Ozzy sat on a bench in Madam Toussands wax museum in NYC and acted like a statue. Watch the little girl!!!

This is an audio MP3 from a skype piece that the Edge did that explains why the U2 tour is being postponed! The US tour is going to be rescheduled in 2011! Keep listening to WAAF for more details!

2010-05-26_The_Edge_from_U2.mp3

Goodbye #2.

Here’s some good footage of Jane’s Addiction Version 5?  It’s was a  surprise Cinco De Mayo show at the small Hollywood club Bardot.  This version has Duff McKagan(Guns N Roses, Velvet Revolver, Loaded) on bass.  Perry Farrell has said McKagan has fit right in and is a big part of the creative process for the new album they are working on.  I believe Duff is an amazingly underrated talent.  Both Jane’s Addiction and Guns N Roses did a great job at bringing the sleazy underbelly of LA to the rest of the world with their music, so Duff on bass makes sense.  The chemistry in this clip is full on.  I hope they bring it to Boston soon.

Just a thought: Wouldn’t it be cool if Perry Farrell became the new singer of Velvet Revolver?  That could be crazy if the chemistry was right with Slash.  It would be crazy either way.  Plus Perry Farrell seems to be a little more dependable than Axl or Scott Weiland.  That seems crazy enough right there.

Ozzy called in today to talk about his new album, the Ozzfest tour, his new guitar player, Ronnie James Dio and to answer your Facebook questions!

Click here to get Ozzfest ticket information

Listen to the interview below!

Ozzy

Every Wednesday at 1pm I talk to Red Sox Manager Terry Francona.  This week we talked about Josh Beckett who ended up on the DL, Dice-K and Victor Martinez’s communication troubles, the Yankees protest, and Mike Lowell’s comments on feeling like not having a role.

Terry talks about Josh Beckett and playing through bad weather:

http://hosted-media.podzinger.com/waaf/archive/Mike_Hsu/2010-05-21_Red_Sox_Manager_Terry_Francona.mp3

Terry Talks about the Yankees protest and Dice-K and V-Mart:

http://hosted-media.podzinger.com/waaf/archive/Mike_Hsu/2010-05-21_Red_Sox_Manager_Terry_Francona(2).mp3

Terry talks about Mike Lowell’s comments:

http://hosted-media.podzinger.com/waaf/archive/Mike_Hsu/2010-05-21_Red_Sox_Manager_Terry_Francona(3).mp3

Terry talks about Marlins Manager Fred Gonzalez pulling Hanley Ramirez for not hustling:

http://hosted-media.podzinger.com/waaf/archive/Mike_Hsu/2010-05-21_Red_Sox_Manager_Terry_Francona(4).mp3

Don’t forget, every Wednesday we give away Tito’s tickets to an upcoming Sox game at Fenway.

Barack Obama is a multi-millionaire.  We know from the financial statement released from the White House yesterday that the President is worth somewhere between 2.3 and 7.7 million dollars.   Not a bad somewhere to be, especially if just a few years ago you were a community organizer in Chicago.  He certainly won’t be racking up unpaid parking tickets in Somerville anytime soon!

I certainly don’t begrudge the President his fortune.  In fact, I admire the fact that he has made so much, so fast.  He worked hard to rise from nothing, toiled hours in college and law school, entered the proffessional world, and has risen to the top of his craft through tireless effort.  Just like most of the “fat cat” CEO’s, hedge fund traders and bankers that we have listened to him gripe about for the past year!

That’s the thing.  When Barack Obama says he thinks there’s a point at which you’ve made enough money, he is referring to the collective “you”.  He doesn’t mean himself.  We know from his tax return, released last month, that he made 5.5 million dollars in 2009.  Is that enough?  Will he now begin immeadiately to redistribute the wealth?  Do we need to put government regulations in place to stop the reckless publication of biographies which prey on the ignorant and tease them with their inspirational promise?

How can he stand up there and rail against those who have worked their ass off their whole life and are finally reaping the rewards, when he himself has moved into a tax bracket most of us will never see in our lifetimes?  Why is it ok for him to back the Brink’s truck up, with a Presidential seal on it, and sell another book but it’s absolutely horrendous that a Wall St. trader was given a million dollar bonus last year?  Because he supposedly came from nothing?  How many of the CEO’s, or traders or bankers, that he rails about could tell the same story?

Liberals have always been great at do what I say, not what I do.  And there’s a long history of communist regimes that lived a audacious, regal lifestyle while the people killed each other for day old bread scraps, but this is bold.  Hypocracy at it’s best.  Meet Barack Obama… soon to be the last millionaire left in America.

Eddie Vedder kept bringing up the fact that Pearl Jam had played in Massachusetts 27 times. On their 28th gig in the Commonwealth they delivered the usual dynamic powerhouse performance mixing in the hits with some rare nuggets along the way.

The evening started with the slow burning “Release”. The crowd and Vedder with their hands in the air as if beginning the evening prayers to the altar of PJ. A chorus of believers singing “Release Me” at the top of their lungs lifting the Garden into position for the sonic tour the band would give for the next 2 and 1/2 hours.

They had a nice selection of deep tracks which leaned heavily on the “No Code” album with “Hail Hail” and “Smile”. Mike McCReady’s buzz saw slide on “Red Mosquito” and the surprise appearance of “In My Tree”. They also pulled a couple of gems from “Yield” with “Push Me Pull Me” and “Pilate”.

During “Evenflow”, Mike McCready proved again that he is one of the greatest and most underrated guitar players of all time. He ripped in to the solo with by firing of notes like his guitar was a Gatling gun. As the band brought it down he mixed his Hendrix with Dick Dale, taking the train off the tracks while coaxing bubbling wails that echoed of the rest of the band with shimmering effect.

Vedder did a Bruce Springsteen style intro to “Elderly Woman Behind A Counter In A Small Town” by saying they’ve played Massachusetts 27 times over the years, but they’ve never played, Billerica, Holden, Medford, Quincy, Franklin, Norwood and Shrewsbury(Pronouncing them all correctly and endearing himself to the Garden audience even more)

After the first Encore break Vedder and bassist Jeff Ament came out with acoustic guitars and after a few slugs of vino kicked into “Bee Girl”, their homage to the girl in Blind Melon’s video for “No Rain”. The only other time I’ve seen them do this was the last time they were at the Comcast Center and I wet my pants then too. I remember hearing them do it for the first time on the radio show “Rockline” back in 1992. Vedder was talking about grappling with his new found fame and gave a few words of warning to the Bee girl who was also experiencing new found notoriety thanks to MTV. After they played the song Vedder gave out his home phone number for anyone that wanted to “talk”. I remember I was in the car and was freaked that he would do such a thing. By the time I got home the number was gone from my brain.

Ament then left the stage and it was just Eddie and Us while he did the new wedding favorite “Just Breathe” from “Backspacer”. They did a few from the new slab including “The Fixer”, “Unthought Known”, and “Force Of Nature”. The best of the new stuff was “Got Some”. A jackhammer of a tune which they delivered with a ravaging intensity.

After the second encore and acknowledging the “Cow Guy” in the crowd they turned around to the people in the shitty seats behind the stage and played “Soldier Of Love” with Matt Cameron moving to a smaller drum kit to the side. They even put all the lighting on the back section of the Garden leaving the majority in darkness as the gave those sections their money’s worth for 3 minutes. A great gesture by the band.

Other highlights of the evening included a massive stadium rock version of the Who’s “Love Reign O’er me” with full on light show and exquisite piano intro by Boom Gaspar and Mike McCready and Jeff Ament paying tribute to Ronnie James Dio by slipping in a few measures of the Sabbath classic “Heaven And Hell” at the end of “Alive”. One of my favorite moments came when Eddie again mentioned playing Mass 27 times but was “pretty sure they’ve never played this one here” and then kicking into the Mother Love Bone anthem “Crown Of Thorns”. Stone Gossard and Ament shared a moment together facing each other on stage in front of the drums while playing the song from their old band. It was from the ashes of MLB that Temple Of The Dog came into being, which was the beginnings of Pearl Jam. If late MLB singer and Chris Cornell roommate Andrew Wood had not died of a heroin overdose these musical forces would not have converged and the space/time continuum of Grunge would be vastly different.

I’m looking forward to #29.

After an epic Bruins fail, the Sox losing two in Detroit, Finding out Ronnie James Dio is Mortal, and the oil spill in the Gulf Of Mexico expanding to the size of..well The Gulf Of Mexico, we need to take a break.  Treat yourself to 12 seconds of Pussy Licking.

An epic voice has been silenced forever, but to our great fortune his music will always be with us.  The whole idea that Ronnie James Dio lost his fight to stomach cancer is crazy.  If there was ever a Warrior to be reckoned with it’s Ronnie “Fuckin’” Dio.  The man started scrapping it out with his band Elf in the late sixties, which was later absorbed into Richie Blackmore’s Rainbow.  With Rainbow, Dio came into his own helping to write songs like “Man On The Silver Mountain”, “Kill The King”, “Long Live Rock N Roll”.  From there he took on what seemed like the  impossible  task of following Ozzy Osbourne as lead singer for Black Sabbath.  This resulted in not only one of the greatest Heavy Metal albums of all time, but one of the greatest Albums of all time, “Heaven And Hell”.  In my opinion his finest song writing too.  One of the best lines ever comes from the title track:

“The world is full of Kings and Queens

Who blind your eyes and steal your dreams

It’s heaven and hell”

The concert film from that time, “Black And Blue” captures one of Ronnie’s best performances.  Though he feels Black Sabbath got the short end of the stick from the management they shared with Blue Oyster Cult, the show is amazing.  It’s during this show he explains the “Devil Horns” sign which he later attributed to his Italian grandmother.

His fascination with medieval imagery and myth was obvious, but these words transcend any genre.  His interest in all things Dungeons and Dragons led to many parodies and ironic t-shirts worn by shithead emo kids who mocked his famous “Devil-Horns” hand gesture and diminutive height.  Most of those bands are mosquitos caught in the armpit in the chain-male of Ronnie James Dio.

His epic voice was described as operatic but also contained a fiery rage.  Not a psychotic or murderous rage, but one of defiance. Dio’s whole vibe was, believe in yourself and tell everyone else to fuck off.  Songs like ”Last In Line”, “Stand Up And Shout”, and ”We Rock” let us know it was our duty to rail against our detractors and keep focus on what we thought was right.

His live shows were uplifting experiences.  Metal Motivational Rallies.  Fists in the air with thousands screaming along.  Ronnie would accent his lyrics with a beckoning gesture and a commanding point.  A menacing Gargoyle shooting a withering glance at all those who dare defy him.  Despite being 5’4″, he was towering on stage, using his entire body to get his message across.  I remember seeing Dio kick into “Push” at the Palladium in Worcester, and Ronnie spinning the mic stand at what looked like 500 rpms, laughing and just loving the moment.  More recently with Heaven And Hell his voice was still strong despite being in his 60′s.  His presence on stage still riveting.  That’s what makes his death so sad.  He was still doing it and doing it well.  In the interview below from 2006, he mentions quitting if his performance was lacking.  He said he wouldn’t want to embarrass himself or his band.  He never did.  The persona and music he created became such a standard in hard rock that it eventually became cliche when others attempted to copy it.  But he never became a cliche himself regarding the Rock N Roll Lifestyle.  When you went to see Dio, you knew you were getting your money’s worth and more.

In this interview he dispensed great wisdom on survival in the business of rock n roll and spoke proudly of his accomplishments.  In the three time I interviewed Dio he was always gracious and thorough.  You will probably hear those words as well as “Professional”, “Kind”, “inspirational”, and “amazing” as the tributes pour in.

Ronnie James Dio Interview:

http://hosted-media.podzinger.com/waaf/archive/Mike_Hsu/2010-05-17_Ronnie_James_Dio.mp3