ASHES DIVIDE CONTEST: BILLY HOWERDEL WANTS YOU TO BE HIS GUITAR TECH

In case you didn’t know, Billy Howerdel is something of a hard rock Cinderella story: he started as a guitar tech for bands like Nine Inch Nails, Tool and Smashing Pumpkins, and was working with Axl Rose on Chinese Democracy when Maynard James Keenan heard some demos he’d written and decided to start a band with him. That band, of course, was A Perfect Circle, and that’s the reason any of us know who the hell Billy Howerdel is today. See? Doing other people’s grunt work really can pay off!

Billy hasn’t forgotten his roots, though; that’s why his new band, Ashes Divide, are teaming up with MetalSucks and Travelworm.com for a contest that will allow one luck fan to be Billy’s guitar tech for a day. And while that might sound like some shitty contest where you get to bring Dave Mustaine his coffee, it’s actually way, way cooler than that: one lucky winner and a guest will be flown to LA to stay at a super swanky hotel for 2 nights, PLUS they get to go see Ashes Divide live, PLUS they get to watch the show from the friggin’ stage, PLUS they get a private meet and greet with the band. And, no, I don’t think you actually have to set up Billy’s guitar for him.

Click here to enter this super duper sweet contest. Ashes Divide’s new album, Keep Telling Myself It’s Alright, hits stores April 8, and is pretty much guaranteed to be one of the more buzzed about alt-metal releases of the year. In case you somehow still haven’t heard their so-catchy-it’s-painful first single “The Stone,” click here to look at a neat-o widget with the song’s PR Brown-directed video, plus pics, band news, and all the other stuff that comes with widgets.

Heh heh. “Widget” is a silly word.

-AR