Todd Kerns

January 16 2012

Los Angeles, California

Did you know that between the original Star Trek series and the first film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Paramount was planning to launch their own television network to compete with the big 3 (NBC, ABC and CBS)? What was to the flagship of this fledgling network? Star Trek: Phase II starring William Shatner. Nimoy wasn’t interested. They actually cast some other dude to play the new Vulcan science officer. Then a little something called Star Wars came along and changed everything. Someone at Paramount said, “Hey, we have a ‘Star’ thing as well!” Hence the birth of Star Trek: The Motion Picture which was not exactly Star Wars. It wasn’t even The Phantom Menace. By this point Nimoy was like, “well, if it’s gonna be a movie…sure.” Cha ching! After Wrath Of Khan Nimoy was ready to bail again. I guess he was Spocked out so they killed him off at the end of Khan. Then Nimoy was convinced to return by handing him the director’s chair for the next one, Search For Spock. That was so successful they got him to do IV:The Voyage Home. Then Shatner threw a tantrum. “How come Leonard gets all the fun!?!” and Paramount, as loving parents, let little Willy take the reigns for a spell. Unfortunately Bill was more Ed Wood than acclaimed director Leonard Nimoy (who also went on to direct the successful Three Men And A Baby) and steered the franchise into oblivion with V:The Final Frontier leaving the only option as one last goodbye with the awesome VI:The Undiscovered directed by the great Nicolas Meyer (Khan, Time After Time-so great, McDowel, Warner).
“…where no man…where no one has gone before…”

Wow. Well, that’s not the ‘Phase II’ I’m talking about at all. Too late to disregard the above so…moving on…I apologize.
I’m referring to Phase II of the recording process of the new Slash album.
We finished recording bed tracks about a week ago and have moved into vocals and overdub land. It’s a strange land for the guy who plays bass on the project. He’s on call like a volunteer fireman. “we need background vocals here!” or “we gotta put a fuzz bass on this chorus!” Otherwise there’s a lot of hurrying up and waiting.

I’m not complaining. Not at all. If there’s one thing I can do it’s hang. I think I share the same dream as Peter Gibbons from Office Space. If I had a million dollars I would do nothing.

I mean, not exactly nothing. Not like I’d sit in my house until I became one with the furniture like that obese lady I saw on Nip/Tuck (eeesh, by the way). I mean that I wouldn’t really change anything about my life. I would make music, play gigs, drink coffee with my friends, go to movies…all the things I like to do. I do all that anyway.

Would I take trips to exotic locations?

I don’t think so. I travel to awesome places all the time. I don’t really understand the idea of going somewhere and NOT playing music. What, sit on a beach? Do I look like a beach guy? I’m not even a pool guy.

Would I buy a big fancy mansion?

I don’t think so. I have a house. It’s called DisGraceland. I would prefer to build one complete with revolving book cases and portraits with the eyes cut out for spying and a Batcave. Basically a cross between Scooby Doo, the Haunted Mansion and Wayne Manor. Hardly seems like a mature way to spend one’s money.

What about a fancy car?

I have a car. It gets me to Starbucks and the movie theater just fine.

Well, then what about a really fast one?

Do you know how many tickets I’ve acquired all these years rocking the 15 from Vegas to LA and back? Like I really need a FASTER car…
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that after an intense few months of recording I’m ok with kicking back and waiting for ‘the call’.

Tonight I enjoyed Thai food from my fave Hollywood Thai joint, Palm Thai with Eric Singer, Fitz, Rutger from Line 6 and my dear friend Cheryl Hall who works for the amazing Blondie and Steven Tyler. Good food good times. Highly recommended.

Today we visited Jim Survis and John Douglas from last year’s Slash crew. They are a part of Van Halen’s crew now. Lotsa buzz about VH right now. I’ve kinda caught that bug myself. How can’t you love VH? My fave album is Women And Children First…and discuss…
Last night we went to the drum off over at Nokia Theater. It’s NAMM time so there’s all kinds of these musiciany things going on everywhere. We hung out with Tommy Clufetos who we got to know as Ozzy’s drummer last year when we toured together. Our pal, Stefan Adika who played with my beloved Dee Dee Ramone was there with his son as well.

I said hi to John 5 when I realized that Peter Criss was sitting at the next table. Surreal. I never got up the nerve to say hi but Stefan got a pic of Peter and his son together. Come on-an original KISS member. That’s a big deal to me. Peter looked great.

We watched Mike Portnoy, Billy Sheehan, Tony Macalpine and Derek Sherinian play some crazy jazz math rock that was wayyy over my head and then bailed. Stephen Perkins from Jane’s hosted. He’s one of my faves. Brooks from Bad Religion played with Trujillo from Metallica later but we missed it.
This weekend is NAMM. I’ve been a few times and it is definitely interesting. The best part is catching up with friends. I’ll see Mike from Prestige guitars and I’ll see one of my best friends, Reed Shimozawa. Reed and I wrote and recorded half of my solo album, Go Time! together.
We are attending the Zakk Wylde celebrity roast on Thursday. That should be uber entertaining.

NAMM is kinda overwhelming. Lots going on. Sensory overload! I love guitars so it’s a non stop geek fest for me looking at all the beautiful baby guitars everywhere.

I’ll be seeing all my peeps at Ernie Ball, Music Man, Gallien Krueger, Line 6 etc etc etc. To be honest my biggest purpose is to walk out of there with a Gene Simmons Punisher bass. I’ll letcha know how THAT goes…

We did a photo shoot last Sunday for the new Slash album that was pretty enjoyable as far as photo shoots go. Trust me they can be painful. Again I’m not complaining. Poor rock dude has to stand around getting his photo taken. I can only stand being that self conscious for so long. It’s one thing getting your picture taken while you’re playing a show. It’s a whole other thing when it comes to four or five guys standing around-A-trying to look cool and-B-trying to look natural. There’s nothing natural about us standing here facing the same direction. You immediately turn into Ricky Bobby-”I’m not sure what to do with my hands”

Fitz and I went back for some RnR (not the Rock N Roll kind) in Vegas for literally 2 and a half days while the set up for “Phase II” was occurring in the studio. While there we sat in with some pals at the newly opened Gibson guitar showroom in Vegas. Pretty cool. Got to play A Girl Like You with Pat from the Smithereens. I love that song.

I recently devoured all 5 seasons of Dexter. not all in one sitting. That would be crazy. I’ve been chipping away at it like a bad heroin habit since the beginning of recording. I know-I’m late to the party but I’m almost all caught up. You can stop saying, “You’ve never seen Dexter?” I’m cool like you now!
Is it weird that I identify with Dexter sometimes? Not his ‘hobby’ exactly but his feeling like an alien to ‘normal’ human interactions etc. There’s a scene where Vince Masuka tells Dexter of the “premium alcohol, all you can eat buffet plus high class adult entertainment” there will be at Dexter’s bachelor party and Dexter’s inner monologue responds, “Kill me now”. I had to giggle at how familiar that response is to me.
Now I have to scour around like a junkie looking for Season 6 online somehow. I am NOT a computer guy. Luckily Cian at the studio IS. I foresee season 6 being in my hot little hands by this time tomorrow! Otherwise I’ll be the guy on the corner of Hollywood and Vine with the homemade sign that reads ‘Will Work For Dexter Season 6″.

I just finished brother Duff’s book recently and very much enjoyed it. It was very inspiring. The man nearly killed himself with self abuse and is now a whole new man. He is super educated and in amazing physical condition.

Speaking of which I got to watch my bro, Slash, rock it for the first time in like 4 years with Velvet Revolver at the House Of Blues on Sunset the other night. THEE Velvet Revolver. Complete with Scott. It was cool to see. I hadn’t seen them since the first tour for Contraband. Always great to see Duff rock it. A lot of fun.

It’s funny with all that GNR Hall Of Fame talk that it’s VR doing a reunion show. People keep asking, “What are you gonna do if Velvet Revolver gets a new singer?” or now, “What if they get back together?” since they played with Scott the other night. Or the big one since the Hall Of Fame announcement, “what are you gonna do if GNR does a reunion tour?”

“What am I gonna do?” The same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the world. Yes, that was a Pinky And The Brain reference.
No, seriously-I feel fortunate enough to call Slash my friend. As my friend I support whatever he deems best for him just as I would for any of my friends. If he decided tomorrow to go back to any of his former musical homes I would wish him the best. To be honest I never even got to see GNR back in the day so I guess I’d look at the cup as half full to get the chance.

If he decided to cut all his hair off, become a Scientologist and make a world music concept album about the life of L Ron Hubbard I’d say, “Good on ya, bro!” cuz that’s what pals do. You support your friends in the decisions they make that are important to them. It’s not about how those decisions affect me. That said we have an album coming out in May and we will be supporting it for a long time. After that who knows? Maybe there’ll be a GNR/VR/Alter Bridge tour and I’ll be in Vegas working on that L Ron Hubbard concept album idea I just thought up one paragraph ago with the Sinners. That’s then. This is now. I’m too busy enjoying now to worry about then.

Speaking of the Sin City Sinners-
Go here and vote for the Sinners for the ol’ Best In Vegas thingie

http://bestoflasvegas.com/vote2012/

Here’s what I love about the Sinners. It’s a rock band. There’s no keyboards and vocals etc on tape or whatever digital enhancement. What you hear is what you get-played by human beings (well, kinda) on stage. It’s a snotty rock band that should totally not be allowed in Vegas showrooms that play whatever we wanna play including several cds of our own music. There are no ‘costumes’ or ‘wigs’ or ‘characters’ in the show. It’s just a rock band. I use the word ‘just’ as a source of pride. I don’t wanna be anyone but me. I count my lucky stars every day that that’s exactly what I get to do.
Nothing against any of the bands and shows that have costuming and digital accompaniment. I enjoy many of those shows around town. I suck in that type of environment. I only wanna play no nonsense rock n roll. I’ll leave that other stuff up to the professionals. Call me blissfully unprofessional.
Slash and pals will be making our way to Toronto for Canadian Music Week playing March 23rd at the Phoenix Theater. Seems fitting that we would start our first tour of 2012 on Canadian soil. The Motherland! That is going to be exciting for many reasons. Not least of which the debuting of new material. Oh you lucky Canadians!

I can’t think of anything else to say. There’s a reason I call this ‘The Ramblings Of The Mentally Ill’. I’m always surprised anyone enjoys reading these rambling but I continue to ramble for those that do’s amusement.

I’m reading Russell Brand’s Booky Wook which is super entertaining thus far. I’ve been on a Marilyn Manson kick as of late. Lost track of him after the Golden Age Of Grotesque. I saw him on the Anti-Christ tour when he was the only one putting on an arena size rock show. Everyone else was kinda staring at their shoes while playing their guitars. I ‘got it’. I ‘got’ Mechanical Animals but he lost me on Holywood. He got me back on Golden Age and then he just lost me altogether. I preferred when MM was a band. I knew who was in it and who played what. Now I don’t know who’s there and who isn’t. I believe Twiggy’s back. That’s a step in the right direction. I hear there’s a new album coming out. We’ll see…
All right! That’s it for me! (Practicing my George Costanza ‘going out on a high note’)

I’ll get back to you at Phase III

Your loyal and humble servant
Todd Dammit
Dammit out!

December 20 2011
Hollywood Ca

I’m in the lounge at Barefoot Recording. Sponge Bob is muted on the flat screen. Myles is playing guitar in the studio downstairs. I’ve been taking advantage of what little ‘me’ time there is. I’ve been spending it with my new friend Dexter. I know everyone else seems to already know him but I’m late to his party. I am half way through season 2 and am officially addicted. He throws a hell of a party.

In 3 days I will be making my way to Vancouver to spend the holidays with my family. All the Californians think I’m going back to Canada to have a white Christmas. We Vancouverites know we have a WET Christmas instead. I’m very much looking forward to it.

After a while the studio turns into Das Boot. A group of dudes trapped together day in and day out. To add to the surreality of it all a documentary camera crew follows our every move. Not sure what is to come of this footage. Dvd? Documentary? Blackmail material? Who knows? The camera crew have now become part of our Island Of Misfit Toys.

My birthday was a couple weeks ago and I didn’t do a thing for it. This is not the first time I’ve not done a thing for my birthday but usually those surrounding me force me into something. We did a marathon day in the studio that day with the arrival of Myles Kennedy. We were a well oiled machine and Mr Kennedy was playing catch up after returning from a successful UK tour with Alter Bridge. By the time we were finished at the studio I was a zombie and I don’t think it was any longer my birthday anyway so I missed it entirely. I kinda regret that now. Next year I’ll do something special…like…uh…fireworks and jell-o. Preferably not together.

We are somewhere in the area of 5 songs in. I’ve lost track. We play the songs together live off the floor capturing guitars, bass and drums all in one pass. If there’s any glaring mistakes they are repaired and we move on to the next. The pace has been about one song a day though we’ve managed to fall off that pace here and there. The riffs are fat and huge and heavy. Slash plays solos live off the floor that are epic and as impressive as anything in his catalogue. And that’s a formidable one.

In our last stretch of pre production Fitz tore a big hole in his thumb. He sat out for two days while the other 3 of us played along to the previous days recorded drum rehearsals. It was surreal but necessary. After a couple of days Fitz returned behind the kit bandaged up, gloved and good to go.

It’s been fascinating working with Eric Valentine. Every day I come in and the drums are in a different part of the studio. He’s big on different sounds for different songs. The kick drum sizes change, Myles and I change guitars and amps all the time dependent on the track. The only constant is Slash. Les Paul and Marshall. All you need is an American guitar and a British amplifier and you can take over the world. Slash has a very specific, distinctive sound and it would be a mistake to have him playing a Strat or a Tele. Slash needs to sound like Slash. The funny thing is I have a feeling that even if he did have a completely different set up going it would still sound very much like him.

The other night Fitz and I hung out at Bruce Kulick’s house with Eric Singer. It was surreal for a minute there to be there with the guys from the Revenge lineup of KISS. We had some laughs, played some guitars. Bruce has an amazing collection of guitars and pulled out one beauty after another. I left his place with a Rickenbacker 4003 and a Gibson SG bass which is a remake of the old EB-3. I’ll be using his basses where they seem to fit. The Rick has already been used! Thanks Brucifer! I met Keith Leroux from kissonline.com there as well. Great guy. God knows I’ve loitered on his site enough!

December 12th was last week. I played my very first show ever as a kid on December 12th a thousand years ago(I’ve never been good at math). I played at the Lanigan Town Hall in Lanigan, Saskatchewan, Canada. It was a Christmas party. I made $60 and I spent it on Christmas presents for my family. I remember I bought my brother, John, an AC/DC shirt that fell apart not long after. Here it is a thousand years later and I’m still playing music. What a trip it’s been.

After Christmas in the great city of Vancouver, BC, Canada I will return to Las Vegas for New Year’s Eve at the Hard Rock Hotel/Casino. Incidentally Axl’s Guns N Roses are playing the same building (albeit in a much bigger venue!). I’ll be playing with the Sin City Sinners, hot on the heels of a very successful Christmas cd. It’s gonna be a great deal of fun. I might even get a chance to say hello to old friends, Diz and DJ from Axl’s side of the fence.

GNR are going to be in the Hall Of Fame, as they should be! No KISS, Rush or Deep Purple (wtf?) but GNR definitely deserves to be. It’s gonna be a big year on Planet Slash. Hall Of Fame, new album, big tour etc etc etc. Very exciting indeed.

January 2nd we will be back at Barefoot Recording doing more of what we do. I’ll be back in Vegas by February with my Sinners. I haven’t seen my house in a looong time! It seems where I hang my hat is my home. A good problem to have for this ol’ gypsy heart. Los Angeles-Amoeba Records almost daily, California sun, Cactus Taqueria (the amazing mexican stand down the street) more often than I should…life is good.

Just finishing up Ace’s book. Wow. How is he still alive? God love ‘im. Then I’m moving on to brother Duff’s. Of course this is all research for my own book someday. I’ll just retell all their stories with myself as the protagonist. Resource material will include everything from Hammer Of The Gods to The Dirt. I think I’ll call it No One Here Gets OOT Alive. Nice ring to it.

Well, Myles just came up so I guess it’s time to get into the next song. I’m wondering where the drums will be when I go down there now. Always exciting.

I guess this is probably the last you’ll hear from me til 2012…well, ya nevah know…

Happy Holidays to all of y’all! I hope you spend it with those you love the most. Big big love to you and yours!!!

Your loyal and humble servant
Todd Dammit

November 29 2011 |
Los Angeles, California

Can you believe this year is almost over? Shocking. What a trip it has been. I don’t need to tell you all the places I’ve been and all I’ve been through. 2011 has certainly been a wild ride and it ain’t over yet.

I’m back in LA, two weeks or so into the 2nd chapter of the new Slash record. The first three songs we did some time ago are recorded, mixed and mastered.
Bad Rain is a sexy drop D number with me on 8 string bass and squawking along with Mr Kennedy. Standing In The Sun crept up from behind to be my favourite of the 3 and if you’re gonna listen to Halo make sure you have your home insurance paid up cuz it’ll rip the roof off. All of these will be out into the public consciousness in the spring of 2012.

Myles is out with Alter Bridge tearing up the UK right now so the 3 Amigos-Slash, Fizt and Dammit are hard at it. Yes I misspelled Fitz on purpose. We call him Fizt as in Fist with a Z. I don’t know why. Slash’s tech, Jim Survis named him that. Survis is out with Smashing Pumpkins right now. Cool.

Speaking of the Pumpkins I went to Zia Records in Vegas last month to pick up the new Jane’s Addiction and Red Hot Chili Pepper cds. For a moment I thought it was 1996. Ah the 90s…Loving the new Jane’s. Gotta spend more time with the Chilis but like what I hear so far.

Anyway, the 3 of us with our producer, the uber talented Eric Valentine, have been chipping away at a whole batch of new songs. We plan to record somewhere in the area of 15 songs and chip it back to about 12 for the cd. The extras will end up as b sides somewhere.

I’ve been having a love affair with my old friend Gibson. I’ve been a Gibson player all my life. I still play my main Les Paul, Jonesy. He’s an 82 Custom. Gibson is not renowned for their bass guitars and that’s really a crime. I’ve been really enjoying a Thunderbird, a Les Paul bass and a Grabber during this phase of pre production. Real big, fat, greasy 70s tones. The Grabber is that bass on the cover of KISS Alive. Big monster! I rock the LP and the T-Bird on the neck pickup and they spit gold coins. Metaphorically.

On top of that I’m rocking my usual army of Music Man Stingrays including one fretless, some Fenders, my Waterstone Tom Petersson 12 String bass and even a cool old Univox in one song. I love me some guitars/basses. We have a world of goodies in there.

Today Pat O’Brien from Access Hollywood popped in to say hi. How weird is that? Not for an interview or anything. He’s a friend of Slash’s. Bizarre. Earlier the legendary rock photographer, Neil Zlozower, came by. This is life on Planet Slash.

Last week Ronnie Wood came in. What a total trip. I am a massive Stones fan. I love Ronnie. I have a Zemaitis guitar that I call Ronnie or Woody after him. He was super cool. Sucking on one of those electronic cigarettes everybody seems to be replacing their old addiction with.

A lot of people don’t know that Ronnie played bass on the original Jeff Beck Group records. A lot of great players look to those records as great bass playing myself included. Ronnie is a skilled slide player and rocks pedal and lap steel too. Such a trip to be in his presence. He is the first of that higher echelon of rock royalty that I’ve met.

Went and saw Kyuss Lives last week and that was a trip. Nick Oliveri was rocking the bass. I’m a big Nick fan. I feel his presence is missed in Queens Of The Stone Age but I get it. I’ve been in enough bands to know not to question why things don’t work out. Kyuss was great. Got to meet Nick and John Garcia. A good, fun, stoner rock night!

Went to see my cousin Sheldon Brookbank play with the Ducks in Anaheim last week as well. Always a blast to watch hockey outside of Canada. Sheldon is from my hometown of Lanigan, Saskatchewan. People always say, “you must be the most famous person from your hometown” and I’m like, “yea right! I have cousins in the NHL!” That totally trumps Rock N Roll in Canada.

Popped by a Katy Perry concert to say hi to Slash tour manager, Pete Merluzzi, who is out with Katy. Quite the big spectacle of a show. I don’t really know much about her or her music except that she kissed some girl and was kinda into it. Apparently Russell Brand was there but I didn’t see him. He rules. Brilliantly funny man. Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him To The Greek are genius! I own his books but haven’t gotten around to reading them yet. I have far too many books in my little library.

Speaking of which I’m loving Ace Frehley’s book at the moment. It’s no secret that I’m a bigger KISS fan than you! I also brought Duff’s book for after I’ve devoured Ace’s.
I highly recommend Late Shift and The War For Late Night both by Bill Carter. The first is about Letterman leaving NBC and Leno taking over for Carson. The second is about Conan getting screwed by Leno. Fascinating. Carter is a brilliant writer and incredibly well researched.

After the last round of recording I spent my time in Vegas recording a Christmas cd with my brothers in sin, the Sin City Sinners. It is available as we speak. I sing We Three Kings with our pal George Lynch from Dokken on guitar and it totally rocks. There is some great and hilarious stuff on that thing. Also there are Christmas ornaments and more available to accompany it. Awesome. It is nice to see people really excited about it.

Also the Sinners and I did a big show with Sebastian Bach which was great. Sebastian was a true pro and gent. He does have a reputation for being a bit of a handful but he was awesome. Just awesome. He looked and sounded like the kid who used to sing for Skid Row 20 years ago. Mind blowing.

Sadly I missed the cd release party for the Sinners’ xmas cd as well as a very special night where Tamie Downe sang with the Sinners. Tamie as the singer for Faster Pussycat had not played with his former band mate and head Sinner, Brent Muscat in years. It was a magical night and I was sorry to have missed it. I really hope Tamie and Brent can find more to do together in the future. There are a lot of people out there who would love to see that.

Took a trip to Vancouver before returning to LA as well to see my new favourite band, Plant Life. Go see ‘em if you get a chance!

Well, Myles Kennedy will be in LA on my birthday next week. I get Myles for my birthday. Interesting. I never do much for my birthday. I like to surround myself with friends. I have celebrated my last 4 birthdays with my Vegas brethren. It will be strange to spend it without you. I’m sure we’ll go to a Hollywood restaurant and eat too much. That’s as much as I wanna do. And NO not Hooters! Thank you very much…

This Thursday The Stooges are playing the Palladium. I am dyyying to see them. I’ve not seen them since they reunited. By hook or crook I am going to this show! I’m just sad I didn’t get to see them while Ron was still alive. I love Mike Watt not to mention Jim Osterberg…you know-IGGY!

Ok, I’m beat. I’ve watched the entire first season of Deadwood. Amazing. Ian McShane rocks. Gotta find season 2. I’m watching The Kennedys now. A 6 part mini series. Very interesting.

I will be in LA til xmas then I spend the holidays in Vancouver with my family. New Years in Vegas with my Sinners then back to LA to finish this opus with Slash and his Collaborators!

2011-Christmas cd, Slash cd, Charlie Sheen meltdown, Winnipeg Jets. I can only imagine what the new year is gonna bring…

Your loyal and humble servant, Todd Dammit

October 2nd 2011
Los Angeles, California

So yes, it has been over a month since I last wrote a blog. Truth be told I’ve never been busier. I don’t know how I found time to write any in the past but life just gets faster and faster and busier and busier.
As it turns out my last blog would have been the end of the first book (if this was a book) with the end of the We’re All Gonna Die tour in support of Slash’s solo album. This blog would be a prelude to a book yet unwritten. The forthcoming album and tour will probably take us into 2013 if all goes according to plan.
Let’s get caught up with where we left off…

Since I last joined you I’ve been back in Vegas with the Sin City Sinners. The Sinners are working on a Christmas album featuring many of the guests who have honored us with their presence during the rowdiest of jam sessions.
I sing on a blazing version of We Three Kings featuring our pal, guitar legend, George Lynch. Our version has sonically more in common with Satan than baby Jesus but a fitting tribute none the less. Happy Birthday, Jesus-here’s some METAL!

While in Vegas I got to do a few acoustic shows which I really enjoy. They are truly liberating. There is nothing like climbing out from behind a din of Marshall amplifiers and thunderous drums and standing there with nothing but your voice and an acoustic guitar to hide behind. Not for the faint of heart. After jumping around onstage my whole life at full volume it was mildly unsettling when asked to go it alone oh those many years ago.
I acted in a film under this same precedence of facing fear. It didn’t sound easy. It was waaay out of my comfort zone and that’s why I did it. You have to face these things. You come out the other side of an experience knowing you can do almost anything if you put your mind to it. Within reason, of course.
At this point in my life doing an acoustic show is nothing but a total pleasure. At least for me they are. I can’t speak for the person listening. I still have every intention of releasing an acoustic cd at some point. I’m such a fan of Johnny Cash’s American Recordings. I’ve always wanted to do that. Maybe someday. As some people know I’ve been playing a lot of unreleased stuff at the acoustic shows. I suppose they should be documented one way or another, huh?

I went in for cataract surgery while I was home as well. After my detached surgery last year I developed a cataract. A common after effect. I see much better now, thank you very much. Enough with the eye already! I kept praying for the bionic one, Six Million Dollar Man style but no such luck.

So now here I am. Back on Planet Slash. Back when I was originally asked to support him on his first solo tour I wasn’t sure if it would be a month or maybe fly outs on weekends or what. Now here we are a year and a half later and we’re getting ready to record a new cd as a band. Did not see that coming.
We have been working on riffs for a while since we were on the road even. Those riffs have ballooned to almost 20 songs and growing. We have been hard at it in several writing sessions and are now in the midst of 2 weeks rehearsal. We’ll be entering Barefoot Studios with Eric Valentine in a few days to start work on the first few songs. We’ll finish up the record before the end of the year.
Eric has produced a lot of amazing stuff including Slash’s last record. We’ll be in the very studio where one of my favorite albums ever was recorded-Songs For The Deaf by Queens Of The Stone Age (produced by Eric Valentine).
It promises to be very exciting. I’m stoked!

We went to a wildlife fund raiser last weekend that was awesome. We watched them release a rehabilitated hawk back into the wild. There was an auction for things waaay out of my price range. It was hosted in Dick Clark’s back yard. Yea-weird.
Afterwards we got together for a fun hang with Jonny Griparic from the second Snakepit lineup and Charlie Sheen’s most recent ex Brooke Mueller.

Last Friday we went to see Cheap Trick at the Greek Theater which was fanfreakingtastic. They did Dream Police in it’s entirety with full orchestra and back up singers. Most impressive.
The guys had been rehearsing next door to us and it was a major thrill having them come by and say HEY! Tom Petersson (one of my all time fave bassists) loaned me his 64 Thunderbird for a day. He let me play his custom made 12 string and commented on my own Tom Petersson signature 12 string. Super surreal. Great guys. I got hit, yet again, with a Rick Neilsen pick id show. I don’t know how many of those I have in my collection now. In fact that may have caused the original retinal detachment.

Since then we’ve had Billy Idol rehearsing next door as well as System Of A Down. Steven Adler came by for a visit. Always a pleasure!

My current obsession is the New 52 from DC Comics. DC (Batman/Superman etc) has decided to reboot 52 titles. Sort of a retelling to get everyone caught up, I guess. I have a pile in my room that rivals the bedroom of my youth.
Thankfully they haven’t done much tinkering with the Batman timeline which I find the most fascinating of all. It’s hard to find a person as obsessed with it as myself but when I do-look out! I can bore anyone to death with the details of recent Batman history.
Prepare to be bored!
Here goes-
Not that long ago Bruce Wayne was believed dead.
Dick Grayson, the original Robin (who grew up to be Nightwing) became the new Batman.
Jason Todd, the 2nd Robin (who was killed by the Joker back in the 90s) has risen from the dead at the hand of Ras Al Ghul (Liam Neeson played him in Batman Begins…come on. Try and keep up!) Jason is kooky since being reanimated and became The Red Hood (which was originally the Joker’s handle before he became the Joker. I know it gets harder and harder to keep up. Stay with me!) Jason is kind of one of those good bad guys. He kills bad guys which is totally against Batman’s code.
The third Robin, Tim Drake went solo on a quest to find Bruce Wayne who he still believed was still alive. Tim became Red Robin.
Now the NEW Robin is none other than Bruce Wayne’s recently discovered son-Damian Wayne! Damian’s Mother is Talia Al Ghul, daughter of Ras. Like a cartoon soap opera, right?
So all of a sudden Bruce Wayne is no longer dead but he decides that Dick is gonna be Gotham City Batman and Bruce is gonna be International Batman and Bruce franchises Batman all over the world with Batdudes in every country.
Whew!
Since rebooting Bruce is back in Gotham as Batman and Dick is back to being Nightwing. Now it’s really Father and Son as Batman and Robin. Interesting.
They’ve also rebooted Batgirl as Barbara Gordon. She was paralyzed by the Joker back in the 90s. Oh that Joker! There have been several Batgirls since her but she’s back and let’s be honest, she was always the hottest one.

So…anyway…
I really let my nerd flag fly in these blogs, don’t I?

I’ll get back to nerding out in a minute. Coming soon is the Slash Made In Stoke dvd which we’re all excited about. It promises to be awesome. I sing Dr Alibi on it and I’m excited to hear Lemmy’s reaction to me singing it. He’ll probably kick me in the balls. It would be an honor, sir. Look for that in November. Grab it!

A few days ago it was announced that Guns N Roses could be in the Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame next year. How very exciting indeed. Slash is his classic unaffected self about it. Nobody’s cooler than Slash and the Fonz. My thoughts were ‘Who qualifies?’ Obviously the original 5 but what about Matt? Van Halen had the original 4 plus Sammy. The Ramones had the original 4 plus Marky. If you include Matt shouldn’t you include Dizzy? He’s a part of the Use Your Illusions lineup, too. Plus he’s still there. I don’t know if Gilby qualifies or not. It’s all so interesting. I can just imagine all those mean spirited Blabbermouth commenters just falling all over themselves. I’ll leave them to it. I know my boy, Slash is included. That’s all that matters. GNR is one of the best all time bands ever and deserve to be in the Hall Of Fame.
Who cares about the Hall Of Fame anyway? No KISS? Come on. Love ‘em or hate ‘em it’s a no brainer. I hope KISS never gets in. Who wants to be in that club anyway? It’s like John Bender says, ‘I don’t know any lepers but I’m not gonna run out and join any of their fucking clubs.’

Today it was announced that Arrested Development is coming back for a new season and then a movie. Have I died and returned to some awesome parallel universe? Johnny, Joey and Dee Dee are still dead so it’s not THAT awesome but this is the best news I’ve heard in forever.
AD was the best show ever. It’s cancellation was testament that the Devil had certainly ceased reign over this dominion. Clearly he has been beaten, for the time being. If you are unfamiliar with AD go to Netflix NOW and watch all 3 seasons. It launched Michael Cera and revived Jason Bateman. My friends and family with impeccable taste are beside ourselves with glee. Not the show Glee because I don’t wanna know what that is.

Well, I’m off to a world of comic books and Star Trek. It is I who lives in a world of arrested development. I have comics to read and I’ve been watching Star Trek:Enterprise on Netflix. I am secretly, dangerously obsessed with T’Pol, the Vulcan science officer on the show. Luckily she is not a real person so she is in no real danger. I’m not interested in Jolene Blalock, the actress who plays her. She seems like a nice person but it is T’Pol who currently has my heart.

Yes, my life is almost this sad.

Tomorrow morning we go back to the rock mines to dig up some rare gems for your ears to thrill to next spring!
When next I join you we will probably have recorded the first few songs…
Until then-
Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars (as Casey Kasem would say)

Your loyal and humble servant,
Todd Dammit

Listening to-the Queen reissues. Brilliant
Reading-The War For Late Night, sequel to the Late Shift. The Late Shift was about Letterman leaving NBC. The sequel is all about Conan getting screwed by Leno. Conan really got a raw deal. I’m a big Coco supporter. It’s a real crime the way things went down. I highly recommend these books.
I picked up Conan’s 7 inch at Amoeba Records the other day. Produced by Jack White. Sweeet….

August 14, Disgraceland, Las Vegas, NV

Man, that stage collapsing at the Sugarland concert in Indiana is terrifying. A stage collapsed at a Cheap Trick concert in Canada just a few months ago too. With Slash we play these kinds of outdoor structures all the time. My heart goes out to the families of the people that lost their lives as well as to those injured. Just terrible. People going to these shows to be entertained and something like this happens. Just awful.

I’ve been home a week and I have stepped out of the frying pan into a blazing bonfire. No rest. Too wicked.
Since coming home I’ve been trying to catch up with life on Earth. Returning from the road is really like returning from space travel. Life has moved on without you. You play catch up every day.

I’ve plugged myself in with my social anti social schedule-Getting caught up on movies! Cowboys And Aliens is awesome.

I spent almost 5 hours watching Harry Potter with the baddest Emm Effer I know, Dr Ellis.
Let me tell you about ol’ Doc Ellis. The big joke onstage is that Ellis plays cigarettes, alcohol and bass guitar with the Sin City Sinners. That’s only a half joke. The man lights his next cigarette with his last. He is rarely seen without a drink in his hand yet never seems out of control. Before he was a Sinner he was my favourite guitar player in Las Vegas. He is a skilled rockabilly and surf guitar player as well as all things rawk and punk. He is the punk rock heart of the Sinners.
So why is he playing ‘bass’ for the Sinners? Because the position became available and he stepped right in. Within a week he was the most popular member of the band. He has that kind of charm. Everyone loves Ellis. As do I.
The dichotomy that is Dr Ellis is the smoking, drinking, rocking, all night long, closing every bar in town vs the Harry Potter fan.

Whaaat?

He randomly came across the first film somewhere and devoured the entire series up until the last film. He refused to watch the last one as it was a two-parter. He requires closure.
He must have been a mess during those long years between Empire and Jedi.
Anyway, I went by Casa De Ellis and watched the last film on dvd and then went directly to the theatre to watch the final instalment. You see he refused to watch part one without part two being readily available. Trust me that’s a lot of Harry Potter.
In Ellis’ defence this is just a tiny kink in his rock n roll armour. He is Keith Richards with a penchant for fictional wizardry.

I am not the biggest Potter fan but it sounded like fun to me. Who am I to judge his secret when I found myself at a Star Trek convention yesterday?

I have been a Trekkie (I know fans prefer the term Trekker but I’m old school) since I was a kid. When I was little we had like 1 channel. Just CBC in northern Canada. Lots of curling and Hockey Night In Canada. We would head to the big city of Saskatoon to visit our Grandparents and I would lose myself in the wonders of Saturday morning cartoons. What a concept! All those awesome Hanna Barbera shows we never got. The big ones for me were the original cartoon Spiderman (now on Netflix re-mastered. Totally awesome) and Star Trek. For some reason that show really ignited my imagination. If Starfleet were an option today I would have signed up and been a Captain of my own Starship by now.

So yesterday I got to watch Leonard Nimoy make his 2nd last appearance at a convention ever. Always insightful, intelligent and talented. The man directed some great films even outside of the genre. Google that shiz. He was actually pretty emotional and thankful at the end of his speech and it was pretty moving.

I dragged Fitz along and we saw lots of cool people doing the autograph thing like Brent Spiner (Data), John De Lancie (Q), Richard Hatch (Battlestar Galactica-I know-weird) and Jim Kier who was Jaws in the Bond films (I know-even weirder). I just took in the whole scene. Lots of beautiful women dressed in Starfleet uniforms, some borg, some vulcan, some bajoran, some Orion slave girls. You know you got a pretty cool chick if she’ll gear up in that stuff. We all have that fantasy of Princess Leia in the Jedi bikini. I love a woman who can rock the classic Starfleet mini skirt.

Most rockers would hide their interests if they involved sci fi and children’s wizard books. Me? I don’t care. I don’t wanna grow up. I’m a Toys R Us kid.

This past Friday I did my first show back with the Sin City Sinners and it felt great. I recently purchased a signature Paul Stanley Ibanez Iceman guitar and rocked it at the show. I have always wanted one since I was but a boy. It currently sits over by the Axe bass and the KISS pinball machine in my living room.

We Sinners have some amazing stuff coming up very soon. More on that later.

Now where did I last leave you…?

Milan? That’s the last place I blogged from? No wonder Norma’s been screaming at me. Ok…

Oh, Italy. I fell in love with you the first time I came over in ’07 with Brent Muscat. I should just get a nice Tuscan villa and completely assimilate. I do love me some Italy. I would weight 500 lbs though because I love the food so much.

One good thing about the show in Milan was that no one tried to tackle Slash. You remember last year. Our security chief, Junior, took the guy off the front of the stage in the most effective and dramatic way possible. I was deep on stage right. All I saw was a blur out of my left eye (the good one). Slash’s guitar got bonked and broke a tuning peg off. He missed like 2 bars of the song and was back in without a scratch with a new guitar. Full contact rock n roll.
No such drama this time. Great show. Amazing people. Vive Italia. I’m sure I screwed that up.

You know you wait your whole life to get to a place like Rome. Suddenly you find yourself there!
I kept finding myself quoting Anchorman-’When in Rome…’ I quote that movie too often as is. So do a lot of you. That doesn’t mean we should stop!

We had driven over night from Milan and had arrived so late all we could do was check into the hotel, shower and make our way to soundcheck. This was a bummer because we had hoped to be in earlier. We had planned on running down to the coliseum and taking in what we could. Hopes dashed…BUT our flight to Belgrade the next day wasn’t til late afternoon! Hazzah!
The Roman audience was fantastic. It was our last show with our opening act, Japanese Voyeurs who are neither Japanese nor Voyeurs-discuss! Youtube Cry Baby and Milk Teeth by JV immediately. Great songs. Great band. Romily is a star.

We played on an old race car track. Come to think of it not unlike these collapsing stages over here in North America. This one did not collapse. Thank ye Gods.
An amazing show. Great crowd. I hope we return sooner than later.

The next morning Fitz, Pete and I forced ourselves to get up and made our way to the Coliseum. Fascinating. I had just watched Spartacus, the Starz series so I was in full gladiator mode. The size of the place is overwhelming considering how old it is. The fact that anything is standing at all is mind blowing. The floor where the dirt and action would have happened upon is gone so you can see the maze of holding cells under it. Where they would have kept Christian eating lions and gladiators alike.

I highly recommend taking all of this in if you find yourself in Rome.
We wandered around the ruins as well and it was staggering how much of it was still there. It really puts in perspective how young North America is by comparison. These giant structures from an empire that stretched half the globe and lasted for years and years are humbling.
I can’t wait to be there again. I hope we have more time to take it all in. I will go to the coliseum time and again.

From there we flew to Belgrade, Serbia which was exciting. Every time I mentioned tour dates to someone whenever Serbia was mentioned everyone would go, ‘oh!’ like that was very interesting. It was indeed. When we arrived there were camera crews and photographers. That stuff is always surprising usually reserved for South America.

Serbia was amazing and filled with staggeringly beautiful women. We were all pretty knocked out by that. No time to meet the future ex Mrs Dammit though. There never is!
The show was amazing. Very celebratory as it was our last show of the We’re All Gonna Die tour 2010/2011. We really enjoyed ourselves that night. I always try to really take in everything. The sights and sounds of the audience. That night I really took it all in.

I always do that. I can still recall the very last show my old band, The Age Of Electric did together. It was Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada opening for Our Lady Peace. I remember waving at the end of the show knowing that this is it. Nobody in the audience did but we did. I remember way up on the stage right side there was a group of people with a banner for us. I remember it well.

So here we are. What started off as a complete experiment went on for a year and a half. What started off as a project became a band. We were brought in as support for a legend. We were the wheels to carry a high powered engine. Suddenly we realized together we are a mean machine. Which brings us to where we are now…the next album.

Oh those long flights back to the land of liberty. Bobby and Drew, our lighting director, missed their connector and were stuck in Europe for an extra day I believe. Slash suffered delays. He even ended up on TMZ about it.

Fitz and I got to Chicago easily enough from Belgrade via Frankfurt. I was pulled aside for the obligatory half hearted bag search. Whatever dude. Knock yourself out.
From there we got to LA without a scratch. AND without our bags. Oh, United, if only you could get my belongings home with me.

No time to worry about that. The next day we were back in pre production rehearsals for the new Slash album. We spent the rest of the week slaving away over a hot stove of rock n roll with our pal, Trevor Whatever helping out.

I so wish I could tell you song titles etc but I’m sworn to secrecy. Just let it be said that it is awesome. Simply awesome. This album is going to be a MONSTER. I can’t wait for you to hear it.

We are going to chip away at it through the fall and finally go into record in the winter. We hope to have it in your hot little hands by the spring if not earlier.

Me and the boys took a break to see Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes and it is awesome. I’m a massive fan of the original films and I hated, Hated, HATED Tim Burton’s film. This one is awesome. I’m so pleased to see it’s doing so well. I hope to see a healthy franchise grow from this strong seedling!

In the meantime while waiting for the new cd the Live In Stoke dvd will be out sometime around October. Keep an eye open for that. How very exciting!

So here I am. Back in one of my favorite places in the world-my couch. All caught up on the new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. One Sinners show in. I have an acoustic show at Brentwood Tavern on Wednesday which promises to be a blast then back to the Sinners on Friday. After that we are the house band at the Vegas Rocks Awards featuring Vince Neil, Lemmy, Steve Stevens, John 5, Wayne Static etc etc etc. The next night we play Crown Theater in the Rio with our biggest line up of guests yet-Lemmy, Slim Jim Phantom from Stray Cats, Jeff Young from Megadeth and Gilby Clarke from Guns N Roses. Gonna be a huge, huge night.

The next day I’m up at an unGodly hour to get to Vancouver for 2 days of rehearsal with The Todd Squad, my old solo band. We are doing Thursday, August 25th at The Media Club in Vancouver. That promises to be a blast. Me, Squid and Dayvid. Just like old times. Playing everything from AOE to SIS to solo stuff and more. I hope to make that a semi regular thing.

Then back on the 26th with the Sinners. The 27th we are back at our old haunt, Ovation at Green Valley Ranch to celebrate the 4th year anniversary of the Sin City Sinners with our special guest Carlos Cavazo of Quiet Riot and Ratt.

Then that Sunday I am going to be in a coma from too much activity!!!

Epilogue-The Saga Of The Eye-

For those of you who have followed this saga you know the many travails of detached retinas and surgeries and hardships. Well, my right eye has developed a cataract as a common after affect of the surgery to reattach my retina. Good times. It’s always something!
So I found myself in a waiting room with kindly blue haired people and me-the homeless vampire. Cataracts are common to older folks and dudes who rocked an eye out in Europe.
I go in for cataract surgery Aug 31. It’s a simple in and out procedure. I’m hoping this is the last of it. My peeper can only take so much. Maybe I shoulda just opted for the Snake Pliskin eye patch. That woulda been pretty bad ass.

Big love to the We’re All Gonna Die touring company-Slash, Myles, Fitz, Bobby, Pete, Junior, Jim, Ian, Mark, Tater, Toby, Drew, Magoo, Tim, Skip, Kelly, Chet, Martin, Monty, Patrick, Sam and the mighty Pooch! And Tony! Can’t forget Tony. He filled in for me while I was deep in the middle of the above mentioned saga.

So that, as they say, is that. If these blogs were a film I’d be riding off into the sunset now with my Orion slave girl as the words THE END? appear. The clever use of the question mark to infer an impending sequel of course.

I promise this will be the rare occasion where the sequel will be even better than the original. Just you wait and see!

If you find yourself in Las Vegas come say HI!
See you soon, Planet Earth.

Big Big Love
Your loyal and humble servant
Todd Dammit

The future ex Mrs Dammit

Aug 27, Milan, Italy

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again-I really need to write these things more consistently. So much happens in such a short space of time that I can’t retain it all. This trip has been a whirlwind. We started in Scotland and will end in Serbia. That’s 3 shows from now. 2 in Italy then the last in Belgrade. Time goes so fast out here on the good ship Slash. It seems as though the world stands still. You return home and everyone has been living 30 days without you. It feels as though you were unthawed from cryogenic freezing. “Do they still have Slurpees in this strange new age I’ve found myself in?”

I return home to madness as usual. Hit the ground running I call it. It’s like on Saving Private Ryan where it’s an ordeal getting to the battle ground only to find that the real ordeal only begins once you get there! Luckily my ordeals are complete pleasures. Dreams come true, to be honest.

I jump right back into Sinnerland on the 11th and 12th for the weekly runs, then an acoustic show on the 17th and then off to Vancouver on the 25th for my first solo show there in 5 years. That’s going to be awesome. I and the “Todd Squad” or “The Terrible Two”, Squid and Dayvid are going to tear down the Media Club (metaphorically speaking). We’re doing stuff from all through my career, AOE, SIS, SCS, Go Time. Gonna be a blast.

When I last joined you I was in Lisbon, Portugal which turned out to be an amazing show. I mean Lisbon is truly a beautiful city with the people to match. The parallels between this part of the world and South America are so similar especially when it comes to the passion of the rock audiences. It is awe inspiring. I am a lucky, lucky man to see such beautiful places and to rock with these fine people.

From there we were off to Bilbao, Spain. Funny routing-Spain, Portugal, Spain. Bilbao is home of the Guggenheim Museum of Art which I took in with Fitz. What a trip. There is a maze of sheet metal, a cave dwelling built out of cardboard and packing tape, a 70′s Lincoln spilling either tentacles or entrails out of its hood and more oddities in there. It is transfixing and inspiring. We never really have enough time to take this stuff in fully. We arrived that morning and were off to sound check that afternoon. Taking these things in such limited time becomes an art form unto itself. I think we did a good job of seeing everything in limited time.

As always the Spanish audiences never disappoint. Nothing like thousands of beautiful Spanish people singing along to We’re All Gonna Die.

From there we made our way for a blur of dates through England. I love England. I have always been fascinated with English bands. It seemed America and England pass music back and forth. They inspire one another and create new music out of it. American rock n roll begat The Beatles. American blues begat The Stones. The Stones and The Beatles begat thousands and thousands of bands all over the world. That back and forth continues to this day. It’s a universal back and forth now. There is great music in every corner of this planet. Keep your ears and eyes wide open. It’s everywhere.

We started the UK dates in Birmingham. The birthplace of Heavy Metal. Black Sabbath and Judas Priest are both from there. It doesn’t resemble the grey, factory town described in the ‘history’ books. It’s bustling and colourful. The people are great.

Fitz, Pete and I took a trip to the local museum to see their attraction ‘The Home Of Metal’. It was filled with artefacts from Priest, Sabbath and more. Very cool.

The band, Japanese Voyeurs, joined us here as our opening act. I’m a fan. Really heavy, almost ‘stoner’ rock with female singer, Romily’s beautiful pixie voice on top. A very cool juxtaposition. Great people. They will be with us till the end of the Italian dates.

The show was off the chain for us. Birmingham lives up to its hard rocking reputation. No hipster posing just down and dirty rock n roll. Great show. Great fun.

My new friends Laura and Caris showed up with Laura wearing her very own KERNS ARMY shirt. I was blown away by that. So far from home and still so much love! Love ya, ladies!

From there on to Manchester. Oasis, The Smiths…so much great music comes from Manchester. When you’re a kid in North America the English are portrayed as very proper, spot of tea, Mum’ folks. You forget the hard drinkin’, football lovin’, real English folk. I love getting further north like that. The girls can drink your sorry, rehabbed, vegetarian, Hollywood ass under the table even at the peak of your debauchery. God bless ‘em. I can’t even participate in that contest anymore. Sorry, ladies. I acquiesce to your superiority here!

The people of Manchester know how to rock. Another good sweaty rock show. I believe we added Dr Alibi to the set in Manchester or Birmingham. Like I said before it’s a blur.

Then off to one of the greatest cities in the world, London, England. Our good friend, Helen, took us to Abbey Road Studios. Right where the iconic cover photo of The Beatles’ Abbey Road album was taken. I walked across it several times while Fitz and Helen snapped away. There is a giant crowd of tourists from all over the world doing the same thing. It wasn’t lost on me that I was walking in the footsteps of greatness. Funny to think that just a couple of years ago The Sinners had mocked up that photo for the cover of Exile On Fremont Street.
We snuck a peak at Abbey Road Studios as well though we didn’t go inside. That was a trip too as I remember footage of The Beatles pulling up in that driveway and walking through those doors. This kinda stuff is a big deal to me.
We took in the sites of Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Trafalgar Square-you know, all the sites from Chevy Chase’s European Vacation. It was a long, fun filled, sightseeing day. Thank you, Helen.

The next day we played the High Voltage festival in Victoria Park. Kind of a big deal to play on the same bill as Judas Priest. I saw Priest as a kid on the Defenders Of The Faith tour in Regina, Saskatchewan at the Agridome. That was a major moment for me. Now to be sharing the bill with them was a real trip.
My good friends, the Michael Monroe band were in tow. Always great to see my old friend, Sami Yaffa. It is never lost on me what a gigantic Hanoi Rocks fan I am. Being personal friends with guys like Sami and Michael is something I never would have imagined. As a kid Finland seemed like another world. Now I’m there once a year. I finally got to meet Steve Conte who defected from the New York Dolls with Sami to be a part of Michael’s merry band. We had a good chat. I met ‘new guy’ Dregen, who was a member of the brilliant Backyard Babies. Dregen has replaced Ginger who I assume has returned to his Wildhearts. As much as I love his input with Michael I’m very ready for the next chapter of The Wildhearts. I got a chance to talk to Karl Rockfist, Mike’s drummer. He was in the great, Chelsea Smile. Michael is a legend and his band is one of the best out there. Big, big love.

The legendary photographer, Ross Halfin, was out shooting us for the upcoming dvd we’re releasing in October. He is an endless source of entertainment. His stories are cutting and hilarious. He’s done all the greats. We would see him for the next few days and he never presents a dull moment. Ever.

Thin Lizzy played with its new line up-Ricky from The Almighty singing, Marco Mendoza from Whitesnake on bass, Richard Fortus from the new GNR on guitar and original members Scott Gorham and Brian Downey. They also have their old keyboard player, Darren Wharton playing with them as well. They sounded great. As sceptical as I was seeing a Phil-less Thin Lizzy I was sufficiently impressed. Marco’s a great guy. He’s a pal of Fitz’s. I wanted to talk to Richard cuz I think he’s the best guitar player in the new GNR and he has a great history.
Sadly, I never saw any of Priest. I was holding court with all my English friends in the ill conceived VIP tent which had no vantage point of the stage. Not very VIP if you ask me. I did see them making their way to the stage. The metal gods in leather and studs riding tiny golf carts to the stage. An odd image to be sure.

Our set was awesome. I got to sing Dr Alibi in front of a festival crowd and they went bananas. I hadn’t done that before. What a blast. It was a fun set out in the English sun with thousands of our closest friends.

The next day was Stoke On Trent noted as the birthplace of both Slash and Lemmy. They are apparently planning on building statues of the both of them. Crazy.
Truly an honour to be a part of such a momentous occasion for Slash. He had family up the yin yang showing up for that one.

We filmed the show for our upcoming dvd projected to be released in October. I’m told it looks great. I have to take their word for it until I see it with my own eyes. Keep a look out for that before X-mas.
Another amazing show. I was told to expect a smaller show but it was a big theatre filled with rowdy Englishman (and women) with a bloodlust for rock n roll. My kinda people. It would be wonderful to return to Stoke. I’m sure they get overlooked when it comes to big rock shows. That’s a crime.
Hopefully they’ll include this one in the dvd. If not, here you go- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL83Zw9uB80

Then it was Live At Leeds. That is a defining album for me. The Who was instrumental in the early days of my ‘career’. Being in Leeds is a big deal for that. Leeds was our final UK show of 2011 so it had to be great. And it was. The cool thing about England is that the cities are so close together that familiar faces pop up at all the shows. You look down at the front row and it’s the same as the night before and the night after. Funny that.

In many ways I felt like Leeds was the best show of the lot. My friends came from Nottingham whom I’ve known since coming over in 2007 with Brent Muscat. Paula, Kari, Craig (I saw Rob in Manchester)-great to see you! See you next year!
Good fun and a great way to send us off to Italy with a sweaty rock n roll show-English style!

Now I find myself in the fashion capital of the world, Milan, Italy. I don’t know how fashionable homeless vampires are but I’ll do my best to fit in. I can’t stay long in Italy or I’ll put on a thousand pounds. The food is so amazing I can’t stop eating.

We are having our end of tour dinner tonight. These are the last 3 shows of 2011 and what a ride it’s been. I lost an eye along the way and saw the world through the good one I have left.

Out on this leg is-
Jim Survis-Slash’s guitar tech and fellow (kinda) Canadian
Ian Keith-tech to Bobby, Myles and myself. Yea, BIG job. He da man
Drew Baca-best lighting tech ever
Tobey Francis-legendary soundman for everyone from Aerosmith to ZZ Top. Best storyteller ever. If only he hadn’t signed all those papers not allowing him to tell them publicly. jk
Tater-the greatest monitor man in the business. Irreplaceable. Completely. Linkin Park are lucky bastards
Mark Kuntz-the best drum tech and a great hang. Also unintentional Iggy Pop impersonator.
Magoo-merch and resident Englishman!
Pete-babysitter and my partner in silliness.

Along the way we had some great guys (and a gal-hi Kelly) that served us well-Tim, Skip, Chet, JD, Martin, Monty, Patrick, Kelly and the amazing Pooch. Love youse guys.

Pete and I are hosting our own radio show, The Noise Factory. We’ve been recording it along our journey out here. We will lay it on you soon. Keep those ears open! You will enjoy. Today we’re doing our interview with Slash/Alter Bridge front man, Myles Kennedy. I don’t know anything about that guy. jk. It’s gonna be fun. Check it out.

I will be back on Planet Vegas soon. Getting my SIN on, acousticing it up, jamming on drums with my friend Greg, bounce up to Vancouver from time to time for family time and rock time. We have a new Slash album to write and record this fall/winter. It is going to be ginormous. I promise. Maybe we should call it Ginormous. I bet I get outvoted on that one.

Vegas-Daddy’s coming home! See you soon. Bring your Sinning shoes it’s about to get Sinful.

Vancouver-See you very, very soon.

Australia, Asia, S. America, Russia, Europe, UK, the rest of Canada and the rest of the US see you in 2012 with a brand new album!

I’ll do one more tour wrap up blog after Serbia and that’ll be it for the We’re All Gonna Die Tour 2010/2011. Time flies, brothers and sisters.

PS-I’m hitting a Star Trek convention when I get back to Vegas featuring Nimoy, Shatner and Patrick Stewart. I wish I was kidding!

Live Long And Prosper
Your loyal and humble servant,
Todd Dammit

Laura-the girl with the best taste in England!

Me on the Big Screen

Current Bass Player for Slash & Former Frontman of the Age of Electric headlines homecoming show August 25

It’s been a long time since Todd Kerns walked the hallowed stages of Vancouver. Five years to be exact. Once a staple in Vancouver’s rock community he could be seen playing everywhere with CanCon legends Age of Electric back in the 90s to every live music venue this city had, fronting Static in Stereo and bringing the rawk with his solo project. And then after a decades worth of live performances and album releases in his home and native land, Kerns disappeared.

After making a run for the border Kerns wound up in Las Vegas where he settled in with local rock group the Sin City Sinners. Things truly kicked into high gear for Kerns last spring when got the call from his long time friend and the drummer for Slash (Guns N Roses,Velvet Revolver) and asked if he could be in Los Angeles the next day, Slash was in need of a bass player for his upcoming solo album tour. A few rehearsals later and Kerns’ life is now a blur of festivals, stadiums, airplanes and hotel rooms.

It’s been awhile but with a brief time out from touring the world Kerns is now bringing a bit of the bad old days back to Vancouver at The Media Club on Thursday August 25th. Getting the band back together he’ll be backed by “The Todd Squad”, bassist Squid and drummer Dayvid Swart. And as if that wasn’t enough, the special guest and opener for the evening will be local rock mystery Nim Vind fresh off his own successful European tour. Truly a line up for local rock scene appreciators who’re ready to kick out the jams and welcome Kerns back to Vancouver.

Tickets will be available for sale in advance at likefoundlike.com for $10 or at the door for $12 while supplies last. Get em early!

For more information or to request an interview with Todd Kerns or Nim Vind please contact:

Cristy Laubman
Like Found Like
cell: 778.991.5224
email: cristy@likefoundlike.com

11:36am July 16, Lisbon, Portugal

Just arrived in Lisbon after an overnight drive from Madrid, Spain. This area of the world is so beautiful one has to convince oneself to leave. The people so beautiful you would need to lock yourself in the gym for a year, go through painful dental surgeries and bake in the sun to feel worthy of their company. Their warmth and kindness pours out without provocation. A society not concerned about the car you drive or how big of a screen your tv has. We have so much to learn from them. I suppose living in such a place would make anyone all of those things.

The show in Paris was crazy. Last time we played the Bataclan and Alice Cooper got up and sang. That was craaaazy. A lifetime thrill for me. It was also the hottest gig I’ve ever played. All us humans crammed into that room breathing and rocking as one. It was an epic night.
The show at Le Zenith was more of the same only way, way bigger. A grande, sweaty rock extravaganza to be sure.
Our friends from Luxembourg, Porn Queen opened the show and they were great as always. I wore their tee shirt for our set.

We’ve added some new songs to this final leg of the We’re All Gonna Die Tour. Speed Parade from the 2nd Snakepit record is a barn burner and Promise which featured Chris Cornell from the solo record.

From Paris we overnighted it to Zurich, Switzerland. The Swiss have the rep of being neutral which would imply calm, laid back personas. That may be the case in their day to day life. They certainly are amongst the most friendly people I’ve come across but when Slash and the Fearsome Four come to town they lose their shit.
That show was off the chain. Another beautiful, hot, sweaty mass and mess of rock n roll. I was blown away.

From Zurich we flew to Madrid, Spain the next day. Spain truly is a wondrous place. Madrid is its jewel. Those narrow streets with shops everywhere. Delicious food every few steps. Women so beautiful that it just makes you angry knowing you’d never be able to convince one of them to fall for your faux homeless vampire chic. “Trust me this is all the rage back in the States…”
The Spanish audiences are not unlike the South American audiences. Fervent and vocal. The way a rock show should be. This was the Sonisphere festival with Arch Enemy and The Darkness.

Let me take a minute to talk about The Darkness. Their first album, Permission To Land, was almost revolutionary. In the early 2000s there was nothing like them with the Freddy Mercury jumpsuits, Tweety Bird on helium falsettos and even the This Lizzy tee shirt. And the tunes…I Believe In A Thing Called Love is a great song with an amazing vocal delivery.
You have to take into account the 90s alternative hangover that was occurring at the turn of the century. North Americans were still afraid to ‘rawk’. Sure we all loved Shout At The Devil and Blizzard Of Ozz but it was never to be spoken of. You could do so ironically. GNR always bypassed hipster scrutiny because of Appetite. Sure there was some floundering around the dolphins and bulgey tighty whities but they were preserved relatively unharmed.
I made the Static In Stereo and my solo album, Go Time, unashamed of my ‘rawk’ roots. They were met by either confusion or devotion. I would ask for nothing less.
With an American guitar and a British amplifier you can take over the world and The Darkness showed up with Les Pauls and a wall of Marshall amplifiers, tongues placed just firmly enough in cheek for those of us with the right kinds of ears and eyes to ‘get it’.
At the time I was producing bands that all yearned for ‘rawk’. They dug through the past, just as I had done as a kid, and found gems. The cool thing for the kids of today is the wealth of treasure there is out there.
Now that I’ve been around the world a few times I realize that ‘rawk’ never really died. It lived on in Europe, South America, Japan and Australia. It’s also safe to say that it’s loud and proud in North America as well. Aerosmith, KISS, Motley Crue etc etc are still going as strong as ever.
Don’t get me wrong. I consider myself a well rounded droog. I read. A lot. I like film. A lot. I even like Shakespeare (Shakesbeard-He’s a very famous pirate-Zack Galifinakis, Due Date), Mozart and I even like Chess.
But when push comes to shove I will take ‘rawk’ over all of it.
Try this sometime. When the party is winding down and all the hipsters are dwindling put on side one of Back In Black. You can feel the room come back to life. More alive than the party had been all night. That is a simple fact.

Unfortunately we never got to see much of The Darkness play but got a quick hello as we exited and they entered the stage. Justin is rocking the Doc Holiday goatee/van dyke. He looks like a space cowboy villain pirate. Somehow that seems about right.

We’ll be back in Spain tomorrow for the festival in Bilbao. I’m not even sure who’s on that bill.

Tonight we share the stage with fellow Las Vegan, Brandon Flowers from the Killers and my kids’ favourite band in the entire world-The Strokes. Gonna be a big night. Better rest up!

As we breeze through these cities that have all become familiar it is hard to take too much in. Hotel, venue, bus, hotel, venue, bus, hotel, venue, bus, rinse, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat…
Someday I’ll come over here with a partner in crime and really take it all in slow motion style. Who am I kidding? You know me all too well, dear reader. You know I’m not one for beaches and night clubs. The best part of these ‘vacations’ with brother Slash is I get to do exactly what I love to do-Rock the F**k out. I will take that over a mai tai on the beach any day of the week. Any day.

Reading-This Is Gonna Hurt, Nikki Sixx
Listening to-Never Hear The End Of This-Sloan
Watching-Oz

I texted my friend, Evan Seinfeld from Biohazard, as he was a regular in the HBO series Oz and told him how much I love the show this far after it’s demise. What a bizarre life I lead.

If you’re in Vegas support your Sinners.
Thank you for supporting this one.

Your loyal and humble servant
Todd Dammit=

Glasgow, Scotland July 9 2011 3:05 am

Man this jet lag thing sucks. I haven’t had a proper night’s sleep since landing in Bonnie Scotland. Tomorrow/today is the first show of the new tour with Coldplay, Beyonce, The Strokes, Manic Street Preachers…crazy big names. We seem to be the only RAWK band of the day. It will be nice to tear it up.

I am a wreck. I wake up at bizarre hours and sort of wait for the hotel restaurant to open so I can have some sense of destination. I suppose I could wander the quiet streets of late night Glasgow but that just seems weird.

I borrowed the series Oz from my good friend, Karen Wheeler. Man, that show is affecting. It’s the HBO series about men in a maximum security prison. Beyond the violence and constant fear and intimidation it’s the alliances, manipulation and mind games that would get to me. Shows like this confirm that I never want to go to prison. I never want to go to war either. Saving Private Ryan confirmed that. I am constantly filled with gratitude for the good people that have the courage to defend those of us who could never find that bravery. Truly God bless.

I think they should play Oz for high school kids. I think that would scare anyone straight. If you do this you will go here. I woulda been an angel.
Being in a band has elements of both prison and war. Oz on wheels. Tour bus rolling around. All dudes. Going from town to town on specialized missions. I suppose it’s as close as I want to get to either. No manipulation and mind games here. Thankfully.
I prefer to shower alone anyway!. Eesh. No wonder I can’t sleep.

The past few months being home with my Sinners were rewarding and action packed. We played a lot. Whitney Rosati, the 14 year old guitar Goddess, got up and played with us on 4 different occasions. She is going to be very special some day. Not to say that she isn’t already. It is very enlightening to see someone shine so naturally after picking up the guitar a few short years ago. She has great feel and natural charisma. There is an old soul living within her. I am proud to have been a part of her early development if even in such a small way. Hopefully she’ll remember me when she’s Queen of the world. I’m sure I’ll need a place to crash!

The Sinners have returned to bringing in guests the way we used to when we first started. In my absence George Lynch from Dokken, Kip Winger from Winger, Bruce Kulick from KISS and more will be sitting in. I’m bummed to miss it but I’m excited to come home to it too.

The Sinners are slowly chipping away at potentially releasing a Christmas album this year. These are the kinds of crazy things we get up to when left to our own devices. George Lynch is playing on We Three Kings. Hysterical. If you would have told me I’d be a part of that 10 years ago I’d have told you that you were crazy. Now I just think we’re crazy.

In the meantime Planet Slash is booming loud and large! We have never before played songs in the upcoming headlining sets. We’ve continued to work on new material for the upcoming new album. Very exciting times.
We head to Slash’s birthplace on this tour-Stoke On Trent. We will be filming for what may turn out to be Slash’s first ever home dvd. I’m excited to potentially be a part of that.

Well, now I head back to Oz and wait for the restaurant to open. I hope to steal a couple more hours of sleep somewhere along the way. Wouldn’t want to do so in front of 80, 000 people. Yea, that’s the projected number of people at the first show, T In The Park. Crazy.

No one will read any of this until they wake from a good night’s sleep. I’ve never been more jealous.

Big love.
Your loyal and humble servant
Todd Dammit

June 15, Burbank, Ca, USA

So here I sit all lonely in the great city of Los Angeles. The day before game 7 of the Stanley Cup playoffs. By the time some of you read this you’ll already know it’s outcome. Who won? Vancouver? Boston?
I have to say I lived in Vancouver for a long time and to see them win the cup would be amazing. It would truly be a great thing for the city of Vancouver especially after hosting the Winter Olympics.
If Boston wins that’s awesome too. It’s been like 40 years since they had the cup. They are an original 6 team. When I was a little boy Bobby Orr from the Bruins was a rock star.

All that and Winnipeg has it’s NHL team back. That is awesome.
Living in the US you start to lose touch with hockey. I suppose it would be different if Vegas had an NHL team but it truly becomes out of sight out of mind for me. God knows I’m so busy I hardly have time to follow organized sports.

Today was day 2 of the initial pre production for Slash’s next record and I have to say that it is going to be a monster. Yes, I know they’re not records anymore. They are cds. They aren’t even that anymore. They are waveforms downloaded into your portable MP3 player. Then again they are cranking out a lot of vinyl these days so record it is.
It truly is going to be awesome. I’m honoured to be a part of it.

My Sinners and I have had a blast these past few months I’ve been home. We had some awesome guests come jam with us. Last Monday we had all our friends out to jam – Jizzy, Louie, Paul, Carol-Lyn, Jeff and it was off the chain.
While I am gone next month the Sinners are doing Monday nights at the Crown Theatre in the Rio with guests like George Lynch, Kip Winger and Slim Jim Phantom. I love all those guys. They’ve been good friends.
We brought out our new star-14 year old guitar Goddess, Whitney Rosati. This girl can shred. She’s coming back for my final shows with the Sinners before heading on tour with Slash. Don’t miss her!

Me and the boys from Planet Slash make our way to the almighty UK in July. I am stoked to see all my friends over there. We start in Scotland and work our way down and then over to Europe. Rome for the first time. It’s going to be amazing. We are doing dates with Judas Priest which will be a thrill and we get to catch up with Michael Monroe. Bring it on.
Ya never know, maybe we’ll play one of these new songs on this next tour. That would be really cool.

Went to see the 5th anniversary of the Cirque Du Soleil show, Beatles Love. If you haven’t seen it you should. It is amazing. I’ve seen it several times. For the 5th anniversary Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon, Olivia and Dhani Harrison, George and Giles Martin were all present. It was very heavy for a Beatles fan. I was staggered by it. Slash was there, too.

I went with my good friend, Karen Wheeler. She’s the amazing artist that has done a painting of me called In Todd We Trust. She is amazing and it was awesome to be able to share that night with her. We don’t get nearly enough time together.
Afterward we went to watch Matt Sorum’s Darling Stilettos play in the Revolution Lounge. It was fun. I love watching Matt play. He’s one of the greats.

I love summer time. Camping? The Beach? Uh…no.
Thor-pretty cool. All ramping up for the big Avengers movie next year featuring Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and Captain America! Awesome.
Hangover II-ok. Too much of a reprint of the first one for my tastes Bridesmaids-Funnier than Hangover II. That’s right I said it! I love Kristin Wiig. I will gladly spend two years with her then give her half of my stuff Pirates 4-Pretty good. Never as good as 1, much better than 3. I’m a sucker for this franchise, though. I wanna be a pirate but I’m not a fan of water so I choose to be a land pirate-a musician.

X Men:1st Class-Pretty damn good, actually. Another franchise I’m a sucker for. Anyone who knows me knows I love superheroes hence my above excitement for The Avengers. I hear this will be a trilogy. Bring it.
Next up-Super 8. Trying to find a moment to go see it. Then Green Lantern, Captain America, Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes…
Most people are out enjoying the sun. I hide in darkened theaters by day then play in dark clubs at night. Wouldn’t have it any other way.

I suppose I’ll be exposed to enough sunlight playing festivals in Europe this July. I like that kind of sun. The rock n roll kind!

Reading-Steven Tyler’s biography-surprisingly vast but enjoyable.
Listening to-Sloan’s new album, The Double Cross-loving it

Congratulations to my beautiful Ripley. My baby Cairo isn’t far behind. I love my babies.

Vegas, I’ll be home soon.
Canada, I miss you.
S. America/Asia/Australia/Russia, miss you, too.
Europe/UK-see you soon…protect your ass-it’s about to get kicked.

Your loyal and humble servant,
Todd Dammit