WILL TRADE LEFT NUT FOR BLUE MURDER TOUR

For metal fans over the age of 30, there’s little fresh news to be found on VH1’s That Metal Show; the weekly show functions mostly as a clubhouse for “remember when?” type gab with flabby old-timers. (For metal fans under 30, TMS provides a peek back in time to when the term “metal” meant “heavier than Paul McCartney & Wings.”) So I was one of tens of viewers of the TMS season seven finale, in which former Ozzy drummer Carmine Appice (above, big brother of Heaven & Hell skinsman Vinny Appice) shot ropey jets of great and hilarious news all over the sweaty boobs of the dinosaur metal world.

Wow, that’s a clusterfucked metaphor, but ahem the important thing is that the unconvincingly bewigged Appice addressed the status of Blue Murder to TMS host Eddie Trunk, who along with me makes up about half of the post-Whitesnake John Sykes supergroup’s restless, rabid fanbase. But that was only the happiest news, not the weirdest. According to Appice:

• His ’60s band Vanilla Fudge once took a then-fledgling Led Zeppelin on tour, where Appice forged a friendship with (and arranged a Ludwig endorsement for) Zep drummer John Bonham. On at least one occasion, Zep was “booed off the stage.”
• At a New Jersey gig supporting Black Sabbath (with newcomer Bruce Springsteen in the opening slot), his band Cactus nearly came to blows with Sabbath members and crew over “a bag of marijuana.”
• When reassembling his post-Cactus/pre-Blue Murder band King Kobra in 2010, Appice met with KK singer Mark Free, who has since become a woman and taken the name Marcie Free, and offered her the gig anyway. Class!
• On Blue Murder: “All I can say is we’re talking. We’re talking about it. John [Sykes, writer of your favorite Whitesnake songs] emailed me the other day and said, ‘Let’s talk about a couple things.’”

YES! YES! YES! B’Murder only managed one major record (their half-hearted sophomore album is meh), but it’s a titan and a face-blaster. The power trio went nowhere, but to know them is to love them, really really love them (more here). So I have a request, dear MetalSucks reader: Where there are rock star egos and inertia, an extra cosmic push is necessary. So please take a moment at your leisure to help me will a Blue Murder tour into existence. Don’t laugh! This is my life we’re talking about! I ask so very little of you!! Wherever you are, chant along with me, “We’re screamin’ Blue Murder. We’re screamin’ Blue Murder. We’re screamin’ …”

-ADF

King Kobra’s first album since 1986, King Kobra, is out May 5 on Frontiers Records.