Kicking Off the Loudest Weekend in Ohio With Roast on the Range
By Seth M
Because 3 days of of music and comedy with over 100K people isn’t enough this year, Monster Energy, Revolver Magazine, Guitar World and the folks from Rock on the Range prefaced the festival (read our review here) with “Roast on the Range.”
Although this was the third event of its kind (the first two honored Zakk Wylde in 2012 and Dee Snider in 2013), this was the first time it was held in Ohio and tied to Rock on the Range.
The much-anticipated Roast took place at the LC Pavilion on May 15th, and this year’s honoree was none other than Slipknot and Stone Sour vocalist Corey Taylor. With roastmaster Sebastian Bach (of Skid Row) joined by Jim Florentine, Don Jamieson, Craig Gass, Slipknot’s M. Shawn “Clown” Crahan, Scott Ian, Pearl Aday, Finesse Mitchell, and with Sirius/XM’s Jose Mangin on hand as the official DJ, we could tell there was going to be no holding back…and who would want there to be??
The event started with red carpet arrivals and interviews with many of the roasters, celeb attendees, and a couple of the bands like Seether and We Are Harlot (who would be performing over the weekend). After this special VIP section concluded with a dinner, the doors opened for about 2000 fans.
Although this was supposedly a roast of Corey, as with most roasts no one was going to escape ridicule ~ and roastmaster Sebastian seemed to take the brunt of it. The highlight and one of the best laughs of the night came from Scott Ian who, speaking of Sebastian, said, “I recently read an interview about a Skid Row reunion. And Sebastian, in the interview, you said something about how the other guys must hate money because they don’t wanna do it? No, they just hate you.”
For those who just can’t get enough out of their Rock on the Range weekend, this was definitely a great way to kick it off and everyone on the dais got their share of comedic lashing. Of course it was all in good fun, and all for a good cause ~ a portion of the proceeds from the event is benefiting MusiCares, a nonprofit organization founded by The Recording Academy to provide a safety net of critical assistance for folks in the music business in times of need; it provides emergency financial and medical assistance, addiction recovery services, and more.
