Jason Becker article in Aardschok Magazine

This month's edition (12 / december 2008) of Aardschok magazine covers a 2 page interview with Jason Becker. Aardschok is the leading Dutch Rock magazine, and has supported Jason from his early days !

Make sure to pick up your copy, when in the Dutch neighbourhood....... :-)
If you want the .pdf version of the article, send me your e-mail address and I will mail it to you.

By the way, the guy on the picture next to Jason is not me, it is Dennis Mollan, proudly showing the Jason Becker Distortion Pedal, made by ProTone Pedals. Take care, and I hope you enjoy Jason's new CD as much as I do !

Mission completed !

After 10 months of intense training I have finished the New York Marathon last Sunday November 2. It was an INCREDIBLE and FANTASTIC experience running through the streets of New York City with 40,000 runners, being cheered by 2 million New Yorkers. My God, the crowd was so amazing……. Thank you New York for supporting us runners !

Starting from the Verrazano Bridge on Staten Island, we ran through Brooklyn (great atmosphere !), and Queens, before entering into Manhattan. My start was good, too good to be true, so when I arrived on 1st Avenue I was punished very hard for that. East Manhattan and the Bronx were very heavy for me, and when I arrived in Central Park I was blessed with so many people yelling me to the finish line. Also, having a carefully selected playlist (see image) with some of the best music around on my iPod helped tremendously. It was an intense moment of glory passing the finish line (and a BIG relief as well :-) ……) with Jason's 'Meet me in the morning' on the iPod……..Despite the cold weather and the differences in altitudes, my finish time was 3:47:05, which is a time I could only dream of.

All of you know that I ran this race also for Jason Becker. The past 10 months I have been very involved in setting up a Charity for Jason around this marathon. The element of being able to do something for a fellow human being in need, was and is very rewarding and just gave this triumphant run an extra flavor. The Charity for Jason was very successful, I have been able to raise some good funds for Jason and it got a lot of attention on the internet in several rock-communities. I am very glad I could help a bit to raise some more awareness for Jason's cause.

From now on the Charity activities will be on a much lower level in it's current form. There are some more rock memorabilia items that will be auctioned over the next couple of weeks and months, since they are still underway from some musicians. Keep an eye out for that, some great stuff coming ! I have some rough ideas on how to possibly continue activities for Jason, but I need to give them some more thoughts and I will be back in 2009.

Of course I could not have done all of this without the help of many people, without whom this Charity would never have been a success, let me thank the following people:

Jason Becker: the man that has inspired me from the moment I first heard about him in the late 80's. Jason, you have been such a great source of inspiration, musically but especially as a human being. Your way of looking at life, people & society has been so valuable, it makes me very humble and grateful for all that I have. I have enjoyed your music every day for the last 20 years and I will do so for the next 20 years, it makes me so happy and also makes me realize how terrifying talented you are ! Thanks my friend for everything !

Pat Becker: Pat, thank you very much for believing in me, and helping me to fight and get this Charity running for Jason ! You are a great person. Your love for Jason is so great to see, and on behalf of all of Jason's fans I thank you for taking care of Jason in such a fantastic manner.

Frankie Banali, Tony Mills & Will Schut: You guys have been extremely helpful; you have a very good heart and love for your fellow musician Jason. You do what you promise and this has helped me enormously ! Love you guys !

And more rockers: the following rockers have helped me out very well by donating some of their valuables so that I could auction them for Jason. Please know that your stuff sold very well ! Thanks you for the great support: Paul Gilbert, Virgil Donati, Ray Luzier, Rusty Cooley, Bumblefoot, Steve Stevens, Steve Vai, Mike Keneally, Gus G., Chris Amott, Marcel Coenen, Gert Nijboer, Joe Stump, Phi-Yaan Zek, Lale Larson, Ron Keel, Craig Erickson, Marco Minnemann, Carl Canedy, Joey Allen, Shane Gaalaas, Eric Vandenberg & Danny Seraphine.

All of my friends in cyberspace: many people have supported my Charity for Jason by all means. Some stopped by the MySpace page every now and then, some promoted the Charity on their sites, some did a donation, some helped out by advising me etc. etc. This has all meant a lot to me. A big THANK YOU for the following people: Greg Phillips, PaScAlee, Rod DeGeorge, John Denner, Fredrik Prantare, Erick Ferini, Sebastian Salinas, Licia, Michelle and Lois, Dennis from ProTone Pedals, Stuart from Paradise Guitars, Laurie Monk, Andrew McNeice of MelodicRock.com, Rory Sullivan of Alloutguitar.com, Oscar van Eijk of Aardschok.com, Jason Houston, Bas Verbeek of Brabants Dagblad, Jonathan Artz, Markus, Jeremy K., Linn, Roemir & Di and to all the people that made a donation for jason ! Thanks to you all, it has been a great couple of months and I hope we can stay in touch somehow ! Take Care, Ron

The final countdown !

The countdown has started to November 4 ! Sure, it's the day of the elections, but also the day that Jason's new CD 'the Jason Becker Collection' will be released ! Make sure to BUY the album, it will be out on iTunes ! Downloading does not help Jason in anyway !

As you may recall the album will feature 3 new tracks and guest appearances of Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Greg Howe, Marty Friedman, Michael Lee Firkins and Steve Hunter.

In the meantime, check out the Jason Becker Signature Guitar, built by Paradise Guitars USA. Many thanks to Stuart (of Paradise Guitars) who did an amazing job in producing this beautiful guitar.

On the websites of Paradise Guitars USA http://paradiseguitarsusa.com/guitars.html & http://www.myspace.com/paradiseguitarsusa you can find out more information on this guitar and how to order it.

Bid on JASON BECKER Guitar Pick !

The auction that I have set up for Jason now has it's finest item up for bidding....... guess what ? It's an original JASON BECKER Guitar Pick. The 'pooping dog' artwork on the Pick was done by Jason's Father Gary. It's a real jewel for Jason's fans, so make sure to bid (Auction will expire October 17) !

Check it out here: http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/coolenron , and don't forget to look for other GREAT auction items of the following artists: Paul Gilbert- Racer X- Ray Luzier (Korn)- David Lee Roth Band- Arch Enemy - Christopher Amott (Arch Enemy)- Mr Big- Joe Stump- Gus G- Howling Iguanas- Firewind- Marcel Coenen- Highway Chile- Craig Erickson- Tony Mills (TNT, Shy)- Shy- Ron Keel's K2.

Meeting Paul Gilbert

I had the BIG pleasure to meet Paul Gilbert last week. Paul played a gig in Oss (Netherlands) and as expected it was an incredible concert !! What an amazing player !! And what an incredible nice guy Paul is. He signed a lot of stuff which is being auctioned for Jason right now. So make sure to check on eBay for your favorite Paul Gilbert memorabilia item: http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/coolenron

And also, make sure to check on www.paulgilbert.com for Pauls European Tour dates and then go and witness this incredible experience!
Thanks Paul for all of your support to Jason !

Bid on Mike Keneally's drawing for Jason

Next to being a great personality and a great player, MIKE KENEALLY is also a very qualified artist. This beautiful drawing was made by Mike especially for Jason Becker, and donated to our Charity to be auctioned on behalf of Jason. The auction opened a minute ago and will expire September 28, so make sure you bid on this beautiful & unique piece of art. Check out all the auction details here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250297009547 .

Make sure to check the other auction items from Bumblefoot, Frankie Banali, Ray Luzier, Gus G (Firewind), Marcel Coenen, Steve Vai, Joe Stump, Craig Erickson, Tony Mills, Shy, Ron Keel & Phi Yaan Zek at: http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/coolenron

Ray Luzier & the Jason Becker Pedal

Ray Luzier donates to the Auction

I met up with Korn drummer Ray Luzier last Sunday when Ray played a fantastis drumclinic at the Drumworld Festival in the Netherlands. Besides being an amazing player, Ray is an extremely nice guy and he donated some signed drumheads and signed CD’s.

The first two drumheads are being auctioned as we we speak, the other stuff will be auctioned over the next weeks, so stay tuned to the Auction Page http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/coolenron

Make sure to check here the other auction items from Bumblefoot, Frankie Banali, Virgil Donati, Gus G (Firewind), Marcel Coenen, Steve Vai, Joe Stump, Craig Erickson, Tony Mills, Shy, Ron Keel & Phi Yaan Zek

Jason Becker Distortion Pedal ready to order !

The Jason Becker Distortion pedal can be ordered from ProTone via their MySpace site. They do not offer it yet via their official website so make sure you order this beautiful baby here: http://protonepedals.com/products/distortion/becker.html

Also very nice is the podcast that has been published by Dennis of ProTone. Dennis talks about his visit to Jason, and how he and Jason worked together on this one…… very cool !http://blog.protonepedals.com/2008/09/13/pro-tone-pedals-podcast-6.aspx

OR download the podcast straightaway from this link: http://media.podcastingmanager.com/39711-36605/Media/Pod%20Cast%205.mp3


Finally: the full interview with Jason is now published on the website of Holland’s leading Rockmag Aardschok. You can view it here: http://www.aardschok.com/

New goodies on eBay auction

Today some great items were added for to the memorabilia auction on eBay on behalf of Jason. Check out at : http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/coolenron and make sure you bid on exclusive & rare stuff from Frankie Banali, Bumblefoot (Guns 'n Roses), Virgil Donati, Gus G., Marcel Coenen, Steve Vai, Joe Stump, Shy, Tony Mills, Craig Erickson, Phi Yaan Zek, Ron Keel & off course the guitar lesson by Will Schut !

Win a 'Jason Becker Style' guitar lesson by Will Schut

As you will have noticed we have set-up a Memorabilia Auction on eBay, of which the proceeds go to Jason. Right now there is a unique item up for auction. Guitarplayers can now bid on a 'JASON BECKER STYLE' Guitar lesson given by one of Dutch top shredders WILL SCHUT.


The lesson will focus on topics like the use of exotic scales, unusual sweep patterns and scale-mixing.
After the lesson there's also a chance to visit the workshop where the new WS 6 Will Schut Signature guitar has been designed and built and meet with the builder, Patrick Koopman, who's been Steve Vai's guitar tech during the Aching Hunger tour.
A fantastic opportunity I think, so make sure to place the winning bid ultimately by September 13, when the auction ends ! Check out here for all further details of the offer: http://cgi.ebay.nl/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=250290557222

Make sure you visit our Auction Page regularly to check for the latest offers: http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/coolenron .

Finally, make sure you download Will Schut's new album 'Weapons of mass seduction' for free from his website www.willschut.com.

Jason Becker news !

Check out Part 1 & 2 of the interview I did with JASON BECKER on my MySpace blog: www.myspace.com/roncoolen. Jason is very open and honest and that made it a very interesting interview. The final part of the interview will follow shortly, so stay tuned for that.

Also, make sure you check the Memorabilia Auction on eBay regularly. Every week new items are added where you can bid on. Right now some great goodies are auctioned from Steve Vai, Eddie van Halen, Frankie Banali, Rustey Cooley, TNT, Tony Mills, Marcel Coenen, Shy, Joe Stump, Gus G & Phi Yaan-Zek: http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/coolenron

Memorabilia Auction on eBay !

As you may know many rock stars have donated some of their memorabilia to our Charity so we can auction them on eBay. The money of all winning bids will be donated to Jason. I already received some great stuff from many rockers, and there's some great stuff on it's way. The first items are now in the eBay shop:

- A guitar pick from Gus G. of Firewind

- A guitar pick of Steve Vai

- A signed CD 'State of mind' by Lalle LarsonIt's great stuff, many thanks to the artists for donating it ! Check them out at the Memorabilia Shop on eBay. I will be adding much more over the next weeks so stay tuned !

Jason Becker Pedal tested by Rusty Cooley

For those of you who are still not subscribed to ProTones blog on the development of the JASON BECKER PERPETUAL BURN DISTORTION PEDAL, here is the latest news, quoted from Dennis of ProTone:

“Monday July 28th I spent much of the day with ubershredder Rusty Cooley testing the myriad of prototypes of Perpetual Burn pedals constructed in an attempt to nail Jason Becker's amp tone.

I've never really addressed the importance of having a player of Rusty's caliber test the pedal. It’s actually quite simple- most distortion pedals don’t hold up well to high speed picking. They tend to mush up, or blur and you lose the attack of each note. There are very few people on this planet that can do what Jason did, and very few that can do what Rusty does. So I figured if this design can hold up to Rusty's furious picking speed it could withstand anything.

The final prototype candidate, the design I was pretty sure would be 'the one'… was exactly that! It nailed everything we wanted and needed from it! The notes, even at hyper, speed jumped out the amp each one ringing as clearly as the next. Massive amounts of sustain, crushing Marshall-ish distortion… smooth and silky tube overdrive when you dial the gain back, totally un-pedal-like in every aspect.”

Check out the video that was shot during RUSTY COOLEY’S testing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M0eKCwnG8A

Jason Becker Perpetual Burn Distortion Pedal !

Hi guys, there is some very exciting news around Jason Becker, especially for the guitarplayers among us. Very recently ProTone Pedals announced they are in the process of creating a 'Jason Becker Perpetual Burn Distortion Pedal', that will capture the incendiary tones from his Perpetual Burn album. This thing will be an amazing piece of gear, a classic distortion circuit feeding into an analog emulation of the Marshall amp Jason used to record the shred guitar landmark.
Jason's dad, Gary, who is a phenomenal artist as you all know, has contributed some wonderful art work for the pedal, you can get some taste of it here. Rusty Cooley, one of the best shredders of this moment, will be involved in testing the prototypes. Check and subscribe to the 'Jason Becker Perpetual Burn pedal' - blog on the ProTone pages: http://blog.protonepedals.com/categories/Perpetual%20Burn%20Blog.aspx , to stay on top of the progress of this great piece of development !

Also check the following links:

- Pro Tone Pedals MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/protonepedals
- Rusty Cooley MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/rustycooley

Thanks for showing your interest and affection for Jason through our page ! Make sure you check back regularly on the Jason Becker Charity page, there is some great stuff on the way in the next couple of weeks !

Send Jason Becker a birthday card !

On July 22 Jason will celebrate his 39th birthday. Let us all show our love, care, support and appreciation for Jason by sending him a personal birthday card. Send Jason whatever message you want to share; Jason will appreciate very much to hear from each and everyone of us !
You can send the card to the following address:
Jason Becker
P.O. Box 70513
Point Richmond, CA 94807
USA

We would not be a good Charity if we would not take this opportunity to ask for a donation to Jason. So please, if you can put a dollar or two in the envelope, that would be very appreciated, since Jason really needs our financial support to make sure he gets the appropriate care.

Also, please spread this request as much as you can, post bulletins, send it to your friends, re-post it again, just do whatever you can so Jason will have a birthday he will never forget !

Jason Becker Interview !

Somewhere in the next weeks I will do an interview with Jason Becker which is a fantastic opportunity for us, especially knowing that Jason has hardly given any interviews the last years. If you have any question you'd like to be asked to Jason on your behalf, then please let me know so I can include them in the interview. You can submit your questions by e-mail to ron.coolen@wxs.nl !

2nd memorabilia item up for auction

The auction period for the Marco Minnemann stuff has expired; the goodies are won by Dutchie Francoise Vaal based in Nederhorst den Berg, who made a very generous donation to the Jason Becker Charity ! Francoise many thanks for your support and Marco's stuff will be in the mail shortly !

We have a new auction item that will be given to the person with the highest donation between now and July 5. Again it's great stuff: a SIGNED Steve Stevens CD "Memory Crash", including 3 of Steve's Guitar picks.

Steve Stevens is of course very well known as the guitarplaying sidekick of Billy Idol, and also his solocareer is highly impressive. Please check Steve's MySpace site at: http://www.myspace.com/stevestevensmemorycrash . Steve, many thanks for donating this great package ! So please don't wait and don8 to help Jason Becker !

Aardschok.com story #3

Hi all,
as you may know the Jason Becker Charity has it's own blogspot on Aardschok.com, the website of the Dutch rockmagazine Aardschok. Yesterday I posted the 3rd blog. You can read it right here: http://aardschok.com/content/blogcategory/44/83/
You may need Google to translate it for you in your own language; anyway have fun reading, and thanks for your interest in Jason.

1st memorabilia item up for auction

As announced earlier, until November 2008 the Jason Becker Charity will be throwing in some rock memorabilia into an auction regularly. These items have been sponsored by some of the best rockstars this planet has to offer. Right now we put the first item up for auction. The principle is simple: the person with the highest donation for Jason Becker, will receive the item. The bid period will be from May 25 - June 14 (midnight).

This period’s item is a pair of signed Marco Minnemann drumsticks + a signed copy of the Marco Minnemann CD: 'House wife dog & two kids'.


Marco is one of the world’s most advanced drummers, who many of you probably know best from his collaboration with Paul Gilbert on the Space Ship One CD and Space Ship Live DVD (at least I did).Please visit Marco’s MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/marcominnemann and check out his impressive CV ! Many thanks to Marco for providing the stuff !
So don’t wait and DON8 !

Press in Aardschok Magazine

The Jason Becker Charity got some press in the leading Dutch Rockmagazine Aardschok. The article is in Dutch, so here's the English translation:

"Aardschok.com reporter Ron Coolen has set up a Charity to raise money for Jason Becker, who suffers from a very serious disease for a long time. Coolen will run the New York Marathon in November in order to raise awareness for his Charity and to collect money for Becker.
In the meantime Coolen has found a range of famous musicians supporting his Charity with the likes of Billy Sheehan, Steve Stevens, Kip Winger, Tommy Denander and the guys from Raven. For more information on this Charity and on how to donate you can visit http://runforjason.blogspot.com and www.myspace.com/roncoolen".

The word gets out and that makes me proud !

Promotion on Aardschok.com !

The famous Dutch Rockmagazine "Aardschok" has given us a special 'blogspot' on their website http://www.aardschok.com/. Here a special section called 'Run for Jason' is made, where we can post any message at any time on the Jason Becker Charity.

The Aardschok magazine has always supported Jason's career from the early Cacophony days and they feel very involved with him. For that reason they were very willing to contribute to the promotion of the Jason Becker Charity. Many thanks to Oscar, Dre and Metal Mike for making this happen !

Please take a look at http://aardschok.com/content/blogcategory/44/83/ and make sure to check regularly for updates.

Jason Becker Charity banners available !

There are 2 banners available for the Jason Becker Charity; the message being “Time to payback Jason Becker”. These banners are made to promote the Jason Becker Charity, this Charity has the aim to collect as many donations as possible from Jason Becker fans all over the world. All donations are used to help Jason to improve his life !

You can help promoting the Jason Becker Charity by putting one of these banners on your website and/or your blog. There is a horizontal and a vertical version of the banner available.
When you put these on your site please link them to: www.myspace.com/roncoolen or to http://runforjason.blogspot.com/ .

It would be great if you would help us promoting our initiative; every bit of help is needed and appreciated !

You can pick the banners from the 'pics' section on my MySpace site (www.myspace.com/roncoolen) or use the following URL's

URL Horizontal banner
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn145/Lukather99/MI_00108_JB_bannerh2BA99B.gif
URL Vertical banner:
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn145/Lukather99/MI_00108_JB_bannervert_002.gif

Message from Jason !

Jason posted following message on his MySpace blog, which is very interesting:

"Hey Guys and Girls,Ok, ok, I know I am a bunion licker. My "Jason Becker Collection" CD won't be out in May. D'oh! Dan my man, keeps getting great movie score gigs. We have finished two of three new songs, though, so I am betting on an August release. Hopefully, I am not full of crap this time (heh heh). Dan will probably hate me for giving another guess (sorry, Tweedle Dum). One new song has Steve Vai and Marty Friedman. I can't stop listening to it. They killed it. It is so great working with Marty again, and Steve, for the first time. The other version features Steve Hunter and Greg Howe, not to mention, me. They also kicked some furious ass. It ends with a beautiful choir.

The other new song has some brilliant playing by Joe Satriani and Michael Lee Firkins.

Are you tired of hearing the same stuff over and over yet? (ha ha)Marty Friedman just sent me his new CD called "Future Addict." Oh shit, I love it. The songs, production, musicians, singers, playing and tone are just awesome! He did new versions of the Cacophony songs, "Where My Fortune Lies" and "Burn the Ground." I think they are cooler than the originals. I suggest looking for it."

Take off like a rocket !

This week the Jason becker Charity really took off like a rocket ! It was unbelievable to see that the name of Jason Becker still means so much to so many people in the music industry.

I opened a Jason Becker Charity page on MySpace, a global network for musicians, and the response was really overwhelming ! Big rockstars like Vinnie Moore, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Billy Sheehan connected as friends, and also friends of Jason like Marty Friedman and Steve Hunter connected to my initiative, so I feel very honored as you can imagine.

Besides that people from all over the world, from Australia to Argentina and from Japan to the United States stopped by and paid their respect and offered their support ! So after months of thinking, the Charity is now really out there !

By the way, the training for the NYC marathon was pretty awful this week, because I got injured playing indoor soccer.... so let's keep fingers crossed that I can re-start training very soon, becauase it's still a long hard road to New York !

Run for Jason Becker

Welcome on the JASON BECKER CHARITY page. Through this initiative I will try to collect as many donations as possible for the great Jason Becker. This charity is set-up around the New York City Marathon which I will be running on November 2, 2008. Every type of support you can give, either by donating and/or promoting this Charity is very much appreciated.

Jason Becker was one of the world's most promosing guitarists when he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease) in 1991 and was given less than 3 years to live. Fortunately Jason is still around !

Being a huge Jason Becker fan for more than 20 years I felt we (= Jason Becker fans) needed to do something to payback Jason for the great things he gave us, especially knowing Jason himself is 24/7 totally dependent from the care of his family and friends, which is a very expensive operation. Therefore we need to help the Becker family by donating money. If we unite forces we can help them a lot. And Jason will get tremendous mental support, knowing that all his fans still very much care about him.

Please watch the amazing Jason Becker Documentary on YouTube and let yourself be inspired by his incredibly strong mind & will !