Our friend, Charles Lewis, better known as “Mask”, co-founder of MMA apparel company, TapouT, died early this morning in a tragic car crash in Newport Beach, California.

Mask’s family, friends, Punkass, Skyscrape and the entire crew at Tapout are in the thoughts and prayers of all of us here at Mainline Nation. R.I.P Mask, gone but will never be forgotten.

Check out the tribute photo album that Tracy at Combat Lifestyle has compiled as well as the the video of Mask’s final interview with Dub Magazine shot just two days ago on March 10th.

Serra Scars, famed host of Hollywood Music Television joins the family at Mainline Nation. Having interviewed a who’s who of the modern rock and metal world, including Disturbed, Stone Sour, Atreyu, Five Finger Death Punch, The Devil Wears Prada, Bleeding Through, 36 Crazyfists, Testament, Powerman 5000, and Silverstein just to name a few, Serra has gained fame for her no bullshit, on point questions and of course her incredible looks. Catch her daily at HollywoodMusic.TV.

These guys are nuts…..

For 20 years, Guitar Center has been committed to providing drummers across the country the opportunity to pursue their musical aspirations and achieve their dreams by hosting the world’s largest drum competition: Guitar Center Drum-Off. This year, nearly 5,000 drummers from across the country are competing for a chance to win over $45,000 in cash and prizes, and to be crowned Guitar Center’s Drum-Off champion 2008.

Many of today’s most influential and respected drummers have embraced Guitar Center’s Drum-Off over the past two decades by participating in the program: Chad Smith (RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS), Josh Freese (NINE INCH NAILS), ?uestlove (THE ROOTS), Stewart Copeland (THE POLICE) Alan White (YES), Tommy Lee (MÖTLEY CRÜE), Travis Barker (BLINK 182), Adrian Young (NO DOUBT), Shannon Leto (30 SECONDS TO MARS), Brooks Wackerman (BAD RELIGION), Stephen Perkins (JANE’S ADDICTION), Danny Carey (TOOL) and Jason Bonham (LED ZEPPELIN) are among the dozens of established drummers who have either performed or served as judges at previous Guitar Center Drum-Off events.

Past Guitar Center Drum-Off champs have gone on to have incredibly successful careers including Cora “CC” Dunham (PRINCE; Drum-Off ’02 champ), Eric Moore (BOBBY BROWN, SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE, INFECTIOUS GROOVES; Drum-Off ’03 champ), Tony Royster Jr. (JAY Z; Drum-Off ’95 champ) and Thomas Pridgen (THE MARS VOLTA), who became the Guitar Center Drum-Off champion in 1993 when he was just 9 years old!

Like all Guitar Center music programs, Drum-Off is designed to provide developing artists with support-based opportunities that vastly improve the potential for their success as professional musicians. Guitar Center’s Drum-Off ’08 champion will win an impressive package of prizes, including $25,000 cash, a Roland TD-20 kit, and a custom designed drum kit by DW, Pearl, Gretsch, Tama, or Orange Country Drums as well as a drum, stick, cymbal, and drum head endorsement deals, be featured in Modern Drummer magazine, and in a Guitar Center ad campaign, along with a VIP appearance at NAMM 2009 and shopping sprees with Levi’s, Converse and Guitar Center. A Monster Energy Drink endorsement deal is also part of the prize package, making the total prize package worth over $45,000. In addition, Sabian, Zildjian, Remo, Pro-Mark, Vic Firth, Evans and Rhythm Tech are all proud sponsors of Drum-Off ’08.

Following the regional finals on December 2, finalists will be headed for Los Angeles in January, where they will perform before a panel of celebrity judges to see who will become Drum-Off ’08 champion.

This is an all-ages show. Tickets are $15 at www.TicketWeb.com.

The tour, which kicks off on January 23rd in St. Paul, MN, includes stops at Madison Square Garden in NYC and Rupp Arena in Lexington, KY. Internet presales will be available via Ticketmaster and will commence with a special fan presale on Friday, December 5 (password: Noworld), while the majority of dates will go on sale December 6th.

The dates are as follows:

01/23/09- Xcel Energy Center – St. Paul, MN
01/24/09- Sprint Center – Kansas City, MO
01/25/09- Mid America Center – Council Bluffs, IA
01/27/09- Alliant Energy Center Memorial Coliseum – Madison, WI
01/28/09- Wells Fargo Arena – Des Moines, IA
01/30/09- Allstate Arena – Rosemont, IL
01/31/09- The Palace of Auburn Hills – Auburn Hills, MI
02/02/09- Peoria Civic Center – Peoria, IL
02/03/09- Pepsi Coliseum – Indianapolis, IN
02/05/09- Madison Square Garden – New York, NY
02/06/09- Tsongas Arena – Lowell, MA
02/07/09- Susquehanna Bank Center – Camden, NJ
02/09/09- Greensboro Coliseum Complex – Greensboro, NC
02/10/09- Cricket Arena – Charlotte, NC
02/11/09- Bi-Lo Center – Greenville, SC
02/13/09- 1st Mariner Arena – Baltimore, MD
02/14/09- Rupp Arena – Lexington, KY
02/15/09- Sommet Center – Nashville, TN
02/17/09- Gwinnett Center – Duluth, GA
02/18/09- UCF Arena – Orlando, FL
02/19/09- Pensacola Civic Center – Pensacola, FL
02/21/09- Concrete Street Amphitheater – Corpus Christi, TX
02/22/09- Nokia Theatre – Grand Prairie, TX
02/23/09- BOK Center – Tulsa, OK
02/25/09- Verizon Wireless Theater – Houston, TX
02/26/09- Verizon Wireless Theater – Houston, TX
02/28/09- El Paso County Coliseum – El Paso, TX
03/01/09- Freeman Coliseum – San Antonio, TX
03/03/09- Denver Coliseum – Denver, CO
03/04/09- Tingley Coliseum – Albuquerque, NM
03/05/09- Jobing.com Arena – Glendale, AZ
03/07/09- The Forum – Inglewood, CA
03/08/09- Cox Arena – San Diego, CA
03/10/09- Citizens Business Bank Arena – Ontario, CA
03/11/09- ARCO Arena – Sacramento, CA

Jay White, former Marine and Randy Couture’s long time friend and jiu-jitsu instructor, hails from Las Vegas, Nevada. Jay states he is eagerly awaiting to compete against Texas heavyweight sensation Ralph “The Machine Gun” Kelley. Ralph’s upset victory over UFC’s Mark Kerr just goes to show, DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS!

They say that a Hurricane wreaks havoc over whatever path it chooses to follow. On the same token, they say that a Scorpions sting is one of the deadliest in the world! This sounds like a recipe for some SERIOUS NIGHT OF ACTION! Come see Dallas Bad-Boy Ira “The Hurricane” Boyd as he challenges Corpus Christi’s rising sensation Danny “The Scorpion” Perez for our first ever 170 Title.

Katana is also proud to host the hard hitting grappler from Houston (Daniel “The Pit” Pineda) vs Corpus Christi’s very own (ALPHA DOG – Ira Evansen.) The title is on the line folks! Who really is the TOP DOG? Come to Katana Cagefighting “Conquest” on December 6 and find out!

On top of our 3 highly anticipated Main Events, we are hosting 6 incredible fighters in a Welterweight Challenger Series. The top welterweights will face off in the 170 lbs semi-final’s.

JOHN SPRINGER from Harlingen, TX will face CONAN CANO of Corpus Christi, TX
MIKEL BRONZOVLIS from Houston, TX will face MARK ORTIZ of Corpus Christi, TX
KYO GREGOIRE from San Antonio, TX will face JARRETT JONES of Odessa, TX
GOOD LUCK TO ALL OUR WELTERWEIGHTS!

In celebration of Halloween, we’re unveiling to the world for the very first time, the new Diecast single, "Sanctified".

For more information about Diecast, visit Diecast1.net, Myspace.com/Diecast, or their family page at MainlineNation.com

 Happy Halloween to all our friends out there.

The episode tells the stories of three motorcycle crews who perform extremely dangerous stunts and hope, one day, to become professional stunt-bike riders. Crews include Geared Up, working-class brothers, Aaron and Jacob Brunelle, who long to quit their father’s business so they can ride full-time; Triplextreme, who may not stay together because they can’t survive if riding is their only job; and the Pure Bred Riders, who, in contrast, love the outlaw lifestyle and have no intention of becoming X-Games stars.

“I haven't fought all year, but I don't think it's going to affect me at all. Chase just fought Eric Pele, one of my training partners, so I'm pretty prepared for what he will bring,” stated MMA heavyweight Jay White as he talked about his upcoming clash with Chase Gormley at the October 11th Affliction card. Check it out.

PC: How is everything going my man?

JW: Alright. It's going pretty well.

PC: You're scheduled to be on the next Affliction show in October. Can you tell us more about that?

JW: Yes. I'm fighting October 11th. I will be fighting Chase Gormley. He's 6-0.

PC: You're known as the guy with one of the most deceiving records in MMA. Can you explain how you sort of jumped in head first and were misguided?

JW: I started off and my first professional fight was against Christian Wellisch in the WEC and it was a tough fight. I felt that I won. It was pretty controversial. The fight got restarted and it was a bad fight. My third fight, I was fighting Jeff Monson on 10 days notice and I was winning that fight. I was beating him and he ended up winning because I got injured. I rematched him and he won fair and square; he caught me in a choke. Then I fought Burch, who was a last minute opponent, and then I lost to Jake O' Brien. I don't know man, nobody really looked out for me and who I was fighting. No one really built me up. I just fought whoever; I didn't really care. I just wanted to fight.

PC: Now, you're over at Xtreme Couture. How much has that helped your career and your training?

JW: It's helped both tremendously. Randy has been great to me. The gym is wonderful. They have a ton of big guys to train with. A lot of great guys like Robert Drysdale, Shawn Tompkins and Chris Ben, the boxing coach, so we have great trainers and great workout partners. My game itself has came up tremendously and plus you have Randy himself pulling for you so that can get me a better deal when I have Randy telling people how good I am. People tend to listen to him, you know?

PC: Definitely. The last time you fought, I was actually there live when you submitted Patrick Castillo. That was nearly a year ago. Do you fear you will have some rust or have you been in the gym enough for it not to affect you?

JW: Yeah, my last fight was in December. I haven't fought all year, but I don't think it's going to affect me at all. Chase just fought Eric Pele, one of my training partners, so I'm pretty prepared for what he will bring. I don't think the rust will really matter in this fight at all.

PC: You've helped a lot of big name guys train for their fights. I remember Juanito thanking you for helping Kongo prepare for Herring. Who are some of the guys you've helped and how much does that help your game?

JW: It all started with Randy calling me up and asking me to help him out for the Gonzaga fight and then, training at Xtreme Couture, I got Throwdown as one of my sponsors and that's how I got hooked up with Rampage and Cheick. I was Cheick's sparring partner for the Heath Herring fight. It was great working with Cheick Kongo; great experience working with him, Rampage and Juanito. Just recently, I was Herring's sparring partner for Brock Lesnar. I work out with great guys every day: Mike Whitehead, Mike Pyle, Jay Hieron, Eric Pele, Randy, Wanderlei and Forrest Griffin. I work out with a lot of those guys so it's stepped up my whole game tremendously.

PC: Affliction's heavyweight division is stacked with talent. How does it feel to be a part of that? Also, how important is a win against Gormley to assert yourself in the mix of the division?

JW: It's great! Affliction is doing great things and I couldn't ask for a better contract or to be with a better organization. The heavyweight division is stacked. Chase is 6-0 and he just beat Eric and Eric has a really good record, so this would put me on the map. Guys look at my record and think I'm just a stepping stone, you know?

PC: Your record is very deceiving. How many wins do you feel you are away from people thinking you're a stepping stone?

JW: I was hoping to fight Roy Nelson because that would have catapulted me huge, but unfortunately, he's fighting Paul, but it is what it is. They'll start to see. A couple of wins from now, depending upon who I fight, they'll see who I am and what I can really do.

PC: We'll get a lot more from you on the site Jay. Good luck against Gormley. Is there anything you want to say in closing?

JW: I just want to thank my sponsors, Xtreme Couture, Throwdown and Mainline Nation. Thanks to all of my training partners and everybody that has helped me out.

To read the article in it’s original form, visit FightHype.com