Eagles fire Andy Reid after 14 seasons

Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie speaks to members of the media during a news conference at the team's NFL football training facility, Monday, Dec. 31, 2012, in Philadelphia. Andy Reid's worst coaching season with the Eagles ended Monday after 14 years when he was fired by Lurie, who said it was time "to move in a new direction." (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie speaks to members of the media during a news conference at the team's NFL football training facility, Monday, Dec. 31, 2012, in Philadelphia. Andy Reid's worst coaching season with the Eagles ended Monday after 14 years when he was fired by Lurie, who said it was time "to move in a new direction." (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Philadelphia Eagles head coach Andy Reid watches his team warm up before an NFL football game against the New York Giants, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012 in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Philadelphia Eagles head coach Andy Reid walks on the field before an NFL football game against the New York Giants, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)

Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie speaks to members of the media at a news conference at the team's NFL football training facility, Monday, Dec. 31, 2012, in Philadelphia. Andy Reid's worst coaching season with the Eagles ended Monday after 14 years when he was fired by Lurie, who said it was time "to move in a new direction." (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Philadelphia Eagles head coach Andy Reid, right, shakes hands with New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin after an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012, in East Rutherford, N.J. The Giants won 42-7. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? Andy Reid stuck around after he was fired by the Philadelphia Eagles, meeting with players, encouraging staff and shaking hands with the man who let him go.

After 14 years, Reid found it hard to walk away.

Owner Jeffrey Lurie understood. "He had the love and respect of every individual in this organization," he said at his news conference Monday. "This man is amazing to work with, smart and dedicated, and the record will speak for itself."

Not this season's 4-12 record nor the humiliating score of the season-ending loss to the New York Giants, 42-7, on Sunday.

It was the worst finish by the team since Lurie fired Ray Rhodes following a 3-13 finish in 1998.

"When you have a season like that, it's embarrassing. It's personally crushing to me and it's terrible," Lurie said. "Our fans deserve the very best. This year, they got a team that was not very good at all. I feel terrible about that."

Lurie informed Reid of his decision shortly before 9 a.m. Reid addressed the team an hour later and received a standing ovation.

"It was emotional," running back LeSean McCoy said. "We felt his pain. It hurts a lot."

Many players blamed themselves for his ouster and a few held back tears while talking about their former coach.

"It's unfortunate. I feel we personally let him down," wide receiver Jeremy Maclin said. "It's a sad day."

Reid took over a 3-13 team in 1999, drafted Donovan McNabb with the No. 2 overall pick and quickly turned the franchise into a title contender.

He is the winningest coach in club history and led them to a run of four straight NFC championship games, a streak that ended with a Super Bowl trip after the 2004 season ? and a loss, 24-21, to the New England Patriots. The Eagles are still seeking their first NFL title since 1960.

Reid cemented Philadelphia as a destination football town and led the team to an unmatched level of success. But the team hasn't won a playoff game since 2008 and after last season's 8-8 finish, Lurie said he was looking for improvement this year.

Instead, it was worse.

"I look forward to the day when everyone welcomes him back into the Eagles Hall of Fame because that's inevitable," Lurie said.

Reid grew up in Southern California and may welcome a return home. He already has said he wants to coach next season.

"I think Andy is an outstanding football coach," Lurie said. "That's what Andy wants to do. He doesn't want to transition to other aspects of football operations. He's a football coach. He wants to coach right now. He was very excited about the future of this team and this franchise. He wanted to stay."

Reid is due to make $6 million in 2013 in the final year of his contract. He is the franchise leader in wins (140), losses (102) and winning percentage (.578) and led the Eagles to nine playoff appearances, six division titles and five NFC championship games.

Aside from team troubles, the year was a painful one for Reid. He endured a devastating loss weeks before the season opener when his oldest son, Garrett, died at training camp after a long battle with drug addiction.

In October, Reid fired close friend and longtime assistant Juan Castillo, who was in his second season as defensive coordinator after coaching the offensive line for 13 years. He later fired defensive-line coach Jim Washburn.

Still to be determined is whether Michael Vick stays with the team. He's under contract for $16 million next season, but the Eagles can release him within a few days after the Super Bowl and avoid a salary-cap hit.

In 2009, Reid and Lurie gave Vick a second chance in the NFL after the former star quarterback spent 18 months in federal prison related to a dogfighting operation. Vick took over as the starter in 2010, had a remarkable season and led the Eagles to the NFC East title. But like rest of the team, Vick regressed the last two seasons.

"There is nobody who wants to win more than I do," Lurie said. "Once you've experienced the success we've had, it makes you just realize that there's nothing more that you want than a Super Bowl, and to deliver that to our fans."

After beating the defending Super Bowl champion Giants on Sept. 30, the Eagles lost eight straight games ? their worst losing streak in 42 years.

Lurie said he has a "defined" list of candidates to replace Reid, but hasn't spoken to any coaches or set up interviews yet. General manager Howie Roseman and president Don Smolenski will assist him in the process.

"It's better to find the right leader than to make a fast decision," Lurie said. "There's no guarantee I'll make a great decision, but I'm confident I will."

A person familiar with the team's plan said the Eagles will interview Falcons defensive coordinator Mike Nolan this week. Atlanta's offensive coordinator, Dirk Koetter and special teams coach Keith Armstrong also will be interviewed. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the team has not announced its interview plans.

Earlier, PhiladelphiaEagles.com posted video of Lurie and Reid addressing employees, who gave Reid a big ovation. Lurie handed him a game ball.

"I have a hard time standing before people without a few boos involved. But I'm taking it, I'm taking it all in," Reid said. "These have been the greatest 14 years of my life."

He added: "Sometimes change is good. ... I know the next guy that comes in will be phenomenal. The ultimate goal is a Super Bowl. Everybody in this room, I wish you a big ring on the finger in the near future.

"Hail to the Eagles, baby."

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AP Sports Writer Dan Gelston contributed to this report.

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Follow Rob Maaddi on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RobMaaddi

___

Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-12-31-Eagles-Reid%20Fired/id-8eacfd37422943adbe247b392a7451c3

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Real Estate Management For Buildings of All Types ? Style Felons

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Top Performing Country ETF: Turkey in Focus - Zacks Investment ...

Turkey ETF is the best performing country ETFs this year--up more than 63% year-to-date, as global investors continue to pour money into the economy that has shown remarkable resilience to the events in the Euro-zone.

Last month, Fitch Ratings upgraded Turkey to investment grade dut to ?easing in near-term macro-financial risks and underlying credit strengths".

The economy grew at an impressive 8.5% in 2011 but is expected to slow down to 3.0% in 2012 and then rise slightly to 3.5% in 2013, per IMF. Nevertheless, the economy has been facing a severe challenge in the form of high current account deficit, rising inflation and its severe dependence on global energy imports. (see Crude Oil ETF Investing 101)

In fact, energy imports account for a lion?s share of the total imports of the economy. Thus the economy faces a serious threat from any slight rise in oil and natural gas prices (which are at depressed levels for now). In fact, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey stated that even a $10 increase in oil prices per barrel would result in a 40 basis point addition to the inflation rate and a 50 basis point reduction in year-on-year GDP growth. (see-Time to stuff Turkey ETF into your portfolio)

The central bank now expects the inflation rate to fall below 7.4% by the end of the current year. As inflation inched lower, the central bank lowered its interest-rate corridor for overnight lending rates for a second month in a row.

Nevertheless, unlike other emerging market counterparts, the economy is not dependent on commodity exports. To name a few, nations like Brazil and Russia are largely dependent of commodity exports to China. The situation for developed nations like Australia and New Zealand is similar. In fact, these nations are highly correlated to the Chinese economy, mainly thanks to a majority of their exports to the Asian giant. (read Peru ETF Investing 101)

Turkey, however, is not. This makes the economy independent of the negative impacts from a Chinese slowdown (which most commodity export oriented nations are facing in the current circumstances). In fact the Turkish growth is a function of rising consumption by its rising middle class population.

However, the Turkish economy is highly dependent of foreign capital flows (in the form of direct investments) which are a major contributor to its economic growth. Going forward, the economy could face challenges if it fails to attract enough foreign inflows due to strict regulation. (read Uncertain about the Economy? Try Market Neutral ETFs)

Nevertheless, Turkey continues to be a major destination for investors seeking an emerging market exposure, mainly thanks to its robust growth rate coupled with low levels of correlation with the developed markets.

The iShares MSCI Turkey Investable Market ETF (TUR) was launched in March of 2008, and is pretty much the only option available to the investors seeking a pure play exposure in the Turkish equity space. TUR has been able to amass more than $600 million in its asset base so far. The ETF sports a distribution yield of 2.07% and charges 59 basis points in fees and expenses.

TUR has returned 17.5% for the one year period as on 30^th September 2012. The ETF had a fantastic start to the year adding about 28% for the first quarter ending March 2012. However, like most equity ETFs it had a lackluster run the subsequent quarter. Still, it didn?t fetch negative returns but was almost flat adding around 81 basis points. In the third quarter ending September 2012, TUR is up by 7.5% (see more in the Zacks ETF Center).

The ETF could be a good choice for investors seeking international diversification as it has a three year R-Squared value of just 60% with the S&P 500 which implies that it is not very strongly correlated with the U.S equity market performance.

On the contrary, domestic consumption driven sectors like Financials (49.29%), Consumer Staples (12.82%), Industrials (11.77%) and Telecommunications (9.28%) comprise a major chunk of its portfolio. This probably gives us a broad representation of the Turkish economy as its growth story is largely fuelled by domestic consumption rather than international exports. (read Invest like Goldman With These Commodity ETFs)

The ETF holds 99 securities in all; however it fails to diversify as the top 10 companies in its portfolio account for almost 63% of its total assets. The product does about 202,000 shares daily.

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Source: http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/89451/top-performing-country-etf-turkey-in-focus

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Resolve to Get Your Career Moving in the New Year | Career Moves ...

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Source: http://careermovesjvs.blogspot.com/2012/12/resolve-to-get-your-career-moving-in.html

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10 Reasons Why Public Relations is a 'Must-do' for SEO in 2013 ...

Many people today recognize that search engine optimization (SEO) and public relations (PR) have much to offer each other.

The latest Google changes have put a real emphasis on high quality, unique content that is linked to by quality sites. And this is where real public relations ? as opposed to crappy news release distribution ? can play such a crucial role.

There are real opportunities for great business. What follows are 10 reasons why SEOs should really get to grips with PR in 2013, based on my conversations with the?people who are making the two work together.

1. The PR Industry is Definitely ?Getting it?

Most of us who have been in link building for a while have in the past experienced a certain degree of frostiness from the PR industry. But that is clearly changing and people are breaking out of silos.

Mike Cherenson is a former Chair and CEO of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and is EVP of Success Communications Group. He sees the importance of SEO and link building.

?Authentic and relevant link building, aimed at driving engagement, informing publics and building mutually beneficial relationships should be a part of every public relations and SEO effort," Cherenson said.

But not only should link building be a part of every public relations effort, public relations also has much to offer SEO.

?Public relations professionals are skilled storytellers and content generators and should be a part of every SEO effort," he said. "The future of SEO is not in the technology, it?s in the ability to tell stories that readers and Google will find interesting? and that?s public relations.?

And Cherenson understands the value of linking.

?Links need to provide value to the reader," he said. "Media will be more likely to link to content that is compelling and provides information that goes beyond the original reporting.?

Another PR professional is Ken Deutsch, EVP of JPA, a healthcare communications firm and a seasoned specialist in public affairs.

His company takes SEO and link building very seriously. But that?s still not the case throughout the industry.

?Many PR people stop at getting media coverage and think their job is done. They get a placement in the New York Times but they don?t follow up to make sure a link is put in. So they?re not taking advantage of the SEO side of the story.?

And while many media outlets provide links, there are some that don?t link out as a matter of policy.

That influences the targets he goes after, ?because they don?t put links in, it?s not worth putting as much energy into getting placement there.?

2. There is a Tremendous Synergy Between SEO and PR

Putting it simply, SEO enhances a press release. Use popular keywords and the press release, never mind any stories it generates will continue to bring search engine traffic. And the editorial links the press release generates bring direct click-throughs and lead to higher rankings.

Public relations enhances SEO by focusing on what?s newsworthy, crafting a great story, finding editorial opportunities, getting coverage and building relationships with reporters and editors. And of course, they got the negotiation skills to ask for a link without really asking for a link.

?PR helps SEO directly by increasing branded traffic," said?Lindsey Kirchoff,?a Media and Speaker Relations specialist at HubSpot.com. "We always see a bump in branded traffic after a big campaign! Indirectly, PR helps SEO generate inbound links from quality sources that not only gets first-touch exposure to new audiences, but credibility in the eyes of search engines.

?SEO grounds PR with hard, measurable data. PR has always been notoriously difficult to pin down, but SEO adds hard numbers to the equation. I also think that SEO allows PR to be less isolated from the rest of the team ? sometimes PR can feel like an island. SEO helps PR connect their work to the rest of the company's business goals.

?Finally, SEO establishes credibility for PR for keywords. You look much more credible to a news source if you come up high for the term they are reporting on!?

3. Editorial Links Bring a Big SEO Boost

Most PR links are extreme quality links, according to Jordan Brannon, the SEO guy at Coalition Technologies. Why? "Because getting them is not a free for all ? you have to earn your media placements,? he said.

But the rewards are worth the effort.

?If you get 200 high quality editorial links, it?s worth more that 20,000 low quality links,? Brannon said.

However, most reporters work to a deadline and you have to be swift in your response to get in.

?Most editorial opportunities are time sensitive and you need to act quickly. That means you need to have the authority to reply on the client?s behalf," Brannon added. "And you have to have an email account on your client?s domain ? it?s not good saying you?re a marketing agency.?

Will Marlow was formerly a Press Secretary for two congressmen before founding a company that specializes in search engine marketing. He knows that to get those all-important editorial links, sticking to deadlines is crucial.

?You need to understand that you?re dealing with someone who has a hard deadline. It?s like a train going by in the night and there?s one open boxcar that can take you wherever you want to go," Marlow said. "But jump too early and the reporter won?t write about you: jump too late and the reporter won?t write about you. You got to get it just right.?

And it?s not unusual to miss opportunities.

?If an SEO was learning from any PR guy, they would all have stories about how they missed opportunities because someone internally didn?t get back to them or didn?t give the reporter what they need," Marlow said.??If the reporter wants to talk to the CEO and the CEO is playing golf, then you?re not going to get the story.?So you?ve got to collaborate with people within the company and make sure that the right people are available.?

4. There?s a Big Cascade Effect

Journalists will often quote, comment or enlarge upon other journalist?s work. Bloggers are also constantly citing other stories.

So if you get your story covered in one prominent media outlet, you?ll quickly see a cascade of similar stories and links spring up.

You?ll get links you never even asked for.

Miranda Miller wrote about How Google Rakes In Over $100 Million in Search Advertising Daily, based on research from Larry Kim of WordStream.

In writing that report, Kim was directly targeting the Wall Street Journal for a link ? and succeeded. The story really benefited from the cascade effect and attracted coverage and links from literally hundreds of quality media outlets.

5. You Win Bragging Rights For Your Client

Clients just love to write ?As featured in ..." on their website, whether its the Washington Post, Inc. Magazine, or whatever.

That builds consumer trust in their brand and makes it more likely they?ll buy.

And you also increase trust from other reporters. If you?ve already been quoted or covered by a respected publication, then other reporters will think you?re a safe bet to write about, too.

6. PR Skills Can be Learned ? or at Least Understood ? Easily

Kirchoff has this advice for SEOs who know little about PR:

?SEO experts should think of PR as a way to build strong referral links ? something that should be on their radar already. If you have a PR expert in the office, start by taking them out to lunch and chatting. After all, PR is all about building relationships.?

But of course, learning about public relations will help you understand the process ? but it might teach you that there?s a lot you don?t know. If that?s the case you might do better to partner with a PR resource.

7. It?s Easy to Partner With an Up and Coming PR Person

Mona Moore is an SEO who has teamed up with a small PR company, Hepner Communications, to pitch their services together.

?I think SEOs are always so focused on getting those links back to the client, we sometimes forget how important it is to nurture those long-term relationships necessary to continue working with specific media outlets,? Moore explained.??And PR reps are great at finding opportunities - but, they don't always take full advantage of those opportunities from an organic SEO standpoint.?By working together, SEOs and PR people are able to maximize exposure to a higher level than either of those entities by itself.

Joel Gross, who works with Brannon at Coalition Technologies, describes himself as the SEO tech guy.

?I know how to build and code websites so that they are search engine friendly, and I understand that in order to achieve visibility and revenue for our clients we need to build high quality links and work in tandem with traditional and social media," Gross said.??I know what needs to be done, but Jordan is able to bring in the creative aspect and wow factor that is needed in order to gain the attention and keep it focused where it needs to be. He devises how we frame the content and package it for the consumer in the most digestible and memorable way.

?The best advice I?d give to an SEO would be to get to know your client?s people, their background and story, what?s unique about the company," Gross said.??And remember, this is news and human interest so your stories don?t always have to be selling product. You can have perfectly good story and link from a story on say, ?work places that are pet friendly?!?

8. You?ll Build Media Contacts That You Can Use Time And Time Again

Contacts are essential both to PR people and to reporters.

?One mistake I made at the start was sending out too much poor stuff," Kim said. "Blasting out press releases is over-rated. What you need to do is get to know the reporters or bloggers you?re targeting.

?Read their articles every day, get a sense of what they?re interested in and only approach them with what you know they?ll be interested in,? Kim continued.??Start small and work your way up. Once you?ve built a relationship, they?ll start contacting you.?

He said he has found that PR is the fastest way to generate those backlinks on related industry websites, but you?ve got to go past distribution services and build your own contacts.

?We are diligent in keeping a database of related editors here," Kim said. "So we're sending press releases directly to the editors and not through a service. However, we also post the press releases to PRweb or PRnewswire to get the added Internet news site exposure (i.e., Yahoo News)."

Kim said those personal relationships increase the chances of coverage so much it?s "unreal."

"We now get lots of calls from editors who ask ? is there an engineer over at such and such a company that we could talk to?" Kim said.??Now, when they see our press releases, they always read them. And they?re more likely to publish them because we?ve been helpful.

If you?re an SEO who new to PR, the best place to start is by reading the editorial guidelines of the publications you?re targeting, Kim advised. Then you know what they?re looking for and can pitch accordingly. Don?t pitch something they clearly don?t want.

And don?t forget editorial calendars ? you can see months in advance what the publications are going to be covering.

9. It Strengthens and Extends Your Relationship With the Client

If you learn how to do proper public relations effectively or bring in a competent professional that you work well with, then you increase the respect your client has for your work. That can only strengthen your relationship and help ensure that they?ll stay with you.

10. It Opens up Additional Income Streams

It probably goes without saying that with the increasing interest in this area, it should offer some profitable and additional income streams to your agency.

There are tremendous publicity and quality links available through effective public relations. You?ll probably have failures to start with but if you keep at it, your skills will grow and you?ll get the benefits.

How do you cope with failures?

?I don?t believe in failures ? it?s a matter of setting your expectations," Kim said. "You can?t start out and immediately get coverage on CNN. Far better to pick a local target and learn from it. Every time you do it, you have more experience.?Say you approach 10 journalists and you get nothing but two reply and say I?m not interested because it?s not exactly what I do ? you?ll get a better idea of what will work next time.?

---

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Source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2232614/10-Reasons-Why-Public-Relations-is-a-Must-do-for-SEO-in-2013

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Hagel gets some bipartisan support (Washington Bureau)

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INTERVIEW: Scott Ian speaks words about his ?Speaking Words ...

Anthrax main-man Scott Ian isn?t about to quit metal and hit the after-dinner speaking circuit or anything, at least not just yet. But following a successful one-off spoken word show in London last November he has booked a 16-date spoken word tour of the UK. He?s calling it Speaking Words, because a spoken word tour sounds too ?fancy pants?, and it?ll give him a chance to air some of the stories accrued over a 30-plus year career as a touring musician. Who knows: this could be the start of something big, Scott Ian as a stand-up comic or talk show host. Who knows But if not, well, it?ll be pretty cool to hear all about how Anthrax?s ordinarily inflappable riff-master ended up with a load of shit in his pants the first time he met Lemmy, and all that sort of thing.

Have you gone mad, public speaking is terrifying?
Scott Ian: ?Y?know it?s weird, I know a lot of people are terrified but I don?t find public speaking terrifying for some crazy reason. Maybe there is something wrong with me [laughs].

Is this something you?ve wanted to do for a while?
Scott Ian: ?Yeah, it?s something I?ve always wanted to do, and I?ve always been trying to figure out how can I do this, how would I ever make this possible. I?ve seen Rollins do it all these years; I saw Rollins, maybe on the first time he ever did a tour I went to see what it was going to be about. I mean, I am a huge fan of Rollins? music and I had read all his books at the time, so I really knew that he had a point of view and something he needed to express and he did it really well. It?s something that I always wanted to do and I finally had the opportunity this year; doing this one-off show in London. I was approached by the band?s agent, who basically put it together, and asked, ?Are you interested in doing this?? And I said, ?Absolutely. I?ve been kinda waiting for this to happen but I didn?t know how to kick-start it.? I did the one show in London and I enjoyed myself so much, I had such a good time with it that I was like, ?Can I do more of this? How do we do more of this?? They came back and said, ?There?s a lot of interest in it, do you wanna do a tour?? I was like, ?Sign me up! Let?s find a window when it works and go and do it.??

Where did you get the material from? Was it something that you had sketched out in advance?
Scott Ian: ?No! I did absolutely zero rehearsal. I didn?t even know how to prepare for it, truthfully. The show was booked months in advance, and I had all these months to think about it, and think, ?Okay, I?m going to put a whole show together . . . ? Because I am friends with a lot of stand-up comedians and a lot of writers, and I am a big fan of comedy and certainly live stand-up comedy. I?ve seen my friends do it and I think that it?s the most challenging thing in the world just to sit down, write jokes, get on stage and make people laugh. I mean, I think that?s the hardest thing in the entertainment industry. It doesn?t get any more raw than that, and I am certainly not a joke writer nor am I a stand-up comedian but I just feel that my life is in so many ways ridiculous. The last 32 years of my life spent in a metal band; I?ve got so many stories, whether it?s shit that I?ve done, people that I?ve met, stories that I know from other people . . . I?ve kinda been in this bubble for so long. I sit around in bars with my friends and I?ll get around to telling stories, as we all do, and most of my friends are in this industry or connected to it somehow, so we all have stories and we all sit down and tell stories to each other and crack each other up. I always felt that people need to hear this stuff. This shit is hilarious. It?s just a really fun thing for me to do, to relate to people on that level. That?s what it is. That?s what the material is; it?s shit that I have been through in my life.?

How much of it is biographical?
Scott Ian: ?I don?t go as far back as the whole, ?I grew up in New York and this is what happened to me as a child . . .? It?s not that. Maybe someday I?ll get into that but right now it?s just a lot of crazy stories and crazy shit, and just stuff to share that I think an audience of people who are a fans of my band would be interested in. In fact, you certainly don?t have to be a fan of my band or a metal fan because the stories are just so inherently ridiculous [laughs], and inherently funny, that it doesn?t matter if you listen to this kind of music. Some of it is about me meeting my heroes through the years . . . If you have any sense of humor at all I tend to think that you?ll find some humor in this.?

How did the London show go?
Scott Ian: ?At the London show, I did no rehearsal and I kept getting more and more stressed out about it as it got closer. I was really starting to stress out about it, like, ?What the fuck am I gonna do? I don?t know how to do this. I have no fucking idea what I am doing. I gotta get on stage in a couple of days.? And then my wife and I, and my son flew to London and got in about three days before the show. I got in a panic about two days before; I had really no clue. I had planned sharing some stories. I was going to invite my friends over and regale them with my witty tales: I never did any of that. My wife Pearl just said to me, ?You know these stories. All this stuff is in your brain.? And that totally calmed me down, ?cos I do know ?em, it?s not like I was going to walk on stage and forget everything that had happened to me over the last 30 years.?

And there was a Q&A, too, right?
Scott Ian: ?I winged it. I mean, I just walked on stage and an hour-and-a-half flew by. So I said, ?All right, let?s do Q&A.? And that added almost another hour on because people ask questions and those questions lead me down other paths and they open other doors to tell stories. And I had been pretty clear about it, people could ask me anything they want.?

Is that not a bit dangerous? Was there not something that you?d dread getting asked?
Scott Ian: ?No. I don?t care. If it?s something I don?t wanna answer I?ll say, ?Sorry! I?m not answering that one.? It?s hard for me to imagine what someone would ask that I would be afraid of answering.

Can you see this Speaking Words business taking your career to weird new places, like Rollins. Could you see yourself acting or writing?
Scott Ian: ?Well I pretty much write all the time. I think the actual impetus for me to start to stand up in front of people and do this was I started compiling a lot of these stories earlier this year, and like writing them out long-form, literally typing them out, because someday I will do a book so I might as well start now having all these stories and anecdotes and things like that . . . In case I ever forget. I?ll already have that part [of the book] done. And it was kinda during that that I thought it would be fun to share this with people, get on stage and talk to people about it but still not really having any idea of how to do that because . . . Well I guess I could have called my agent and said, ?Hey, I want to do a spoken word show.? And we could have worked it out. But it just seemed so out of the ballpark. It?s just weird how it worked out that my agent put on these three shows; they did one with me, one with Chris Jericho, and one with Duff McKagan. It was just his idea to do this, that all three of us had something to say, and I was like, ?God, this is such perfect timing for you to come up with this idea. I?m always writing, and I already do write for DC Comics; I?ve got one series for them about Lobo and I am writing another one about The Demon, so I always get to write. As far as acting? That?s a whole different ball game. Of course, I would love to try it, but, [laughs] I?m not going to go out there and start going to acting classes, going on auditions. That?s not something that I am interested in at all. But if the producers of The Walking Dead called me and said, ?We want you to be on the show? I?d go do it and figure it out as I went but it?s not something I am actively pursuing or anything like that.?

Of course you?ve already appeared on The Walking Dead, albeit briefly.
Scott Ian: ?Yeah, but that?s pretty easy though! For me it was, anyway; I have been dreaming about that my whole life.?

**Scott Ian?s Speaking Words tour kicks off on 24 May 2013 at O2 Academy, Oxford
www.Scott-Ian.com**

Source: http://www.decibelmagazine.com/featured/interview-scott-ian-speaks-words-about-his-speaking-words-tour/

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