Hamilton, Ontario-based MONSTER TRUCK's Jeremy Widerman (guitar, vocals) and Jon Harvey (bass, vocals) are featured in a new interview with Classic Rock Revisited. An excerpt is available below:

Q: What took so long to record the first album?

Jeremy: "We did it twice. We went to LA and did the whole record with a guy named Kevin Augunas in what used to be Sound City, it’s now called Fairfax Studios. It ended up being kind of a clash between what we wanted and what he was expecting and we got rushed a bit. We had three weeks to do the whole record, so some logistical things didn’t really line up. We ended up coming home feeling that it wasn’t what we wanted to put out as our debut. We just went back and did the whole thing over again with the guy who did the Brown EP; we had had a lot of success with that EP and had a good relationship with the producer. It was a little hard to get the budget for the second go around, but once we figured out the money thing, it really went pretty smoothly."

Q: How hard was it to spend that much recording an album and then scrap it? I’d imagine there was a fair amount of deliberation that went into that decision…

Jon: "Yeah, it was about two months of getting everyone on the same page and getting the label behind the idea. They were the ones who had to agree to let us do it again since it was their money we were spending. Getting them to flip the bill a second time was not easy. Our manager didn’t like the first recording either. I think that helped us in this case because our manager is the owner of our record label and he knew that it needed to be better than it was."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Monster Truck are confirmed to appear with ALICE IN CHAINS for a run beginning on May 6th in North Charleston, SC at the North Charleston Coliseum. The quartet will make these eleven arena appearances alongside just confirmed festival performances at Welcome To Rockville in Jacksonville, FL (April 26th), Sun Fest in West Palm Beach, FL (May 4th) and Rock On The Range in Columbus, OH (May 18th). The band has been touring extensively across the globe for the last year, and look poised to rise with the increased audience exposure.

This follows an extensive coast-to-coast tour with ALTER BRIDGE through many of the major markets across the US. That 11-date tour will begin on April 14th in Dallas, TX and end on May 2nd in Kansas City, MO.

Artists have long supported the rise of Monster Truck, and this heavy touring activity is a testament to their collective passion for the band. The relationship the band cultivated with singer Myles Kennedy, who enjoys a prolific career as front man in SLASH's ensemble as well as being the vocalist of Alter Bridge, was the primary driver in delivering the April run. Monster Truck toured extensively with Slash in 2013.

Alice In Chains Mike Inez offers, "Monster Truck is the real deal. Familiar. Comfortable. Like an old pair of gig boots or sweaty pig sex with an ex girlfriend. I wish them all the success in the world, but it's not ALL because they are such great human beings and hardworking guys. It is for a totally selfish reason too. I just wanna jam the fuck out with 'em again sometime! Cya out there on the road fellas."

Monster Truck and Dine Alone Records have selected 'The Lion' as the follow-up single to their debut hit 'Sweet Mountain River', from the album Furiosity. The video for the track can be seen below:

Hailing from Ontario, Canada, Monster Truck was formed in 2009 by Jon Harvey (bass, lead vocals), Jeremy Widerman (guitar, vocals), Brandon Bliss (organ, vocals) and Steve Kiely (drums, vocals). What began as a side-project to their other more ‘serious’ bands quickly gained momentum and took on a life of its own. The band has released two EPs since their inception; a self-titled, and notably self-released EP produced by Gus Van Go & Werner F and The Brown EP on Dine Alone Records.

Tour dates:

April (with Alter Bridge)

14 - Dallas, TX - House of Blues
15 - Houston, TX - House of Blues
17 - Biloxi, MS - Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
18 - Destin, FL - Club L.A. (Radio Station Festival / WZLB)
19 - Atlanta, GA - Tabernacle
21 - Baltimore, MD - Rams Head
22 - Boston, MA - Royale
24 - New York, NY - Best Buy Theater
28 - Chicago, IL - House of Blues
29 - Chicago, IL - House of Blues

May (with Alter Bridge)

1 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
2 - Kansas, MO - The Arvest Bank Theatre

May (with Alice In Chains)

6 - North Charleston, SC - North Charleston Coliseum
7 - Raleigh, NC - Progress Energy Performing Arts
9 - Atlantic City, NJ - Ovation Hall
10 - Mashantucket, CT - Foxwoods Casino Arena
12 - Syracuse, NY - Landmark Theatre
13 - Reading, PA - Sovereign Performing Arts Center
14 - Roanoke, VA - Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre
16 - Huntington, WV - The Big Sandy Superstore Arena
17 - Cincinnati, OH - Horseshoe Casino
19 - Cleveland, OH - Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica
20 - Battle Creek, MI - Kellogg Arena

Festival Appearances:

April

26 - Jacksonville, FL - Welcome To Rockville

May

4 - West Palm Beach, FL - Sun Fest
18 - Columbus, OH - Rock On The Range