Eddie Trunk

Trunk was born on August 8, 1964, in Summit, New Jersey. He grew up in Madison, New Jersey, where he attended Madison High School.Horowitz, Ben. [http://www.eddietrunk.com/index.cfm?pid=400070 "Hard-rock jock blares his independence weekly"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080610094917/http://www.eddietrunk.com/index.cfm?pid=400070 |date=June 10, 2008 }}, copy of article from The Star-Ledger, April 16, 2000. Accessed November 8, 2008. As a teenager, Trunk became a fan of Kiss, Raspberries, and other bands including Aerosmith, Rush, UFO and Black Sabbath. During high school, he began to write reviews of records{{cite web|url=http://erikremec.com/eddietrunk.html|title=New York City's Rock Radio Savior|publisher=erikremec.com Retrieved June 14, 2012}} for school credit and soon found his passion in music.

Around 1986, Trunk became an employee of Megaforce Records which had signed both Metallica and Anthrax. He became vice president of the company at age 25. During that time, he earned executive producer credit on some works from bands like Anthrax, Raven, T.T. Quick, Manowar, Overkill, King's X, Prophet, Icon and Ace Frehley. In fact, Trunk was the main driving force behind reviving Ace Frehley's career, convincing Megaforce Records head Jon Zazula to sign Frehley to a solo deal.

Around 1997, WNEW FM was looking to become a more "heavy" station and move away from their classic rock playlist. Trunk was one of the first people hired for the new concept. He wanted to do a metal show for the station, and eventually Saturday Night Rocks was born. WNEW became a talk radio station, but Trunk's show was one of the few retained.

From late 1983 through 1994, Trunk became a fixture at WDHA, the station he grew up listening to. Over the 10 years he spent at DHA (all on a part-time basis), he hosted, produced, and programmed the stations popular metal show, in addition to doing regular airshifts, remote broadcasts, interviews, and promotions.

Trunk hosted Friday Night Rocks and Saturday Night Rocks for WNEW-FM in New York City until the radio station underwent a format change in 2003. He was also a regular disc jockey on Q104.3 before joining WNEW-FM and was a VJ who hosted the weekend episodes of Metal Mania on the cable television channel VH1 Classic.

He also hosted a weekly Saturday four-hour program on XM Radio's Ozzy's Boneyard Channel. Trunk was suspended after an interview with New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza in which Piazza was critical of XM Radio's programming on the Boneyard Channel.{{cite web |title=Eddie Trunk dumped from XM because of Mike Piazza |url=http://www.orbitcast.com/archives/eddie-trunk-dumped-from-xm-because-of-mike-piazza.html |work=Orbitcast |publisher=Orbitcast Media, LLC |access-date=September 26, 2012 |date=August 29, 2005 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121006232859/http://www.orbitcast.com/archives/eddie-trunk-dumped-from-xm-because-of-mike-piazza.html |archive-date=October 6, 2012 }} Trunk was not heard on XM again until late November 2006, when he appeared on the Ron and Fez show to announce his return to XM. He began hosting Eddie Trunk Live on the Boneyard beginning the first week in December 2006.

In May 2006, Guns N' Roses lead singer Axl Rose made a surprise visit on Trunk's Q104.3 radio show. Rose walked in unexpectedly to Trunk's radio studio in New York and spent two and a half hours live on the air with Trunk and other guests.{{cite web|title=DJ Eddie Trunk Talks About AXL ROSE's Surprise Visit To New York Radio Station|url=http://blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=52064|work=Blabbermouth.net|publisher=Warner Music Group|access-date=September 26, 2012|author=David Hinckley|date=May 10, 2006|archive-date=February 21, 2013|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130221141657/http://blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=52064|url-status=dead}}

Trunk was also the host and co-producer of That Metal Show, which aired weekly on VH1 Classic from 2008 to 2015.{{cite web|title=That Metal Show|url=http://www.vh1.com/shows/that_metal_show/series.jhtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101012205906/http://www.vh1.com/shows/that_metal_show/series.jhtml|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 12, 2010|work=VH1|publisher=Viacom International Inc|access-date=September 26, 2012|year=2012}}

Trunk has written two books, Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Vol 1 & 2.

Trunk revealed in 2019 that he had recorded backing vocals on Anthrax's 1989 cover of the KISS song "Parasite" and was credited in the special thanks as Ed "Parasite" Trunk.{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGOcNOxgmsg | title=- YouTube | website=YouTube }}

File:That Metal Show at Rock on the Range 2016.jpg

As of 2012, Trunk's current work includes the nationally syndicated radio show, Eddie Trunk Rocks, which is recorded at the New York radio station, Q104.3 (WAXQ), on the FM frequency, and is syndicated by Radio KG.{{cite web|title=New York City's Rock Radio Savior|url=http://erikremec.com/eddietrunk.html|work=FREE! Magazine Reprint|publisher=FREE! Magazine|access-date=September 26, 2012|author=Erik Remec |date=March 25, 2007}}{{cite web|title=Eddie Trunk Rocks|url=http://radiokg.com/eddietrunk.html|work=Radio KG|publisher=Kahn Goldman Broadcasting|access-date=September 26, 2012|year=2012}} Trunk also hosts Trunk Nation on the Sirius XM Radio channels Faction Talk (Channel 103) and Hair Nation (Channel 39) (formerly known as Eddie Trunk Live when Trunk was with The Boneyard station),{{cite web|access-date=May 24, 2008 |url=http://www.xmradio.com/onxm/channelbio.xmc?ch=41 |title=In the Studio at Boneyard |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071030182026/http://www.xmradio.com/onxm/channelbio.xmc?ch=41 |archive-date=October 30, 2007}} and is a music host and interviewer for the MSG Network, a cable network based out of New York City. He hosts "The Eddie Trunk Podcast" on PodcastOne.{{cite web|title=Bio |url=http://www.eddietrunk.com/index.cfm/pk/content/pid/400026 |work=Eddie Truck |publisher=Paid Inc |access-date=September 26, 2012 |year=2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120924140626/http://www.eddietrunk.com/index.cfm/pk/content/pid/400026 |archive-date=September 24, 2012 }}

Eddie hosted the Hall of Heavy Metal History on January 18, 2017.{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/scorpions-metal-blade-records-nominated-to-hall-of-heavy-metal-history-w457434|title=Scorpions Among Nominees for Hall of Heavy Metal History|first=Althea|last=Legaspi|magazine=Rolling Stone|date=December 22, 2016}}

Trunk is outspoken in his contempt of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, calling it the "Hall of Shame". Trunk has blogged and commented over the open air on That Metal Show his disgust at the Hall for almost entirely ignoring heavy metal and hard rock, citing examples such as Dio being passed over in favor of Madonna and ABBA. Trunk became a voting member of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015. As of January 2017, Trunk has somewhat backed away from his earlier criticism of the hall citing progress made in the enshrining of bands such as Rush, Kiss, Cheap Trick, Deep Purple, Def Leppard and Journey.{{cite web |title=That Metal Show, Season 6 Ep. 8 |url=http://www.vh1.com/video/that-metal-show/full-episodes/slash/1653740/playlist.jhtml |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121127172200/http://www.vh1.com/video/that-metal-show/full-episodes/slash/1653740/playlist.jhtml |archive-date=November 27, 2012 }}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Official website|http://www.eddietrunk.com}}
• [https://twitter.com/eddietrunk Eddie Trunk's Twitter account]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_noBAapoFY Eddie Trunk interview]

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Category:1964 births

Category:American hard rock musicians

Category:American people of Italian descent

Category:American radio personalities

Category:American television personalities

Category:Living people

Category:Madison High School (New Jersey) alumni

Category:People from Madison, New Jersey