Screen Name?
The Cusack.  I'm a fan of John Cusack's early movies like "Better Off Dead", "The Sure Thing" and "Say Anything" and I relate to his characters on a somewhat personal level.  I see a lot of myself in him characters so I adopted The Cusack persona a couple of years ago.

  
And what is your real name?
Daniel

  
Where are you from?
Originally from Salisbury, NC but I've lived in Charlotte, NC since 1984.

   
Please tell us a little about yourself (Job, hobbies, etc.):
Let's see.....I'm addicted to the internet.  Particularly the message boards that I frequent.  They don't have a support group to help you with that sort of thing so I guess I'll have to live with my USB umbilical cord until I can find somebody to cut it.  My musical tastes are somewhat varied but I mainly stick to sub-genre's of Rock n Roll.  I like to play sports (but NFL football is the only thing I keep up with on TV so I'm not a year round couch potato watching sports all the time), I used to sing in a band or two back in the day and I can occassionally be dragged out to karaoke to sing something but I usually limit my singing to the captive audiences in traffic while sitting in my car these days.  I'm single, I have a house that I share (begrudgingly) with my Tasmanian Tiger (I wish!) Bernie.  My j--o-b is pizza delivery and has been for the past nine years.  I used to love it but I've finally outgrown it and I'm looking to move on to something more career oriented like being a Pimp or even Assistant Pimp or something with benefits other than free pizza.  I obviously have a (poor) sense of humor.  I like to laugh and make others laugh (sometimes unintentionally) as well.  I work for a Norwegian based Heavy Metal website called www.METAL-BLAST.com where I occassionally interview rockstars and write (sometimes steal, I mean..."borrow") a blurb or two about what's going on in the world of hard rock.  I have interviewed both Tracii Guns and Stacey Blades for our site and those two interviews are by far my favorite and were the most fun to do.  I'm also in charge of selecting our Miss Metal-Blast every month, which featured Rana (feygrrrl) from this board's forum as our Miss May 2007.  Aside from that like to go to rock shows from time to time, football games, I dig Starbucks but I'm trying to quit caffeine altogether, I love to drive my car, travel and do new and different things. 

How/when and why did you get into L.A. Guns?
There's always a redhead at the root of it all it seems.  Like beer to Homer Simpson, redheads are the cause and cure for all of my problems.  Anyway......My cute redheaded friend Sally had LA Guns debut on cassette and let me listen to "Sex Action" on her walkman on the bus ride home from school.  At that point I had only heard about the band from another friend of mine, but hearing that song for the first time was all I needed to go out and buy the tape for myself.  I think by the end of 1988, all of my friends were into LA Guns.  I also remember that "Cocked & Loaded" was THE back to school album for all of us to pick up.  Seriously, it was the must have in the fall of 1989.  So you're wondering if Sally offered me any other kind of "Sex Action" right?  Alas, no.  I was just too shy at the time and I worked for her Mom so it just didn't seem right.  Probably just too cautious on my part.

What is your favourite song/album?
"Waking The Dead" and "Cocked & Loaded" are my two favorites albums.  My old screen name "I Wanna Be Your Man" was my favorite song by them and while it's still around the top of the list I've got to say that I don't have one favorite anymore.  Songs like "Malaria", "Frequency", "Long Time Dead", "Until I Get You", "Girl You Turn Me On", "Wild Obsession", "Over The Edge", "Killing Machine" and "Electric Gypsy" all seem to be what I'm into as far as LA Guns songs.  I also like stuff like "Bricks" and "3 Minute Atomic Egg" and the remixes on "Greatest Hits And Black Beauties".

Now share your favourite L.A. Guns story/memory, please:
Meeting all the cool people at the Baltimore LA Guns show back in June is near or at the top of the list.  I got to meet people both from this forum and from Metal-Blast's as well.  Hanging out with the band a few days earlier after the show in Charlotte was very cool as well.  Getting to talk to Phil and finally meet Stacey for more than just an autograph or online for an interview was awesome. 

What other bands do you like?
Queen is my favorite.  I own all the albums and the first music other than children's records that were ever given to me were "News Of The World", "Jazz", and "A Day At The Races".  Freddie Mercury's death in 1991 was as moving for me as the death of a casual friend or extended family member.  Not just the death itself, but the way he died and the fact that he left us too soon.  INXS is another favorite of mine.  I can say the same thing for Michael Hutchence that I just said for Freddie Mercury.  I was an INXS fan from day one and early on, when they weren't very popular here I took a lot of criticism for liking them but within 3-4 years not only were my friend big fans, they looked at me as an expert on the band.  One of the things I really admired about INXS was that they always gave you something extra if you bought their singles that you couldn't get if you just bought the album.  Their B-sides were among their best work.  The song "Mechanical" which is the B-side for the song "I Send A Message" from the album "The Swing" is one of my all time favorite INXS song.  It was very dark and experimental for that time.  Other bands I'm really into:  The Fixx (my first concert, 9/2/84), Men At Work (my first album purchase was "Business As Usual"), The Human League, Duran Duran, a lot of '80s New Wave/New Romantic music.  She had me at "Kajagoogoo" ;-D .  Some Punk like The Clash and The Plasmatics.  Some Post-Punk bands like The Cure, Siouxie Sioux And The Banshees and New Order.  Also like a lot of current Contemporary Christian artists and from the 1990s when the genre finally matured.  DC Talk, Newsboys, Switchfoot, Angelica, Skillet, Jaci Velasquez and Earthsuit are among my favorites from CCM.  A lot of Alt. Rock and Grunge bands too like Nirvana, Soundgarden, Stabbing Westward, Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, Julian Cope, Evanescence, Curve (they were Garbage before anyone knew who Shirley Manson was!), Garbage (yeah, I like them anyway), Ben Folds, The Goo Goo Dolls, Ministry, Nine Inch Nails and Natalie Merchant  As for Metal, it's mostly the older bands that I liked.  Obviously LA Guns, their siblings bands Guns N Roses and Faster Pussycat both had great debut records.  GnR followed up with a great EP in "Lies".  Bang Tango put on the single best live set I've ever seen from any band, period.  I was a big fan already but the show they opened for Britny Fox back in 1990 sealed it for me.  They were awesome.  Metallica's 1980's stuff, Megadeth, Brides Of Destruction's first CD, Suicidal Tendancies, Queensryche, Aldo Nova (just the first two albums), Van Halen (both Sammy and Dave, but the Gary Cherone album sucked!) Rush, Varga's debut CD "Prototype" is a masterpiece and the occassional Nu-Metal song are about it as far as Metal bands go.  I also love Weird Al Yankovic and I have all his stuff.  Other bands I like are The Police (never would have guessed right?), The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Carole King, as well as a lot of '70s pop and soft rock. Of the acts I listed who have members who have passed:  Freddie Mercury, Michael Hutchence, Wendy O Williams, Kurt Cobain, Cliff Burton, Layne Staley, Jim Morrison and of course Jimi Hendrix;  R.I.P

What is/are your favourite books?
The Bible and "Natural Cures They Don't Want You To Know About" are two books that have changed my life for the better, much better.  I'm not much of a reader otherwise.  I enjoyed Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five", Gary Carter's "The Gamer" since he was my role model as a kid, "Jesus Freak" and "Voice Of The Martyrs" kind of round it out.  I don't do fiction much at all.  Biographies, History, Instructional and the occassional comedy book pretty much sums it up for me

And what is/are your favourite movies?
John Cusack's "Say Anything" and "Better Off Dead" are my top two.  Not sure which is actually my favorite though.  I enjoy most of his movies.  Tom Hanks also makes a lot of great movies.  "Bachelor Party" will catch me like a deer caught in headlights if I see it on TV.  "Forrest Gump" was great and most of his movies actually.  I could go on and on with Cusack and Hanks.  Adam Sandler is another one who's movies I enjoy a lot.  "The Princess Bride" is a masterpiece.  "Breakfast At Tiffany's" is more than just a clever song to me, I love it!  The original Star Wars Trilogy, The Black Hole, Joe Dirt, the Spade/Farley movies, Eddie Murphy's earlier work, Chevy Chase's early stuff too.  Kiefer Sutherland and Keanu Reeves always make interesting movies.  Weird Al's "UHF", "Ghostbusters", "Spaceballs", "Blade Runner", "Beetlejuice" and "She's The One" are also great movies.

Any famous last words?
"If I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.  Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails."  - 1 Corinthinans 13:2b-8a