The Duke's Views

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I know, I know. Where's The Duke that we could all depend on? Where's The Duke that puts his online family first before all others? Where's The Duke that spends countless hours rambling on about a lot of nothing on the forums and in his "weekly" Duke views. (Editor’s Note: Rich actually has been doing the views weekly, VERY WEAKLY!) I know I've let you down and should probably be demoted to the title of Earle. But since I am the self-appointed ruler of this little piece of cyberspace, I choose to maintain my current status as The Duke of all that is musically relevant and respectable. And furthermore, I denounce all those who would receive great pleasure in seeing me dethroned, impeached, beheaded, besmirched, eradicated, expelled, banished, excommunicated, extradited, dismissed or any other scenario that involves demoting or getting rid of me. Truth be told I missed ya and I apologize for going missing in action.

As for this installment of The Views, I hope it will help to fill in some of the gaps and get everyone caught up to speed on all things Duke.

”My Kung Fu Is Good” has been out for a little more than 3 months in North America and in Europe. It is being released next week in Australia and we're still waiting on a release date for Antarctica (The Duke is huge in cold climates). As for sales figures, I will quote Ben Stiller from “Meet The Parents.” I would say it's strong to...quite strong. In all seriousness, sales are good and, thanks to lots of love from Borders stores here in North America, we are still building momentum. If you are having problems finding the record in your area, try Borders. They have consistently been the chain making the biggest orders and they continue to keep The Duke at all of their listening stations nationwide. As for the rest of the world, I have no clue. I write em', I record em', but the rest of the bullshit is up to people who work at a desk for a living. If you hate the music, it's my fault and I'm sorry. For all non-music related issues, please take a number and bitch at someone else. My label, my management, my publicist, my merchandise company and my distributors are all good people and work hard at what they do. So if you must bitch, please do it with a little respect. If you still have not bought my record by now, do it or...you'll go to hell and your Mother won't call you anymore on your birthday. AND you won't get shit for Christmas, you'll get herpes and your taste-buds will go sour making all food taste like monkey shit. AND...you'll turn gay, not that there's anything wrong with that.

Now for some Fozzy news. A lot of you were disappointed when Fozzy "no-showed" for our battle of the bands on Raw a couple of weeks ago. For one, we as a band were not available for the date that Vince wanted us to perform. Beyond that, we played Raw before while Jericho was a bad guy and it didn't fit into the "any publicity is good publicity" category. I'll leave it up to you to fill in the blanks and figure the rest of the story out yourself. I know it sucked to watch the way the show unfolded, but you can understand that if we told anyone what was happening, the news could have gotten out and got us in deep doo doo with Vince and the WWE. Uncle Vince has been good to the Fozz, so there's no reason to jeopardize that relationship. Now on to the “Fozzy on a stage near you” news. We are gearing up for a tour of Australia in September and in the month of October we will be doing a massive tour of the UK (see tour dates page). I've done at least eight tours of the UK and, of those tours, most consisted of less than a week’s worth of shows. This tour consists of a full two weeks of shows and we're still adding dates as we speak. After the UK dates we will be doing a one month North American tour. US and Canadian dates are being booked as we speak and those dates will take us into the holidays. I can't express how excited I am about these tours. This will be my first time in Australia and the UK is one of my favorite places in the world, so the next couple of months will be heaven for me.

Now, a Mojo update for your reading pleasure. I have been working on some new music and Bonz is working on lyrics for a new album. My favorite song title so far is “Yoko!” You can guess what that song's about. Man this shit is going to rule. The working title for the album has been changed to Tension and I think this one will stick. Another idea is one that I have been collaborating with multimedia giant Ed Aborn on. The idea is for the second half of the album to be a 30 minute, epic skull crusher that chronicles a possible end times scenario (you know, the end of the earth as we know it). I won't reveal the details of the story because it will make your head explode and you haven't even read the lyrics or heard the track yet. *jumps in the air and does a death metal growl* We rule! As for Mojo shows, we are in the southeast US for three shows this month (see tour dates page for details). There are also dates being put together for a possible late October tour of the UK. As of now, it looks like Mojo, Panic Cell and Four Way Kill will share the stage for a two-week tour that will run into early November. OK Brits, if you think you might be getting sick of me already, this will push you over the edge. As some of you already know, I got married in England this past May. I mentioned earlier that I love Great Britain and after coming over for the first time for the wedding, my wife does as well. So, we are planning to come over before the tour starts to enjoy some time with friends and to do a Honeymoon part two. The thought of attending a few English Premier matches along with eating treacle sponge and curry for a month just confirms the existence of a generous and good God.

On the home-front (literally), I just got a new home and I love it so much that I don't want to go outside. Staying true to my obsessive compulsive disorder, I bought a bunch of books on decorative faux paint finishes and spent two weeks painting the inside of my house. The house is brand new and therefore had NEW paint, but I had to go all Trading Spaces on the bitch. I must say that for never having painted before, it looks great and if album sales drop, I can always fall back on a career as an interior painter. Up until now, I've always lived in apartments, condos, townhouses, or even my rehearsal space! This is my first dwelling that is not connected to someone else's place. To celebrate, I bought a gas grill that is bigger than my car. I literally use the grill to cook every meal that I eat. Yes, even breakfast. The grill has a side burner with a griddle. So now I get up in the morning and cook eggs in my backyard in my underwear. In addition to painting and grilling, my home studio is up and running and I've been writing a lot of new material and it's unquestionably some of the best stuff I've ever written. Mojo and some Duke stuff as well. Yes it's true, God is good.

About two months ago, Mike Carrillo, a long-time friend and big wig at Guitar Center, approached me about having my photograph taken to be put up outside of Guitar Centers all across the US. After a few moments of weeping out loud with joy, I accepted and made arrangements to meet their photographer in Greenville, South Carolina to do the shoot. (Click here to view some of the photos!) Brother Ed Aborn was already coming up from Florida that week for a visit so we rode up to Carolina together. The photo shoot was with Robert M. Knight, who after chatting with him for only a few minutes, I began to realize that he was one of the most amazing guys that I've ever met. All you have to do is spend a few seconds looking at the body of work on his website and you know that this guy is the real deal. Hendrix, Zep, Jeff Beck, you name it and he didn't just shoot the bands, he's friends with them! He, Ed and I chatted throughout the shoot and decided to have dinner afterwards. During dinner we chatted about how cool SRV was and he told us about the time he went surfing with Led Zeppelin. Mind blowing shit! Then we moved on to politics, conspiracies, UFOs and a ton of other crap. Ed and I just flipped out. The shit that this guy was saying was blowing our minds and it was all the stuff that Ed and I are into - but he was miles deeper! He's now our new hero. Check out his web site to see what we mean about his amazing career and group of friends.

As for what's going on right now, it's Atlantis Music Conference showcase time again. I've got a heavy rehearsal schedule for both The Duke and Mojo as they are both showcasing. As the Duke, I'm doing my only US performance on Friday August the 12th at a club called Vinyl here in Atlanta. Show time is at 11 p.m. If you are within a 10-hour drive of Atlanta and you miss this show, you will get gonorrhea, grow thick hair on your lips and around your eye sockets and your Mom will start dating one of the L.A Lakers. The next night is Mojo at the Masquerade. Show time is eleven as well. Mojo at the Masquerade is a no-brainer, so I won't threaten you with curses. If you can, please make the effort to see these shows. I will promise that you will not be disappointed with either show in addition to avoiding possible STDs, stunted growth or a half brother with a size 18 shoe, who can dunk.

Peace out, The Duke

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