Dead Sara's 'Dream Come True': Touring With Muse

Chris Null, Siouxsie Medley, Emily Armstrong and Sean Friday of Dead Sara in West Hollywood

When Rolling Stone visited with Dead Sara frontwoman Emily Armstrong at her home in March, the L.A. band was getting set for their first national tour. Eight months later they've been part of the Warped tour, shared stages with Bush and the Offspring and now get ready for their biggest appearance yet – opening for Muse on the band's arena tour.

It's a gig any young band would kill for. So how did Dead Sara land one of the prime spots? As Armstrong tells it, Muse drummer Dominic Howard was talking to a radio station about moving to L.A. "He was saying it's really cool that Rage Against the Machine still plays on modern radio all the time, and there's also this band called Dead Sara," Armstrong says. "He said, 'There's this huge riff and this girl is screaming her bloody head off – it's quite good.' So after we heard that it was like, 'Hey, this is our in.'"

For the band, being mentioned in the same interview as Rage Against the Machine provides a nice bit of symmetry. It was when Muse played with Rage at the L.A. Coliseum as part of L.A. Rising in 2011 that Dead Sara developed dreams of one day opening for the Brits.

Watching that show was when "I fell in love with Muse," says Armstrong. "I can't even describe it – their live show was fucking unreal. I remember I said, 'If we were to ever go on tour with [Muse], we would learn so much.' Their musicianship is so good. That in itself, I'd be like a kid in a candy store."

While Dead Sara doesn't meet up with Muse until February, Armstrong is aware what kind of attention that kind of affiliation can bring. "Muse has done a lot for us," she says.

First her band plan to release "We Are What You Say" as a follow-up single to "Weatherman," which earned them plenty of airplay in selected markets. This time around, they want a track Armstrong feels is more representative of the whole album. "'Weatherman' is a real hard rock song, and that's less than half the record, the hard rock," she says. "I think ['We Are What You Say'] is a good middle ground for a taste of the record."

The band hopes to use the tour as a springboard for their own headlining dates in small clubs. "That'd be huge for us," says Armstrong. "Having been around almost four times, we think we've worked hard enough to now go through on our own right after Muse."

Touring as an opening act has led to a lot of memorable moments in 2012 for Armstrong, including performing with Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krieger of the Doors at the kickoff party for the Sunset Strip Music Festival and dueting with the Offspring.

"I got up and sang with the Offspring every night," she says. "It went over really well, and those are just moments where you're like, 'Wow, when I was a teenager this is a dream fucking come true.' With Bush, with Offspring, I'm reliving my childhood, my tween years the best way I could."

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Book Excerpt: Ringo Starr Realizes a Dream With His 1970 Country Album

Ringo Starr had always loved country and western music. Back in 1959, he had joined an English group called The Raving Texans. He took the stage name Ringo not only because of the rings he wore, but also in honor of "Johnny Ringo," a real life cowboy involved in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

When the Beatles and Rolling Stones barnstormed across America in 1964 and 1965, many parts of the US only had country radio stations. The exposure deepened the bands' affection for the genre.

Coincidentally, at the end of 1964, Bonanza star Lorne Greene released an album called Welcome to the Ponderosa with a song about the gunfighter Johnny Ringo on it. Since it was during the height of Beatlemania, the label released it as a single. The song shot to number one by December, even though it had nothing to do with Richard Starkey. It must have been a hilarious capper to one of the best years of Starr's life to hear cowboys atmospherically harmonizing "Ring-go" to a two-step beat on the radio everywhere he went.

Starr went on to cover country artist Buck Owens' "Act Naturally" on the Help! album, co-wrote with Lennon-McCartney (supposedly) the country-inflected "What Goes On" on Rubber Soul, and wrote the country "Don't Pass Me By" on the White Album.

Thus when Starr met Nashville guitarist Pete Drake in 1970 while working on George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, it was natural for the two to share a rapport. When Starr broached the idea of doing a country album, Drake replied everyone in Nashville would love to participate. Drake did hundreds of sessions a year and assured Starr they could complete the project in two days. With Starr's commitment, Drake rounded up his musician and composer friends and assembled a batch of songs for Starr to pick from.

Starr arrived in Nashville on June 22nd and cut the tracks on June 30th and July 1st. In order to keep Starr in tune, other vocalists sang just out of range of the microphone. For the album's title track, "Beaucoups of Blues," Starr selected a song by Buzz Rabin, a Nashville songwriter whose later credits included "If You'll Hold the Ladder (I'll Climb to the Top)," a tune used in Tender Mercies.

On a number of songs the incomparable Jordanaires provided the backing vocals as they had for Elvis on many of his classics, starting with "Heartbreak Hotel." They also sang for Ricky Nelson, among many others. Elvis' own original guitarist Scotty Moore engineered, and Charlie "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" Daniels played guitar. With so many authentic country contributors, the songs were not odd pastiches like "Don't Pass Me By," but bona-fide Nashville productions.

One stand out track is "15 Draw," a mellow song about a guitar player writing to his Mom, acknowledging how he could never settle down and stay married. The guy didn't take over his dad's hardware business because he thought he was going to make it big, but so far it hasn't happened and he needs to borrow $15. Still, he lets her know that he doesn't drink as bad anymore, and overall he sounds pretty content, though slightly wistful. Low key like lonely Texas highways, the song conjures a world like the country films Crazy Heart (2009) or Tender Mercies (1983).

It features the finger picking of Jerry Reed, in the Country Hall of Fame for both his singing and guitar playing. Elvis covered his 1967 song "Guitar Man" and brought Reed in to play in his own unique style on the track, and the song marked the beginnings of Elvis' rock and roll comeback after years spent making pop movie soundtracks. Reed then won the Grammy for "When You're Hot You're Hot," which is why Ringo quotes it in the "$15 Draw" fade out. Later Reed starred alongside Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit and sang its classic theme, "East Bound and Down."

The album didn't make the UK charts, and only reached number 65 in the US, so for the next two years Starr decided to focus on acting. But today, Blues is often rated by critics alongside 1973's Ringo (and perhaps 1992's Time Takes Time) as the Ringed One's best solo album. It depends upon whether you prefer country or slick pop rock.

From the book Still the Greatest: The Essential Songs of the Beatles' Solo Careers by Andrew Grant Jackson. Copyright 2012 by Andrew Grant Jackson. Published by Scarecrow Press, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group.

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Book Excerpt: Ringo Starr Realizes a Dream With His 1970 Country Album

Ringo Starr had always loved country and western music. Back in 1959, he had joined an English group called The Raving Texans. He took the stage name Ringo not only because of the rings he wore, but also in honor of "Johnny Ringo," a real life cowboy involved in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

When the Beatles and Rolling Stones barnstormed across America in 1964 and 1965, many parts of the US only had country radio stations. The exposure deepened the bands' affection for the genre.

Coincidentally, at the end of 1964, Bonanza star Lorne Greene released an album called Welcome to the Ponderosa with a song about the gunfighter Johnny Ringo on it. Since it was during the height of Beatlemania, the label released it as a single. The song shot to number one by December, even though it had nothing to do with Richard Starkey. It must have been a hilarious capper to one of the best years of Starr's life to hear cowboys atmospherically harmonizing "Ring-go" to a two-step beat on the radio everywhere he went.

Starr went on to cover country artist Buck Owens' "Act Naturally" on the Help! album, co-wrote with Lennon-McCartney (supposedly) the country-inflected "What Goes On" on Rubber Soul, and wrote the country "Don't Pass Me By" on the White Album.

Thus when Starr met Nashville guitarist Pete Drake in 1970 while working on George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, it was natural for the two to share a rapport. When Starr broached the idea of doing a country album, Drake replied everyone in Nashville would love to participate. Drake did hundreds of sessions a year and assured Starr they could complete the project in two days. With Starr's commitment, Drake rounded up his musician and composer friends and assembled a batch of songs for Starr to pick from.

Starr arrived in Nashville on June 22nd and cut the tracks on June 30th and July 1st. In order to keep Starr in tune, other vocalists sang just out of range of the microphone. For the album's title track, "Beaucoups of Blues," Starr selected a song by Buzz Rabin, a Nashville songwriter whose later credits included "If You'll Hold the Ladder (I'll Climb to the Top)," a tune used in Tender Mercies.

On a number of songs the incomparable Jordanaires provided the backing vocals as they had for Elvis on many of his classics, starting with "Heartbreak Hotel." They also sang for Ricky Nelson, among many others. Elvis' own original guitarist Scotty Moore engineered, and Charlie "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" Daniels played guitar. With so many authentic country contributors, the songs were not odd pastiches like "Don't Pass Me By," but bona-fide Nashville productions.

One stand out track is "15 Draw," a mellow song about a guitar player writing to his Mom, acknowledging how he could never settle down and stay married. The guy didn't take over his dad's hardware business because he thought he was going to make it big, but so far it hasn't happened and he needs to borrow $15. Still, he lets her know that he doesn't drink as bad anymore, and overall he sounds pretty content, though slightly wistful. Low key like lonely Texas highways, the song conjures a world like the country films Crazy Heart (2009) or Tender Mercies (1983).

It features the finger picking of Jerry Reed, in the Country Hall of Fame for both his singing and guitar playing. Elvis covered his 1967 song "Guitar Man" and brought Reed in to play in his own unique style on the track, and the song marked the beginnings of Elvis' rock and roll comeback after years spent making pop movie soundtracks. Reed then won the Grammy for "When You're Hot You're Hot," which is why Ringo quotes it in the "$15 Draw" fade out. Later Reed starred alongside Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit and sang its classic theme, "East Bound and Down."

The album didn't make the UK charts, and only reached number 65 in the US, so for the next two years Starr decided to focus on acting. But today, Blues is often rated by critics alongside 1973's Ringo (and perhaps 1992's Time Takes Time) as the Ringed One's best solo album. It depends upon whether you prefer country or slick pop rock.

From the book Still the Greatest: The Essential Songs of the Beatles' Solo Careers by Andrew Grant Jackson. Copyright 2012 by Andrew Grant Jackson. Published by Scarecrow Press, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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'Snooki & JWoww' Recap: The Barbie Guidette Dream House Effect

Snooki and JWoww welcome some of their 'Jersey Shore' roommates into their new apartment.

Snooki and JWoww have so much fabric! Just drowning in fabric! Swimming in yards of leopard print and zebra and glittery pink and black! "You can't make a vase out of fabric," JWoww sniffs one morning. Seeing as how Snooki and her fetus sleep until roughly 4 p.m. every day (as the pregnant and unborn are wont to do), JWoww rolls out of the apartment to buy more furniture.

Just to be clear: they have furniture; they are just acquiring . . . more of it. She selects a bar set, a leopard-print ottoman and a gigantic leopard-print pump that is also a chair, thus explaining who else buys those things other than high school yearbook photographers. JWoww also picks up between 10 and 20 rolls of leopard and zebra duct tape, with which the girls will go on to commit unspeakable acts. Why such a rush to make such questionable decorating decisions? (I'm joking, of course. There is no rush. We are four weeks in and every episode has been in some way about decorating the apartment.) As it turns out, the roommates are coming over! Hurray! Oh, except the Situation. Never the Situation. "You couldn't pay me enough to fucking do that," Snooki declares. You mean again? Okaaaaaaaaaay! But seriously, what in God's name are they planning to do with all that fabric? It's like they own three-quarters of a yurt.

Time to call a handyman! "He sounds like a sexy black man," JWoww squeals after hanging up with him. Sadly, he is instead a normal white guy named Anthony, who makes quick work of hanging yards and yards of fabric around the room in a bunting-type situation, as well as hanging fabric over the walls. Like you do. While he works, Snooki elicits from him "a sex story that went wrong," and things take a dire turn. Anthony tells his tale, which begins with him, a lady and his friend, a friend who he makes sure to point out is a big guy like Anthony. That's all we get to hear before the bleeping obscures his tale. At this point I started to panic, because so much of the story was bleeped out I was convinced we would never know what happened! "I want you to do something for me, " the woman ominously told Anthony, followed by 20 seconds of bleeping. Luckily, while the girls' faces contort in hilarious disgust to details unknown, Anthony reaches the climax of the story, and declares, "I said, let me go in the other room. This way I won't have to smell it." Okay, that's really all I needed to know. I can fill in the blanks. "I just feel like he wants to take us away to his dungeon," Snooki shudders when he leaves. His poop dungeon? It had to have been a poop story, right? And to think he put his grubby paws all over the fabric!

Once Anthony leaves, Snooki and JWoww cover the entire apartment in leopard and zebra print duct tape. The doors. The windows. The garbage can now has a duct tape 'G' on it for Garbage, so you don't get confused and try to make soup in it. In their defense, the tape goes a long way toward creating the desired "Barbie Guidette dream house" effect, in as much as everything looks like it's plastic and about to peel off the wall. If only it also made everyone's genitals turn into smooth, hard plastic nubs.

The ladies also have an epic idea for what we in the interior design biz call "a focal point": a giant mural of themselves to be painted by artist Nick on the wall of their living room. "I found Nick's number at a department store," JWoww explains. As always, it's the little details that get me. For example, what does that even mean? Then, of course, all the fabric falls down off the walls. Anthony! Maybe stop telling poop stories for once and do a little work! The ladies rush to put them back up, so their roommates don't have to deal with having their mouths and noses closed off with fabric while they're visiting. A real hosting faux pas, I'd say.

Finally, cabs are here! Cabs are what I call friends! Pauly D is the first to arrive and rip on their apartment décor. "The style of this house is Art Deco. Just kidding!" he laughs. Aw, I missed him. He jokingly tests to see if Snooki can fit inside their garish new ottoman (she can), which is great because they always say it's a good idea to have a piece of furniture that doubles as a casket. "Just take the ottoman! You don't even need a coffin!" JWoww enthuses. "I know, but then bugs will get in and eat me," Snooki muses. The other roommates stream in, except Mike, of course, who couldn't make it because he was busy not being invited. Oh, and he might have been in rehab too. Either way, it's really nice to see everyone. "It's creepy but cute," Ronnie says of the apartment. Pauly D and Vinny friend-flirt hardcore, scampering away to friend-smoosh on Snooki's bed.

Sitting down to a delicious meal of green beans and garbage can soup (just kidding! They saw the G in time), Snooki finally drops one of her two bombs on the Jersey Shore mates: she's engaged to Jionni. Their reactions to the news could only be described as devastating. "You think two years is long enough time?" Vinny wonders, later explaining that Jionni was initially Snooki's one-night stand and therefore unworthy of love or commitment. They point out how difficult it will be for Snooki to have only one penis for the rest of her life. "I love his penis," she explains.

"Did she buy it?" Pauly D cracks when Snooki shows off her ring. Yikes. I guess they're all so used to Snooki being a drunken trainwreck joke they don't remember she's a human being with feelings. Or they're all just terrible people. Both totally plausible explanations.

Ball-busting aside, they could at least have the decency to talk about her behind her back like normal people. Concludes Vinny, "You guys are going to be divorced soon anyway." Ugh. It's enough to make Snooki not want to tell them she's pregnant. Too bad she already had the announcement printed on a cake in icing! Well then, it's enough to make me want to crawl inside that leopard ottoman coffin and have them seal me up with zebra duct tape. Luckily next week's promo has Roger saying, "I've had chlamydia four times," so I have a reason to go on for a little while longer.

Last week: Behold the Child of Snooki

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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