'METAL' MIKE On GUNS N' ROSES Tour: 'It Felt Wonderful To Reach Over 700,000 People'

January 5, 2007

The fourth and last installment of guitarist "Metal" Mike Chlasciak's (HALFORD, PAINMUSEUM, SEBASTIAN BACH) diary from SEBASTIAN BACH's tour with GUNS N' ROSES has been posted online at www.jacksonguitars.com. An excerpt follows:

"I have played four or five more shows on the off days from the GN'R tour as a solo artist, booked as 'Metal Mike' with the great help of my stage mate Bobby Jarzombek (HALFORD, ICED EARTH) on drums and Rob Deluca (SPREAD EAGLE) on bass. We delivered focused sets of instrumental metal. I have reworked some selections from the PAINMUSEUM releases and threw in a tiny bit of the HALFORD material. It was fun just to go nuts and shred! There will be more of that.

"OK, back to the tour. The Canadian shows were great, including the one in Calgary, the cowboy part of the country. Just like the hockey fans, Canadian rock crows can get pretty rowdy, and we have all loved that fact. One very interesting thing was the border crossing from the United States into Canada. When you have about eight tour buses full of rock and heavy metal people crossing over, the border officers have a field day. You name it — bus searches, sniffing dogs, interviews — all were implemented that day. But we made it. Coming back into the United States was no problem, and I must tell you that one of the U.S. officials threw a proud horns-up for us upon his exit from the bus. I thought it was great.

"The last three shows of the tour were in Los Angeles. Our shows went over very well and it’s always cool playing L.A., as you get to meet many of your favorite celebrities there. While it was nice to see Lindsay Lohan, plus Ron Jeremy and other various representatives of the porn industry there, I met one of my favorite comedians, Andrew Dice Clay. Hell yeah!

"To recap for you, the tour was amazing and it felt wonderful to reach over 700,000 people within two months. I felt that I grew as a musician and a performer, and I witnessed some of the best talent right before my eyes. And I believe that we made some news friends along the way. I know I have. Tour good-byes are hard ones, as you develop close bonds with everyone in such a short amount of time. The road really does become your second family out there. On the way back to the hotel I stopped by to check out Axl's 'Enzo' Ferrari. When they talk about super cars, this is the one. It is beyond amazing."

In related news, Metal Mike was one of recipients of the 2006 ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) "ASCAPlus" awards, a yearly award given to distinguished writers in the Popular Music Division.

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).