Having been a fan of metal titans Killswitch Engage for a few years now, it’s always exciting when they come to town on one of their many tours. It’s even more exciting when I get a chance to sit down and do an interview. I was set to do my interview with bassist Mike D’Antonio but things changed when as we were walking onto the bus, he was walking out.  

Apparently, I didn’t get the memo that I was to interview singer Howard Jones instead. I had no problem with that at all. Having met Howard before, I knew this should a great interview. Since we sat down and covered alot of ground, we have broken up the interview into 2 parts. In this first part, we talk about their current tourmates Lamb of God’s unfortunate tour bus woes, Adam D’s keen, yet creepy ears, in the studio and their fans' overwhelming displays of loyalty to the band.

So how’s the tour going?  

It’s going well. Except for some bad weather here and there and for Lamb of God’s tourbus. They had a truck hit their bus a couple of nights ago. No one got hurt thankfully but they had to switch buses.

I hear that something like that always happens on the road to them regarding their transportation.  

Well yeah, it’s Lamb of God. (laughs) They are the best band with the worst black cloud.  

He tells me of a special gift that current tourmates Lamb of God gave them at the end of one of their sets on this tour. Lamb of God recently toured with Heaven & Hell (Black Sabbath with Ronnie James Dio on vocals) earlier this year and delivered something very memorable since KSE recently recorded a cover of Dio's classic "Holy Diver".

What gift did they bring you onstage?   

The guys from Lamb of God gave us a framed picture of Ronnie James Dio holding a sign saying “Hey Killswitch, where are my royalties?” After I stopped laughing, after 5 minutes, we were able to finish out set. I mean, we had met Dio before and he had heard the song and loved it. He definitely gave us the horns for sure”.  I then ask about Jones’ role as not only metal frontman but also his moonlighting as a band manager as well.  

Are you still managing bands now? 

I still am but not doing it as much because we’re so active with our band now. You go overseas and come back with a several thousand dollar phone bill because your working so much. 

Who is on your roster now and are you still working with August Burns Red?  

Not anymore. They are such an active band so keeping up with them when I’m on the road is hard. I mean, when we took a long break last year, it was easy to work with them. Once we got on the road, I could not keep up since we’ve been going nonstop for over a year now. I’m only working with a couple bands, Twelve Tribes and Mikoto. I also manage for record producer Zeuss.