Episode 21 - Eddie Trunk

We’re very excited to bring you this week’s episode. Today,we give you our recent conversation with Eddie Trunk. Mostly known from ThatMetal Show on VH1 Classic, Eddie has a rich rock and metal history that wedelve into in this hour-plus in-depth discussion.

We venture back to Eddie’s teen years when he was introducedto the radio industry via a college station that taught radio basics to highschool students. That led to his employment at a record store located acrossthe street from a local rock and roll radio station in New Jersey. After a runof turning the radio station employees on to a number of rock and metal bandsthat they were ignoring, Trunk decided to take matters into his own hands andproduced a deejay demo tape through a friends pirate radio station. The tapewas good enough to earn him an internship at WDHA and later, his own show.

While earning his stripes in rock radio, Trunk met JonZazula, then a local record shop owner. Zazula was starting up his own recordlabel and implored Trunk to give his struggling bands some exposure. With that,Eddie Trunk became one of the first major market deejays to spin tracks bybands such as Anthrax and Metallica. Trunk soon took on a job with Zazula, nowknown as Jonny Z, at Megaforce Records where he ascended to Vice President atthe age of 25.

While at Megaforce, Trunk helped kickstart the careers ofsuch bands as Kings X, Overkill, and Manowar. But it was a dream come true as aKISS fan to help get Ace Frehley back into the music world with the formationof Frehley’s Comet. Trunk quickly bonded with the guitar legend and theirfriendship remains strong to this day. In this discussion you’ll hear Eddie’smemories of that time working with Ace and his thoughts on Ace’s recentsobriety.

After a few years at Megaforce, Trunk had a brief stint inmusic management and continued to build his radio resume in the New York area;working at some of the bigger rock stations as well as being picked up forsyndication in other markets.

In 2001, Eddie began his long-term relationship with VH1Classic; becoming the featured male host for special programming as well asinterviewing many rock legends on the ‘Hanging With’ series.

Also in 2001, Trunk organized the New York Steel Concert;benefiting the victim’s families of 9/11 with a huge set by Ace Frehley,Overkill, Anthrax, Sebastian Bach, and a reunited Twisted Sister. The eventraised hundreds of thousands of dollars and is considered by Trunk to be hismost proud accomplishment in music.

Eddie Trunk is currently the host of VH1 Classic’s ThatMetal Show; considered to be the leading talk show for all things hard rock andheavy metal. The new season will begin taping in March 2012.

Trunk also recently released his book ‘Eddie Trunk’sEssential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal’ and has appeared at book signingsrecently. The book is available wherever books are sold and personally signedcopies are available at www.EddieTrunk.com.

Updates from Eddie Trunk are also available via his twitterpage @EddieTrunk.

We want to thank Eddie again for coming on our show and hopethat you enjoy listening to us discuss his history in the hard rock and heavymetal universe. Rock on!