Metal Magnolia: ADRENALINE PR's MARIA FERRERO Puts Her Heart Into Heavy Music
March 3, 2006Jennifer S. Doktorski of the Asbury Park Press has issued the following report:
The story of how Maria Ferrero, founder of Adrenaline PR in Freehold, got turned on to music is a familiar one. When she was 13, her friend's sister played her BLACK SABBATH's "Paranoid".
"I was hooked from that moment on," Ferrero said.
The story of how a self-described "punk girl" from Old Bridge came to earn the reputation as a music publicity powerhouse is nothing short of serendipity.
In 1981, when Ferrero was 16, a friend took her to buy a record … MOTÖRHEAD on clear vinyl … out of his neighbor's garage.
"The neighbor(s) (were) none other than Jon and Marsha Zazula. They had a flea-market record shop on Route 18 in East Brunswick and on weekdays my friend would go to their house to buy music," Ferrero said.
Luminaries in the heavy metal world, Jon and Marsha Zazula, through their record label Megaforce and management company Crazed, introduced the world to METALLICA. When Ferrero met them in 1981, the young couple's daughter, Rikki, was 9 months old. Ferrero became the Zazulas' babysitter, friend and eventually a Megaforce employee.
In 1985, in preparation for a trip to Europe with ANTHRAX, Jon Zazula asked Ferrero to write and send a letter to the European metal magazines inviting them to interview the two new band members. The trip and interviews went well.
After that, Ferrero was dubbed "The Publicist."
"I did not even know what a publicist was or meant. That was the beginning," Ferrero said.
Two decades later, ANTHRAX is one of approximately 15 artists on the Adrenaline PR roster.
Those who know Ferrero best say that her firm's slogan, "turning artists into household names since 1983," is not an exaggeration.
"Maria was always a pit bull," Marsha Zazula said. "She went after things with more tenacity than I have ever seen in a young person. She never accepted "no' for an answer. She always delivers for her bands."
Read the rest of the article at www.app.com.
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