Calvin Has All The Metal You Need To Make It A Good Start To The Weekend

Every Friday at 6:00 p.m. you can host your hour on I-Rock 93.5 with our "I-Host" presented by Analog Pizza and Arcade. 

You choose the playlist.  Then you come to the Rock & Roll Mansion and talk about the songs.  All you need to do is sign up here and then watch your email.  A lot of people are signed up but we'll get you in eventually

Who Are You?

My name is Calvin Wilkens and I'm a die-hard metal fan.  I've been a bricklayer for over 20 years and I've been to 30-plus concerts.  All heavy metal. I accidentally walked into an Outkast concert once in Minneapolis...it was fun. Not as fun as the Cannibal Corpse concert across the street at Station 4 though.  I live in Rock Island, the city of Rock.  I'm 43 years old and I have 3 kids.  My wife is in the last semester of her bachelor's in criminal justice.  She's going to be somebody's PO.  I feel sorry for them.  I'm starting school at Western in the fall for engineering.  When all else fails and I feel the lowest, I turn to music, more explicitly, I turn to HEAVY FUCKIN METAL to help me think things through.

Why Do You Love Metal?

I love heavy metal because it is the only music where I can get into a mosh pit and beat the shit out of somebody and then after the song is over that very person comes over and gives me a high five or pats me on the back because he got leveled.  Then we become mosh pit friends.  Also, when I was going to ISU, the Slipknot Iowa and System of a Down Chop Suey album came out and I drove my roommates nuts because I would listen to them full blast all day.  It helped me get my Calculus homework done.  Didn't have to listen to stupid roommates no matter how loud they were.  That was the same year that Static-X, Machine and Tool's new album came out.  My roommates hated me but I paid the rent and I got a 4.0 that summer.  I fucking love heavy metal.  After I moved out of that place I moved into a place with some random dude and so it happens he was a metal fan.  He listened to metal much heavier than I have ever heard. Black metal. Still not a fan but he introduced me to a lot of death metal that I still listen to today. I'm listening to Megadeth as I write while she is trying to play Call of Duty with her headset on.  Yeah right. Metal has influenced my life more than my wife appreciates, I think.

Who Is Your Favorite Band?

My favorite band...impossible.  If I have to choose one I'm going to have to go with SLAYER!!!!! For Christ's sake, I have it tattooed on my back.  Not just the words, I have the pentagram and everything.  One of the Slayer concerts I went to somebody took a picture of it and it's been all over the Slayer website ever since.  When I was in high school I was one of those people who went to Coop Records once a week and randomly bought albums.  I was into rap music my freshman year...don't ask why...I walked into the Coop Records and was like...damn, I want to listen to something new.  The guy was like "Check these out" and I was like "fuck yeah".  He gave me the albums Slayer "Diabolus En Musica", A Sepultura album, and Black Sabbath "Paranoid".  It was like a fucking floodgate had opened and on my side, I was to be hit with wave after wave of this newfound faith.  After that, I listened to nothing but metal.  My dad was happy because I no longer listened to rap.  Until I blew his brand new speakers listening to Pantera Live 101 Proof.  In the end, Slayer is the most profound and influential band I have ever had the pleasure to listen to.

What Is The Best Concert You've Seen?

This is quite difficult.  I've been to so many awesome concerts.  One stands out among the rest as my favorite concert of all time.  I believe it was in 2004 at Station 4 in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota.  My friend Austin Blount and I drove there with no money and no tickets to see Cannibal Corpse, Necrophagist, and two other bands that I can't remember.  We were standing in line and we got to the front with no tickets and were turned away. We were standing there basically begging for extra tickets because we had come so far when lo and behold, George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher came out the side door and we were just bewildered because he started talking to us.  Like a normal guy just asked us what was going on and we explained to him how far we traveled and how we had no money for tickets.  He said "Fuck a Ticket" he told his security to let us in and it was the best concert ever because I got to meet the Corpsegrinder.

My Playlist:

1. Six Feet Under - In League With Satan
2. Superjoint Ritual - Sickness
3. Burn the Priest - Inherit the Earth
4. Skinless - Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead
5. Lamb of God - Omerta
6. Exodus - Riot Act
7. Devil Driver - Cry For Me Sky
8. Skinless - Overlord
9. Psychostick - Beer is Good
10. Lamb of God - Redneck
11. Dying Fetus - Praise the Lord (Opite for the Masses)
12. The Black Dahlia Murder - Funeral Thirst
13. Slayer - War Zone