Revolver Golden Gods Awards – Nominees’ Press ConferenceOn Thursday, I headed downtown L.A. to Club Nokia where Revolver Magazine was putting on a press conference / luncheon to announce the nominees of round three of the Annual Revolver Golden Gods Awards. The 2011 RGGA will take place Wednesday, April 20, at the aforementioned Club Nokia, with a televised date of May 28 on VH1 Classic.
Hungry for rock and hungry for free food; a large troop of assorted media outlets (in predominantly black attire) crowded the 4th floor club lounge where we noshed on CPK pizza, pasta and salad.
At 1pm sharp, WWE pro-wrestling legend and FOZZY frontman Chris Jericho, this year’s Golden Gods Awards host, came in through the out door with rock luminaries Alice Cooper, Mick Mars (Mötley Crüe), Sebastian Bach and Wendy Dio (wife of Ronnie James Dio). Pro skateboarder Mike Vallely rounded out this motley crew.First up to the microphone was Revolver’s Editor-in-Chief Brandon Geist who fired up the cauldron with a brief speech about the event, its sponsors and the pillars-of-fame that lined his background.
Chris Jericho, whom was a presenter at last year’s Golden Gods Awards, expressed his excitement at being the 2011 Master of Ceremonies and then introduced an emotional Wendy Dio, whom was honored that the Revolver Lifetime Achievement Award was re-christened the “Ronnie James Dio Lifetime Achievement Award”. Wendy said Ronnie would have been proud.
Ms. Dio went on to talk about the “Ronnie James Dio Stand Up And Shout Cancer Fund” and the hundreds of thousands of dollars they’ve given to organizations such as the T.J. Martell Foundation to further cancer research (donations can be made at ronniejamesdio.com) and the importance of regular testing for both men and women.
From there, Mick Mars took to the podium to acknowledge the forthcoming Lifetime Achievement Award for Mötley Crüe before a raucous ovation greeted Mr. Vincent Damon Furnier, whom is reuniting his “original spice” Alice Cooper Group as a lead-up to their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It will be the original line-up’s first appearance since they played two nights at The Whiskey with Led Zeppelin 37 years ago (each band headlined one of the two nights).
At the GGA Show, Alice will receive the “Golden God Award,” which is given to one special honoree a year who embodies the spirit of hard rock and metal.Things then got really loose when wise-crackin’ Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach stepped up to the plate. He opened up his segment paraphrasing a New Orleans publication that iterated that when he was declared the “Chosen One” to play the lead in Jesus Christ Superstar that it was a sign of the impending Apocalypse. Bach went on to do 160 glorious Technicolor performances before being terminated from the traveling Rice-Webber show.
Reading through the Golden Gods Nominees for “Best Vocalist” Sebastian commented that Glenn Danzig was a wonderful “crooner” and Deftones’ Chino Moreno was deft with “power-ballads”. He then added some sizzlean to the “Best Metal Athlete” category by anecdotally announcing Tiger Woods (not actually nominated) while declaring “Rock Golf” as the only Metal sport (Cooper, a well-known scratch golfer, concurred).
Last up were Mike Vallely (aka Mike V who maximizes his time as a professional skateboarder, musician, actor, television personality, stuntman and FHL hockey player) and Jericho (again) who finished up the remaining categories and their respective nominees. I’ll, personally, be rooting (& voting) for The Pretty Reckless to hoist the coveted prize for ”Best New Band” (Taylor Momsen will be on hand as a Presenter).That's the play-by-play. Thirty minutes flat. Wham bam thank you ma’am!

The nominees for the 2011 REVOLVER GOLDEN GODS AWARDS (presented by Epiphone):
Epiphone® Best Guitarist(s)
John 5 (for his work with Rob Zombie)
Dan Donegan (Disturbed)
Gus G. (or his work with Ozzy Osbourne)
Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance (Avenged Sevenfold)
Janick Gers, Dave Murray and Adrian Smith (Iron Maiden)
Alexi Laiho (Children of Bodom)
Drum Workshop® Best Drummer
Tommy Clufetos (Ozzy Osbourne)
Abe Cunningham (Deftones)
Joey Jordison (for his work with Rob Zombie)
Roy Mayorga (Stone Sour)
Nicko McBrain (Iron Maiden)
Mike Portnoy (for his work with Avenged Sevenfold)
Best Vocalist
Glenn Danzig (Danzig)
Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)
Chino Moreno (Deftones)
Ozzy Osbourne (Ozzy Osbourne)
M. Shadows (Avenged Sevenfold)
Corey Taylor (for his work with Stone Sour)
Affliction® Album of the Year
Avenged Sevenfold, Nightmare
Black Label Society, Order of the Black
Deftones, Diamond Eyes
Ozzy Osbourne, Scream
Stone Sour, Audio Secrecy
Volbeat, Beyond Hell/Above Heaven
Samson/Zoom® Best Live Band
Avenged Sevenfold
Gwar
Iron Maiden
Megadeth
Rammstein
Sevendust
Most Metal Athlete
Chris Cole (pro skateboarding)
Dan Hardy (MMA fighting)
Toni Lydman (NHL hockey)
The Miz (WWE wrestling)
Jeremy Shockey (NFL football)
Mike Vallely (pro skateboarding)
Best New Band
Asking Alexandria
Black Veil Brides
The Damned Things
The Pretty Reckless
Times of Grace
We Are the Fallen
Eagle Rock® Comeback of the Year
Accept
Faith No More
Murderdolls
A Perfect Circle
Soundgarden
System of a Down
Cast your vote now at REVOLVERMAG.COM
Epiphone® Best Guitarist(s)
John 5 (for his work with Rob Zombie)
Dan Donegan (Disturbed)
Gus G. (or his work with Ozzy Osbourne)
Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance (Avenged Sevenfold)
Janick Gers, Dave Murray and Adrian Smith (Iron Maiden)
Alexi Laiho (Children of Bodom)
Drum Workshop® Best Drummer
Tommy Clufetos (Ozzy Osbourne)
Abe Cunningham (Deftones)
Joey Jordison (for his work with Rob Zombie)
Roy Mayorga (Stone Sour)
Nicko McBrain (Iron Maiden)
Mike Portnoy (for his work with Avenged Sevenfold)
Best Vocalist
Glenn Danzig (Danzig)
Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)
Chino Moreno (Deftones)
Ozzy Osbourne (Ozzy Osbourne)
M. Shadows (Avenged Sevenfold)
Corey Taylor (for his work with Stone Sour)
Affliction® Album of the Year
Avenged Sevenfold, Nightmare
Black Label Society, Order of the Black
Deftones, Diamond Eyes
Ozzy Osbourne, Scream
Stone Sour, Audio Secrecy
Volbeat, Beyond Hell/Above Heaven
Samson/Zoom® Best Live Band
Avenged Sevenfold
Gwar
Iron Maiden
Megadeth
Rammstein
Sevendust
Most Metal Athlete
Chris Cole (pro skateboarding)
Dan Hardy (MMA fighting)
Toni Lydman (NHL hockey)
The Miz (WWE wrestling)
Jeremy Shockey (NFL football)
Mike Vallely (pro skateboarding)
Best New Band
Asking Alexandria
Black Veil Brides
The Damned Things
The Pretty Reckless
Times of Grace
We Are the Fallen
Eagle Rock® Comeback of the Year
Accept
Faith No More
Murderdolls
A Perfect Circle
Soundgarden
System of a Down
Cast your vote now at REVOLVERMAG.COM
(Special thanks to James Zahn at Kik Axe Music, photographer Melissa Libertelli and the MSO PR triumvirate of Libby, Angela & Michele)






























