The drummer Nicko McBrain (72) joined Iron Maiden in 1982, replacing Clive Burr, who played with the band on their first three albums. He was a crucial part of the band during the past four decades and continues even after suffering a stroke last January 2023. He only revealed that months after the health issue and said that he was partially paralyzed for a while but intensive physical therapy regained his mobility. In an interview with The Washington Tattoo podcast (Transcribed by Blabbermouth), he gave more details of his stroke and recalled how it happened. Nicko McBrain recalls the details of his stroke "It happened on January the 19th last year. I was actually having cataract surgery that day. And I guess there was a lot of stress and angst, with somebody messing with your peepers. And I was getting them both done at the same time. In the old days, I'd do one at a time just in case it didn't work. You'd be walking around blind in one eye, not both. And I had it on good authority that's the only reason they don't like to do, even today, both at the same time. But I had confidence in the surgeon, with the way they do it nowadays. And I said, 'Oh, can I get done both at the same time?' 'Yeah, no problem.'" Anyway. So I remember I was watching some tennis on the telly. I was up at six o'clock in the morning, which is unusual for me, 'cause I get up about 7:00, 7:30 nowadays. And I got up and I was a little bit anxious. And I lazed on the chaise lounge, and I went to sleep. About eight o'clock I thought, 'I'm gonna have a nap. I feel really tired.' And I woke up about 45 minutes later, and I'd had this stroke. And I thought it was pins and needles, but I couldn't feel the pins and needles. I picked my arm up, going, 'What's going on here?'" "And I could feel [the arm] but nothing was happening… And I let my arm go and it just dropped, and I'm, like, 'Oh, shit. Something ain't right.' And it didn't paralyze my leg, although my leg was wobbly. Which is a good thing, because my foot still worked. At least one saving grace — God gave me my right foot. It's not quite as good as it was, but… Anyway, I went to the doctors, or they took me to the hospital. I had a whole team of people work around me." He continued: "It was like I was a superstar. And they didn't even know who I was. That's the sort of treatment that everybody gets when they have a stroke and they go to the Boca Baptist Hospital, [Baptist Health] Boca [Raton] Regional [Hospital]. They have a crew of, like, 12 people around you instantly, no matter who you are. And so after the MRI — they did a CT scan, then I went to an MRI. And [when] I came out, [Marc A] Swerdloff, my neurologist doctor, he had a plethora of students around him, and he had about six kids, young 'uns — I call them kids; they're probably all in their 20s or 30s." "Anyway, he goes, you've had a stroke, Mr. McBrain, I went, 'Yeah, tell me something I don't know.' And he laughed. And he said, 'It's a TIA.' I said, 'Okay, so it's not a major stroke.' He said, 'Yeah.' He said, 'We've got this drug called TNK [tenecteplase],' which, what it stands for I've no idea. And he said it's a clot buster, and it prevents any further damage being done to your brain that may have or that has already occurred." "He said, 'But there's a risk.' And I said, 'What's the risk?' He said, 'You could die.' I went, 'Okay. So what's the percentage of failure from people [treated with intravenous tenecteplase]?' It [was] seven to nine percent. He says, 'So if you have it, we have to put you in intensive care for 24 hours and monitor you every hour.' And I went, 'Well, okay, let's have it.' He says, 'Sign here.' And I'm right-handed, so I had to put a cross. And he said, 'Just make out as much as you can.' I sort of squiggled my name on a line." Nicko McBrain continued: "He gave it to me outside the MRI. About three hours later, I'm upstairs. And finally, I could move my thumb a little bit — the first thing I could move. I was in for two nights, and the day after I got out, I went for therapy, and I had three physiotherapies a week and OT, occupational therapy. My scapula had dropped and apparently my face was down here, although I could talk. So the only thing I had was a paralysis." "The first three months of a stroke is where you have the most recovery. After that, the next three months, it's a little less and then the three months after that, and so on and so forth. I'm over — almost a year and a half now, but it will be next week. What's the date? Yeah, 10 days' time. So I'm still not back to where I wanna be. I've probably got… I can't do, I can't do… So if this is a tempo, I can't do a 16-note roll going into 32nd-note rolls anymore. What happens is I can play eighth notes, like that kind of groove." "I can do doubles, but when I try and play that 16th at that speed, instead of going up and down, it wobbles from left to right, when I start playing fast, when I try to play fast. So I've had to adjust my fills now. I mean, I don't play 'The Trooper' fill anymore because I can't get it… It's the speed of it. I can do everything slow, but I've had to make sure that as long as I can keep the groove of the song, which is normally…" Nicko McBrain said. The post Nicko McBrain recalls the details of his stroke appeared first on Rock And Roll Garage.

Grunge appeared in the late 80s and became bigger in the early 90s, changing the whole Rock and Roll landscape and also taking the spotlight out of Heavy Metal music. Many artists even consider that it was Grunge that killed Metal music at the time and made the radio, the music business and MTV change their focus to these new groups. Although they were directly affected by that, many Metal musicians actually liked those bands and the Megadeth leader Dave Mustaine really liked Stone Temple Pilots. As he recalled in an interview with The Big Takeover, he heard them and then invited them to be Megadeth's opening act. He even had the chance to give them an important advice. Dave Mustaine recalls the advice he gave to Stone Temple Pilots In the interview he was asked if he usually gives advice to groups who open for Megadeth and said that only when being asked or when he sees something he likes. So he recalled the advice he gave to Stone Temple Pilots back in the 90s. "Mostly if they ask. I don’t give free advice because that’s kind of like playing God. If they ask me I’ll say stuff. Or if there’s something I really like that they’re doing, I’ll talk to them about it and say, 'I really like this.' I remember Stone Temple Pilots when they first came out, they had that record Core (1992). I heard that first record and I thought, 'Shit, these guys are good!' So we took them out. First show, I watched them and they didn’t do very good. I went up them and I said, 'Guys, can you give me your set list?'" He continued: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hhu-OyHqZM "And I looked at all their songs, and I made a proper set list. So they had a super hot opening. And the only other thing I told Scott Weiland, 'What is this song right here?' And he goes, 'Oh, it’s an instrumental.' I said, 'So why are you standing out on the stage? During that part, go off to the side of the stage. Let the musicians who are doing an instrumental be showcased. You’re the frontman. People are going to look at you almost all night anyway.' So that was the only advice I ever gave them." "(...) Yeah, it did (The advice worked)! You know what happened? I was so mad at myself for doing that because that tour only went on about another week. Because after that, we got word that they had exploded and they were leaving the tour to go on a bigger tour. I thought, 'Fuck, Dave, you shouldn’t have said anything!' (laughs)," Dave Mustaine said. Stone Temple Pilots was formed in San Diego, California back in 1989 and released their first album "Core" in 1992. The band was originally formed by Dean DeLeo (Guitar), Robert DeLeo (Bass), Eric Kretz (Drums) and Scott Weiland (Vocals). That original line-up came to an end in 2015 when Weiland passed away. Nowadays they have Jeff Gutt as the vocalist.The post Dave Mustaine recalls the advice he gave to Stone Temple Pilots appeared first on Rock And Roll Garage.

The guitarist and singer Dave Mustaine wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth and faced a lot of difficulties in his life before becoming a successful Rock star. When he finally thought he could make it, he was fired from Metallica and saw his ex-band getting bigger while he was trying to do the same with his own new band: Megadeth. A couple of years later he finally had the chance to also form one of the most influential Thrash Metal bands of all time, None of that would have happened if he wasn't determined to be successful and as he recalled in an interview with The Big Takeover, he had no plan B. Dave Mustaine talks about how determined he was to be successful "In my heart, I had hoped that I could continue playing for as long as I live. The question was, how long was I going to live? We were all in this [L.A.] scene at the time that everybody was living super fast and dangerous. People like Vince Neil getting in a car crash and the drummer for Hanoi Rocks losing his life, that whole period around then — everybody was just dangerous. We had to get away from that. All I wanted to do was just play my guitar." "I didn't want to hang. I was not one of those guys that would go over to people's houses and party all night. If I was doing anything, I would do it by myself in the house and play guitar. Not that I was alone in my house, but you know. For me, I didn't have a Plan B. And I didn't want to have a Plan B because my Plan A was all that mattered. And I wasn't going to take no for an answer. Growing up homeless, and growing up a poor kid, does something to you." He continued: "So yeah, being a poor kid and going from house to house to house, and wearing hand-me-down clothes all the time, and living in a car for as long as I did, that changed me. And that's what I think drove me to want to be successful because I didn't want to be that guy. I didn't want to be stuck in a situation of being homeless and living in a car. I was not going to settle for that." "So that's why I worked as hard as I did. Some people will say I was callous with the [Megadeth] lineup changes and stuff like that, but with every one of the lineup changes we had, there was a really legitimate reason that we made a change," Dave Mustaine said. Mustaine is the only member of the band who was part of all the releases. Right now, the band is also formed by Dirk Verbeuren (Drums - Since 2016), James LoMenzo (Bass - Since 2022) and Teemu Mäntysaari (Guitar - Since 2023). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcPRqduJiwk&pp=ygUNbWVnYWRldGggMjAyNA%3D%3DThe post Dave Mustaine talks about how determined he was to be successful appeared first on Rock And Roll Garage.

The Queen co-founder and guitarist Brian May is certainly one of the most influential musicians of all time not only for his songwriting contribution to music but also for unique guitar tone and playing. He simply built his own guitar, the "Red Special", with his late father when he was a young kid and plays the instrument using a coin instead of a pick. Those characteristics combined with his talent makes May a unique guitarist. Over the decades he talked about many of his peers and even said who was, in his opinion, a guitarist who is incomparable. The guitarist that Brian May said is incomparable Brian May was elected back in 2020 by the readers of Total Guitar magazine the best guitarist of all time. Although he was happy about that, the Queen member talked about many other guitarists who in his opinion should be above him in the poll. One of them was his late friend, the legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen. In his opinion, the Dutch guitarist was incomparable. "Eddie is incomparable. He stands there as one of the pillars of the development of electric guitar technique. He’s a wonderful guy. And you know, it’s funny, during lockdown, you start to look at your life again. One of my regrets is that certain people, I think, I’ve let slip away." “I haven’t talked to Eddie for a long time and I really regret that. I’d like to change that because he’s a fantastic guy, not just a great performer but an incredible spirit. The spirit, it’s blinding, and again, you could never get fed up of listening to that." He continued: “Eddie can pick up any guitar and I remember this from the Star Fleet Project sessions. It doesn’t matter what guitar it is, he will make it sound like him! I watched him pick up a bass when we were doing a demo and he made that sound like Eddie Van Halen. It’s just astounding what he can do with those fingers,” Brian May said. As mentioned by May, the "Star Fleet Project" was a solo EP released by him with many special guests, including Eddie, back in 1983. It had only three songs and besides May and Eddie, also played on the EP Phil Chen, Alan Gratzer, Fred Mandel and Roger Taylor. May was shocked when he first heard Eddie Van Halen playing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lC54X5Gc1Q&pp=ygUZZWRkaWUgdmFuIGhhbGVuIGJyaWFuIG1heQ%3D%3D Eddie Van Halen passed away in 2020 at the age of 65 and shortly after that Brian May talked in an interview with BBC Radio 1 about him. He said he was shocked the first time he saw the Dutch guitarist playing and that there was nothing so shocking since Hendrix. “There hadn’t been anything so shocking since Jimi Hendrix. I saw Van Halen support Black Sabbath. Tony Iommi was a very good friend, even by that time and the pair of us watched Eddie Van Halen do his stuff. We shook our heads and kind of went, ‘Whoa!’ [Chuckles]” “It was just glorious, almost too glorious to take in. To see this guy romping around a guitar like a kitten, you know. Just running and taking it to places undreamed of. I love his playing – I always will.” Brian May also lamented Eddie's passing, saying: “(I am) Completely gutted to hear the sad news. This wonderful man was way too young to be taken. What a talent, what a legacy. Probably the most original and dazzling rock guitarist in History." “I think of him as a boy, an innocent prodigy. Always full of joy, always modest and those truly magical fingers opened a door to a new kind of playing. I treasure the moments we shared. His passing leaves a giant hole in my heart. RIP Ed Van Halen,” Brian May said.The post The guitarist that Brian May said is incomparable appeared first on Rock And Roll Garage.

A new study shows something that we already knew: that Covid deaths were over-reported during the pandemic and that the Covid vaccine did not have any apparent benefit in slowing or stopping the pandemic. The authors studied 125 countries and their vaccination programs and and found "no systematic or statistically significant trends showing that vaccination campaigns in 2020 and 2021 reduced all-cause mortality."

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Have you seen anyone with a semicolon tattoo like the one above?If not, you may not be looking close enough. They're popping up......everywhere.That's right: the semicolon. It's a tattoo that has gained popularity in recent years, but unlike other random or mystifying trends, this one has a serious meaning behind it. (And no, it's not just the mark of a really committed grammar nerd.)The semicolon tattoo represents mental health struggles and the importance of suicide prevention.Project Semicolon was born from a social media movement in 2013.They describe themselves as a "movement dedicated to presenting hope and love to those who are struggling with depression, suicide, addiction, and self-injury. Project Semicolon exists to encourage, love, and inspire."But why a semicolon?"A semicolon is used when an author could've chosen to end their sentence, but chose not to. The author is you and the sentence is your life."Originally created as a day where people were encouraged to draw a semicolon on their bodies and photograph it, it quickly grew into something greater and more permanent. Today, people all over the world are tattooing the mark as a reminder of their struggle, victory, and survival.I spoke with Jenn Brown and Jeremy Jaramillo of The Semicolon Tattoo Project, an organization inspired by the semicolon movement. Along with some friends, Jenn and Jeremy saw an opportunity to both help the community and reduce the stigma around mental illness.In 2012, over 43 million Americans dealt with a mental illness. Mental illness is not uncommon, yet there is a stigma around it that prevents a lot of people from talking about it — and that's a barrier to getting help.More conversations that lead to less stigma? Yes please."[The tattoo] is a conversation starter," explains Jenn. "People ask what it is and we get to tell them the purpose.""I think if you see someone's tattoo that you're interested in, that's fair game to start a conversation with someone you don't know," adds Jeremy. "It provides a great opportunity to talk. Tattoos are interesting — marks we put on our bodies that are important to us."In 2014, The Semicolon Tattoo Project held an event at several tattoo shops where people could get a semicolon tattoo for a flat rate. "That money was a fundraiser for our crisis center," said Jenn. In total, over 400 people received semicolon tattoos in one day. Even better, what began as a local event has spread far and wide, and people all over the world are getting semicolon tattoos.And it's not just about the conversation — it's about providing tangible support and help too.Jenn and Jeremy work with the Agora Crisis Center. Founded in 1970, it's one of the oldest crisis centers in the country. Through The Semicolon Tattoo Project, they've been able to connect even more people with the help they need during times of crisis. (If you need someone to talk to, scroll to the end of the article for the center's contact information.)So next time you see this small punctuation tattoo, remember the words of Upworthy writer Parker Molloy:"I recently decided to get a semicolon tattoo. Not because it's trendy (though, it certainly seems to be at the moment), but because it's a reminder of the things I've overcome in my life. I've dealt with anxiety, depression, and gender dysphoria for the better part of my life, and at times, that led me down a path that included self-harm and suicide attempts.But here I am, years later, finally fitting the pieces of my life together in a way I never thought they could before. The semicolon (and the message that goes along with it) is a reminder that I've faced dark times, but I'm still here."No matter how we get there, the end result is so important: help and support for more people to also be able to say " I'm still here."If you want to see more incredible semicolon tattoos, check out nine photos and stories that our readers shared with us!This article was written by Laura Willard and originally appeared on 7.7.15

Stressed? Of course you are. Luckily for you, and the entire U.S. population, scientists believe they may have identified the most relaxing song in the world.Music has forever been associated with bringing about relaxation, happiness, and serenity — whether it's a Gregorian chant or some Enya accompanied by a glass of merlot.Neuroscientists in the United Kingdom think they have found the one song that relieves stress and soothes our souls more than any other.Mindlab International, a market research firm, conducted a study a few years ago in which participants completed difficult (and possibly stressful) puzzles while their brain activity was monitored. To study its effect, music was played while they completed the puzzles.One song stood out above the rest. "Weightless" by Marconi Union (listen below), an English ambient music band, induced a 65% reduction in stress among participants, according to Inc. And DailyMail.com reported that the song was 11% more effective than most other songs — by such musicians as Adele and Coldplay — in reducing blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing speed.The 2011 song was created by the band, along with the British Academy of Sound Therapy, to do just that — relax listeners.If you prefer something with lyrics, try Enya's "Watermark" or "Pure Shores" by All Saints, which were also proven to be relaxing,Music therapy is considered to be a natural therapy important in alleviating stress. Because stress is an important cause of other deadly illness, fighting it is key to maintaining good health. Numerous studies have shown how damaging stress can be to our bodies and our brain. So don't let it get out of control. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the music.This article originally appeared on 11.03.16

There's a distinct accent that American actors and broadcasters used in the early days of radio and in pre-World War II movies. It's most obvious in old newsreel footage where the announcer speaks in a high-pitched tone, omits his "Rs" at the end of words, and sounds like a New Yorker who just returned from a summer holiday with the British royal family.This speaking style is also heard in the speeches of Franklin D. Roosevelt and just about any performance by Orson Welles. But today, this accent is all but nonexistent, prompting the question: Did Americans speak differently before the advent of television?The video below, "Why Do People in Old Movies Talk Weird?," reveals the secret of this distinct inflection known as the Mid-Atlantic accent and why it was so prominent in early 20th-century American media.This article originally appeared on 09.06.17