This past Saturday was the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert-led joint “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” in Washington, D.C. And the good news is, metal got its props: While Cat Stevens — who now goes by the name Yusuf Islam — was performing “Peace Train,” Colbert marched out with Ozzy Osbourne and Gus G. and interrupted the performance. I don’t why the other musicians currently in Ozzy’s band, bassist Blasko and drummer Tommy Clufetos, weren’t invited, but The Roots ended up performing the missing members’ duties, which is pretty cool…

…except that Ozzy sounds, uh, not so hot. And I actually feel guilty for criticizing his performance; I’m glad metal got represented at all at the rally, and I can certainly get behind Ozzy putting his star wattage behind the cause.

But holy CRAP does he sound really, really bad. Worse than usual, I think.

Go to 1:46 if you wanna see what I’m talking about. Approximately eleven seconds later, his voice cracks like he was me at my Bar Mitzvah. Ouch.

-AR

[via Metal Injection]

Just a couple of weeks ago Rob Zombie gave an interview where he expressed displeasure over the way Ozzy Osbourne was stealing band members from him; now he’s quickly denied us of potentially weeks or even months of online shit-talking by releasing a statement which ostensibly absolves Ozzy of all responsibility for Zombie’s anger. From Zombie’s MySpace page:

“I am very happy to put this Zombie vs Ozzy crap to rest. I just got off the phone with Ozzy and all is good with us. I have known Ozzy and Sharon for many years and have never had any problems with them. In fact they have always been very cool and easy to deal with. So, needless to say I found this whole situation very strange and a real bummer. This whole thing was really always between my band and a certain ex-drummer not between me and Ozzy. I wish Ozzy nothing but the best. End of story.”

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Ozzy Osbourne and Rob Zombie used to be friends and occasional tour mates, united by shared history of starting successful solo careers after first fronting successful bands, a tenuous connection to horror movies and all things Evil, and their mainstream appeal to meatheads everywhere.

But now 50% of Ozzy’s band consists of ex-members of Zombie’s band — that would be bassist Blasko and drummer Tommy Clufetos — and because Rob wanted to make my day, he got catty about Ozzy poaching his members in a recent interview. The video is above (the smack talk starts around the 54 second mark), but here’s a transcription of what he said:

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After their mentoring session with Shadows Fall, Scion No Label Needed Contest winners Iron Thrones visited New York City a few weekends ago for a little fashion upgrade. Blasko and Maria Brink came along to offer fashion advice and Scion provided the dollar bills for the whole affair. Even if the dirty metal dudes in Iron Thrones took the fashion tips with a grain of salt, how can you complain about getting to shop for new clothes on someone else’s dime? Watch Iron Thrones on their shopping escapade below, and stay tuned for continuing video updates from Metal Injection.

-VN

Last month, Ozzy Osbourne continued his campaign against the hearts and minds of his longtime fans by announcing Soul Sucka as the title of his new album, which is tentatively scheduled for a July release. Kind of amazingly, though, it seems as though the Ozzman hasn’t completely lost touch with his supporters, has heard all of our bitching and moaning, and has decided to do something about it. Metal Underground reports that Ozzy’s bassist, Blasko, has released a statement which reads in part:

“Until yesterday, the disc was going to be called Soul Sucka. However, Ozzy realized that “None of my fan base liked the title. They were like, ‘I can’t imagine me walking around the fucking house with the words ‘Soul Sucka’ on my T-shirt.’ So I was like, ‘Fuck it. I’ve got to come up with something else!’”

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Rob “Blasko” Nicholson has quite the impressive metal resume. He’s played with Prong, Danzig and Rob Zombie, he’s played (and still plays) with Ozzy mothafuckin’ Osbourne, and he’s got his own roster of management clients. I first met Blasko at the CD release party for In This Moment in the Summer of 2008 (he was there because he manages ITM… I was there for the open bar), and despite the fact that MetalSucks had done nothing but trash the band in the weeks leading up to that album’s release, Blasko was super-cool, friendly, totally down to earth, and had nothing but praise for MetalSucks. That’s the kind of guy Blasko is… he gets it.

Blasko’s latest project is Heavy Metal Karaoke, a project with guitarist Tommy Victor (Prong, Danzig, Ministry) and drummer Tommy Clufetos (Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent) that gives the average fan a chance to go up on stage and sing metal classics with a real, live band. I caught up with Blasko just before the Thanksgiving holiday to ask him about Heavy Metal Karaoke, working with Rob Zombie and Ozzy, the Zakk Wylde / Gus G. situation (I couldn’t resist), Blasko’s work in management, and the state of the metal industry in general. Our chat, after the jump.

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First, let’s just talk about how we arrived at this place we currently find ourselves:

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What the fucking fuck are these fucking Behind the Player DVDs? It seems like Blabbermouth posts a new story about them every hour on the hour. As far as I can tell, they’re just the same bullshit instructional videos that musicians have been releasing for years and that .001% of the population actually buys. Marketing-wise, I can’t tell if it’s a good idea or a terrible idea to launch the series by releasing new DVDs with Duff McKagan, Munky, Fieldy, John 5, Paul Gray, Blasko, Tommy Clufetos, Shannon Larkin, Mike Inez, Ringo Starr, Max Weinberg, The Captain and Tennille, Vanilla Ice, Tupac Shakur, Frankenstein’s Monster, Elliot Gould, Murderface, Bob Loblaw, Dick Cavett, Joey Fatone, and Rerun from Good Times all at once. But it’s happening.

In any case, we haven’t received a single press release about these DVDs here at the MetalSucks Mansion. So whomever is sending out said press releases obviously isn’t cool.

-AR