Friday, December 29, 2017

WALKING INTO 2018, YOU HAVE TO HOLD YOUR HEAD UP HIGH!!

The end of a year is always a great time to reflect. The past, the future, friends, enemies, mistakes you made and accomplishments you dream of...there are so many bits and pieces that make up our journey! Organizing thousands of photos has kept me very busy during my home time, the last 2 years. Many people say "oh, now you can rest," when I return home, but the truth is, Home is the precious chaos that links our life into one element. It links the tours, family and work into one solid streamer!


On this venture through the past, I came across photos of Max recording Head Up with the Deftones. I admit, we are addicted to their friendship. I am certain it stems back to when a smiling ear to ear Dana introduced us to a dreadheaded Chino and his band of pot smoking, smiling, sickest artists ever, soon to be at the time..friends. Is there a word that combines family and friends? Fremaly? Anyway, yes, we have a special affection for anything Deftone. Missing a son is rough but you know what? Lots of Mothers have lost children and it all aches the same. A great deal. But you can give up your life mourning or you can chose to do what your child would want you to do, and that's LIVE! Let's all send Chi Cheng's adorable Mother, Jeanne Cheng, a virtual hug right now! God knows how strong she is!


The photo above is from the time Chino came to our home to write First Commandment with Max. I love this photo. I love looking at every detail and recalling the tiny moments each object saw in our home. This path lead us to Seattle and the eventual recording of Head Up. I grabbed that little piece of paper with Dana's lyrics and took it to Chino. He loved it! Dana would have been freaking out to know the Deftomes used his lyrics! He was so happy when Max sat with him at our table and they wrote the lyrics to Attitude together! And if he knew Muse used the riff at their shows, that would be a straight up stage dive!





Enjoy these photos!!! They are raw, from a wound, a face plant, a bone sticking through. They are a glimpse into a time when I was just coming out of a mist and Max was in a moment of fury! In the New Year, let's all have more compassion, more spirit and less selfish behavior. I'm over it! Too many people speak with "I" or "Me" in every sentence. Let's return to "We" because that's what the Tribe is! Every day we add new members! And we pick each other up in the pit! HAPPY METAL NEW YEAR!! I resolve to bring Max and his pack to every place on the Earth, every destination there are Tribe waiting! No club is too small, no country is too far! Let's RAGE!!


Class dismissed......till next year!

Friday, December 22, 2017

THERE IS A PARTY AROUND EVERY CORNER!! OR...THE TIME CHRISTINA AND I PARTIED WITH IKE TURNER!!!

Back in the early 1990's, I was just getting jump started with my career as a manager. Yes, I started with Sacred Reich in 1986, but it took a couple years to get my Metal journey to the whirlwind it was to become. Christina and I travelled to NYC for God knows what and God knows why! I am sure it had to do with business and business was good!




I had placed my new band, Sepultura, with Universal Attractions, a booking agency located in the heart of Manhattan. Jack Bart was the owner and also managed several of the biggest R&B entertainers in the world, among them, James Brown! Jeff Allen was his right hand agent and was beginning to gather Metal acts, so I signed Sepultura with him. He was the reason Sep played in Indonesia years before Metallica or any other rock band had gone there since the mysterious death of Deep Purple's tour manager (fell down an elevator shaft!). He had great ideas and major connections. He was a huge part of my team and a person who helped me launch the Sep's to stardom! He also liked to party!





After taking in an Ozzy show, Christina and I were invited to Jack's super secret apartment near his office. Damn, what a fun time we had! We sang our hearts out cranking karaoke, listened to wild tales of James Brown, and even met Ike Turner!!! Jack eventually asked me if he could manage me! He said he would have my face splashed on every biker calendar in the world, that every talk show you can think of would want me and he would make me a star!! Hahaha I said no, as you can imagine!! I never craved attention and my path was cut already. There were enough "stars" around me anyway!!




After this hopping party, Christina and I met up with Danny Lilker, who was an old friend of ours and very tight with Christina. We moved the party to the famous, but now sadly gone, Parmount Hotel, in Times Square. We tore that place apart next!! Some times you just gotta do, what you gotta do!!!

Class dismissed.....

Friday, December 15, 2017

LET'S GO SIX FEET UNDER!!!!

Many of you know the first band I worked with was Sacred Reich. I worked with them for several years, from their first show in our club, The Bootlegger's. It was Jason Rainey who called me when I asked if they wanted a manager, as it was Jason when I asked if the band wanted to pay their first show. He is the founder of the band. I got them their first tour in 1988, although prior to that year, we did many road trips to LA, playing with any one who would have us, anywhere we could get on the stage!

Tours started coming quite regularly after Surf Nicaragua was released. One of these tours took us to Canada, and on the way back into America, we would play cities in the state of New York...which is common routing as bands begin their descent towards home. When we went to Buffalo for a show, Cannibal Corpse was one of the local openers on this run, in 1988 or1989 (I think the latter..).




I admit I was a pistol in the '80's and '90's, weaving my way through cities, venues and striving to get my bands one foot ahead! This show with Cannibal wasn't any different! In no time at all, I was in the middle of a verbal brawl with Chris Barnes. I admit at the time I never knew how it even started. I just knew it had something to do with Phil Rind. That was all it took! I had to step up my game and stand up against Chris at all costs! It almost turned into an actual brawl! And I didn't even know wtf it was about lol!! Now, 30 years later, I like to think I am wiser, calmer and more logical than i was back in the day! Don't get me wrong! I am not afraid of stepping up to defend, but now, I try to know WHY!

Years fly by. My children grew up. Chris left Cannibal and formed Six Feet Under. I changed. I got secure and confidant with myself. I knew my direction. 2017 rolled on in. When Richie's Incite got confirmed on the Six Feet Under tour, I was like.."whoa!" I knew what I had to do!




As bad as I wanted to train it to one of the shows, I was on tour, TM'ing for the final Return to Roots tour. I messaged Richie to hit me up with Chris's cell phone number. I thought long and hard about what I would say. Truth is my platform, after being lied about for years. I don't diss people to make myself a hero, like many others. I am not aftiad to say I was wrong. And that is what I did. Chris was super cool and we talked long about our differences in the past. When I found out what started the decades long feud, it was really stupid! I was wrong. And now it's gone, cleaned up, smudged away! And you never know now what the future brings....but maybe you will be hearing some ballistic news in the near future!! Let's go Six Feet Under!!!

Class dismissed....

Friday, December 8, 2017

LET'S TALK BERIMBAU 101

I think the year was 1995 when Max, and I went to a berimbau university, of sorts, in Brazil. We were doing some type of work, scouting for a video idea Max had. There was a man in a capoeira circle, playing this percussion instrument that resembled a bow and arrow. The difference was, there was a dried, hollowed out gourd connected to the bow. The musician was playing it with thin wooden stick, while holding a flat rock against it.

Max later told me "I am going to play the berimbau on stage." I knew he would become a master. Others he told that night ridiculed him and told him that "only Africans can play that instrument." But we both knew. He would play it.




Now here we are, 22 years later and Max is still plunking away, bringing the sensual heartbeat of the berimbau wafting through the venues around the world...making peoples smiles grow, and emotions join together as one! He has replaced the flat stone with a Metal washer. I guess it was a natural evolution, Max Style! Attitude, Tribe, Back to the Primitive, Brasil, Unleashed..... these tracks all have the Maximum caress of the berimbau!! Max's Brazilian Roots will always remain!!

Class dismissed........

Friday, December 1, 2017

METAL....THE FAMILY CONNECTION....BROTHERS

There is something different about sharing your career with your family. While Max and I have achieved this to a high degree, there are many brothers that form bands together. Some don't work out, as we all know an English band that fought like maniacs on stage, don't we? On the Soulfly Point Blank tour of North America, I got to know the Noisem brothers, Sebastien and Harley, 2 of the new generation of blooded brothers in the Metal scene...also, 2 of the badass-est people and musicians to tour with. Most young musicians have something in common and that is parents who support them and let them follow their hearts and their journeys.


Our kids have grown up in the Metal scene since they first became a flutter inside me! Richie got the kiss of Metal from Rob Halford in the office of our Metal club, the Bootleggers, years before I ever managed a band. He made his first band at the age of 4, and continues that path today, with Incite. He paved the way and I must say, for me, the School of Richie taught me very much about how I one day would raise a family and a Tribe!


Some brothers are not particularly prone to attention. and like to remain behind the scenes and take the bullet for the family. We have Jason, aka Scone...always tinkering with logic and privacy at the same time. You may see an occasional Scone sighting but the fact is, no oe can tell him and Richie apart, so they support each other throughout the day!


When Max asked me to have his child, I swear the next days in Russia, Zyon was beginning to BE!! One child on the road 24/7, would change my day for sure, and then when Igor was doubling his cells inside me, things got to where it is today...organized. I knew that I could do anything I wanted, like everyone in Life, and we wanted family and wanted careers. It all flowed together. Yes, I admit I can flop back and forth, wife to manager, mother to manager, and so forth, with great ease. It all becomes one circle. From their first band Probation to the current Lody Kong, to Z drumming for Soulfly and Igor repping Alex Newport playing Nailbomb's Pont Blank live, it all became one. thing...our normal Life.



And I cannot overlook my husband and my brother-in-law, 2 polished brothers with over 33 years in Metal together! They showed me the connection could be done and be successful all at the same time. Withstanding many curves in time, it eventually returned to the vey first day.




Now that Zyon and Igor have fulfilled their destinies and are writing a new Lody Kong. Richie is on tour with Incite and Six Feet Under and Jason is on stage with Tony, I wonder how far will it go? How many generations of brothers jamming together..that thread running through the riffs and beats...and then...I get this photo sent to me....



Class dismissed........