Food Truck & Rock Carnival Comes to Clark This Friday through Sunday

WHO: King’s X, performing at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Food Truck & Rock Carnival. The festival features hard rock performances, 40 food trucks, amusement rides, independent professional wrestling and more.

WHAT: Hard rock.

WHEN: 5 to 11 p.m. Friday, noon to 11 p.m. Saturday, noon to 10:30 p.m. Sunday.

WHERE: Oak Ridge Park, 136 Oak Ridge Road, Clark. therockcarnival.com.

HOW MUCH: Festival area free. Entrance to concert area $60, children under 16 $29.99; children under 10 free. Weekend pass $100; children under 16 $39.99; children under 10 free. Friday concerts are all tribute bands; free admission.

MORE INFO: kingsxrocks.com and facebook.com/jerrygaskill.

MUSIC SCHEDULE:

FRIDAY: All tribute bands, including acts paying homage to Ozzy Osbourne, Tool, Rage Against the Machine and more.

SATURDAY: Slash, Three Days Grace, Black Label Society, Sevendust, King’s X, Puddle of Mud, Skid Row, Kix, Stephen Pearcy and more.

SUNDAY: Godsmack, Stone Temple Pilots, Clutch, Anthrax, Lita Ford, TT Quick and more.

On Saturday, King’s X drummer Jerry Gaskill will take the stage one year after suffering his second heart attack. Previously, the veteran hard rocker lost his Highlands home during Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Earlier that year, Gaskill had a major heart attack that left him in an induced coma for three weeks.

“It’s an amazing thing to be able to still be playing given what I’ve went through,” said Gaskill, a Bridgeton (Cumberland County) native and Red Bank resident. “I’m feeling greater now than I ever did.”

King’s X performs on Saturday in Clark as part of the Food Truck & Rock Carnival. The Friday through Sunday festival features dozens of bands and other attractions.

“I’m more in tune with my body and have a better perspective on life,” Gaskill said. “I feel like I’ve been given another chance to be alive again. It makes everything a little more hopeful.”

Gaskill experienced his latest health ordeal on Sept. 12, 2014, while he was in post-operation recovery following a minor medical procedure. He said he was lucky to be alive after the 2012 heart attack that he suffered at home.

“Luckily my fiancée (now wife) was home at the time or I would have been dead,” Gaskill said. “I had 100 percent artery blockage. I had been running, exercising, doing all the things I thought I should do. It turns out my body doesn’t break down cholesterol properly. It’s hereditary.”

Gaskill has been playing drums for King’s X since its formation in 1980 - the critically acclaimed trio also includes bassist-singer Doug Pinnick and guitarist Ty Tabor. King’s X blend straightforward and intricate melodic hard rock, sublime Beatlesque three-part harmonies and groove-laden rhythms that make for a unique, instantly identifiable sound.

The band’s last studio album, “XV,” was released in 2008. “We make the music that is inside of us and the music that we love has been diverse,” Gaskill said, “from the Beatles to Led Zeppelin to Grand Funk Railroad to the Deftones.”

King’s X formed in Missouri, where Gaskill went to college. Initially known as Sneak Preview, they released a self-financed record in 1983. The band changed their name to King’s X soon after and relocated to Houston. King’s X’s debut album, “Out of the Silent Planet,” was released in 1988.

The band’s plethora of fan-favorite tracks throughout the past three decades include the upbeat “Shot of Love” and “It’s Love,” yearning ballad, “Goldilox,” the gospel-tinged “Over My Head,” the rhythm-heavy “Black Flag” and “Looking for Love,” and self-explanatory “Groove Machine.”

While fans and critics lauded the band, King’s X never accomplished a commercial breakthrough. “We’ve been through a lot of stages,” Gaskill said. “It’s been a long, hard road but we’ve always believed in what we do.

“I love where we are,” he said. “There is a part of me that wishes we could have all the money in the world, but we have respect and can make music the way we want.”

Gaskill said he’s not sure when King’s X will record new music but added that he believes it will happen soon. He is also scheduled to release a solo album in the next few months.

He said he feels incredibly fortunate musically and in life in general. In addition to overcoming his health struggles, Gaskill and his wife have rebounded from losing their home during Superstorm Sandy.

“We ended up buying a house in Red Bank that we totally love,” Gaskill said. “The tragedies just seem to turn into something better than we can imagine. It’s been incredible.”