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We know Slash loves horror — the guitarist’s production company, Slasher Films, even produced an original horror flick last year called Nothing Left to Fear. Now comes word that Slash will be writing the first original score for Universal Studios Hollywood’s annual Halloween Horror Nights attraction.
The attraction — a 3-D maze full of special effects — has used rock music before, including the music of Black Sabbath last year. In fact, in 2013, Slash told ABC News Radio he took his children to the Sabbath maze. But this is the first time a rocker has written an original score for the attraction.
The theme of this year’s maze is fear of clowns, and guests will find themselves wandering through “Sweet Licks Frozen Clown Pops Family Amusement Center,” a dilapidated roadside attraction and former ice cream factory run by deranged siblings and their mad clown father.
“I’m a HUGE fan of Halloween Horror Nights and was inspired to partner with Universal Studios Hollywood because they are the founders of creating extreme horror,” says Slash in a statement. “I’ve been composing music for as long as I can remember, and jumped at the chance to be an integral part of this year’s event and create the original score for this creepy clown maze. I can’t wait to see the fans’ reactions and will be first in line to experience the maze myself.”
Clowns 3D Music by Slash will open Friday, September 19, at Universal Studios Hollywood.
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Three years after it became a hit in South Africa, “Come with Me Now,” by rising young band Kongos, is now a smash in the U.S. On Thursday, following their performance of the tune on NBC’s Today show, the band was presented with platinum plaques to mark the fact that it’s sold one million downloads — a feat that singer and bass player Dylan Kongos considers “amazing.”
“It’s incredible, because the time between the success it had in South Africa and the United States was quite a long time,” Dylan told ABC News Radio just minutes after receiving the plaque. “So we almost started moving on from it emotionally, and also actually working on new material. And then to have it go as big as it’s gone is just, y’know, amazing.”
“Come with Me Now” was first released in South Africa in 2011. The band — all siblings who are the sons of popular South African singer John Kongos — spent some of their childhood there, though they now call Phoenix, Arizona home.
While “Come with Me Now” itself is popular, the band themselves aren’t household names quite yet. That’s why drummer Jesse Kongos says performing every night on their current tour with Kings of Leon is an enlightening experience.
“A lot of people know the song and don’t know who we are,” says Jesse. “So when that song comes on, people are like, ‘Oh! That’s that song!’ And so it really reacts well, it gets a great response, and gives us a whole new burst of energy onstage.”
Adding to the popularity of “Come with Me Now” is its non-stop use in ads and promos, for everything from Ram Trucks, Samsung Galaxy, Playstation 4 and the WWE, to HBO, Expendables 3, NBC Sports, ESPN, the NFL and CNN.
“It’s a happy accident, with the chorus being, ‘Come with me now,’ it could be used for anything,” Dylan says, explaining why the song works so well for those types of things. “Luckily, so far we haven’t gotten any like requests for things where we go like, ‘Hmm, I don’t know if that’s going to work with what we envisioned for the song’; so far, everything has kind of been cool — a lot of the commercials and sports stuff, especially.”
“It just works, I don’t know. I think it’s more the instrumentals and the kind of energy from it, than the lyrics of the verse or the actually intention and meaning behind the lyrics,” he adds.
The big question now remains, where are the members of the band — who also include keyboard player Johnny and guitarist Danny — going to hang their platinum plaques? Will they — as so many stars have done in the past — put them in the bathroom, to remind themselves to stay humble?
“I’m already the most humble person in the world, so, you know, I will hang it above my golden chandelier, or something like that,” laughs Dylan.
“I think I’m actually the most humble person in the world!” argues Jesse.
When Kongos’ tour with Kings of Leon wraps up, they’ll head to Europe to open for OneRepublic.
