovery.org/

Chuck Shute website:
http://chuckshute.com/

Thanks for Listening & Shute for the Moon!

Episode 32 of Season 5 went out live on Rebel Rock Radio at 19h00 on 11 August 2022.  Actually, that isn’t quite true it eventually went out at 19h10 due to the all too familiar computer problems that plague internet radio.  I am sure by 2025 all these stations will be a lot more reliable.  We started off with Volbeat and ‘Step Into Light’, then changed direction and decided to go ‘Into the Pit’ with Halford instead.  That track came off his Live Insurrection album.  From there we had a flurry of Aussie Rock in the form of James Reynes performing ‘Boys Light Up, off the One Night in Melbourne live album, it's a rock classic featuring hummers, and not the type Arnold drives.  The rest of the flurry came from Airbourne and Rose Tattoo.  Around about this time the server decided that that was enough TSORR for one night and I was left with a ton of disappointed listeners and nothing to do except finish the show for the podcast. 

The live show is such a big part of TSORR because the audience gives the energy and the show is way more chirpy when it's live.  Anyway, it was not to be.  We continued with some excellent brand-new metal.  ‘Saxons and Vikings’ from Amon Amarth.  It featured Saxons Biff Byford doing the Saxon part of the duet.  It’s a very, very cool track, one of my best for the year.   We then some Soulfly with a track called ‘Superstition’ off the brand new album called Totem.  There was bit of Dio and Megadeth in the middle of it all and then we took a listen to a track called ‘Asshole’ by Helloween.  It’s a pretty scathing attack on whoever it was aimed at and to be honest at that particular moment I had a long list of suitable candidates. 

I dedicated Gov’t Mule's beautiful track ‘Soulshine to a few of my friends having a really tough time at the moment and then followed up with U2’s amazing track 'Walk On' for everyone who just needs a bit of encouragement in these troubled times.  It was time to liven things up with some US punky stuff:  Blink 182, Wheatus, and Bloodhound Gang did the honours with Anthem, Teenage Dirtbag, and The Ballad of Chasey Lain respectively.  The ladies were represented by The Pretty Reckless and the awesome Taylor Momsen, then we had In This Moment and the power of Maria Brink.  While we were there we turned the mic over to Angela Gossow and a track called 'The Day You Died' off Rise of the Tyrant.  Michal Amott is just phenomenal on this, Rise of The Tyrant was released in 2007, and still has brother Christopher Amott before he finally left to pursue other interests in 2012.  The show stayed heavy because from there we went to Slayer and finally switched the pace a bit with two South African tracks, ‘Born on Death Row’ by The Uninvited, and ‘Swords’ a track off the brand new album from The Black Cat Bones.   We ended the evening in good US rock style thanks to John Mellencamp and TSORR's beloved Tom Petty.  The final track is really disturbing, 'Slow Motion' by Third Eye Blind should be a movie.    

Artists featured:  Volbeat, Halford, Marilyn Manson, James Reyne, Airbourne, Rose Tattoo, Don Babylon, Megadeth, Static-X, Helloween, Theory of a Deadman, Emigrate, Dio, Amon Amarth, Soulfly, The Cult, Stone Gossard, John Frusciante, Children of Bodom, Gov’t Mule, U2, Blink 182, Wheatus, Bloodhound Gang, ACDC, Ratt, Rush, The Pretty Reckless, In This Moment, Arch Enemy, Slayer, The Uninvited, The Black Cat Bones, John Mellencamp, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Third Eye Blind.   

The Story of Rock and Roll. TSORR - Your one-stop shop for Rock

The thoroughly enjoyable Episode 3 of season 4 went out live at 7 pm on the 21st of January 2021.  It was great right from the start, there were plenty of people tuned in and from Boston’s opening track ‘Don’t Look Back’ all the way through to Parkway Drive it was a cracker.  A listener highlighted the fact that at 21h21 we would be 21 hours, 21 minutes, 21 seconds of the 21st day of the 21st year of the 21st century.  That created some pressure to find a suitable song to play at the time.  Even more so because before I found this out I had already played Green Day’s 21 Guns which would have been good.   

We ran through a lot of 80’s metal;  Ratt, Mr Big, Skid Row, Lita Ford, Tygers of Pan Tang, Slaughter, and Keel and we checked out 70s giants The Sweet and the inimitable Ted Nugent.  The punk section was covered by the Sex Pistols and The Stranglers and Aussies were represented by Wolfmother, Cold Chisel, and The Lazys.  Special mention here for Cold Chisel, I played Bal-A-Versailles and the feedback was instant, “what a great track”!  Usually, I will get a comment about a song but literally, immediately, 4 comments came in about it.  Another crowd-pleaser was SA’s own The Black Cat Bones with ‘Don’t Wake the Scarecrow', again, to all-round approval, it’s a song that raises goosebumps every time.   

Other than that we checked out the remarkable rebranding and rebuilding of the career of Ron Keel and we sorted out the 21 hours, minutes, and seconds thing by being able to say that at the exact time we were listening to The Story of Rock and Roll Radio Show and being blasted by a suitable bit of metal which was fitting in many ways.   

Artists featured:  Boston, ACDC, Godsmack, Ratt, Mr Big, The Sweet, Hinder, Paragon, Green Day, The Rolling Stones, System of a Down, Skid Row, Lita Ford, Halestorm, Sex Pistols, The Stranglers, Wolfmother, Cold Chisel, The Lazys, Ted Nugent, Static-X, Seether, Black Star Riders, Mustasch, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, John Cougar, Metallica, Tygers on Pan Tang, Avenged Sevenfold, Rammstein, Machine Head, Slaughter, Aking, The Diamond Dogs, The Black Cat Bones, Keel, Ron Keel Band, Parkway Drive

The Story of Rock and Roll. TSORR - Your one-stop shop for Rock

S3E7 of TSORR was recorded on Saturday 26 September and broadcasted on Thursday 1 Oct 2020.  The reason for the upfront recording was that I was away on a guitar clinic with guitarist extraordinaire Dan Patlansky when the show was scheduled to air and I needed to pre-record as a result.  This was an interesting process, like playing to an empty stadium.  I am not sure if you would pick it up without knowing.  To me, it felt a bit off but also a bit more relaxed because I didn't have messages and comments to deal with.

The show had a fairly mellow start with some classic ACDC, Black Sabbath, and Def Leppard, we followed that with a bit of Coheed and Cambria and their track 'Feathers' which has a very odd video you should check out on the blog page of The Story of Rock and Roll website.  We said cheers to September with CrashCarBurn and stayed local with Johnathan Martin of his Highway Infinity 1996 - 2016 album. Dog Detachments 'The Last Laugh' was a highlight for me and then it was time to put the kids away while Metallica hammered out Antinowhere Leagues, filthy classic 'So What?'.  No question that Metallica do it better.  Patti Smith made a TSORR debut with 'Rock 'n' Roll Nigger off her Easter album, nice to hear that again.

We hit some local SA metal with Deadline and Agro who both put out great albums in 2020 and prevented the year from being a total write-off.  Then we went bluesy with Rory Gallagher and Free and ballady with Keel.  There is something for everyone here.  Check it out.  

Artists featured:  Keel, Jimmy Barnes, Disturbed, Rory Gallagher, Newsted, Dog Detachment, Agro, The Wild Hearts, Static-X, Ozzy Osbourne, Iron Maiden, Deadline, The Cult, Alabama 3, Metallica, ACDC, Kiss, Jethro Tull, Def Leppard, Coheed & Cambria, Johnathan Martin, Jerry Cantrell, ZZ Top, Free, Rush, Tesla, Black Sabbath, Icon, Ghost, CrashCarBurn, Testament, Equator, Patti Smith, Alter Bridge, Warren Zevon & The Donna's 

The Story of Rock and Roll. TSORR - Your one-stop shop for Rock