The new WBC heavyweight champion is Deontay Wilder of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, a charismatic Olympic bronze medalist with the kind of firepower in his right hand and gift of gab to perhaps restore the heavies to mainstream relevancy.
Judas Priest Lead singer Rob Halford was the first mainstream heavy metal star to come out.
The current standard has come under heavy fire from mainstream economists, who say it makes virtually all government pension benefits look less costly than they really are.
To the contemporary-music world, the regular concerts of the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Tanglewood Festival, with their heavy concentration on mainstream repertory, are largely a nonevent.
As far as the music of that scene went,the slick, canned sounds of mainstream heavy metal didn't appeal to me.
One single from the new album, "Sick of It," has been getting heavy airplay on mainstream rock stations and has climbed Billboard's Active Rock airplay chart to No. 12. Another Skillet single, "American Noise," is steadily moving up the Christian Songs chart.
Also how it reconciles with some other showroom features (like the heavy push on mainstream TV) is anyone's guess.
Mustaine wanted to write socially conscious lyrics, unlike mainstream heavy metal bands who sang about "hedonistic pleasures".
"I think it's always a struggle to tackle heavy stuff in mainstream films," he told me.
In its favor, Rock in Rio has a staggering track record — 7 million tickets sold since 1985 at festivals in Brazil, Portugal and Spain; $23 million contributed to social and environmental causes; substantial economic boosts to the cities — and a lineup heavy on popular mainstream acts.
