Rocko and the Devils

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Our new labor of love and teamwork - "DOMINO"!
2007-10-21 18:34:00
Well then......here it is ................ our new labor of love and teamwork - "DOMINO"! We recorded this song last week in a beautiful studio in Nashville called "Ocean Way Studios" with our very talented friends Joe Martino producing with us and Steve Crowder engineering. We are very happy with the results, and we are anxious to let you hear it and give us your reactions. As always, we are giving it away to you - our friends and fans, because we decided that if we put it on iTunes, Rhapsody, and the rest of the pay-for-play web sites it would not get the exposure it could get from the word of mouth network that we have from the Rocko and the Devils web site. So if you love it or you hate it..... at least spread the word to everyone you know to check it out at www.rockoandthedevils.com.If you recall about us - we are the "Anti-rock stars". We don't sell recordings, we don't sell merch, we don't turn a profit, we aren't pretty, and we always have fun. Let us know whatcha think!...
More About: Love , Labor , Teamwork , Domino , Domin

Well.....Oops!.....we did it again.
2007-09-30 16:44:00
Well.....Oops!.....we did it again. The Devils pulled off another live performance in Victoria, BC. Once again I gotta tell you, WE HAD A BLAST! Granted, it was not the scale of our show with U2 last December, but the fun-factor was almost as good. The time leading into the gig was the most special to me however. Spending some time with Hans and Germana in Marysville, meeting Sammie again in Seattle, and having Donna with us at 2 shows was just as wonderful to me as the actual performance by the Devils. You are all very special friends to us, and we cannot thank you enough for all of your love and support for us. Also we want to thank all of you who were there in spirit.As for our show in Victoria, it was more fun for us and the crew than for the Def Leppard fans, or so it seemed from my perspective. Let's face it...there is NOTHING like Zootopians! We had some problems with the sound board in the afternoon, so or only chance for rehearsal before the show kind of evaporated, but th...
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Two days with Rocko and the Devils
2007-09-28 16:44:00
Vancouver/Victoria, BC, September 28th, 2007. According to Joe Elliott of Def Leppard ‘what happens in Victoria, stays in Victoria”. I’ll have mercy on you and disregard some of that :-) Thursday Rocko met me at the box office outside the venue. I could see him coming from about 100 ft away (I know that stride!) As he came toward me, two concert fans waylaid him to chit-chat, and as he finished talking to them, I stepped into his path. He moved to avoid bumping into me and I stepped back into his pathway, and he finally looked up, saw me, and a huge smile “Donna!?!”. Moments later, massive Rocko hug, totally spontaneous, totally enveloping, totally wonderful. We picked up my pass and ticket, and ‘follow me’ and we’re off. In through the backstage door, right up to the back of the stage and the grand tour. I got to see Rick Allen’s custom drum kit, Larry Gowan’s keyboard on a circular base which allows him to spin it and do crazy things with it, and s...
More About: Days , Devils , The Devil

Meeting Rocko in Seattle
2007-09-25 16:44:00
Seattle, September 25th, 2007. Much of the work I do in activism is relational, concrete… we develop professional positive relationships with key people and I occasionally run into some amazing people. And then, much of the world of rock and roll is virtual… we are fans of people and bands who, well, they are one in a million or more, we are one OF a million or more. Sometimes the world collides, and in the world of U2 it’s a beautiful thing.Rocko and his band of merry men deliver this atmosphere that both enforce and eliminate the velvet ropes, the distance between us and the band we love, and other bands that many love, of stages and ellipses, lights and sounds and walls. The artists can concentrate on communicating with us from the heart knowing Rocko and others pave the way for this. Nobody in the industry does it better… and that’s not just my personal opinion. And our Rocko's an unpretentious rock star in his own right who really loves his fans and has ...
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Backstage with Rocko at the Def Leppard concert
2007-09-16 19:13:00
Marysville, CA, September 14th, 2007.Rocko is on tour with Def Leppard these days as the Production Manager and he invited us to the show of this historical rock band in Marysville. We got to the venue without any problem and went looking for 'a guy named Mike under an umbrella', who had our names on a list but didn't immediately realize it, and first sent us towards a sort of V.I.P. area of the parking but then came running after us to point us in the right direction... backstage parking. Next gate, and another guy wanted to steer us away and asked for credentials, but we did the magic move... we called Rocko. At this point the guy was probably starting to worry he was doing the wrong thing and he let us through even though he had no idea where we should go, and neither did we but our man came to rescue us and to open the final gate.. into the backstage parking lot where the big red/silver trucks were all lined up together with several tour buses. He greete...
More About: Concert , Backstage , Cert

Rocko and the Devils Open for Def Leppard
2007-09-07 19:22:00
It's Official!! Management signed off on us opening in Victoria, BC, Canada. Def Leppard with special guest Rocko and the Devils on September 28th at Save On Foods Memorial Centre. Love - Rocko and the Devils... 2 days earlier :HELLO EVERYONE! THE DEVILS ARE CALLING! Boy oh boy! It has been a busy time on the Def Leppard tour for us Devils. The day after my birthday, August 21st in Raleigh, South Carolina - about 10 minutes before the show a huge storm came through and tore the roof off the stage we were set up on! Pulled it back like a sardine can and dumped tons of water all over the equipment....Check out the video on YouTube ( http://youtube.com/watch?v=OO3voY4--F4 ) No one was seriously hurt, but the show was postponed until a week later. Unfortunately that put us on a schedule of 10 shows in the last 13 days, with long bus rides on the few days off. Sorry I have not written to you all sooner, but it has been a bit hectic. We have been working on a little something in the mean...
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Dear Sweet Eleanor
2007-02-21 20:52:00
Way back when Rocko and the Devils first got together to rehearse for our big night in Hawaii, we were all on time off from working for Journey and U2 in January of 2006. We had gotten permission to use Journey's equipment in their secret warehouse north of San Francisco. The guys in Journ ey are the greatest and were very helpful to us all through our adventure. We had to go out there anyway to pack up the gear for a one-off Journey show in Phoenix, so we just came out 6 days early and rehearsed. We were still not locked in on what we would play yet, so we just started messing around by jamming in the key of "E" since my limited voice range works well in that key. After trying several variations on a basic Metallica theme, for reasons I will never understand I started singing the words to Eleanor Rigby over this heavy rhythm of the old "Peter Gunn" bass line. It was just something we did and then looked at each other and went "WOW, this is cool! We continued messing with it.... tr...
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Happy St. Valentine Birthday, to all the animals!
2007-02-14 22:53:00
Today is a very special day- February 14th. This is the day that each year my wife and I celebrate our pet's birthday. Since our pets have always been acquired through Animal Shelters or Forgotten Four Paws, we aren't really sure of their official birthday. So we decided to consolidate them into one day that we could easily remember. Valentine s Day just seemed like the best day because it's basis is pretty much centered around love, and the pets just overflow with unquestioning love for us. No matter how long I am gone.....6 minutes or 6 months, they are overjoyed at my return. We have 3 cats....all girls, so you don't tell their age.... their names are B.B. (as in B.B. King), Kiki (as in Kiki Dee), and Minky (as in...Minky!) Then there is their big brother....a Norwegian Elk hound, German Shepard mix who's name is Sharky. They are super-friends to them selves and us. We don't really consider them our pets as much as our furry children. To celebrate the occasion we are going t...
More About: Animals , Happy , Birthday , The A

Hola from partly sunny Florida!
2007-02-11 18:27:00
Well, here it is, my first Devil's Blog!! Had a few questions from everyone on the guestbook the other day, so here goes.Germana- Yes, I do enjoy a good bottle of wine! I have been big on Australian wines lately. So much great wine, for a reasonable price! I am always up for suggestions on new ones, so lay some on me!! As for my everyday life? There are some things that happen on a daily basis when we are on the road, like unloading the truck, setting up the gear, doing the show, and putting it all back in the truck. However, it's the new faces and places that keep me out here. I love to travel, and experience new things, and being on the road, for me, is the ultimate way to see and learn something new every day. Not to mention, I get to play with cool toys!!!Donna, I will visit my myspace later today. Tina- I actually use my pedals on stage (did for the hawaii show) to get "my sound". I build them to keep me out of trouble when I am off the road. Got to have something...
More About: Florida , Sunny , Hola , Flor

Technology and the world
2007-02-08 21:30:00
Unbelievable! It is incredible to me that by smacking a bunch of buttons with letters and numbers on them that you can reach the entire planet. Even more so that the planet can talk back to you. And taking it one step further that we can share/relive that incredible night last December in Hawaii by putting one of our songs we performed on our web site and on YouTube.Link to Rocko and the Devils on YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/user/rocko andthedevilsLink to the "I Don't Wanna" video on YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_ c6_IDREHsSharing is a good thing, and we love doing it. I am sure that if we had a recording contract, we would not be able to do this for free, so enjoy it while you can........and take big bites. We would love to put "Eleanor Rigby" and "I wanna be sedated" videos up on the site as well, but I have yet to get permission from the publishing companies to do it without paying up the ying yang. Maybe if the YouTube video gets enough views and "5-star" ratings it...
More About: Technology , World , The World , Ology

I Don't Wanna
2007-02-06 20:08:00
Greetings Devils Advocates! As you may have noticed, we now have a VIDEO of one of the songs we played in Hawaii up on the web site. Thank you to "The Doctor" for putting the technology together to do this. As I said in the last blog, there is a bit of work involved with putting any thing in the cyber domain without going through the legal stuff. This song was written by a friend of ours from Nashville by the name of J Paul. The first time I heard it on his myspace page ( www.myspace.com/jpaulmusic ), I really wanted to try to play it with the Devils. We had to change the key that it was written in originally, because I just can't sing that high!! We wanted to wait until J Paul actually heard our version of his song, to make sure he didn't hate it, before putting it on the Rocko and the Devils site. He wrote me back after seeing it and had very nice things to say about our performance. What a great guy, and what a talented songwriter. Check out his myspace, I think you will like h...

Hello...... what's this?
2007-02-05 15:42:00
Blog? Blog? What is this? Blog? Blog! .....BlogBlogBlogBlog!! Well.... it is fun to say anyway! Greetings to you all from your old pal Rocko. Sorry I have been a bit scarce on this web site of ours. I told myself that I would concentrate on doing all the little things around my home that I have said I would do "when I get time". I gave myself the deadline of Super Bowl Sunday to complete these tasks, and I have done a relatively good job of knocking them out. Today, I am putting the final coat of paint in my office, and then I am pretty much done..... until I find some more things to do!Our new webmaster, who I call "The Doctor", has done a fantastic job of making-over the web site. The pictures that people have sent to us from the Hawaii show are unbelievable. Thank you all so much for sending them to us. If any more come to us we will add them to the rest. A lot of you have asked about T-shirts, CD's, Video, or bootlegs of our show. Herein lies the problem with our little rock ba...
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Hawaii concert photo album (Rocko)
2007-01-25 20:00:00
Well, well, well.....sorry it has been a while. Rocko here! I know it has been a long time coming. but the photo page has been updated with pictures from Hawaii (http://www.rockoandthedevils.com/photos/ ). What an incredible night that was! We are all still reeling after that experience! What can we every possibly do to top that. All of you who came to the show were so kind to us, it was as if you really sort of knew us before we played the show. It was completely a whirlwind experience, since right after we finished I had to turn back into the stage manager and do all the tasks for the end of the tour. I never really got a chance to talk to the U2 band members after the show, other than to give 'em a hug and say good-bye. That's just the way it goes I suppose, but I will see them again sooner than I realize. In the mean time, I am spending quite a lot of time in my studio basement (which my wife named "The Man Cave") and I will be spinning my wheel on creating more songs. If you h...
More About: Photo , Concert , Photo Album , Album

Wonderful holidays (Rocko)
2006-12-31 20:00:00
Hello all of the friends of the Devils!!!!! Rocko calling, and may I say thank you for understanding us taking a little bit of time off for the holidays. Each of us has been off doing family get togethers for Christmas, as I am sure all of you have as well. I hope each and everyone of you have had a wonderful Holiday season, and the best to you for the new year as well. Please be careful tonight as we bring in the new year, there is a lot of amateurs out there!........... As to what is up with us, we are still reeling from the incredible response we have had for our show in Hawaii that magical night a few weeks ago. As I always say..." mere words cannot express"..... but I do want to thank all of the fans who were there to see us, your response was incredible!!!! You have succeeded in making a bunch of road crew feel like rock stars, even if only for one day, and we shall always feel that you were the people who made it happen for us. Of course it would be great if we could go on wr...
More About: Holidays , Wonderful

A day in the life of Rocko
2006-12-31 20:00:00
Here is a diary I kept for u2.com of that night...http://www.u2.com/highlights/?hid =335At the final night on the Vertigo Tour, Rocko and the Devils – led by U2’s Stage Manager Rocko Reedy - got to open the show. Here’s the diary Rocko kept for U2.Com of a day he ‘took off his my stage manager hat and put on my rock star hat’. A day in the life of Rocko 5:30 AM - Wake up from a dream that we played the first song and the crowd just stood there in silence. Jumped in the shower and went to the coffee place for a venti latte. 8:30 AM- Arrived at Aloha Stadium. U2 had done us the huge favor of sound checking the night before so we could get a sound check. Brought our van load of gear up on the 30 semi-trucks of gear that make up the U2 stage. Grabbed another cup of coffee and went to check out the sea-containers that we would load-out U2's equipment into after the show. It would be a long night from the look of the parking lot full of containers. 10:00 AM - Rocko and the Devil...
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WOW!! (Rocko)
2006-12-12 20:00:00
Dear Devils Advocates, Rocko , "back on One".....Wow! What mere words can describe how I feel right now?!? Rip Van Winkle maybe, as I have just slept more in the last 24 hours than I have in the last month. What a whirlwind of a month it has been, and a typhoon with an earthquake day in Honolulu on December 9th. It is definitely beyond description, but not beyond giving the proper thanks where it is due to all the people that made our incredible dream come true! Where do I begin?.............Well of course first and foremost it must be giving the Devils their due! To my brothers - Larry O'Connor, Jim Handley, Brent Jeffers and Scott Appleton, as well as the "Inspirational Padre" Terry Lawless, and our well endowed crew - Jeffro Hannah, Kevin Elson, Chuck Beckler, and Mike Price. You guys are the most talented humans I have ever had the pure pleasure of working so hard with. Thank you for enduring my relentless verbal torture and abuse......and not giving up!......To the wonderful U2...

An amazing dream! (Brent)
2006-12-12 20:00:00
Aloha from NashVegas, Brent Jeffers here...Had this amazing dream last night that I jammed with my devil buddies in a big giant stadium on a tropical island in front of thousands of people. In all seriousness, this dream come true was one of the most euphoric 25 minutes of my life. It was such a rush seeing all you Devil Advocates out there rocking and singing along with us, it's an experience I'll never forget thanks to you. Scott, Jim, Larry, Dan, and Rocko...you are not only great musicians but also my friends. It was an honor to share the stage with you. Also, thanks to Jeffro, Chuck, and Mike for watching our backs. Y'all take care now, ya hea.Original post and replies in: Rocko and the Devils - Guestbook Archives - Page 4
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WHAT A NIGHT!!! (Scott)
2006-12-10 20:00:00
WHAT A NIGHT!!! I am still on cloud 9 even almost 24 hours later!! Looking at the sea of people in front of us last night was one of the most exhilerating experiences of my life!! First off, I have to say a HUGE Thank You to everyone who was at the show!! Germana, and the girls were right down front with their devil horns on, and I saw a bunch more out there in the audience before the show started! I can't tell you how cool that was!! Second, I have to give a really huge Thank You to all of the U2 tour personnel. They really went the extra mile for us, on the last day of a tour (which is always the busiest), and for dealing with a few tech's pretending to be rockstars for the day, I salute you! Of course big thanks to U2, Paul McGuiness, and Jake Berry for letting us play. Jeffro, Mike and Chuck, we couldn't have done it without you!! And last but not least, I have to thank my band mates, we worked really hard for this, and how sweet it is!!! THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!! Now, it's tim...
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Thank you!!! (Jim)
2006-12-10 02:30:00
Greetings one and all!!! I'm sitting in the dressing room and Pearl Jam is on now. There are not words to express my gratitude to Rocko Reedy, Scott Appleton, Brent Jeffers, Larry O'Connor, Dan Tracey, Chuck Beckler, and Jeff Hannah. AND....of course to EVERYONE who's been so good to all of us. It was GREAT to see signs and people wearing horns!! Thank you to the wonderfull gents in U2 for having us along. Thank you........ Jim Handley/Rocko and the DevilsOriginal post and replies in: Rocko and the Devils - Guestbook Archives - Page 4
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Devils rock the Aloha Stadium in Hawaii!!!
2006-12-10 02:09:00
What a show!!!!!!!!!See the complete photo album on the Rock o and the Devils web site:http://www.rockoandthedevils.com/pho tos/Some comments from the ones who were there at the Aloha Stadium :"You Guys ROCKED the stage in Hawaii .... Awesome band, Awesome music. Hope to hear more from you guys in the future.""What an amazing show! We were right down in front of the stage to watch as Rocko and the Devils treated the crowd to a healthy serving of all out rock and roll. Wonderful version of "Eleanor Rigby." Outstanding and heartfelt version of "Dirty Roadie." Everyone in the band was feeling it and playing great. They just nailed the closing version of "I Wanna Be Sedated." The crowd loved the Devils! We were all smiles and high-fives throughout the set. As a fellow graduate, I was totally stoked to see two fellow alums of Lyons Township High School in La Grange, Illinois (Rocko and Larry) setting the bar for Pearl Jam and U2. By the way, we got many compliments on the high-quality Devils...
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Larry ready to rock 'n roll!
2006-12-06 20:00:00
Thanks to everyone for your support. It's been a long time since i rocked and rolled(about 40 years) I'll be thinking up there about all the great musicians I had the honor of playing with over the years. (Especially you Mick) Thanks for thinking of me Rock o when you put this thing together even though I know McCartney was available. Your pal, Larry PS Lets go kick their ass................
More About: Rock N Roll , Roll , Ready

T-shirts avalable at the Hawaii show (Rocko)
2006-12-05 20:00:00
Rocko and the Devils T-shirts will be available for sale at the show. There will be a limited amount of shirts (500) and there is only one style. If demand warrants it, they may be available on line through U2.com, but I didn't want to get stuck with a butt-load of expensive car washing rags after the show. Love - Rocko Original post and replies in: Rocko and the Devils - Guestbook Archives - Page 4
More About: Hawaii , Show , Shirts , T-Shirts , T shirts

Ready to ROCK!!!
2006-12-05 20:00:00
Hey Everyone!!! Hope you are all as psyched as we are for Saturday!! The Devils are all in Nashville today, sans Rock o, rehearsing for the big gig, and we are ready to ROCK!!!!!!!!! We have workded very hard, to put on the best show we possibly can, and now we are ready to have some fun with all of you!! See you Saturday!! 6:30 sharp!!!!! The DevilsOriginal post and replies in: Rocko and the Devils - Guestbook Archives - Page 4
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Singing with U2 in Tokyo (Rocko)
2006-12-01 20:00:00
Dear friends of the Devils, Rocko calling! Sorry I have been out of touch with you all, it has been extremely busy in U2 world. The roller coaster of life on the road with U2 has been going 1,000 mph, and the events leading up to our performance in Hawaii has taken some exciting turns. I am so excited I can't sleep, it is 5:30 AM here in Tokyo . We have done 2 shows here and had to load out the equipment for 3 days so Eric Clapton can do a show in the same venue tonight. On the flight here 5 days ago, I played a song for Bono on the plane, it is a song that you guys have not heard us play yet, and I was going to let it be a surprise.... but the sequence of events over the last few days has me reeling. We have a version of the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" that we are going to open our show with in Hawaii, but it is unlike anything you have ever heard. Everyone knows it is against the Rules of Rock to try to play a song by the Fab Four and expect people to like it, but we are very proud ...
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Devils open at 6:30 PM in Honolulu (Rocko)
2006-11-18 20:07:00
Dear Everyone, First of all - THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT!!!! You have done an amazing job of getting the word out about our band. People are coming to this web site in record numbers, and downloading our tunes more than ever before! We have just found out that Rocko and the Devils will be performing at 6:30 PM on December 9th. The ticketed show time is listed as an hour later, but we are starting this early to make sure that Pearl Jam and U2 have enough time to do their full sets. We hope you all can spread the word so there is still a lot of fans there early enough to see us. We are just grateful for the opportunity to play for you all, no matter what time we start our show! To be able to open for two of the biggest bands in the world is beyond comprehension, however for us personally to be able to perform for you guys, the fans of U2 and Pearl Jam.... well.... I gotta tell you.... we are overwhelmed with joy!!! Thank you so much, and get ready for a burst of energy and excitem...
More About: Open , Honolulu , Lulu

Aloha from Brent
2006-11-13 20:00:00
Hey Everybody Brent here, haven't signed on for quite a while, But like Rocko has said we all have been very been this summer. Scott, Jim and I are coming up to our 80th show with the Journey and Def Leppard tour. What a great experience this has been. We all got along great and became 1 big happy family. I had the opportunity to rekindle a friendship with Dave Wolf, Def Leppards Guitar tech who I worked with back in 1987 on my first tour with Stryper. Anyway, 5 shows left on this classic rock tour, and we are all starting to really focus on the big show coming up in Hawaii. Even though Rocko is on the opposite side of the planet, we are staying in touch daily, (I'd hate to see Rockos phone bill). We will be getting together for a dress rehearsal in Nashville before flying out to Hawaii. Less than a month away.WOWAloha , BrentOriginal post and replies in: Rocko and the Devils - Guestbook Archives - Page 4

Rehearsing Devil songs in Sydney (Rocko)
2006-11-12 20:01:00
Well, well, well! Haven't we been busy little Devil s.... Greetings, G'day, hello and "how ya doin'" from Rocko . I haven't had a chance to write here in the guest book for quite some time, but we finally had an actual day off here in Sydney , Australia after finishing the first 2 of 3 shows. So what did I do on my day off? Of course I went to the empty stadium and scrubbed the floor of our mammoth stage. After storing it for 7 months and then getting enough rain to frighten even Noah with his ark, it was a bit dirty to say the least, so I went over to the Telstra Stadium by myself to scrub it down. I didn't want any help from the rest of the crew, as they deserved a clear day off. I also had devilish motives for my solo venture, I wanted to rehearse my vocals. So I took my iPod full of Devil songs with my custom made Ultimate Ears in-ear monitors (...which absolutely are the best!!!) and went and sang very loudly to 74,000 empty seats (....and 12 very puzzled security police guar...
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Devils fans spot Rocko in Sydney
2006-11-10 20:00:00
Original post and replies in: Rocko and the Devils - Guestbook Archives - Page 4
More About: Fans , Sydney , Spot

Honolulu here we come (Rocko)
2006-11-01 20:00:00
G'day my friends! Rocko calling from the land down under! It is a beautiful day in Brisbane, Australia, and the U2 crew is all here putting the tour back together for the rescheduled shows. The plane ride to get here was brutal(30 hours of flying for me), but it was great to get back together with my U2 crew mates again! Everyone on the U2 crew is excited for us to be playing in Hawaii, and we are ready to rock! We will be here in Brisbane polishing up the stage and programming all the lights, sound, and video for U2 to carry on the Vertigo tour to completion. There is a great sense of pride amongst the crew to make this the best shows we have ever been a part of for the band, and we are anxious to kick it into gear and get the show on the road!!!! Sorry the Rocko and the Devils site has been wacky lately, and thanks to our fantastic web mistress Melanie for getting it going again. She is truly the "queen of Cyberspace" for us. Thank you, and a big shout out to Melanie!!!! There wa...
More About: Honolulu , Lulu

New recording - Dirty Roadies
2006-10-18 21:00:00
Dear Zootopians,We have put two new songs on Rocko and the Devils web site. A new mix of "ROAD RAGE" and a song no one has heard (at least not our version) called "Dirty Roadies". Please enjoy them, and if you do.... please tell the planet about our web site.http://rockoandthedevils.com/mp3/MP3 .htmMahalo!Rocko and the DevilsOriginal post and replies in: U2 Fans Unite in Hawaii message forum
More About: Recording , Dies , Adie , Cord