Whenever I would get a phone call from Tebbe Farrell, I’d usually save whatever I was working on and put my computer into sleep mode. Regardless of the purpose of the call — to hip me to an upcoming show, to pitch a story that she wanted me to write, to alert me to some injustice that required a damn good righting — I knew it would ultimately turn into a marathon conversation that was destined to go completely and wonderfully off tangent. The primary reason for this was quite simple; if Tebbe felt passionate about something, whether it had to do with music or a social cause or a political issue, she made sure that, a) you knew how passionate she felt about it, and b) by the end of the conversation, you’d feel passionate about it too.

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Rockers Papa Roach hit the scene in 2000 with their most successful studio album, Infest. Six albums later, they are still headlining tours and festivals across the country including this weekend’s Rock on the Range in Columbus. 

I was able to catch up with the man behind the music, Jacoby Shaddix, the lead vocalist. The two discussed the hard times and redemption that led to Papa Roach's most recent album, The Connection, released late last year. 

Papa Roach plays Rock on the Range's Main Stage Saturday afternoon, getting the night ready for Three Days Grace, Stone Sour and The Smashing Pumpkins. Find full Rock on the Range details here.

CityBeat: What is your favorite Rock on the Range memory?

Jacoby Shaddix: Shit man, coming in headlining the second stage and utterly fucking demolishing it and being the only band asked back the next year to play the Main Stage and crushing it again.

CB: If you could trade places with anybody for one month who would it be?

JS: My wife.

CB: Why?

JS: I just want both of us to live our lives in each other’s shoes for a month. I think we both would learn a lot. I know that it is not the super mega-kick ass Rock star answer, but that is some real shit.

CB: I know you wrote the last album through some of the toughest times of your life. Are any of the songs hard to play for you personally?

JS: No, they are just really good reminders. It is like I had to re-calibrate my life and re-focus myself on what my priorities were in my life and what was important to me and where I wanted to put myself five years from now and 10 years from now. All the decisions I made in the process of making this record I believe are some of the most important decisions that I’ll make in my lifetime. I think the songs are real good reminders of that desperate place that I once was.

CB: Well my favorite song on the album when it came out was “Where Did the Angels Go”…

JS: We had a No. 1 Rock track with that song, which was fucking awesome.

CB: Can you tell me the story behind the song?

JS: As we were making the record, me and my wife had split up at that time and I was strung out again. It is no secret that I have substance abuse issues and I was caught up again and I finally decided that enough is enough. I had to stop and that just utter desperation of hanging on to life by a thread and just feeling completely alone and so broken and not really knowing if I was going to be OK. I just finally realized how much my demons ate me alive and it was time to get myself back and that is where that song came from, utter desperation.

CB: Is it hard to be on the road and stay sober?

JS: Not this time around. It used to be really hard. I have a network of sober musicians I stay really close with and I have a support group through that. 

It is finally clear to me in my life I can’t fucking drink, I can’t do drugs, because it eats me alive. I am finally on the road enjoying my life. I faced a lot of demons in the process of getting sober again and I finally put a lot of stuff to rest. I am trying to work on being in the moment, like some of that Buddhist-type culture philosophy — if I am not here now then what is the point? If I am not feeling the moment, then what is the point of my life. Just focusing on that, my spirituality makes all this other stuff that goes on out here on the road way more tolerable and way more fun. 

CB: Have you ever had an experience that led you to believe in angels?

JS: I don’t necessarily have a grasp on the idea of angels. I have an understanding of people that have come like saviors in a sense, people that have been sent to me by my higher power to show me and guide me out of the darkness. I had to be broken down to realize I needed help.

CB: People have shown up at the right time?

JS: Yes.

CB: If you could ask one question to a psychic about your future what would you ask?

JS: I wouldn’t ask anything. I wouldn’t want to know. What do you want to know? Are you going to live different or some shit? I’d rather let it be. Let the future be what it is going to be.

CB: What does your perfect day look like?

JS: Perfect day — wake up next to my wife, sex right off the bat. Then go downstairs and cook breakfast for my kids, take them to school, go for a run, dance with my wife, go fishing with my brother-in-law in the bayou swamp, stretch out and warm up, play a Rock & Roll show, then fall asleep next to my wife. That sounds pretty fucking kick ass.

CB: I know your songs that you write are very autobiographical. Have you considered writing a book or a memoir in the future?

JS: Oh definitely, that is something I am going to definitely do in my life. 100 percent.

CB: No immediate plans?

JS: No immediate plans, but I have put pen to paper. It is something that I can craft as I go along.

CB: What can the fans expect this weekend at Rock on the Range?

JS: A fan that is on fucking fire. We have been doing these festivals, May is a big festival month, and we have been fucking annihilating audiences. We just devastated Carolina Rebellion, just ripped that shit up, we had a great show. Fort Rock in Florida, Rockville down in Florida. Memphis in May was awesome at the Beale Street Festival. That was rippin’. I just feel like we are tuned up and primed for these big festivals. I have to say, all these other bands, bring your fucking A-game because P Roach is coming to town and we have come to rip it.

CB: Memphis was awesome. I saw most of the set. It was awesome. It was great as always. I look forward to shooting you guys again. Smile for the camera on Saturday.

JS: Fuck yeah. Cool. We will see you Saturday.

On this day in 1984, Rock legends Queen started filming the music video for their song, "I Want to Break Free." Queen was a band that embraced the concept of music videos early on. The current Spectacle exhibit at the Contemporary Arts Center, about the history of music videos and where it's at today, cites the band as a vanguard act of the video age thanks to early clips for songs like "We Will Rock You"/"We Are the Champions" and, especially, "Bohemian Rhapsody."

By 1984, MTV was finding its legs and providing an outlet for new clips by artists; in the early days, the network had little to chose from to fill 24 hours a day with vids, so they played anything available, including those early Queen clips. The "I Want to Break Free" video featured the band members dressed as women in a parody of suburban life and British evening soap operas. The clip had Freddie Mercury decked out in a short skirt, tight sweater, big falsies, a wig and that trademark mustache, running the vacuum cleaner. It also featured Mercury in his more familiar uniform — leather pants, no shirt and that trademark chest hair —  and classic ’80s music video elements like choreographed dancers prancing in the haze from a smoke machine.

The clip was well received (and the single did well) in the U.K., but not so much in the U.S., thanks in part to MTV's decision to "ban" it from the network (a clear sign they were becoming less desperate for music clips to air now that everyone was starting to make them). It wouldn't run on the network until 1991.

Cross-dressing had become fairly common in Rock & Roll by that point. The Rolling Stones, New York Dolls and David Bowie had all playfully donned women's clothing for album covers, live shows, videos and photo shoots. For some weird, unclear reason, Queen weren't allowed to indulge in that bit of cheeky humor — perhaps because Mercury was a rare "out" gay man in the public eye during a time when AIDS had so many people in a panic (Mercury told NME in 1974, "I am as gay as a daffodil, my dear." I'm assuming NME said back, "No shit.")

Straight or bi guys in drag were cool with MTV, apparently, but if the cross-dresser is gay … well, God forbid anyone in the U.S. be exposed to that.

Kind of odd to think of MTV playing moral watchdog given the tripe of reality-exploitation shows about teen moms and drunken boneheads that infest the channel. And they play videos by that transvestite Lady Gaga all the time. (Note: I've been informed that Lady Gaga is not a transvestite, but actually a woman. My apologies to Ms. Gaga, her fans and her family.)

Below is a cool, hour-long documentary on Queen from the BBC called Days of Our Lives. At about the 21 minute mark, the film addresses the "Break Free" controversy. Guitarist Brian May seems to believe the banning of the video by MTV killed Queen's chances of bigger success in the states during those latter years (he doesn't mention that the song was also not very good). 

Queen remains an important band to many Rock fans and musicians, their influence more evident in some of the music of today's younger artists' music than it has been for decades (think Foxy Shazam or My Chemical Romance).

The "Break Free" clip follows to doc. Weirdly, the version posted on the official Queen YouTube page is labeled as unsuitable for certain audiences and requires users to sign in to view it. Seems people are still incredibly afraid of a man in a leather dress, fake tits and giant hot pink earrings. (It sure didn't hurt Rudy Giuliani's career.)



Click on for Born This Day featuring Shatner, Stephanie Mills and Angelo Badalamenti.

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As people were busy contemplating the chance of the original Guns N’ Roses reteaming for their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction early next year, news came down that a Cincinnati Entertainment Awards "Hall of Fame" band (and one beloved, influential and respected worldwide) will definitely be reuniting in 2012. The Afghan Whigs will play their first show in 13 years on May 27, 2012, in London for the All Tomorrow's Parties festival offshoot, I'll Be Your Mirror. The band will also perform a headlining show at I'll Be Your Mirror USA 2012, playing the fest Sept. 22 in Asbury Park, NJ. Tickets go on sale in early January. On the downside (for Ohio Rock fans), the Whigs replace Guided By Voices at the September show; according to the IBYM release, GBV has broken up (again) and canceled all 2012 dates (despite being on track to release an album of new material early next year). Check out the full press release below. UPDATE: GBV, according to their publicists, have NOT broken up (again); they have merely canceled a few shows.

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It's official — the Heartless Bastards are indeed still "from Cincinnati." When the band appeared on David Letterman's Late Show Tuesday night, Dave walked over at the end of their performance and asked, "You're from Austin?" Both Erika Wennerstrom and bassist Jesse Ebaugh corrected him by saying, "We're from Cincinnati."

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Stone Sour is a Heavy Metal band from Des Moines, Iowa. They will be at U.S. Bank Arena Saturday with Avenged Sevenfold. Since 2006, the group has been composed of Corey Taylor (lead vocals), Jim Root (lead guitar, backing vocals), Josh Rand (rhythm guitar), Shawn Economaki (bass guitar) and Roy Mayorga (drums, percussion). The group formed in 1992, performing for five years, before going on hiatus in 1997 when Taylor and Root joined Slipknot. The group reunited in 2002.

We caught up with guitarist Josh Rand at UPROAR festival in the fall to discuss the band’s current album and their upcoming tours.

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Everyone's favorite funkdified, dancetastic bass hero, Freekbass, has teamed up with Hip Hop/DJ collective Tobotius for a slammin' couple of tracks that'll definitely get your booty motorin'.

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The third annual Record Store Day, a celebration of independent record stores on April 16, is shaping up to be the biggest yet, with hundreds of special, limited-edition releases and in-store appearances around the country by some of the biggest names in music, from Jerry Lee Lewis to Foo Fighters. Northside’s Shake It Records has firmed up its Record Store Day lineup. As previously mentioned, Talib Kweli and Wussy will appear at Shake It for RSD and the shop recently added another local heavyweight to the festivities — Foxy Shazam.

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On Aug. 30 of last year, local Country artist Dallas Moore and his band teamed up with longtime Willie Nelson guitarist Jody Payne (who grew up in Cincy) to celebrate the 61st anniversary of music icon Hank Williams’ historic recording sessions at Cincinnati’s Herzog recording facilities. The musicians gathered at the very spot Williams recorded (now the headquarters of the Cincinnati USA Music Heritage Foundation on Race St.) and hosted a live recording session/concert in front of a sold-out crowd. The show was recorded for the just-released live album, Hank to Thank: Live at Herzog Studio. Below is the music video for the album's first single "Crazy Again," which is already receiving airplay on Sirius/XM radio.

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Cincinnati Garage Rock heroes The Greenhornes seemed headed for big-time success, a gradual build-up that ultimately found them recording for the V2 label with Power Pop cult fave Brendan Benson producing, having songs placed in Jim Jarmusch movies and playing to gigantic arena/stadium-sized crowds touring with The White Stripes.

But the band’s momentum was halted when Jack White decided their rhythm section (drummer Patrick Keeler and bassist Jack Lawrence) was so good, he’d like to work with them.

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