FAMILY VALUES TOUR FEATURES SOME OF METALS HOTTEST BANDS

Drummer Joey Jordison and Slipknot announced they have parted ways, and the band released a statement about what happened, read it here!

Korn has once again launched their Family Values tour and 2006’s lineup features some of todays hottest metal bands. With appearances by Korn, The Deftones, Stone Sour, Flyleaf, Dir En Grey and others, this years tour is bringing in great crowds at each stop. In fact with extremely affordable seats, fans can are really getting a great rock and roll ‘Value’ which is a rare thing in this day and age. We caught up with Corey Taylor of Stone Sour, who currently have the number four album on the Billboard chart for their latest release ‘Come What(ever) May’ to discuss what’s special about the tour not only for him, but for the fans as well.

We also stopped to talk with bassist Chi Cheng of The Deftones, who will be releasing a brand new album in October titled ‘Saturday Night Wrist,’ to find out his thoughts on touring with Korn again, which is something The Deftones haven’t done for over ten years.

“At first we were like, ‘What’s this all about? What are the bands that are going to be on it? The more we learned about it the more we wanted to be a part of it. There’s so many great bands that i’ve gotten to know the last couple of weeks. They’re all really cool people and the fact that we’ve lowered the ticket price. So people can actually come out and see a show. That’s a big deal these days. You got Ozzfest doing $60, $70, $100 and $250 a ticket, that’s insane. Kids can’t afford that man. So we made a $10 lawn ticket and that to me is what it’s all about, getting those people to the shows.”

Up and coming metal act Dir En Grey, who are already a huge hit in their home of Japan, are also well on their way to big things in America due in part to their viscious stage prescene and energetic live shows. We caughth up with Dir En Grey to ask about their thoughts on performing on Family Values and how impactful this tour is on their American fan base.

“We’ve been offered a lot of Korn tours and we have a very lovely family bond with them. We love the band. I think when both of our bands got started we kind of wanted to separate and carve out our own niche and blaze our own trail and we didn’t want to be associated with anything, a scene or anything else. I think after 10 years of doing that, they asked us we wanted to come back and do a tour together. I couldn’t think of anyone I’d rather do a tour with right now. We’ve established our selves firmly, they’ve got their thing going, the kids have absolutely been loving it. You know what, these are some of my best friends in the business, so I’m very happy.”

The Family Values Tour, which also features appearances by Deadsy, Bullets and Octane, Bury Your Dead, 10 Years and Walls of Jericho, will extend until September 22nd in Virginia Beach. With sold out shows around the country, The Family Values Tour has gone on to set record numbers for the tour Korn created and headlined in 1998.

“It’s been a very impactful tour for the band personally and everyday it’s a rock and roll day here and it’s been really fun.”