GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man
Special Re-Run
Top Five Album Closers – LeBrain Train Re-edited
This was a great episode! Originally run on October 15, 2021, the live stream was roughly two and a half hours long. Far too lengthy to watch in 2026, we have brought this episode down to a perfect hour. Where was Harrison that night? Active in the comments, and watch out for a memorable “Bleep!” comment from Uncle Meat to the Mad Metal Man!
On hand that night were Tim Durling from Tim’s Vinyl Confessions, and his fellow Contrarian, Marco D’Auria, along with original cast member Uncle Meat. The show was a sequel to Top Five Album Openers, two weeks prior. We decided to follow up with the Top Five Album Closers of All Time, and with the input of these fine panel members, this was an entertaining show that we are very proud of. The chat was brisk and informative. The lists (at bottom, if you don’t feel like watching, although you should!) were diverse and full of great closing songs that you may not have heard. It was a more challenging set of lists than Album Openers was, and there was very little crossover. Many excellent selections from the mainstream to the obscure. We also included a number of “bonus tracks” at the end: the runners-up that were just as exciting as the songs that made our lists.
Thanks Tim, Marco and Meat for helping to create a must-watch episode. Enjoy!
Friday March 20 at 7:00 PM EST, 8:00 PM Atlantic. Enjoy onYouTubeorFacebook.
Thank you to Marco D’Auria for inviting me for this special episode of the Contrarians! What are my Top Five Encounters when I was working at the Record Store? I mulled it over and told some stories. (I did mess up a couple minor details but nothing major.) This fun 35 minute video highlights some of the funniest highs and lows of working at a Record Store for 12 years! Many of these stories involve “live wire” customers! Some are about some really rare CDs that I scored back in the day.
Working in used CDs during the Golden Age of the CD was an experience not many people get to have. I am grateful that I am one of the few. I will never forget it. Please enjoy the show!
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man
Special Re-Run
Top Five Album Openers – LeBrain Train Re-edited
Tonight Mike is off, recording an episode with Peter Kerr for Rock Daydream Nation. Therefore tonight we’re re-purposing a five year old LeBrain Train episode that you gotta see. This episode, edited here for length, originally ran October 1 2021 with Uncle Meat and Harrison Kopp: Top Ten Album Openers!
LeBrain Train debuted at the start of the pandemic, in March 2020. It was more geared towards chat, since nobody had anywhere to go or anything to do back then. The episodes are too long to be enjoyed today, so we’ve cut the chit-chat and kept it to the music for this re-run.
What songs do you think just kicked off an album right? We made sure we didn’t skimp on the analysis and appreciation. Ritchie Blackmore, Ozzy Osbourne, Ian Anderson, Ronnie James Dio, Bruce Dickinson and of course Blaze Bayley all graced us with their musical presence on this night. There was plenty of discussion with the audience that night, some of which is included in this re-run. We also included a slew of runners-up for you to check out.
Every one of the songs listed tonight deserve some time in your ears. You can read the lists below, or have some real fun and watch the show! It’s all under an hour.
Friday March 13 at 7:00 PM EST, 8:00 PM Atlantic. Enjoy onYouTubeorFacebook.
50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 31: The Final Frontier
With special guest D’Arcy Briggs
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK #140
When Iron Maiden returned on 13 August 2010 with a new studio album The Final Frontier, for the first time in a long time, it felt like “just another Iron Maiden album”. There were no gimmicks, no comebacks, just 10 new songs. Many of the new songs were longer and looser. The beginning of the new Iron Maiden? We at 50 Years of Iron Maiden try to appreciate each album as they stand on their own, and in this episode we break it down track by track, retrieving nuggets of gold.
Joining Mike and Harrison this time is new guest D’Arcy Briggs from the @Darcyska YouTube channel. D’Arcy was glad to be able to choose this album. He explains why in the episode. Once again, we have the right guest for the right record. This is a passionate episode with depth and appreciation for an album that often slips through the cracks.
Unfortunately, for the first time in Iron Maiden history, we have a new studio album with no new B-sides. We do have singles, but no additional songs.
Once our trio of fans breaks down the album for analysis, Harrison will run us through the tour and setlists. Would many of these songs reappear on tours down the road? Harrison has the details. And of course, we’ll address the controversial artwork!
Please join us for this premiere as we love to interact in the comments!
Friday March 6 at 7:00 PM EST, 8:00 PM Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube.
SCHEDULE NOTE: CLOCKS CHANGE ON SUNDAY – DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME
50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 30: Somewhere Back In Time & Flight 666
A special 🅻🅸🆅🅴 episode
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK #139
Scream for me, YouTube! In May 2008, Iron Maiden released a new “best of” CD, unlike the previous four. Yes, that makes Somewhere Back In Time– The Best of: 1980-1989 the fifth Iron Maiden “best of”. Despite the title, it has no songs from the first two albums, subbing in live versions with Bruce singing. The actual tracklist focused on the Dickinson albums from 1982-1988 (Number of the Beast to Seventh Son). Then, Maiden embarked upon a tour designed to recreate the Live After Death era, with some added goodies (and Eddies) from Somewhere In Time and Seventh Son (plus one song that didn’t fit).
Singer Bruce Dickinson, who was also a licensed pilot, had an idea: would it be possible to modify a passenger jet to carry all their gear and crew, and fly it from gig to gig no matter how far?
It was indeed possible (if not difficult), and Ed Force One took to the skies to bring Iron Maiden to their fans around the world. In the pilot’s seat: Bruce himself!
The first leg of the Somewhere Back In Time tour was documented by Sam Dunn and Banger films for a movie: Flight 666. This film played theatrically, and was eventually released on a double DVD set with the movie and all the complete songs. There was a complete soundtrack on CD and vinyl, and tonight we’re going to look at it all.
Mike and Harrison will dive deep into the film, the songs and the tour. Mike has over 2000 words of notes, and copies of Flight 666 on CD, DVD and vinyl. We will tackle Somewhere Back In Time itself as an album, and Harrison will discuss the tour legs that followed.
This will truly be an epic episode, so do not miss it. We love to interact with the comments.
Friday February 27 at 7:00 PM EST, 8:00 PM Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTubeor Facebook.
Happy birthday to my friend and collaborator, Dan Chartrand from Off the Charts.
Though February 22 is his birthday, Dan celebrated online last night with a listening party full of friends. I was happy to be invited, and so I joined Dan, Steve Deluxe and a couple new friends for some songs. Each guest picked a song to play that had some kind of connection with Dan. Of course, having interviewed Rick Hughes of Sword with Dan, it made sense to pick a Rick song from his new album Redemption.
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man
Special 🅻🅸🆅🅴 Episode featuring guest Tim Durling & Uncle Meat
And guest list from Jake
Episode 138: Top Ten Songs of Queensrÿche
Raise ’em up! Uncle Meat wanted to count down the Top 10 songs from Queensrÿche, a band we have yet to tackle on Grab A Stack of Rock. So, we looked into the Eyes of a Stranger, placed Hand on Heart, and tried to shed some Nocturnal Light on these songs. But it wasn’t Just Us! Along for the ride is terrestrial DJ Tim Durling, and we will also have a guest list from Jake (Not From State Farm).
Spanning the EP all the way to Digital Noise Alliance, Queensrÿche have a lot of songs to sift through. For this special episode, Mike even went as far as to acquire a copy of Frequency Unknown, the album that Geoff Tate made before he lost the rights to the Queensrÿche name. (For added fun, this copy was gifted by Matthew Phillips, who had three remixed CDs sent to him by Cleopatra records. This is not the retail Billy Sherwood remix, but the rare mail order only version dubbed “we remix, you decide”.)
Even though Queensrÿche arguably had a “dark period” with some albums that didn’t ignite the fire in fans, they also had a strong comeback with Todd LaTorre on lead vocals. Will any Todd songs make the list tonight? We’ll be Breaking the Silence to reveal all!
Friday February 20 at 7:00 PM EST, 8:00 PM Atlantic. Enjoy onYouTube orFacebook.
50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 29: A Matter of Life and Death
With special guest Uncle Meat
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK episode 137
“I love work. I can sit and watch it for hours.” – Nicko McBrain
Our longest episode of the entire series, A Matter of Life and Death is a special album in the Maiden arsenal. Bringing back one of Maiden’s most popular lyrical topics, the album largely focused on warfare, with a sideline into religion and social commentary. There might even be an original fictional tale or two here, sprinkled in with the cold historical reality. A Matter of Life and Death is a high water mark, we will argue, and hope you’ll listen to what we have to say.
Original Grab A Stack of Rock alumnus Uncle Meat returns for an album that he picked, because he was fortunate enough to see this tour. That will become important later on. Along with Mike and Harrison, each of the 10 new songs are broken down musicially and lyrically, with historical and personal context added for colour. An album laden with highlights, we take our time to appreciate the minor details.
We’re only just getting started: This album has a whopping 11 assorted bonus tracks and B-sides to discuss, plus a vital bonus DVD. The extra tracks come from many formats: A magazine CD tribute album to Deep Purple’s Machine Head, a DVD single, several CD singles, a 7″ and 10″ vinyl, just to get all the tracks. There is also an additional promo CD single to mention, and an exclusive live track that you can’t get anymore because it was a download-only. Bummer.
When we’re done all that, and have discussed the included documentary DVD in detail, we move on to the tour(s). And oh, what they did nearly tore fandom apart. As illustrated on Mike’s bootleg CD, Revenge Is Living In The Past, Maiden played all 10 album tracks in sequence before getting to a smattering of classic hits (including of course “Fear of the Dark”). Uncle Meat was there when it went down in Toronto, and not knowing what we was in for, he describes his immediate impressions. As a group, we tackle the tour’s historic importance, and the fallout that came next. The next time around, Maiden had cut the 10 songs down to just five, and added more classics back into the set.
This 1 hour 38 minute episode includes the last musical B-sides or bonus tracks we’ll get from Maiden, save one RSD picture disc we’ll discuss later on. The bonus tracks are a wonderful, confounding collection to complete. We hope you enjoy the level of detail we went into for this episode. We felt the album deserved nothing less.
Friday February 13 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T., 8:00 PM Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube.
RECORD STORE TALES #1233: Mötley Imposter – Inside Scoop!
On December 12, 2025 5:54 pm, I received the email that could shake the very foundations of Motley Crue.
I jest, of course. I debated whether to post this or not, but ultimately decided to release it to the public. I have removed the sender’s name for privacy, but I have not edited their text in any way.
This follows up an article I wrote in 2022 called “Mötley Imposter”. It is the story of Matthew Trippe,who claimed to have replaced Nikki Sixx in Motley Crue at one point in the mid-80s. Though it follows that story, the email I received is about four different bass players, not Trippe!
According to Trippe’s tale, he was hired to “be” the new Nikki, but was fired when the “real” Nikki returned to the band. The year was 1988 and Trippe (reported in some articles as Matthew Von Trippe, getting his middle name John wrong) was featured in an issue of Kerrang. Matthew’s claim was that the real Sixx had a dibilitating car accident in 1982, and so a lookalike (Trippe) was hired to play bass and write music with the band, with no one in the audience being any the wiser. Trippe had tattoos similar to Nikki, and dyed his hair black. The real Nikki Sixx was having his own issues, but being replaced in the Crue was not one of them. Kerrang broke the story in March of ’88, with lawsuits a-flyin’. Trippe wanted compensation for what he claimed were two or three years in Motley Crue.
The lawsuits went nowhere because there was only ever one real Nikki Sixx, but the story has gone on to have a life of its own. Trippe did go down in history as the subject of a Motley Crue song called “Say Yeah”, which is better than he probably deserved. We covered the story on YouTube with Canadian author Brent Jensen, but that was not the last I heard about Matthew John Trippe.
The unedited email I received is below. Apparently the real Nikki Sixx died in 1981 and was replaced by four other bassists in succession. The current Nikki started in 1987. Dig in below…and try not to think too hard!
hello Mike, im emailing you in regards about NIKKI SIXX, The Sixx in Motley Crue today since 1987 -present is not the original Nikki Sixx, the original sixx was Killed in a barfight in 1981, in los angeles , He was replaced by a guy named Pat Searle or sears, who isnt a good bass player but a poser. then Pat had a car accident in 1983 after the US Festival , he was replaced by other understudies which was 3 others , the first 2 of them was from Blackie Lawless previous bands SISTER AND CIRCUS CIRCUS, One is a guitar player named Randy Schatz & A bass player named Joey Palermo , they both have been friends with motley crue since the early days and the other guy is from Vince Neils former band rock candy ,he was the bass player whos tall and skinny and looks like a rock star before the 80s glam look..the guy from Rock Candy definitely was in motley crue as nikki sixx i have photos to prove it.. I dont know his name and his name isnt Joe Marks because Joe Marks has been accounted for in recent years.. the others are ghosts.the bass player from vinces former band rock candy is on google images ..he married Brandy Brandt,see his pictures without make up .,hes also in the Don”t go away mad video” hes the Sixx with the pony tail walking with tommy and mick. im not trying to dog nikki sixx or expose there secrets but the truth must come out sometime..matthew trippe was not in motley crue..he was an obsessed fan with mental issues who kind of stalked the band on tour during those days.,he did get some things right about this present nikki sixx has blue eyes not green..ive seen nikki sixx with green eyes and black or brown eyes in color pictures and it was not nikki sixx. i hope this information helps..None really cares about this information anyway..but is just food for thought. i also have pictures of these guys before motley and during motley . They all got let go becuase the Sixx we see today got stated back in the band in the late early or late 90s to play live because he sucked at playing bass and couldnt keep his time. i hope this helps..and the all probably signed NDAs too. im sure they didnt make alot of money playing that role of nikki sixx..
As for Trippe, who died in 2014, he never came clean about his ruse. He did go down in history as the subject of a Motley Crue song called “Say Yeah”, which is better than he probably deserved!
Music & vocals by Tee Bone, remix and guitar solo by Tim Durling. Writting by M Ladano, J Ladano, T Erickson
Not including myself, 53 people have been on Grab A Stack of Rock to date since its debut on October 28 2022.
Cool things still to come. More interviews lined up in 2026, and 50 Years of Iron Maiden rolls on. We have two NEW series that we have started recruiting guests for, and many more surprises lined up. Because the song is now over two minutes long, we are using it as our outro video instead of intro. It will debut on the February 20 episode of Grab A Stack of Rock – Top 20 Queensryche songs!
mikeladano.com 