SUPER BALLS AWARD

JACK PONTI!

It’s been awhile since we’ve handed one of these out, but we didn’t even really need to think about it this time. We were going to do this anyway, but the gargantuan response to this week’s 20 Questions only solidified our desire to hand this out. Thus, we’re giving a well-deserved Super Balls Award to Mr. Jack Ponti! Here you go, Jack!

The Super Balls Award

Jack’s 20 Questions interview will go down in Metal Sludge history as one of the best 20 Questions of all time. He told some astounding stories, dished out some smack, and told incriminating tales about nearly everyone he’s crossed paths with in his 3-decade career. He didn’t hold anything back! We like when someone has nothing to lose and lets it all hang out. And letting it all hang out is exactly what Jack Ponti will have to do from now on, because his nustsack is bigger than Giants’ Stadium, longer than the Garden State Parkway, and higher than housing prices in Hoboken! He’ll need his own private PATH Train to haul around his balls, because they truly are Super Balls!

Here’s just a smattering of e-mails and Gossip Board posts demanding that Jack Ponti be awarded a Super Balls award.

I kid you not, you fu**ing freaks at Metal Sludge, that was by far and away one of the best 20 questions if not the BEST 20 Q’s in the history of Metal Sludge. And believe you me, I’ve read them all. Never before have so many great and funny stories been told in a Sludge interview. I actually had to read it twice and will probably read it a 3rd time when I go to take my mid-morning bathroom break.

The Nelson stories alone were worth it. Classic. Who would have ever known?

Great catch! Thanks a ton!!!

Bobby Thompson

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As a fan of Surgin who still has the original record and cd, I want to commend Mr. Ponti on what is now my favorite Sludge interview that I am sure will piss of many many people. I recommend a Super Balls award for this fine piece of work and I hope Billy Squire reads this and gets a different reaction than I did.

A Surgin fan!

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Anyone who tells Billy Squire to “stroke this” deserves a super balls award. Fuck him and Andy Warhol.

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OMG Guys, that was one of the, if not THE best 20 questions you guys have ever done! *lol* I’ve every single one countless times and I can’t remember laughing harder at any of them, except maybe for that moron that was in Sebastion Bach’s band, but not because he was cool, mainly because he was a f**ktard. Anyway…just wanted to say that this guy deserves a triple Super Balls award. Can’t wait for the rewind! I’m still laughing about the Billy Squier thing. LOL

Bobby aka wineandromance

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That was the most hilarious 20 Questions in a LONG time! And probably the best ever, actually. Cheers to Jack for being a funny bastard…although I’m still wondering what the comment about Snake Sabo’s “vagina” was about…I’m sure I don’t want to know…

C. Beardsley

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May I just say…Outstanding 20 questions with Mr. Ponti. If no one else has done it yet, I nominate him for a Super Balls Award!

Big Drew the Halenite

From the Metal Sludge Gossip Boards:

His superballs award should be bronzed, engraved and big as church bells.

GeorgiaLynch

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ponti is my new hero. totally brutal and honest. the best example of someone with fuck you money just letting it all go.

BRAVO, JACK PONTI!

VicStelly

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One of the best 20Q’s ever. He has my vote!

BattleHymns

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Great 20q. Ponti gets my nomination for superballs.

leftstrat

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That was definitely the best 20Q’s I’ve read in a long fucking time….

martye88

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That was a great read and even has a funny ass picture of him and JBJ!

bellowlugosi

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Its easily the best 20 questions since in a year.

SeminiferousButtNoid

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That was the best 20 Questions in a long time. Thats how its done.

guitarman73

Congratulations to Jack Ponti for having truly Super Balls from all the Sludgeaholics and the entire staff at Metal Sludge!

And if you haven’t read Jack’s 20 Questions interview yet, what the fuck are you waiting for?! Go check it out now.

 

SUPER BALLS AWARD!

Ginger

The Wildhearts’ just finished their tour with The Darkness and Ginger just wrapped up their Tour Diary with us as well. The Wildhearts’ Tour Diary also holds the record for most enteries in a Metal Sludge Tour Diary. Not only that, but Ginger didn’t hold too much back and pretty much let it all hang out, from fights with crew members, to drug taking, to bad shows, to great shows, to groupies, and everything in between. It was pretty much life on the road with The Wildhearts. So we’re giving Ginger a Super Balls Award for having the balls to tell it like it is and not sugarcoating shit! Here you go Ginger, you deserve it:

 
The Super Balls Award

Fun Fact: Ginger is the 14th individual to win a Super Balls Award! That means there are only 13 other people in the world with balls as super as his. He is also the first Englishmen to receive this honor!

Another reason for the Super Balls Award for Ginger is because of this interview he did with Mitch Lafon. We just got this sent to us yesterday and Ginger talks about us and how people didn’t want him to associate with us! The part about us is highlighted in blue.

The Wildhearts
Must Be Heard
By Mitch Lafon

The Wildhearts have been kicking around Europe and the rest of the world since the release of their first EP in April of 1992, but North America has always been that unobtainable jewel to be added to their crown. With the recent stateside release of their magnificent, Must Be Destroyed, album the band is determined to conquer these shores. On their recent blitzkrieg into Montreal supporting The Darkness, vocalist Ginger took time away from his plans of world domination to set the stage for BW&BK readers.

?I believe that everything has its time and place and I don?t think we?ve been the right band for the time (in North America),? says a pensive Ginger explaining the band?s current underground status in Canada/US. ?I don?t think we?ve ever taken it seriously enough to be the right band. However, the effect we?ve just had on North American audiences has been very positive. The tour with the Darkness went sinisterly well. We couldn?t have picked a better band to be out with,? he adds delightedly. ?Although we?ve been under achieving for a long time, we have been playing for a long time and naturally we?re very good in a live environment. Kids are used to seeing a band with just one album onstage, but we?re tearing them a new asshole every night and they just can?t believe how tight it is, how heavy it is, how loud it is and the general quality. So, a lot of kids are going ?fucking hell? and it?s that element of surprise that is winning us new friends right now,? he comments about the fans? reaction. Continuing his thoughts, ?it?s a long uphill struggle to win America, but we?re ready for the workload. It?s not going to be easy, but the fact that people are clapping at the end of every set is all good!?

?We?re really focusing our attention on America purely because of the shape of the fortune that has befallen us. We never expected all this attention and all these chances to come to America and carve out a career for ourselves,? he expands. ?We?re old enough now to not look a gift horse in the mouth. If the Darkness want to take us to America ten times with them this year ? we?re there. We?ve got absolutely nothing better to do and America is where we got all of our ideas in the first place. It?s the birthplace of rock n roll and all the great English bands have copied American bands,? an appropriate statement coming from a band that seems to get its sound from the perfect blending of Cheap Trick and Metallica.

With the band clearly focused on the vanquishing of America, talk turned briefly to the new album, Must Be Destroyed. ?Describing an album is like describing your personality,? opines Ginger. ?You can?t really describe something that?s whole existence is based on how it affects people. I personally like it and endorse it 100%. People are surprised by the energy on it and the consistency of the material. They are not used to albums (songs) that don?t peter out half way thru.? Longtime fans might be surprised by the album?s more melodic direction, but Ginger clearly puts the band?s sound into perspective, ?it seems like all power-ballads compared to some of the earlier stuff we?ve done and we were worried that people would think we?ve turned into Nelson,? and adds ?you never know what fans are going to like, but it?s making a lot of converts and that?s the whole point ? making more fans and not just appeasing the ones that you?ve got. It seems to be working slowly but surely and people seem to like the same things about the album.?

The band?s assault on North America wasn?t only done via CD and the live show; Ginger enlisted the help on the web?s best PR firm ? www.metal-sludge.com. He sent in a daily tour diary to the dismay of his entourage as he explains, ?our management and our record company have told us to stay away from that site and I?ve gotten into so much trouble since I started doing that tour diary, but I think there?s no point in lying in this business and I?m a terrible liar. I don?t want to be in this business if I have to learn to appreciate the taste of cock. I?d rather not be in this business if it meant you have to lie about shit. So, I figured I?d just tell it like it is, and obviously the readers of Sludge (being one myself) like the fact that it?s a no bullshit website. They expose idiots for being idiots, which I find quite entertaining. This business is full of shit and I ain?t gonna fucking lie for anyone. God Bless Sludge! I love how merciless they are! They?re bastards and I love?em.?

As for the future, ?you have as much a clue as I have,? begins Ginger. ?This story is being made up as it goes along. There?s talk we?ll come back to America (with The Darkness), but until it happens we?ll just keep our fingers crossed. I hope that we can tour the world with the Darkness till the end of time. We are going to follow them around like a bad tattoo and corrupt as many of their young fans as possible. There?s talk of headlining America in January (2005), but till then it?s just talk. Talk?s got the same value for me as vomit. We want to release a DVD, but getting legal clearance for the songs is proving to be virtually impossible.?

Before wrapping up Ginger has a special message for our readers, ?I would like to add to all readers of your magazine and website to please go buy our fucking album (The Wildhearts ? Must Be Destroyed) because if you don?t you?re not really helping music and you?re not bringing any sunshine into your own life and you are inviting the crap that MTV, and Much Music force down your throat. So, if you want to change things, go buy our album and if you like the way things are then don?t. People can make a change or they can listen to this drone-y whiny fucking shit for the rest of time.?

That’s great that their management and record label told him to stay away from us! Our reputation rules! But the fact that Ginger blew them off and still did a diary for us, when a lot of other people would have gone along with the ‘business’, that deserves a Super Balls Award! It just goes to show you how stupid people in the music business can be. Good to see after all these years people still get stressed out about us.

So congratulations to Ginger for having Super English Balls and we look forward to the next edition of The Wildhearts’ Tour Diary!

I wanna sludge where the people sludge,

Metal Sludge