MACHINE HEAD Frontman Checks In From HEAVEN AND HELL Tour

MACHINE HEAD frontman Robert Flynn has issued the following update:

"I write to you from the beautiful city of Cleveland, Ohio in the United States of muthafuckin' America. We have been out with the HEAVEN AND HELL and MEGADETH guys now for almost three weeks, and man, what can I say... it's pretty unbelievable. Huge dressing rooms, killer catering, every enormo-bottle of Grey Goose vodka the venue can muster up, huge stages, killer lights, killer monitors, killer sound... and, we're on tour with BLACK SABBATH and MEGADETH... life is fuckin' good man.

"It's crazy, we've been having a blast on this tour. Tony Iommi walks by, 'You enjoying the tour?'... Dio pops into the dressing room with expensive wine and talks sports... Vinny Appice gives you a few beers... Geezer cracks a joke at his assistant's expense... it's like being in some alternate universe.

"The HEAVEN AND HELL camp have been amazing, treating us really well, a lot of respect, lots of love from the crew. They've made us feel very welcome. Even when they're kinda mad at us for all of our drunken friends they still give us the benefit of the doubt. The other night after the Texas show, we had so many fuckin' people in our dressing room partying and raging that they literally had security form a line between our dressing room and theirs, because every time one of 'em would walk out of their dressing room, one of our dumbass friends would beeline toward them — zombie like — 'Rooooooooooonnnnnniie!... Bleargh!!' They're really cool about it though, their people said, 'Can you and all your drunk friends please just go to the green room and party?' We're like 'Uhh... okay.'

"You can't really blame our drunk-ass friends though, it's not often that you see Tony Iommi standing 20 feet away from you. I can totally relate, Christ, it took me a week and a half just to muster up the balls to say 'Hi.' I never get starstruck, I mean, I NEVER get starstruck, but man, I don't know what it is... I see Iommi and there's so many things I want to say, and then I think, 'Nooo... I don't want to say any of that!' I have to do it before the tour's over though, I'll kick myself for the rest of my life if I don't.

"And man... they sound un-fucking-believable too, 'Holy Diver'!!!! Dio's voice is unreal!!! The band sounds great, they've got a really loose feel to their songs, lots of jamming, extended parts; which I was surprised about, I assumed they'd be strict about staying true to the records but there's a lot of improv onstage, it's bad-ass to watch.

"MEGADETH dudes are super fuckin' cool, the Drover brothers pester us wildly with all kinds of insane metal trivia, but they're great dudes. Those fools know their Bay Area thrash!!! James Lomenzo is a solid as fuck bass player, and Dave Mustaine, what can I say... the metal world would not be the same without him, he's such a larger-than-life character... but you know, he's surprisingly friendly and social. They're fuckin' rockin' it too. Killer set-list... I forgot how many of those songs are just SO good, and Glen Drover is nailing the leads HARD YO!!!

"A lot of tour highlights so far, the banners have been kick ass, thanks you guys!!! Bay Area show — DAAAAAAAAANG!!!! It was pretty fuckin' sick, biggest and baddest turn out for The Head so far, fools were ROCKIN' OUT! Huge merch night for us. Albuquerque was really good, and was also a HUGE merch night for us. Chicago... OH FUCK!? Minneapolis... holy shit!! Dallas...?! ...YEAH, even the usually-docile Dallas crowd rocked out. Hung out with Vinnie Paul, Rita and Co. and had a blast, good LORD did the booze flow... we all had a few really cool moments together, kinda heavy now that I think about it.

"Just watched an advance of the movie 'Get Thrashed', it's a really fuckin' cool movie, done very, very well, it's a really cool ride down memory lane. A couple of inaccuracies here and there, particularly about the Bay Area scene and — even though he had some really cool shit to say — waaaaaay too much Katon De Pena from HIRAX (?!),but overall man, two thumbs way, WAY up! Good shit!!!

"Definitely looking forward to hitting the U.K. and Europe in a few weeks... cannot wait, seriously, cannot WAIT to get over there, it's gonna be fuckin HUGE, holy crap!!! Supporting MAIDEN in Rome... holy crap!!! Download and Rock Am Ring... holy crap!!! Metal Hammer Awards... holy DIVER!!! Let the vodka warm our bitter hearts and explode our souls with heavy metal fury and reckless abandon!"