Just a reminder that there will be no episode of Grab A Stack of Rock this week, new or re-run, as Mike prepares for his beloved Grandmother’s funeral.
Grab A Stack of Rock will return soon with more 50 Years of Iron Maiden, more Music & Mental Health, and live episodes.
Mike lost his grandmother on July 30 2025, at the age of 101 years old. He is working on his funeral speech, and will be the only speaker at the funeral. He feels the need to focus on that task, and supporting his family, before he is able to record new episodes of 50 Years of Iron Maiden.
In the meantime, he has created a playlist called The Greatest Grandmother, featuring some of his favourite Grandma stories.
(The title of this episode is a bit of a misnomer, because White Lion did release an album in 1991 that we’re going to discuss!) HELLO! I will be LIVE Saturday August 16 at 5:00 PM EST to discuss the early discography of New Jersey’s White Lion! Check out Slogan’s Rock and Metal Extravaganza for this special live recounting of the band’s best songs from their first four albums:
Fight to Survive (1985)
Pride (1987)
Big Game (1989)
Mane Attraction (1991)
We decided to forego 2008’s Return of the Pride for this discussion. A decent album, but without Vito Bratta on guitar (or any other member of the old White Lion, not even Tommy “T-Bone” Caradonna or Jimmy DeGrasso) we decided not to include it in this episode. Speaking with Sidney about this show, I was pretty adamant that Vito Bratta was so important to the band’s sound that I didn’t consider Return of the Pride to be a real White Lion album. More like Tramp’s White Lion.
Join Sidney, Joseph Suto, Danney Alkana, Chez Cetra (of TVC fame) and myself for this discussion. The job is simple: Just pick one favourite song from each album. Let’s see how much we agree/disagree on this underrated band.
50 Years of IRON MAIDEN bonus episode:
The Best of Blaze Bayley
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK bonus episode
In 1999, Iron Maiden reunited with Bruce Dickinson. They have been going strong for a quarter of a century since. Blaze, meanwhile, has had a solid solo career to celebrate. Tonight we celebrate everything Blaze on 50 Years of Iron Maiden, to cap off his tenure in the band.
This episode from November of 2023 pre-dates our 50 Years of Iron Maiden series, but we felt now was a good time to edit it down to a reasonable length and give it a replay. If you’ve seen this episode already, you can safely skip this bonus broadcast. If you haven’t, we have edited this live show down to the Blaze basics and cut it to a digestible length. All of Blaze’s career is included in this episode’s Top 11 song list. Foregoing the traditional rules, Harrison didn’t just pick his 11 favourite Blaze tracks like Mike did. No, Harrison technically picked 22 songs. All Blaze solo, or Blaze Bayley-branded live versions. Mike chose songs from all three eras of Blaze: Wolfsbane, Iron Maiden, and solo.
Harrison and Mike only had one song in common. That means combined we have given you 32 songs to check out. Harrison and Mike also provided a lot of context and background to our picks, and we hope that this episode is in-depth enough for the Blaze diehards. And we know there are Blaze diehards out there. We see you in the comments!
We also took a look at some physical rarities: Two Iron Maiden X Factor Japanese CDs, an X Factor singles box set, two lenticular Virtual XI CDs, a “Holy Grail” live album, one CD that Mike needs, one CD that Harrison needed but since acquired, and a Wolfsbane cassette.
We sincerely hope you take the time to watch this passionate, insightful episode about a singer that deserves more of your attention: Blaze Bayley.
Friday August 15 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. Enjoy onYouTube.
Our Music and Mental Health series on YouTube seemed to do some good. We decided to keep going with it. Viewers told us they’d like updates on how we’re all doing, so here’s an update on:
Jen’s health
House issues
Writing Grandma’s funeral speech
The speech is now coming along, and I’ll be proud to post it here after the funeral.
I hope you get something from this video, because when things get hard, sometimes you just gotta laugh.
Click the pic below to get to our Music & Mental Health playlist on YouTube, and check it out.
The Blaze Bayley era ended as swiftly as it began. Two studio albums and a handful of singles were all this lineup produced. Here we appraise the final Iron Maiden album with Blaze at the microphone, the oft-misunderstood Virtual XI.
This episode will prove to be our most controversial to date. Special guest Jake (Not From State Farm) does not hold back on certain topics, especially when it comes to fandom unwilling to accept the new lead singer. As fans of this dark era of Iron Maiden, we will tell you what was great about this album, while hopefully taking a balanced approach. Even so, some will not be happy with what we have to say.
Personal memories of Virtual XI are coupled with the facts and figures. Unlike the X Factor, we do not have 14 original studio tracks to break down this time. Iron Maiden took a leaner approach to songwriting and recording this time, but the two singles (“Angel and the Gambler”, and “Futureal”) did yield a small treasure trove of live versions, something that the previous singles did not. As usual we will look at every single B-side, including the edit version of “Angel and the Gambler”. We will also take a look at the limited edition lenticular cover art, while Harrison will go into detail on the accompanying tour.
Buckle up, metal heads. Tonight we take no prisoners on 50 Years of Iron Maiden.
Friday August 8 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. Enjoy on YouTube.
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man
Episode 112: Music & Mental Health II with Johnny Metal and Mike
This special live episode is a sequel to last month’s mental health episode called Ask Jex Anything. In this installment, Mike and Johnny Metal return to the cottage, live, to discuss new developments and updates. Returning to work after a mental health leave can be daunting, but we’re going to go there. Mike is also dealing with the death of his beloved grandmother, and all the complex feelings that arise from that.
Music will always remain important when we talk about mental health. When Mike first started experiencing his own issues, there was a new single out by Motley Crue called “Primal Scream” that seemed to express his feelings after a lifetime of bullying:
When I was just a young boy, Had to take a little grief, Now that I’m much older, Don’t put your shit on me!
What a release music can be! We will also discuss physical activity such as yoga, and other healthy ways to help purge those negative thoughts and feelings. We’ll also share an incredibly thoughtful email from Broadway Blotto, from (of course!) the band Blotto.
This is the first of two episodes today. 50 Years of Iron Maiden will continue in the evening. Look for this in a separate post. We hope you can join us live this afternoon for this very important episode of Grab A Stack of Rock.
Friday August 8 at 3:30 PM EST, 4:30 PM Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube or Facebook.
Wildfires are more and more common as the world warms, but this year has been something else.
The sunsets have been alien and unimpressive. The sun appears as a red dot, but disappears before reaching the horizon. You can’t smell or taste the smoke, like you could in 2023, but the visuals are more obvious in 2025. The windmills that dot Bruce County disappear into the distance. The horizon isn’t a clear line, but a blur. The sky is a hazy blue-grey. The water is a shimmery silver. It is like we live on an alien world, or a place from a science fiction dystopian novel.
This is the first chapter I have written since we lost Grandma on July 30, 2025. If she were here, I would show her the photos and videos and ask if she had ever seen the lake like this, in her 60 or so years at Lorne Beach. While I can never ask her now, I feel like the answer would be no. I don’t think she’d ever seen a sky like this on Lake Huron.
Grandma’s funeral will be August 22. I have been asked to speak. I would have wanted to speak even if I was not asked, but now that the task is ahead of me, I am strangely without words. I have things I want to say, but these thoughts are disorganized and jumbled. When I speak at her funeral, I want it to be the best speech I’ve ever given. I have spoken at weddings, funerals, and my Grade 2 English project, but this feels like the most important speech I have had to do yet. What to say?
I wish I could show you the wildfire haze, Grandma. Actually I wish you were there on the weekends like you used to be. I used to drive her to the lake. I would pick the music. She liked my picks. She didn’t even mind Sloan’s 4 Nights at the Palais Royale, which was the exact length that it took to go from her driveway in Waterloo to her cottage. A few weeks ago, we decided to drive to the cottage listening to music she’d like, so we picked the Swingers soundtrack. She loved Dean Martin. She loved Tony Bennett. A lot of our family’s musical inclination came from her side of the family. Though my dad played saxophone, Grandma’s family were the musicians.
I miss talking to her. I used to say she was the only one in my family who understood me when I spoke.
I’m going to have to come up with a heck of a speech for her.
Things you didn’t know about Grab A Stack of Rock summer HQ!
It’s not just about the music and showing off our collections in paradise. It’s also about emergency preparedness! Check out this helpful video in the event you’re ever up in cottage country during a nuclear meltdown.
These kits are distributed to residents within 10 km of the Bruce Nuclear power plant. I thought it would be at least interesting to have a good look inside one!
Join Tim Durling for another one of his channel’s fun features: Music charts from this time in history! This week, Tim goes back 50 years to August 2, 1970. Some interesting charting albums here from the 2001 soundtrack to Black Sabbath’s debut LP. Tim asked me to say a few words about Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath for this episode, so check it out!
50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 19: Best of the Beast & Virus
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK #111
Iron Maiden’s first official compilation album came at an interesting time. Many bands release such albums after a massive success, to keep capitalizing upon it and keep the artist on the charts. In Maiden’s career, the first compilation came during the dark times of the 1990s, when sales were lower and tickets were not flying out the door. Welcome to Best of the Beast, available in several configurations. There was a single CD (which we ignore for the purposes of this episode), a beefed up double CD, and a Holy Grail 4 LP set with exclusive extra tracks.
Taking a roughly reverse-chronological approach, Best of the Best contained a new single called “Virus”, unreleased live tracks, and the Soundhouse Tapes reissued. Harrison and I cover every single track, what might have been missing, and all the B-sides to the “Virus” single. We also take a deep dive into the artwork for the album, single, and postcards included. The album itself was a deluxe package with plenty of Eddies to enjoy.
Have you decided that you don’t need Best of the Beast because it is “merely” a compilation? Harrison and I will convince you otherwise, tonight on 50 Years of Iron Maiden.
Friday August 1 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. Enjoy on YouTube.
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