In preparation for Revolver’s March 15 Raw Power Management/The Agency Group SXSW showcase in Austin, Texas, we asked Cristina Scabbia of Lacuna Coil to list her six favorite things about Texas.

Here goes!

01. The music scene, which is getting bigger and bigger and more vibrant than ever in Texas. SXSW and lots of musicians moving there are the proof that Texas is a state that has respect for music and creativity. I can’t wait to perform at SXSW; it’s our first time with Lacuna Coil, and everybody is already telling us it’s going to be amazing!

02. I love to eat, and when it comes to the States I like to get myself some comfort food every now and then. I’m always happy to stop to taste some Tex-Mex food. I’ve never been disappointed. (I also highly recommend the Big Texan in Amarillo; it’s a very characteristic place with great food, a place where you can dare to try to finish a 72-ounce steak in less than an hour, and not only the steak)! And the Blue Bell ice cream is Texan … helloooo?!?

03. It will sound silly but I have to say it: cowboy hats. Imagine the perspective of somebody coming from Italy where everything related to the States is pretty much in the American movies full of cowboys and horses, played on TV. That’s why, the first time we played in Texas with Lacuna Coil, it was the very first thing I bought. I wore it all the time. Black, of course. In Europe I would look a little strange with it, but when I was in Texas it made perfect sense to me!

04. Cowboy boots. Being a woman, it’s kinda normal that I’m in love with a well-manufactured shoe, hahaha! Some boots are absolute works of art with their different materials and different textures, the designs, the way some of them are embroidered. I love the art some shoemakers are putting in their handmade boots, and of course, some of the best boots around are made in Texas. I wish I could learn to put together a pair of boots from scratch!

05. Six Flag park. I enjoy roller coasters, and when I tried the Titan, I learnt a new concept of the word “roller coaster.” I think I lost 10 years off my life ’cause I was terrified by one of the “falls.” I LOVED IT!!! Can’t wait to go back again!

06. Chuck Norris, of course. He already knew you guys would have asked, and he already knew I would have answered this, of course.

Visit Lacuna Coil on Facebook, and look out for the next Top Six Fave Things About Texas blog post next week!

Revolver‘s SXSW showcase will take place Friday, March 15, at the Dirty Dog Bar, 505 E. 6th St. in Austin. The show, which is presented by Raw Power Management and The Agency Group, kicks off 8 p.m. (doors 7:30 p.m.). Here’s the lineup: 8 p.m., Immanu El | 8:45 p.m., Monster Truck | 9:30 p.m., Crossfaith | 10:15 p.m., Young Guns | 11 p.m., Of Mice And Men | midnight, Chiodos | 1 a.m., Lacuna Coil

The show is presented in association with Revolver, Drop Dead Clothing and Tillys. Poster art (below) by Brian Ewing.

You can read an exclusive interview with Lacuna Coil frontwoman Cristina Scabbia discussing the upcoming record, here. Revolver‘s January/February issue (available here and on newsstands everywhere) features a new, in-depth interview with Scabbia.

Mic Mishap
“We were playing in San Francisco a few years ago, and the roadies didn’t set the microphone up properly. The stand wasn’t really stable, and it was moving all by itself. The first thing I do when I go onstage is, like, a violent headbang right near the mic stand, but this time my head went right into it. My forehead cut open above the right eye. I was bleeding like hell, but I didn’t realize it. The next thing I know, my face is hot and wet and I don’t know why. I looked at Marco , and he just turned white. I put my hand up to my face and it came back red. I didn’t know what to do, so I just hid my face behind my hair and finished the concert. In the end, the cut was not that bad, but I still have a little scar.”

DiGiorgio Who?
“At that same San Francisco show, I was on the bus putting on my makeup before the gig. The other guys were in the venue. The door of the bus opened, and I see this guy with long blond hair walk up. He was obviously not a regular fan, and he asked me where the guys were. Then he says, ‘By the way, I’m Steve.’ So I shook his hand and said, ‘Cristina. Nice to meet you.’ Then he grabbed my hand again and goes, ‘DiGiorgio.’ But I had no idea who he was—I was not familiar with any of his bands at that time. So I just said, ‘Scabbia!’ The guys still make fun of me for that one.”

Ponytail Up
“Around the time of Comalies, we were playing in Vienna, Austria. My hair was a little shorter back then, so I was wearing a fake ponytail onstage. At a certain point during the show, I must’ve been headbanging and I didn’t realize that my ponytail just flew away. At the very end of the show, we bowed to the crowd, and as I look down I see what looks like a dead cat. Of course it was the ponytail. Everyone at the show probably saw it fly off.”

Falling Angel
“At the Electric Factory in Philadelphia, I slipped onstage and fell right on my butt. It was a part where I was singing, so I couldn’t stop. Instead of getting up, I just lay down on the stage completely and finished the song. The guys were just looking at me, like, ‘What the fuck are you doing?’ It happened again at Ozzfest not long after that. I actually fell all the way offstage that time. I don’t know how I didn’t break a leg. I probably walk too much onstage, I think. I need to fucking stand still.”

Leaving Las Vegas
“In 2006, we went on tour with Rob Zombie. After the Vegas show, he knocked on the door of our dressing room and tells us that his friend Nic really enjoyed the show and wanted to come and say hi. So he asked if he could bring him into our dressing room for a minute. Of course we said yes. So he calls his friend in, and Nicolas Cage appears at the door of the dressing room. It was one of those moments where you don’t know if you are on Candid Camera or what. We just looked at each other like, ‘That’s fucking Nicolas Cage!’ It was awkward, but fantastic.”

Gigantour, featuring Lacuna Coil, dates:

01/26 Camden, NJ, Susquehanna Bank Center
01/27 Uncasville, CT, Mohegan Sun Arena
01/28 New York, NY, Theater at Madison Square Garden
01/29 Lowell, MA, Tsongas Arena
02/01 Glens Falls, NY, Glens Falls Civic Center
02/02 Quebec City, QC, Colisee Pepsi Arena
02/03 Montreal, QC, Bell Centre
02/05 Kingston, ON, K-Rock Centre
02/07 Oshawa, ON, General Motors Centre
02/08 Hamilton, ON, Copps Coliseum
02/09 Auburn Hills, MI, Palace of Auburn Hills
02/10 Chicago, IL, Aragon Ballroom
02/12 Milwaukee, WI, Eagles Ballroom
02/14 St. Paul, MN, Myth
02/16 Saskatoon, SK, Prairieland
02/17 Edmonton, AB, Shaw Conference Centre
02/18 Calgary, AB, Big 4 Building
02/20 Abbotsford, BC, Abbotsford Ent & Sports Centre
02/21 Kent, WA, Showare Center
02/23 San Jose, CA, Events Center
02/24 Universal City, CA, Gibson Amphitheatre
02/25 Phoenix, AZ, Comerica Theatre
02/26 Albuquerque, NM,Tingley Coliseum
02/28 Denver, CO, The Fillmore Auditorium

REVOLVER What are your feelings about the album right now?
CRISTINA SCABBIA I feel fucking great, man. I know that, of course, you know, you couldn’t expect a different opinion from me because, of course, I’m part of the project. But I really feel that it is really, really a good album with good songs. I think that it totally captures the essence of Lacuna Coil because it’s definitely a mixture of our roots and something completely new. We never repeated ourself with any album, but this one, it’s a perfect balance between the old stuff and the new. And the new stuff, it’s more obscure than the usual. It’s definitely heavier–the sound is way heavier than we did before. A lot of people will be surprised. I think so.

Because of the heaviness of it?
I believe that, you know, it’s something that they don’t really expect from us. They probably expect us to go, I don’t know, more melodic and mellow and actually this is not the direction we are taking. We’re kind of getting heavier while everybody else is getting mellower.

Did you guys have specific aims when you went into the studio?
No, not really, because I think that when you are writing songs, it’s not about what you want to achieve. You just go with the flow and you just like what you hear. And if you like something, you just, like, work on it. I don’t think it would make sense for us just to think about a song or like, Oh, the album is going to sound like that. That wouldn’t be honest and that wouldn’t be hard, you know? Of course, you kind of know what you want to do, just because you know that’s your taste, but you don’t really know what’s gonna be the final result. You just, you know, put down layers and layers and layers and layers, and then you just hear the result at the very end. Actually, after the mixing you’re just like, Oh, wow! It’s hard to see things, you know. You just kind of draw the image of what you think it’s gonna be, but you don’t really know what’s gonna be in the end.

Did you guys do anything different this time around?
Well, what we did is that we basically felt free to do what we wanted to in the songwriting period. We wrote a little bit of everything ’cause we didn’t really know what clear direction we wanted to follow. We know that we wanted to go heavier and darker because that’s we like, that’s what we are, but we felt free to throw every idea in the pot. And that gave us an amazing feeling because we were all like, Wow, we are in the position where we can be free to do whatever we want because we never got any pressure from the label or anything. And I’m actually really happy about [futureusgallerythat] because we can be artistically free without anybody telling us what to do. And that made us feel great and hungry for more material, and it just ended up that we had so many songs to choose from.

So I believe that probably the difference was that we were really, really artistically creative and really, really, really extremely passionate about it. Not that we weren’t in the past, but we just felt that we had more time. We kind of took a little break, so, you know how it is, it’s like after you take a vacation, you know, you’re full of energy, just want to do a lot of stuff. So after we took a little break form the tour, I guess that all we wanted was to write music and you can totally hear it.

Are you anxious to get back on the road, especially after being in the studio for so long, and play the new material for people?
You know, I love touring because, if you love music, if you’re passionate about it, it’s the best job in the world, you know? It might be really hard at times because there’s no private life anymore, you know, personal life because you’re far from the people you love. You can’t be in your own bathroom, you know, little things in life. But, you know, I love to travel, I love to find out different cultures and different types of food that I don’t know, meet people. I just love that and I love the music we are doing with the band, so that’s the best job in the world. And we haven’t been touring for a while so it’s gonna be fun. Sometime I just wish we could have, you know, like, an insane budget so we could put up like a super theatrical show, very entertaining, but sometimes it’s not possible. We have a lot of ideas so we’re gonna try to make them real.

What do you think is the sexiest hard rock or metal song?
The sexiest metal song. Oooh, that’s a tough question. What do you mean with the sexiest one, like, the one that I would use to… I don’t know.

Just something that sounds sexy to you.
Oh my God, I don’t know if I can consider it metal but I like very much “Closer” from Nine Inch Nails. And I think that anything from Nine Inch Nails would be really, really sexy–I mean, at least if you like that sexy with a little bit of a twist, which I like.

Motörhead frontman, Lemmy Kilmister, spoke of his excitement gearing up for the tour.

“We’ve done festivals in Europe with Lacuna Coil and they’re workaholics as well!” Lemmy stated. “Volbeat are great too; the whole bill is pretty diverse and I advise everyone who likes being deaf, and/or can lip-read already, to come out and see what the stuff that doesn’t get any MTV Video Awards sounds like! Gigantour is just that!”

Volbeat vocalist-guitarist Michael Poulsen explained that the tour presented an unmissable opportunity.

“This is something you don’t think twice about; it’s a must and a blessing,” Poulsen said. “They [futureusgalleryMegadeth and Motörhead] are two of the world’s biggest/best and most important bands in heavy rock history.  Since the beginning, Megadeth and Motörhead have been a huge inspiration of my/our musical careers.  To have the opportunity to go on the road and share the stage with these two legendary rock bands, is another dream come true in the Volbeat adventure. We are very thankful and cannot wait to play in front of these two legendary bands’ audience for some intense minutes of Volbeat rock!”

Cristina Scabbia, vocalist for Lacuna Coil, who are returning for their second Gigantour, also spoke of her excitement.

“WOW! Gigantour! I am super excited!!” Scabbia exclaimed. “I mean are you kidding me? A tour with Megadeth, Motörhead, Vollbeat and us? This is going to be so crushing that I think the walls are gonna fall down in some of the venues!! Are you guys ready? I definitely am!”

Gigantour dates:
01/26 Camden, NJ, Susquehanna Bank Center
01/27 Uncasville, CT, Mohegan Sun Arena
01/28 New York, NY, Theater at Madison Square Garden
01/29 Lowell, MA, Tsongas Arena
02/01 Glens Falls, NY, Glens Falls Civic Center
02/02 Quebec City, QC, Colisee Pepsi Arena
02/03 Montreal, QC, Bell Centre
02/05 Kingston, ON, K-Rock Centre
02/07 Oshawa, ON, General Motors Centre
02/08 Hamilton, ON, Copps Coliseum
02/09 Auburn Hills, MI, Palace of Auburn Hills
02/10 Chicago, IL, Aragon Ballroom
02/12 Milwaukee, WI, Eagles Ballroom
02/14 St. Paul, MN, Myth
02/16 Saskatoon, SK, Prairieland
02/17 Edmonton, AB, Shaw Conference Centre
02/18 Calgary, AB, Big 4 Building
02/20 Abbotsford, BC, Abbotsford Ent & Sports Centre
02/21 Kent, WA, Showare Center
02/23 San Jose, CA, Events Center
02/24 Universal City, CA, Gibson Amphitheatre
02/25 Phoenix, AZ, Comerica Theatre
02/26 Albuquerque, NM,Tingley Coliseum
02/28 Denver, CO, The Fillmore Auditorium

Lacuna Coil frontwoman Cristina Scabbia is featured in our Hottest Chicks in Hard Rock issue, on newsstands now and available online here.