Audioslave and Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello stopped in on my show the other day to catch up a little and update me on the status of Audioslave and Rage. According to Tom, Audioslave has been put on ice for now and it seems likely that we might see a full-scale reunion with Rage Against The Machine in the near future. Tom grew up in Libertyville and shared stories of playing with future Tool guitarist Adam Jones in their high school rock band, being an avid Loop listener/fan and his love of Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin and The Clash. Tom is a very down-to-earth, funny and intelligent guy so it was great to see him again. Look for the posting of our chat soon on my main page at www.wlup.com.
Got a chance to hear the complete new Rush album "Snakes and Arrows" that will be released May 1st and it's quite good. Next Monday night at 9pm on the Loop, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson of Rush will be chatting about the making of the album and spinning the new tunes on my show. Don't miss it!

(See Rush's video for "Far Cry" here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=7S9uNxUI9ng)

Also next Monday, the debut of a new feature on the show called "Byrd's 11 O'Clock Shocker!" Every night at 11pm, I will dig deep into the archives and my personal music collection and whip out a "shocker"... a song you haven't heard in a long time, or perhaps a song or band you have never heard before that I can turn you on to. Discover (or rediscover) a new "shocker" every week night at 11pm.

Happy belated Easter! Hope you had a chance to spend some time with family or loved ones this past weekend. I took a few days off and visited with friends in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

Great news announced yesterday that Chicago has won the USOC's nod to represent the United States bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. Should we win the IOC's approval, this would be the first time Chicago will host the Olympic games. Technically, Chicago won in 1904, but the games were moved at the last minute to St. Louis instead. Ouch! Even if we ultimately don't win at the international level, the improvements that will be made in the infrastructure of the city over the next couple of years to maximize our bid attempt will benefit Chicago regardless. If we do in fact win the competition, the impact will be enormous locally and on a global scale. If people in the rest of the world didn't know how great a place Chicago was prior to this, they certainly will after we're done showing our stuff!

In the meantime, we here in Chicago have another distinction to add to the stack. Genesis just announced a 3rd Chicago show on October 4th to meet ticket demand. Chicago is the only city on the world-wide reunion tour world to be getting 3 shows. New York, London and Paris will each have one night, Los Angeles, Rome and Philadelphia two each. Just as was with the latest Rolling Stones and Who jaunts (and Led Zeppelin and the Beatles in the past), Chicago music fans appetites are unmatched. This recurring phenomenon says volumes about how important music is to Chicagoans and how supportive we are here of the arts. Salute!

Word has it that former Ratt lead vocalist Stephen Pearcy and the current members of the band have reconciled and will be touring this summer, most likely with Poison. I will post an update as soon as I learn more.

Pearl Jam has indeed been confirmed as the headliner at this year's Lollapalooza festival at Grant Park August 3-5. Over 130 bands will participate and tickets are available now through www.wlup.com.

Sad to hear about the passing of Calvert DeForest several weeks ago, better known as the quirky character Larry "Bud" Melman from the David Letterman show. Calvert visited with me on several occasions on my show, and I found him to be a kind, funny and gentle fellow. "Toast on a stick! Aha, ha, ha, ha!"