Iraqi Heavy Metal Band Asks for Help as They Fight to Survive

When Rock Daily reported on the stirring Spike Jonze-produced documentary Heavy Metal in Baghdad as part of our Toronto International Film Festival coverage, we were told the bandmembers' situation was dire. Now new information has emerged about Acrassicauda, Iraq's only heavy-metal band, and their fight to survive. The group, which formed in 2001 and was influenced by Metallica, Slayer and Slipknot, almost immediately began receiving death threats from fundamentalists who called their music Satantic -- playing in public became almost impossible, and even practicing was dangerous. Like approximately two million other Iraqis, they fled their home country and became war refugees in Syria, but as of October 10th, their visas expire -- if they return home, they will almost certainly die. Now the filmmakers who documented their struggle in the film are asking for help raising money to relocate the band someplace safer (they're not disclosing where for fear of endangering the band further). For more information and instructions on how to donate, check out the movie's Web site.

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Song Stories

“Oh Sherrie”

Steve Perry | 1984

Steve Perry's girlfriend Sherrie Swafford was actually in the studio when Perry began writing this song--his lone Top Ten hit as a solo act--with two co-writers. The trio began at midnight one night with just "Oh, Sherrie!" and "hold on, hold on." Three hours later, they had a complete song. Swafford, however, had to wait until the next day to hear it. "Sherrie actually got tired and went to bed," Perry said. She also appeared in the video, but their relationship did not hold on for long.

More Song Stories entries »

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