Grab a Stack of Rock / LeBrain Train

REDEMPTION: Interview with RICK HUGHES – Sword, Saints & Sinners and Solo!

When I received an offer to interview Rick Hughes of the band Sword, about his forthcoming new album called Redemption, I immediately contacted my buddy Dan Chartrand from OffTheCharts to do it with me.  Turns out, he received the same offer, so we joined forces.  This is good, because Rick’s new album is bilingual, and so is Dan!  We recorded the interview on Thursday October 9, and it will debut Monday October 13 (Thanksgiving Day) on Dan’s channel.

Hey Dan…I get the next one, OK?

With Rick, we broke down the many guests on his new album including Robby Krieger, Tommy Aldridge, Rudy Sarzo, Brad Gillis, Sean Kelly and Jacob Deraps.  (Great stories from Rick here!)

We also talked about the new songs, including an amazing soft rocker called “The Will of the Gun” and the bangin’ “Ca va Brasser”.  Rick also finds redemption with one of his old songs finally recorded by the guy who wrote it:  “Someday”.  A different version of this song was a hit for Aldo Nova in 1991, co-written by Jon Bon Jovi.  Great stories here!

Of course we had to talk about Sword, so there are a couple stories there about Sword opening for Motorhead and Metallica in the 1980s.

Do not miss this incredible interview with Rick Hughes, one of the most positive rock stars on the planet.

 

🅻🅸🆅🅴 50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 23: Rock in Rio

50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 23: Rock in Rio

Special 🅻🅸🆅🅴 Episode

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK #120

It was with great joy that we anticipated Iron Maiden’s first live album since Donington 1992:  Rock In Rio!  A decade had passed, and with it, three new studio albums, all of which are represented in the live set.  The new six-man Iron Maiden lineup was on fire, and little did we know it would become the most stable lineup in the band’s history.  Though they had released live B-sides from the Ed Hunter tour, Rock In Rio was the first full live album with the new lineup, and of course, new songs!  We even got a live DVD out of it.

In Rio, Iron Maiden played to approximately 250,000 people; the second largest crowd of their entire career, only topped by the 350,000 people who saw them in Rio in 1985.  They hit the stage with a setlist generous on new songs, classic hits, and respectful nods to the Blaze era.

Harrison and I will break down the album, produced by Kevin Shirley, track by track in tonight’s special live episode.  Don’t miss this one as we always enjoy interacting with the comments, and we can do this best when we are live.

Much like Iron Maiden, we are best when we are live.  Check it out tonight!

Friday October 10 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T.  Enjoy on YouTube or Facebook.

Past episodes:

Handy YouTube Playlist:

🅻🅸🆅🅴 Harrison’s Box Sets and Mike’s Whitesnake

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man

Episode 119: Harrison’s Box Sets and Mike’s Whitesnake

Time for a Maiden break this week, as Harrison and Mike have their ears full of live Maiden preparing for the next two shows!  In the meantime, Harrison has acquired a good sized collection of box sets, while Mike is only one Whitesnake box away from completing his collection of Coverdale’s boxed compilations.  Not much else to say except we will dive deep on some cool collections tonight!

“Ere’s a box set for ya!”

This is possibly the last cottage show of the season, and an indoor one this time due to the early sunset.  Join us tonight live for this special look at some expensive beauties.

 

 

Friday October 3 at 7:00 PM EST, 8:00 PM Atlantic.  Enjoy on YouTube or Facebook.

 

 

My Music Corner: Monday Night Metal 9/29/2025

‘Twas my honour to be back on My Music Corner with Johnny Clauser on Monday night!  Well, to be fair, I invited myself, but it was a free for all, so that’s allowed!

Joining Johnny this episode:

  • Dan Chartrand from Off the Charts
  • Sidney Cini from Slogan’s Rock and Metal Extraganza
  • Jake Not from State Farm
  • Ashley Geisler from Ash’s Concerts and Video Showroom

Johnny asked us all of a series of questions including:

  • How did we discover this online music community?
  • What does the community mean to you?
  • What music death hit you the hardest?
  • What was the last concert that blew you away?

Enjoy this episode!

VIDEO: @darcyska – Why I Love Movie Soundtracks

Once more I had the pleasure of doing a show with D’Arcy Briggs from the YouTube channel @darcyska.  A few days ago, D’Arcy asked me if I’d be up to record on a topic of my choosing.   My first thought was “movie soundtracks”.

D’Arcy prepared a series of questions for me and off we went!  Topics include:

  • First loves in soundtracks and childhood memories.
  • Top Five Soundtrack list.
  • An underrated soundtrack (for Jex Russell).
  • What makes a good score?
  • Listening to curated song soundtracks.
  • Fictional movie band soundtracks.
  • A recent TV series’ soundtracks.
  • Has streaming changed how we listen to soundtracks?
  • Discovering bands via soundtracks, and gatekeeping by the old  fans.

While we were at it, we took a good look at some physical CDs, soundtracks from my collection and D’Arcy’s too.

Check out the video below!

50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 22: Brave New World with Davey Cretin

50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 22:  Brave New World

Special Guest:  Davey Cretin from Cretin Classics

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK #118

How do you move on from a special interview with former Maiden frontman Blaze Bayley?  By going to the next album, of course!  After the wildly successful Ed Hunter reunion tour, the new six-man Iron Maiden lineup of Bruce Dickinson, Steve Harris, Dave Murray, Janick Gers, Adrian Smith and Nicko McBrain were tasked with creating a new Iron Maiden studio album.  With new producer Kevin “Caveman” Shirley at the boards (whom they tested out on “Wrathchild 1999” – see Episode 21), the band had to capture their classic sound with modern production and a new three-guitar configuration.

The band toiled away in the studio as fans speculated.  Finally we were given a preview of the new Maiden sound on the first single “The Wicker Man”.  This was followed by the rapturous release of Brave New World on 29 May 2000.  Together, with the legendary Davey Cretin of Cretin Classics, Harrison and Mike break down the album’s 10 tracks in incredible detail.  You simply will not find a better analysis of this album anywhere else on the internet.

We don’t just dive deep into the album.  As usual, you can expect us to tackle all the live B-sides from “The Wicker Man” and “Out of the Silent Planet”.  We will also look at some very rare CD singles, including the elusive remix of “The Wicker Man” with additional lyrics.  We will also have a good look at the album and singles artwork, and even a special edition DVD of the Wicker Man movie with Edward Woodward and Sir Christopher Lee.

Before we’re done, Harrison will take us through the Brave New World tour, the setlists and the performances.  Expect the level of detail, analysis and pure love that you have come to know from 50 Years of Iron Maiden.  It’s all here as we enter the brave new world of the Maiden reunion era!

 

Friday September 26 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T.  Enjoy on YouTube.

Past episodes:

Handy YouTube Playlist:

 

Whitesnake: Ranking the Top 15 Songs of… on Rock Show Critique

It was my honour to be asked on the Rock Show Critique with Joey Suto, to talk Top 15 Whitesnake songs!

Joey and I spoke extensively before the show, about how difficult this exercise was going to be!  We agreed to a few ground rules.  Regardless of where the songs appeared (such as the Snakebite EP), we agreed to stick purely to Whitesnake songs.  No David Coverdale solo.  This definitely excluded some songs I would have liked to include (which we discuss at the end).

This list show turned out pretty interesting.  Of course, I included some B-sides, but Joey and I both had groupings from some albums we think deserve more attention and love.  We clearly had a preference for the classic era of Whitesnake, including the Geffen years.

Check out the show and take a bite of some ‘Snake!

 

BLAZE BAYLEY interview: 50 Years of IRON MAIDEN bonus episode!

For all things Blaze Bayley, go to BlazeBayley.net.

50 Years of IRON MAIDEN bonus episode:  BLAZE BAYLEY interview

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK #117

We cannot imagine a better way to wrap up the Blaze years on 50 Years of Iron Maiden, than chatting with the man himself.  Metal fans worldwide, we present to you Blaze Bayley!

This isn’t just any Blaze interview.  With Harrison and Mike involved, you know we’re going to go deep.  We’re going to respect the man and his entire career, from Wolsbane to Iron Maiden to solo.  A lot of the information we covered won’t be found in mainstream interviews.

In this interview, we cover:

  • Punctuality!
  • Re-recording Wolfsbane as “Live Faster…” and what that means.
  • AI, science fiction, Blade Runner, and technology.
  • “Do, or Do!”
  • A secret, unwritten conceptual storyline to King of Metal, that Blaze reveals here.
  • The Silicon Messiah and the dangers of AI.
  • How “Virus” came be
  • The waist-high snowbanks of Canada.
  • Who the King of Metal really is.
  • The stigma of mental health.
  • Meeting Absolva, and joining forces with the Appletons.
  • And so, so much more.

For us and this series, asking Blaze our favourite questions was the realization of many dreams.  Instead of saying “Do or Die”, Blaze likes to say “Do, or Do”.  This interview was the culmination of us just doing it, for the love of music and the love of Iron Maiden.

Folks, you are in for a treat.  Please welcome Blaze Bayley to Grab A Stack of Rock.

Friday September 12 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T.  Enjoy on YouTube.

Past episodes:

Handy YouTube Playlist:

New Grab A Stack of Rock theme video, now with Blaze Bayley!

The culmination of almost three years of work: Blaze Bayley is the latest member added to the Grab A Stack of Rock show alumni!

In November of 2022 I started working on something I’d wanted to do for a long time:  make a show intro video that included every guest we ever had.  Back then there were not many, but the guests kept coming and coming and I kept adding and adding.  Now we have 49 guests on the list!  The Blaze Bayley episode will air this Friday September 19 at 7:00 PM EST.  The Bob Cesca (Camp Chaos) episode will air when we get to Visions of the Beast.

Thank you to all 49 of these special guests.  More to come on 50 Years of Iron Maiden!

  1. Harrison Kopp
  2. Eric “Uncle Meat” Litwiller
  3. Aaron KMA
  4. Tim Durling
  5. Rob Daniels
  6. John T Snow
  7. Grant Arthur
  8. Brian Richards
  9. MarriedandHeels
  10. Marco D’Auria
  11. Kevin Simister
  12. Dr. Kathryn Ladano
  13. Jen Ladano
  14. Grace Scheele
  15. Jex Russell
  16. Spencer “Spenny” Rice
  17. Nurse Kat
  18. Erik Woods
  19. Jason Drury
  20. Pierre-Luc Allard “PLA”
  21. Peter Kerr
  22. John Clauser
  23. Len Labelle
  24. Reed Little
  25. Metal Roger
  26. John the Music Nut
  27. Mike Slayen
  28. Peter Jones
  29. Todd Evans
  30. James Kalyn
  31. Angie Moon
  32. Ryan Gavalier
  33. Chris Preston
  34. Dan Chartrand
  35. Glen “Archie” Gamble
  36. bicyclelegs
  37. Davey Cretin
  38. Melissa Nee
  39. Sidney Cini
  40. Ashley Geisler
  41. Martin Popoff
  42. Bert Blotto
  43. F Lee Harvey Blotto
  44. Bowtie Blotto
  45. Broadway Blotto
  46. Jake Not From State Farm
  47. Bob Cesca (Camp Chaos)
  48. Blaze Bayley
  49. and (briefly) Max the Axe

Coming This Week on 50 Years of Iron Maiden… A Chat with BLAZE BAYLEY

Harrison and Mike are thrilled to announce that this week on 50 Years of Iron Maiden, we have an incredibly special guest:  Blaze Bayley himself, the first Iron Maiden alumni to ever grace the show with their presence.  Thank you so much to Blaze for doing this.

In this interview, we cover:

  • Re-recording Wolfsbane.
  • AI, science fiction and technology.
  • The Silicon Messiah.
  • Virus.
  • Canada.
  • Who the King of Metal really is.
  • Mental Health.
  • And so, so much more.

Get ready this Friday for the premiere of our interview with the amazing Blaze Bayley!  You can find all things Blaze at BlazeBayley.net.