Monthly Archives: July 2025

A to Z of Making It, Influenced, Music, Unsung Heroes

Jason Flom: The Relentless A&R Rebel Who Shaped the Soundtrack of a Generation

From The Lefsetz podcast.

Jason Flom didn’t just stumble into the music business. he was basically dared into it. His dad, legendary lawyer Joe Flom (yeah, that Joe Flom, the one Malcolm Gladwell wrote a whole damn chapter about in “Outliers”), once told him he had a deal: become a rock star or go to school. Jason was ready to pick the guitar. His mom was ready to murder someone. Guess who won?

So, instead of ending up in a dive bar strumming power chords for PBR money, Flom got shoved into Atlantic Records thanks to some family favors. Sounds easy, right? It wasn’t. Because once you’re in the building, you still have to prove you’re not a poser.

Flom watched the A&R guys and thought, “I can suck less than these dudes with 30% effort.”

So he put in actual effort. Found “Zebra”, a band that nobody at Atlantic gave a crap about, but the people loved. Flom ignored the gatekeepers and went straight to the public. And guess what? The public was right. “Zebra” exploded, Flom got promoted, and boom, the kid was in the game.

Flom tells a story about the making of the album.

Doug Morris had cold feet to fund the “Zebra” album. For it to go ahead, Flom got Jack Douglas to agree to produce. However, Douglas was a mess at the time and was not the same Douglas who did the “Aerosmith” records. They had the Record Plant booked and the band was staying there as well, with Douglas booking studio time on Tuesday and arriving Thursday, meanwhile the bills from the Record Plant to Atlantic are piling up.

The budget for the album was a $130K with Douglas getting $55K of that. Morris was not happy as the record was over budget and no tracks had been delivered. The record was then at $230K spent and it was finally at mixing. Douglas then started to hear whale noises in the album tracks. No one else could hear the noises except Douglas. The manager of the Record Plant came into the studio and fired Douglas from the record as Atlantic Records had given him the news how they had pulled the financing for the album. Douglas goes “give me 10 more minutes to finish the album”. The manager goes “you have 10 minutes”. Douglas then barricaded the door so no one could come in and the record got finished. The record came out and it exploded out of the gate.

Then came “Twisted Sister”. They looked ridiculous. Nobody wanted them. Industry snobs laughed. Flom didn’t. He saw 3,000 kids packed into a venue on a Wednesday night screaming every lyric. He brought it to the bosses, and Doug Morris basically told him if he mentioned “Twisted Sister” one more time, he’d be booted. So Flom did what any stubborn SOB would do, he went around him, got them signed anyway, and helped launch one of the most iconic metal acts of the ’80s.

But success doesn’t mean immunity. Flom eventually got caught in the cocaine-fueled dumpster fire that was the ’80s music scene and ended up in rehab. And yet, even in the fog of recovery, the dude came back swinging, signing “Savatage”, “Ratt”, “White Lion”, “Skid Row” and more.

Fast forward: Flom starts Lava Records in 1995. He fakes it ’til he makes it, literally asking around how to run a label while running the label. He signs “Matchbox Twenty” after seeing them bomb a live show but spotting something special in Rob Thomas. He bets on “Kid Rock” when everyone else thought the guy was a joke. No one at MTV wanted to touch him… until they did — and then “Kid Rock” blew the roof off the damn VMAs with “Aerosmith” and “Run-DMC”.

He picked up “Katy Perry” when Columbia was about to drop her. Signed “Lorde” from a SoundCloud link when she had 200 plays and a Facebook page. Oh, and about “Thirty Seconds to Mars”? Everyone told him it was a Jared Leto vanity project. But when he saw Leto turn down a Clint Eastwood film to stay on tour, Flom thought, “That’s more rock and roll than anything I’ve seen in years.”

Every time someone said no, Flom found a way to make it a hell yes. He wasn’t trying to be the tastemaker, he let the fans decide what was great and then fought like hell to bring that to the masses.

Along the way, he helped launch “Hootie & The Blowfish”, “Jewel”, “Simple Plan”, “The Corrs”, “The Blue Man Group”, “Black Veil Brides”, “Greta Van Fleet”, the list reads like a damn Spotify nostalgia playlist.

In short: Jason Flom didn’t just sign bands, he bet on outcasts, longshots, weirdos, and artists with heart. And yeah, he fumbled, got knocked down, got high (a lot), got sober, and kept swinging. The guy helped shape the soundtrack of millions of people’s lives not by chasing trends but by giving a fuck about what actually mattered passion, authenticity, and good fucking music.

Not bad for a dude who was almost a failed wannabe rock star, right?

His mum, who had no degree or background in education, started a school called “The Gateway School”so her son could go to school. He now has a Ph.D. in Psychometrics, the Psychology of Statistics. The Gateway School is now known as the best school for children with difficulties. Try to do what you want to do and try to make the world a better place.

Twisted Sister story.

Randy from Zebra said to Flom that Twisted Sister is the greatest live band ever. So Flom goes to watch them. Twisted Sister is headlining, and Zebra is opening for them. Flom found this odd as Zebra had a record deal and Twisted Sister didn’t. 3000 kids on a Wednesday night for $6 a head.

He was sold as Doug told him that his opinion is secondary compared to the public’s opinion. He walked into Doug’s office the next day and told him he found the next big act. Morris wasn’t interested because TS was considered a joke in the music business. Flom went back to Morris’s office and every time he did, he was told to get out of the office. The debut album “Under The Blade” on Secret was still selling and they were one of the best attended live acts.

At a A&R meeting designed to get the label back in the Top 10 charts as they had a lean year, Morris even mentioned to Flom that if he mentions the name Twisted Sister again, he will never work for Atlantic again. Shortly after that, Flom saw Phil Carson, who was the head of the English division of Atlantic Records and gave him a wealth of material he had amassed on the band, plus a tape of their Secret album. Carson at that point had been in the game for a while, signing acts like AC/DC and Yes amongst other acts. Carson watched TS perform live and signed them.

As for the folder that Flom gave him, it went straight in the bin as Carson had no idea who this young punk was. But synchronicity and coincidence were in play here as TS was opening for an act that Carson went to watch. Morris could have vetoed the whole project, but he still released “You Can’t Stop Rock N Roll” as a favor to Carson, however there was no marketing budget, however Flom was doing a bit of marketing on the side for the band. The record was selling on fumes as Flom puts it.

Morris then called Flom later to tell him he was right and that Atlantic would make a big thing out of this band. Morris had the vision to use Tom Werman to get Marty Callner to direct the videos. I think Dee had a different version here, however it doesn’t really matter in the end, because the album “Stay Hungry” and the clips, “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and “I Wanna Rock” are iconic.

Flom couldn’t understand why they didn’t want to use Werman again for the next record “Come Out And Play” and not long after that it broke up. Dee goes into it in detail in his book and Mark The Animal Mendoza has mentioned his hatred of Werman in various interviews.

Flom at this stage was a victim of the excess of the times and entered rehab. But before he entered rehab, he signed Savatage.

Flom was also involved in getting Ratt to sign to Atlantic Records in 1983 with “Out Of The Cellar” being the first release on Atlantic for them and also White Lion in 1987 for the “Pride” album however they are not mentioned during the podcast.

Once he got out of rehab, he had some projects that didn’t do much and then he signed Skid Row.

An agent brought him Stone Temple Pilots and he signed them. Other acts included Hootie And The Blowfish and Jewel. He told a story of watching Jewel play at a coffee shop with 5 people watching and the coffee machine making cappuccinos and then a few months later, he was back there with 300 people watching and everyone being mesmerized by her.

In 1995, it all evolved into Lava Records, his own label after he turned down an opportunity to resurrect Atco Records. Flom reckons he was set up to fail. He was asking for advice, faking it until he made it.

He had people out there that were brining him good bands. A rep brought him a band called Tabatha’s Secret and he was given four songs. Flom wasn’t convinced. The rep said to listen to 3am again, and again Flom wasn’t convinced. So he want to watch em, and they were terrible, not even in tune and no one was even paying attention to em, but he felt there was something special about Rob Thomas so he signed them. Hollywood Records offered to triple the offer from Lava, however Thomas stayed to Flom. And the debut Matchbox Twenty album went crazy.

Flom and Thomas debated if the first single should be “Real World” or “Long Day”. They settled on “Long Day” and on the strength of that single, the album moved 100K units. Then a radio station in a different city started to play “Push” and the album started to sell like crazy in that city. Flom went back to the band and said this is your next single and the band said no, they wanted “Real World”, but Flom remembered the words of Doug Morris, “what we think is good is nothing compared to what the public thinks”.

And another rep brought him Kid Rock. Kid Rock had three albums before this and all three failed. He was seen as damaged goods. Flom watched him live and they had a meet. Kid Rock said he will deliver two songs to him. Upon hearing the songs, Flom called Kid Rock and said to him, what do you want, Kid Rock said I want $300K sign on and so many percentage points on royalties. Flom said done.

The soundtrack of a lot of people’s lives was possible because of Jasom Flom.

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A to Z of Making It, Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Music, My Stories

The Case For Ozzmosis

I have an issue of Metal Edge from October 1995.

There is a feature with the headline “Ozzy Osbourne’s Cyber Diary – Life In The Studio”. It goes something like this;

February 28, 1995 – Recording in Paris, France with Zakk Wylde on guitar, Geezer Butler on bass, Deen Castronovo on drums and Michael Beinhorn producing.

March 2, 1995 – “Tomorrow”, “See You On The Other Side” and “Old LA Tonight” have all the rhythms and drums done.

March 3, 1995 – “The Whole Worlds Falling Down” and “Can’t Get Up” are added to the list.

March 6, 1995 – “Fallin’ Up”, “I Just Want You”, “Denial”, “Rasputin” and “Mothers Crying” are added to the list.

March 13, 1995 – “My Little Man” and “Back On Earth” have been tracked. After a Saturday night bender, Zakk was locked out of his room and he punched a hole through the door. The hotel has refused to fix it until Zakk leaves. 4 days later, the hotel declares bankruptcy.

March 20, 1995 – All tracking is complete with the songs “Perry Mason”, “Ghost Behind My Eyes”, “Thunder Underground” and “My Jekyll Doesn’t Hide” being the last and the project moves to New York.

March 31, 1995 – Zakk lays down solos for “Back On Earth”.

April 3, 1995 – Beinhorn makes Ozzy sing “See You On The Other Side” 85 times, before he was happy with one take.

April 6, 1995 – Zakk had finished all guitar parts for the songs and solos for 7 songs. New lyrics are written for “Back On Earth”.

April 10, 1995 – The album title of “Ozzmosis” is finally decided.

April 14, 1995 – Lead vocals are finished for “Tomorrow”, “See You On The Other Side”, “I Just Want You”, “Back On Earth” and “Ghost Behind My Eyes”.

April 17, 1995 – They are working on a new song called “Thunder Underground”, written by Geezer and Zakk before they started the backing tracks in Paris.

April 18, 1995 – Ozzy lays down more vocals for “Ghost Behind My Eyes”.

April 19, 1995 – Ozzy lays down vocals for “Denial”. It takes 7 hours to get the take that Beinhorn is happy with.

April 20, 1995 – Ozzy’s throat is inflamed and is asked by the Doctor to get some rest and not sing for a few weeks.

April 28,1995 – Beinhorn gets the band to come back in and redo “Old LA Tonight” and “Back On Earth” as he wasn’t happy with how they turned out earlier. They also redo “The Whole Worlds Falling Down”.

May 2, 1995 – Zakk is laying down more guitar solos and Rick Wakeman is hired to come out in a few weeks to play keyboards.

May 5, 1995 – Zakk finishes up all of his guitar parts.

May 15, 1995 – Rick Wakeman goes from the airport to the studio and he has two days to do all of his parts.

May 17, 1995 – Ozzy is singing “Thunder Underground”.

May 18, 1995 – Ozzy finishes the vocals for “My Jekyll Can’t Hyde”.

May 19, 1995 – Beinhorn made Ozzy sing another vocal for “See You On The Other Side”.

The album recording process is done. The mixing process is next. The final track listing is also decided and “Back On Earth” at this point in time was part of the album’s 11 tracks.

But.

The story of the album and how it came to be goes back even further.

Let’s rewind.

It’s late 1992. Ozzy Osbourne just wrapped his so-called “No More Tours” farewell run. Diagnosed, wrongly, with multiple sclerosis, he tells the world he’s retiring. Done. Finished. Hanging up the mic.

Yeah, right.

Turns out, retirement sucks. Especially when madness is your brand.

Between 1992 and 1995, Ozzy quietly laid the groundwork for what would become “Ozzmosis”. It wasn’t a straight line. It was messy. Chaotic. Weirdly brilliant. He demoed dozens of tracks with a rotating cast of rock royalty. Most of it never officially saw daylight.

Early sessions in a London studio produced what fans now call the “Ozzmosis Demos”, a bootleg CD loaded with unreleased cuts:

1. Feels So Good to Be Bad
2. Denial
3. Too Far Gone
4. Ghost Behind My Eyes
5. Frustrated Yes I’m Hated
6. Dream for Tomorrow
7. Say Yeah Yeah
8. Oh No the Bitch Won’t Go
9. My New Rock and Roll
10. Perry Mason
11. Old L.A. Tonight
12. See You on the Other Side

Five of these tracks, “Perry Mason,” “Old L.A. Tonight,” “Denial,” “Ghost Behind My Eyes,” and “See You on the Other Side”, made it to the official album. The rest? Still lurking in the shadows.

Ozzy collaborated at first with Zakk Wylde. The songs “Perry Mason”, “See You On The Other Side, “Tomorrow”, “Aimee”, “Living With The Enemy” and “Old LA Tonight” are products of these sessions. 

Then came Steve Dudas, Mark Hudson, and even Lemmy Kilmister, who probably wrote more than he ever got credit for.

“Denial” and “Ghost Behind My Eyes” = Ozzy, Hudson, Dudas.

“Feels So Good to Be Bad” = Bluesy glam rock, think T-Rex. Writer unknown.

“Frustrated Yes I’m Hated” = Sabbath-ish, standard E tuning.

“Dream for Tomorrow” = Beatles vibes.

“Oh No the Bitch Won’t Go” = Beach Boys meets Ozzy in a bar fight.

“My New Rock and Roll” = Pure psych trip.

“Say Yeah Yeah” = Tries to be dark, ends up karaoke catchy.

Who wrote what? Hard to say. Fans point fingers at Hudson and Dudas. Dudas likely played guitar, too.

Among the many ghosts of the “Ozzmosis” era, a handful of tracks remain shrouded in mystery: “Fallin’ Up,” “Can’t Get Up,” “Rasputin,” and “Mother’s Crying”.

Whispers in fan circles credit Steve Dudas and Mark Hudson as the writers. But here’s where it gets weird, rumor has it these songs were part of a bigger vision: a full-blown theatrical rock opera called “Rasputin”.

Yep. Ozzy. On stage. In a play.

But the curtains never rose. The project was quietly killed, and instead, “Ozzfest” was born, a louder, messier, more Ozzy version of theater.

The songs?

Shelved. Forgotten. Still sitting in a vault somewhere, waiting for their moment… or maybe waiting to be lost forever.

Producers came and went, Duane Baron and John Purdell started it off, then got replaced by Michael Wagener, who got bumped by Michael Beinhorn. It was a revolving door of creative chaos.

Then came “The Lost Vai” Album, cue mythological music.

Steve Vai came onboard for a full-blown project called “X-Ray”. Only one track, “My Little Man,” survived (Lemmy wrote the lyrics, uncredited).

According to Bob Daisley in his book:

“It wasn’t working. Instead of just being honest with Vai, Sharon told him Sony pulled the plug. Total BS. It was just a move to ditch him quietly. We all saw through it.”

Vai was out. Zakk was back. Daisley got ghosted. Geezer Butler showed up. Business as usual.

Then came the outside hires:

Jack Blades & Tommy Shaw wrote “Voodoo Dancer” and “The Whole World’s Falling Down”.

Taylor Rhodes and Richard Supa wrote “Back On Earth”.

Jim Vallance wrote “Walk on Water,” and “I Just Want You.

Geezer & Zakk wrote “Thunder Underground” and “My Jekyll Doesn’t Hide”.

By early ’95, Ozzy’s misdiagnosis was corrected. He was sober. Still dark, but sharp. Creative. Driven. He wasn’t chasing success, he was clawing back himself.

So when you hear Ozzmosis, remember this:

It’s not just an album.

It’s a resurrection.

Built from fragments.

Forged in chaos.

Sung by a man who couldn’t stop, even when he tried.

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Influenced, Music

Coheed and Cambria – Vaxis III: The Father of Make Believe

Released March 14, 2025.

The third act of the Vaxis saga and Coheed’s eleventh album, “The Father of Make Believe” dives deeper into “The Amory Wars” mythos, but this time, the most intense battles might be internal. Beneath the sci-fi architecture lies a deeply human narrative: loss, identity, illusion, and the relationships that either save us or undo us.

“Yesterday’s Lost”

The album opens with a whisper of heartbreak:

“But should you go before me, I’ll be right behind you.”

It’s not just romance, it’s loyalty shadowed by death. In the narrative, this is Nostrand’s vow to Nia, but it doubles as Claudio’s meditation on mortality and family. A quiet promise that love doesn’t end with life.

“Goodbye, Sunshine”

“I won’t stay mad; we played our parts.”

This is closure without bitterness. A eulogy for what once was, not clung to, not blamed, just released. The band turns loss into liberation.

“Searching for Tomorrow”

“You dance between the true and false / To salvage something, but you learn that you lost it all.”

Musically reminiscent of “In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth”, this track explores the illusions we create to survive, until reality breaks through. It’s the sound of waking up too late, discovering solitude was always your only constant.

“The Father of Make Believe”

A masterclass in accessible prog, complex in arrangement, yet melodically inviting.

“I’m the vision that you choose to see… I’m the Father of Make Believe.”

Here, myth and memory blur. The titular Father isn’t a man, he’s an archetype, shaped by need. A projection born from longing, trauma, or manipulation.

He could be Vaxis’s absent savior, a stand-in for authority, or a coping mechanism. He isn’t real, but he’s believed in. That’s what gives him power.

“Meri of Mercy”

A love song in elegy’s clothing.

“When all goes dark / And I can’t see / All my memories lost / I’ll know you’re always with me.”

Meri may be Vaxis’s last tether to clarity, a symbol of what’s worth holding onto when identity disintegrates. This track reclaims connection as sacred in a world built on illusion.

“Blind Side Sonny”

Pop-rock melodies meet gritty distortion, a wolf in candy coating.

This track channels the fury through mob-chant catharsis. Not about justice. About revenge.

“Play the Poet”

“Different language, the words you can’t seem to say…”

This song captures the tragedy of miscommunication, the loop of trying, failing, and eventually giving up.

The poet becomes a performer yelling into a void.

Within the Vaxis story, it may reflect Vaxis losing someone to ideology or despair.

Words fail. The silence wins.

“One Last Miracle”

“A fortune sold on television / Where our truth’s coming from, so damaged beyond recognition.”

A searing critique of media, faith, and false salvation. Hope has been commodified. Truth is no longer broken, it’s unrecognizable. The line between belief and delusion collapses. Still, people keep buying miracles.

“Corner My Confidence”

“You stole the sun / Caught in the flare, we were amateurs…”

This one aches with the pain of failed revolution or broken love. The speaker doesn’t give up, they corner their confidence.

This could be the turning point for Vaxis: forging strength from scars and aligning with those who still believe.

A quiet rebellion begins.

“Someone Who Can”

A shimmering, nostalgic feel, Don Henley vibes via post-apocalyptic heartbreak.

“When the lines of the road vanish in your tracks…”

Abandonment is no longer dramatic, it’s quiet, total. And yet, out of that emptiness comes a demand: for light, for love, for fire. This is rebirth through ruin.

“The Continuum I: Welcome to Forever, Mr. Nobody”

“I plead / Is it so hard to see / A better version of me?”

Shame and stagnation tighten like a noose. The protagonist isn’t begging for forgiveness, just to be seen as more than their past.

In the Vaxis arc, this may be the psychological low point: identity in crisis, hope a fading memory.

“The Continuum II: The Flood”

“Where I once loved / Now pumps cold blood…”

This is post-emotion. Where once was fire, now there’s frost. The flood has wiped the slate, or tried to. A survival mechanism turned into exile from feeling.

“The Continuum III: Tethered Together”

“We’ll all sing together / Tethered forever…”

The emotional payoff. After trauma and betrayal, comes harmony, not as fantasy, but as chosen solidarity. This could be the rebel choir. The fractured finally uniting. It’s the album’s true heartbeat.

“The Continuum IV: So It Goes”

“Please, somebody open this lock / My mind is breaking apart…”

The final collapse, or the final confession. The speaker begs for release from the cage of their own mind. Whether this is Vaxis or someone else, it’s a moment where the veil between internal and external horror is paper-thin.

We’re left not with closure, but a question:

Can the light escape the dark?

“Vaxis III” is more than a concept album. It’s a study in duality, illusion vs reality, connection vs fracture, myth vs memory. And while it expands the “Amory Wars” universe, it also holds a mirror to our own: asking how we survive when the truths we built our lives on collapse.

It’s not just a story, it’s a reckoning.

P.S.

I initially held off on writing this review, hoping to dive deeper once the deluxe edition arrived, particularly to expand on the narrative elements through the included story materials. But after several delays, I decided the album itself deserved its own reflection. The review is, shaped by the lyrics, the music, and the emotional arc they deliver to me on their own terms.

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