Alabama statue dedication a shining event

Immortalized recently by the Country Music Hall of Fame, supergroup Alabama now stands forever in its hometown.
In one of the most unique and touching ceremonies in recent years in Fort Payne, Randy Owen, Teddy Gentry, Jeff Cook and Mark Herndon all spoke and were all touched when four bronze statues were unveiled at Fort Payne City Park.
The honor, which was long overdue for the group that helped make Fort Payne famous and still calls Lookout Mountain home, brought together public officials, DeKalb County citizens and people from around the country. More than 1,500 attended the event.
We want to thank Fort Payne Mayor Bill Jordan, Fort Payne City Council President Johnny Eberthart and Fort Payne councilmen Walter Watson, Richard Pridmore and Andrew Hairston for conceiving the plan and pushing it forward. Certainly, it’s not easy task to develop such a tribute, and the council overcome obstacle after obstacle with steady progress.
The statues and display serve as a wonderful centerpiece for the newly remodeled City Park, which has added so much beauty and so much more pride to our city.
But, there are others who deserve great credit for Saturday’s wonderful ceremony.
The Fort Payne Parks and Recreation Department, headed by Greg Conkle, did another outstanding job. From helping to get everything prepared for the event to serving hundreds of hot dogs and soft drinks in the park after the dedication, the department showed the best of what government can do.
Also, the Fort Payne Street Department, led by Stanley Byrd, have worked tirelessly during the renovations of the park and should be nothing but proud of their efforts. We certainly are.
The Fort Payne Police Department and many others were also on hand to keep things moving smoothly. Their efforts allowed those there to honor the boys in the band to leisurely enjoy the day and soak in the ceremony.
Saturday was another great day for the group Alabama, and an even better one for our city. It was a day well done.

Robin Fink Career and Profile

Profile :

Robin Finck was born on November 7, 1971, he is an American guitarist, currently the lead guitarist for Nine Inch Nails and former lead guitarist of Guns N' Roses. In April 2008, it was announced via nin.com that Finck would be rejoining Nine Inch Nails. Finck is one of only a few artists who has played in two different bands listed on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock", Nine Inch Nails.

Career :
Finck grew up in Marietta, Georgia and like some young teenagers played with several unsigned bands; in his case, primarily in the Atlanta area, with acts such as Prowess, Bat Your Lashes, and Sik Dik (bandmates of which included Steve "Holiday" Childress and Michael Allen, currently of The Goodies and Greg Thum), and Impotent Sea Snakes.

He joined Nine Inch Nails as part of their touring band in 1994-95 for their Self-Destruct and Further Down the Spiral tours. Finck appeared with Nine Inch Nails at Woodstock '94, and saw his first official release with them, the Closure video, released in 1997. Once the tour was completed, he took a job playing for the circus troupe Cirque du Soleil in the original tour of Quidam. In 1997, he was recruited by Guns N' Roses to replace Slash, who had just quit the band at the end of the previous year, and worked on their recently released album Chinese Democracy, signing a two-year contract. When the two years were up, the album had not been completed, however, one single was released; Oh My God, featured on the End of Days Soundtrack.

Finck rejoined Nine Inch Nails as the band embarked on their Fragility v1.0 and Fragility v2.0 tours. These tours saw the release of another live album/DVD, And All That Could Have Been, Finck's second release with them.

Shortly after the tour ended in late 2000, he returned to Guns N' Roses and toured with them in Brazil, Asia, Europe and North America during 2001-2002.
In the summer of 2006, Guns N' Roses toured Europe playing in front of over 700,000 people.[5] They finished up by touring North America for the remainder of the year. The following year, Guns N' Roses toured in Mexico, Australia and Japan.

On April 4th 2008, it was announced at nin.com that Finck would be rejoining Nine Inch Nails, most likely for touring purposes, and possibly for future records. Finck played most if not all guitars on the Nine Inch Nails album The Slip

When Guns N' Roses' long awaited album Chinese Democracy was released in November 2008, GNR were unable to announce future plans as Finck was touring with NIN at the time. Finck has co-writing credits on "Better" which was later released as a single. Finck also played on every track and has 6 Guitar solos on the album.

Robin Finck mainly uses Gibson Les Paul guitars with variations in woods and pickups between them, and has also started playing a Jerry Jones Baritone and a Fender Jazzmaster guitar, in addition to the Les Pauls since re-joining Nine Inch Nails. He also uses his wah pedal to get unusual sounds for solos, and has been known to shove the body of the guitar up against the speakers of his amplifiers for even more unusual sounds. In Nine Inch Nails, he also plays lap steel guitar with effects pedals mounted to the body (for further sound manipulation purposes) for the songs off of Year Zero (album) with a pick or e-bow, and can play ukulele and mandolin, as revealed on the Lights in the Sky tour. Finck has also been known to collaborate with the rest of Nine Inch Nails to change certain parts and arrangements of the songs for the live performance aspect. Live performances of songs such as "The Wretched" and "In This Twilight" feature this influence, with parts and arrangements often being drastically changed.

Read more in wikipedia

Kirk Hammett

Date of Birth
18 November 1962, San Francisco, California, USA

Birth Name
Kirk Lee Hammett

Nickname
The Ripper
Kirk Hampster

Height
5' 8" (1.73 m)

Mini Biography

Born on November 18, 1962 to a Fillipino mother and merchant seaman father. Learned guitar at age 15. Joined Metallica to replace Dave Mustaine in 1982. Has won several Grammys with Metallica and participated in their class action law suit against Napster.
IMDb Mini Biography By: David

Spouse
Lani Hammett (31 January 1998 - present) 2 children
Rebecca Hammett (3 December 1987 - 1991) (divorced)

Trade Mark

Heavy guitar solos

Curly hair

ESP Kirk Hammett guitar

Trivia

Took guitar lessons from Joe Satriani.

Has his birth date and place tattooed on his stomach

Vegetarian

Avid surfer

Collects horror film memorabilia

Has one dog, Darla

Known for his custom made guitars with horror film graphics

In a 1998 issue of Guitar Legends: The Top 100 Guitar solos, Kirk is credited with 3 songs: "One" (No. 7), "Fade To Black (No. 24), and "Master of Puppets" (No. 51).

Previous band before Metallica was the trash metal band Exodus.

His musical influences are Led Zeppelin, UFO and Jimi Hendrix.

Replaced Dave Mustaine as permanent guitarist for Metallica in 1983.

In November 6, 1998 he suffered from appendicitis when Metallica was on tour in England. He went to a London hospital, recovered, and couple of weeks later flew back to San Francisco.

Son Angel Ray Keala, born October 6, 2006.

Officially endorsed by ESP Guitars (a Japanese company). He has several signature ESP guitar models (mostly identified by "KH" letters) and he has worked with the company since the late 80s.

Son, Vincenzo Kainalu was born on June 28, 2008.

His mother is Filipino and his father is Irish.

Personal Quotes

"A life lived unexplored is a life not worth living."

"We were very, very frightened. I had to sit down and take stock of my life and see if I had a life outside the band, because I was questioning if there was even a future for Metallica. That was a scary thought; when you've been in a band for as long as we have, you take for granted that it's always going to be there." [recalling the uncertainty of Metallica's future, after Jason Newsted left the band and James Hetfield entered rehab]

Source : Imdb.com