b"Mark Strigl interviews Tobias Forge, the masked vocalist for the band Ghost. were only a few hundred podcasts onhavehappenedwhenwecoverfes-the iTunes platform at the time. tivals,hesays.Theyllflyusupto While Strigl was new to podcast- HeavyMontral,whichisamassive ing, he was able to quickly assemble ahard rock heavy metal festival. Theyll roster of impressive interviewees for hisgive us full access and we get our own burgeoning Talking Metal show. Wegolf cart and driver. Were able to drive werespecificallycoveringloudrock,around this massive festival and have hard rock, and heavy metal, he says.access to all these different bands.We were able to start getting guestsWe interviewed Slash in Los Ange-partly because there wasnt any compe- les at a real famous rock n roll hang-tition. Those bands werent very popu- out called the Rainbow, which is right lar anymore. They werent in the main- on the Sunset Strip, he recalls. Slash stream anymore in 2005. Sirius XMcame in and he was wearing your basic wasntdoinginterviewswiththem.regular T-shirt, and his hair was kind of FM radio wasnt doing interviews withmessed up. He didnt even really look them. Neither was MTV. So, I thinklike Slash. But then he ordered some we became this outlet where these rockpizzasandjustbeforetheinterview stars of years past suddenly had a plat- he put on his sunglasses, top hat, and form to come and talk, and it caughthe put on his flannel, which had been on pretty quick. folded up in his top hat. And then it Sincethepodcastlaunch,Striglwas like, boom! Slash had arrived. It hasrackedupanimpressiveresumewas really interesting that he was this ofmusicians,includingBillyCor- kind of normal guy who just showed gan(SmashingPumpkins),Ozzyup. But once it was time for the inter-Osbourne,GeddyLee(Rush),Slashview, it was Slash the rock star.(GunsNRoses),andvariousbandNowadays, Strigls travelling inter-members from Metallica, Iron Maid- views have ground to a halt. However, en, Journey, and the Scorpions. Heshe does appreciate being close to home also conducted one-on-one interviewsand enjoying his adopted town of Ma-withmanyactors,including,Jessicaplewood. Although he moved around Alba, Alan Cumming, and Sean Penn. a lot as a child, he lived in Morristown The podcast would lead to a showwhile he was in grade school. I used calledTalkingMetalonFuseTV,to come to Maplewood for my tutor whereStriglservedasexecutivepro- back during the early '80s, he recalls. ducer,creator,andhost.ButintheI have vague memories of going into meantime, his interviews continued to[mytutorshouse]inthistownand pick up pace. And boy, does he havetherewereallthesebeautifulhouses some great stories to tell. and big trees here.Some of the more exciting thingsIn2007,StriglmovedtoMaple-28/ matters magazine / spring 2021"