My Roots

Coming into Bush following the departure of founding member Nigel Pulsford during the Golden State tour in 2002, Chris Traynor stuck with Gavin Rossdale after Bush’s abrupt hiatus, playing with him in a project called Insight and then on Rossdale’s solo venture. But 2011 brought forth Rossdale and Traynor with drummer Robin Goodridge and bass player Corey Britz for the recording of The Sea Of Memories. And fans were just as happy to have them back as they were to see their fans, as the first single “The Sound Of Winter” scored at number one.

If all you know about Don Felder is that he was the guitar player in the Eagles who came up with the music to “Hotel California”, then you’ve obviously been hiding under a 1970’s-era rock. Publishing his autobiography, Heaven & Hell: My Life In The Eagles, in 2008, it not only opened the doors into one of the most influential and timeless bands of the peaceful easy feeling era but showed his own personal highs and lows in brutal honesty. Since leaving the band in 2000, he has continually played sold out solo shows and shared his memories of growing up poor in the musically fertile Gainesville, Florida. He is a scrapper with an eloquent tongue.

She is not yet 30, but her skills on the guitar has already garnered her some impressive high fives from fret masters such as Carlos Santana and Steve Vai. Hailing from Australia, Orianthi knew early on that her future followed the yellow brick road not through academic poppy fields but along the gleaming stretched out strings of an electric guitar; it’s incredible hum and vivre capturing her soul in such a way that she dropped out of school early and ended up in the promised land of masqueraded broken dreams, where the young lady has actually beaten the jesters and is succeeding where many young musicians have cemented in dead-end non-musical gigs.

Bass player Matt DiRito is jumping on the couch like an over-excited ten year old boy. It’s an hour before showtime and Pop Evil is chilling out before taking the stage at the Hard Rock in Biloxi, Mississippi. Vocalist Leigh Kakaty is stretched out on the other couch, his black hair hidden underneath a hat as he talks in a soft voice about growing up in Michigan. The band, formed in the Wolverine state in 2001, has had a very hot hit single (“Monster You Made”) from their latest CD, War Of Angels, and another popular single and video featuring Motley Crue’s Mick Mars (“Boss’s Daughter”) that recently hit the airwaves.

few weeks after interviewing Ian Astbury, the cosmic soul of The Cult, GLIDE was able to talk with the band’s so called “nuts and bolts”: guitar player Billy Duffy. Possessing a fun sense of humor, Duffy was excited about the band’s new record Choice Of Weapon and the tour that was just getting underway when we spoke. But first on his agenda was soccer.

For Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, the time is ripe for them to move up another notch on the rock and blues hierarchy. With a superb, extra bluesy/captivatingly mystical new album called The Lion The Beast The Beat, the Vermont based band are storming across the country, opening for Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney, and taking a hooky day to sit in with the Flaming Lips as they broke the record for most concerts played in different cities within a 24-hour period. And it feels good. Just ask Potter, who has an infectiously natural joie de vivre about life at this moment in time

Best known as the drummer for Def Leppard, Rick Allen recently took an artistic swing in another creative direction. Instead of banging away with a pair of wooden drumsticks, he picked up some lightsticks and in place of sound he gave birth to colorful images, a process that invigorated his passion. With eleven of his pieces now on display at his website, Allen recently took MY ROOTS on a journey through his art-inspired beginnings just prior to the start of Def Leppard’s current tour with Poison and Lita Ford.

Lita Ford is back. After a ten year sabbatical living on an island and raising two sons, who are now fifteen and eleven, Ford has just unleashed Living Like A Runaway, a soul-diving expose’ with enough sharp edges and guitar shreds to leave no doubt that the woman in the black leather pants is back on the metal scene.

Earlier this month, Glide had a chance to talk with one of the founders of the legendary 60’s band, Big Brother & The Holding Company. Sam Andrew, who still tours in a version of the band to this day, shared memories of his time playing with Janis Joplin during the heyday of the Haight-Ashbury Summer of Love and the release of Live At The Carousel Ballroom 1968, a remarkably sharp and pristine recording that sat in perfect hibernation at soundman Owsley Stanley’s home for years. For music fans who have always focused their attention on the breathtakingly otherworld vocals of Joplin, this recording will be a surprise as it brings to the forefront the talent of Big Brother as a whole band.

When you hear the name Appice, you know good, solid, mammoth drumming will follow. With older brother Carmine leading the way into rock & roll by playing with Vanilla Fudge, Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart and Ted Nugent, it was inevitable that his younger brother would pick up the sticks and follow right along behind him. Carving out his own niche keeping the groove with such metal legends as Black Sabbath and Dio, Vinny Appice is back on the beat with his new band Kill Devil Hill.