September 13

Today’s Bollywood film star Mahima Chaudhry’s birthday. Apropos of nothing, I just wanted to show some Bollywood, so here’s Mahima! From what little I’ve read, she’s the Halle Berry of Mumbai: a box office draw who’s won India’ equivalent of the Oscar, but that’s not the assets everyone’s raving about…


We featured an Indian; why not a cowboy? Randy Jones is best known for originating the Cowboy persona in the Village People, a role he filled until 1991. I guess being known as “The Cowboy” is better than ‘the guy that stands all the way to the left”

He kept the hat, when his solo career needs a goosing. Yes, he’s still performing, and he even had a cameo in this season’s “Flight of the Conchords.”

Ever seen the Mark Wahlberg movie, “Rock Star”? Well, it’s about 30 percent true. Judas Priest did, in fact, recruit second singer Tim “Ripper” Owens based on footage of him singing with a Judas Priest cover band. The story became a magazine article, which became the nuggest of a script that became “Rock Star”. But the real story is happier, if less dramatic.
Ripper stayed in Priest for seven years and recorded two studio albums with them. The same year Halford returned to Priest, Ripper became the replacement singer for another iconic metal band, Iced Earth. That gig lasted until their original singer returned as well, but this year, he’s singing for Yngvie Malmstein’s Rising Force, which has never had a signature vocalist to try to get their job back. And just in case, Ripper’s got a solo album out too.
I like my metal with uplift and spaceships, so here’s Ripper during his tenure at Iced Earth:


There’s a lot to admire about Don Fagerson, known to the world as Don Was. Don’s been an album producer for everyone from Bonnie Raitt and the B-52’s to Iggy Pop and the Rolling Stones.; he produced the best album Hootie and the Blowfish ever made.
But he also started Was Not Was, a producer project featuring moderately successful Detroit peers and hometown legends. And I originally picked him as an excuse to play the 80’s earworm, “Walk the Dinosaur”…
…but then, I had to throw in the title track from the album of whence it came. I mean, who’d be brave enough to follow “Walk the Dinosaur,” with this?

If all of this is just too much before your time, realize that his son is the drummer of Eve 6. Now, shell out the money for that fruit bouquet…