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The Hair Metal Files: Round the Campfire

Posted in Music, The Hair Metal Files with tags , , , , , , on June 21, 2010 by jnagle4

The sun was finally going down.  It was still hot, but the temperature had cooled off.  Several breezes wafted through the backstage area.  It was a welcome relief from earlier in the day, when the heat and humidity seemed to hang in the air.  I had just finished watching Vince Neil perform and was waiting for him to make an appearance.  While I was waiting, Phil Lewis of L.A. Guns emerged from the inner sanctum with a pimp hat on his head and a girl on his arm.  He approached me.

“Hey mate! What are you up to?”

“Not much, man,” I replied. “I’m waiting for Vince to come out.”

“I haven’t seen him around.  He probably split.  You want something to drink?”

The heat had made me slightly dehydrated, so I took him up on his offer.  He returned from the catering area with a couple bottles of water.

“Sorry mate,” he apologized.  “It’s lukewarm.  Oh well, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.”

We clinked bottles and drank.  Phil looked wistfully at the Scorpions’ deluxe tour bus, which was parked behind us.

“As much as I miss those things, I’m glad my army days are over,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

“Whenever I would bring fans on that bus, they would all comment on how nice and big they are, but they aren’t.  Touring on a bus is fun for the first couple of days.  It’s you and your band against the world.  After a couple weeks, you start to annoy each other and dirty socks are everywhere.  It’s disgusting.  I like the way we do it now.  We jet from gig to gig.   I have my own seat and my own room.”

“Where are you guys going after this?” I asked.

“Cleveland,” he said.  “Hey, do you smoke?”

“Once in a while,” I said.

“That’s what I like to hear.  C’mon, we can do it over there.”

We went over to the artists’ lounge and sat around a coffee table.  Phil lit up.

“I don’t do drugs or drink much anymore.  I just really like to smoke. Does that make me a sinner?  What about you?”

“Nah, I just drink occasionally.”

“Cool.  What’s your drink?”

“Amaretto and Coke.  It has to taste good.”

“Yeah.  I just drink red wine and the occasional gin and tonic.  I never liked feeling out of control.”

Phil started telling me about his childhood.  He was born in London and dreamed of becoming a soccer player.  He was good at it, but his life changed the moment he saw Alice Cooper perform “School’s Out” on television.

“I came home with my cleats on my shoulder and I heard that riff.  I had to be a part of that.”

Phil’s first stab at stardom was with Girl, a glam band that also featured Def Leppard’s Phil Collen.

“We couldn’t play, but we looked fantastic,” he said with a laugh. “So pretty.”

“That’s not necessarily true,” I said.  “Phil Collen can play.”

“Yeah, because he actually practiced,” Phil explained. “He was up in his bedroom every night with a book learning how to solo.”

Eventually Phil got sick of trading on his looks.  He moved to the United States and hooked up with L.A. Guns.  Although the band never reached the heights of Mötley Crüe or Poison, they are able to tour all year round.

“I’m not rich, but I’m able to pay my bills playing music.  We aren’t the biggest band in the world, but I know we sound great.  That’s the one thing I’m really proud of.  We sound so tight.”

By now we had been joined by the Scorpions bass tech, who happened to have an acoustic guitar with him.  He handed it to Phil, who started to play Rod Stewart’s “Maggie May.”   The performance was loose and sloppy, but he didn’t miss a note.

“That was awesome,” I told him, impressed.

“Thanks.  It’s a really cool song.”

Phil got up and stretched.

“I never realized that there was a hammock back there,” he said.  “I think I’m going to go lie in it and watch the fireflies.”

“That sounds good man,” I said.  “Thanks for the talk.”

“Anytime, John,” he replied.

We slapped hands and he went to lie in the hammock, with the girl hanging from his arm.

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2010 M3 RockFest Preview

Posted in Music, The Hair Metal Files with tags , , , , , , , , , , on May 14, 2010 by jnagle4

The M3 Rock Fest will invade Merriweather Post Pavilion on June 18.  Here is your handy-dandy guide to this public display of hairspray abuse.

Scorpions

The Scorpions are supposedly on their final tour, so the M3 Rock Fest will be the last time that “HELLO BALTIMORE, WE ARE THE SCORPIONNNNNNNNNNNNS!” will echo through the Pavilion.

Cinderella

Underneath the big hair and spandex, Cinderella is a great blues-rock band.  Tom Kiefer’s scratchy yowl is more Rod Stewart than David Lee Roth.  The only downside is that Eric Brittingham’s beautiful blonde palm tree no longer exists.

Vince Neil

It’s not Motley Crue, but it’s the voice of Motley Crue. That counts for something right?  He’ll play “Too Young to Fall in Love,” which is awesome in any context.

Kix

I rarely pass up an opportunity to see Kix.  Steve Whiteman is still one of the best frontmen in the business.  I never get tired of his corny double entendres.

Warrant

Jani Lane is no longer in the band, but they still have his songs.  The big hits are often cited as the worst example of the genre, but they work beautifully in an arena setting.

Winger

There was a time when I hated Winger with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns.  I’ve come to realize that I hated them for the same reason I hated Hanson; Kip had better hair than I did.

Nelson

Nelson is the butt of a lot jokes, but they don’t take themselves too seriously.  “After the Rain” is the definition of a guilty pleasure.

Jetboy

Jetboy is coming into the M3 with a ton of momentum.  Their five-song EP is one of the best hard rock records of the year, but they break out in a live setting.  You wanna see these guys.

Also appearing:

LA Guns

Trixter

Dizzy Reed

ZO2

Black Mambooza

Bang Tango


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Interview: Jetboy

Posted in Interviews, Music, The Hair Metal Files with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 2, 2009 by jnagle4

Jetboy

Jetboy is one of the most interesting bands of the 80s hard rock scene.  While the Sunset Strip was teeming with hopefuls from Iowa hoping to be the next Poison or Mötley Crüe, Jetboy came roaring out of San Francisco.  Their music was much heavier, closer to punk rock and the sleaze of Hanoi Rocks than the theatrics of Van Halen.  Although the band was talented, they were derailed by the death of original bassist Todd Crew and record company mismanagement.  They were ahead of their time, and fans didn’t know how to react.  Two decades after their major label debut, Jetboy has completely reformed, and is ready to reclaim their place in the pantheon of hard rock.  The core of Jetboy remains, frontman Mickey Finn and guitarists Billy Rowe and Fernie Rod.  They are joined by a new rythym section, bassist Michael Butler and drummer Doug Hovan.    I sat down with Jetboy prior to their set at the M3 Rock Fest to discuss their songwriting process, the heavier sound of Bay Area bands and touring with Stryper.  Check them out on Myspace: myspace.com/jetboyrocks

How are you guys doing? What are you up to?

Mickey Finn: We’re working on a new record. We’ve got about 11 new songs and we’re going to play about three new ones today.

Michael Butler: Four new ones.

Fernie Rod: Are we doing “Dying Inside?”

MB: Yeah.

FR: So we’re going to do four new ones for ya. How’s that?

Cool. So this will be your first new record in how long?

MF: Since ’90. Damned Nation came out in 1990.  There have been a few compilations since then, but this is the first new record in a while.

What’s your songwriting process like?

MF: We usually start out with acoustics, write a few licks and then I’ll write some vocals.  Then we’ll work in Garage Band a bit, get some basic ideas down.  We hadn’t written together in about 17 years.

Billy Rowe: Usually Fern and I will sit down and write the music together and then he’ll come up with the lyrics, but this time Mickey had lyrics written.  So we basically just traded riffs with each other like “What about this riff? What about this riff? What about this riff?”

Who are your influences?

FR: That’s a big question.  A key band was Hanoi Rocks.  They were really influential, and then (bassist) Sami (Yaffa) ended up in the band.  That made it much more special.  We all listen to so many different types of music.  Mick is a huge punk rock fan, so he brought that to the band.  But it all comes down to the classic rock bands. AC/DC was a huge inspiration.  Aerosmith was a huge inspiration as well.

What inspired you guys to get back together after all these years?

MF: The scene.  The scene started to come up again and we started working with Cleopatra Records, who wanted to release some of our stuff.  We started hearing a buzz about this style of music coming back, this ‘80s, ‘90s rock.  We thought “If people want to hear it, then we’re going to play because we never wanted it to go away in the first place.”

This is the ten year anniversary of the first really big ‘80s rock nostalgia tour, which featured Poison, RATT, L.A. Guns and Great White.  Ten years later there are festivals like the M3 Rock Fest all over the country.  Did you ever think the scene would blow up again like it has?

MF: Never. In retrospect it kind of makes sense though, because everyone involved in the scene is older now.  They aren’t interested in the new bands coming out.  They want bands like AC/DC and Aerosmith and stuff like that.  So it makes sense if they can’t find new bands doing this type of music, the old bands start popping out of the woodwork.  This band’s reuniting, that band’s reuniting. Everyone’s reuniting.

You guys are from the Bay Area, but most of the glam bands are from L.A.  I’ve noticed that the glam bands from San Francisco have a heavier sound.  Why do you think that is?

MF: I think the bands from the Bay Area have a more underground vibe. When we hit L.A., we were all listening to the New York Dolls and Guns n’ Roses when everyone in L.A. was still trying to be Van Halen. So we came from two different schools and merged into this whole glam rock/hair metal thing.  San Francisco has deep roots in blues and punk rock too, so that could be why bands from the Bay Area are heavier.

There is a major punk rock influence in your music.  It must have been hard to break through, especially in 1989.

MF: Yeah, I don’t think people were as ready for what we were doing back then, which is why I think we have a better shot today.  I think most people have heard of us, but might not have heard a lot of our music.  I think they will be more receptive to our new music because of that.  Anything goes in rock n’ roll today.  I was flipping through the channels the other day and saw a new country band.  The bass player had a Mohawk and was wearing a kilt.  I was like “That’s it! I’ve seen it all now (laughs).”

Let’s go back a little bit.  Right before you guys were about to break, your original bassist, Todd Crew, passed away.  Did his death hinder your success?

MF: It definitely buckled us.  At that time we had a lot of record company people, managers and A&R people pulling and tugging at us. They were telling us “You guys are going to be this, you guys are going to be that, going to be huge.” We were really young and we really felt the weight of it.

You guys were really into drugs though right?

MF: We were, but we kept our feet on the ground.  He was one of those people that was reckless and some people don’t do well with that kind of stuff. He had an addictive personality and we knew that was going to happen to him.

BR: It was one of those things where there was nothing that we could do, you know?  We tried to send him to rehab, we tried to get his parents involved, we tried to get everyone involved, but he was going to do what he was going to do.

How did you guys get involved with Sami Yaffa from Hanoi Rocks?

BR: We pretty much just contacted him.  Todd was still in the band when we asked Sami to join the band.  That was a really difficult time for us because we knew he was holding us back.  We tried to help him, but we had to let him go.  That was the hardest thing for all of us, the way it went down.  We had to do what was best for the band, and that’s what we did.

It’s kind of ironic because now Jetboy and Hanoi are considered the missing links of the entire genre.

FR: Yeah, I guess we’re missing links.  I mean you found us.  But we’re still a little bit under the radar.

Back in the day, you guys toured with Stryper.  What was that like and how did you get on that tour?

BR: (laughs) I don’t know how we got on that tour, but it was funny.  It was an available tour and they had a big album out at the time. It was cool though, because we were playing for 3,000 people a night and it got us out there.

MF: They were total hypocrites dude.

So the stories are true?

MF: Oh yeah.  They’d be walking around with six packs, always with some girl.  Then the next week they’d have their wife on tour with them and would be pushing a baby stroller.

What would be your ideal tour?

MF: AC/DC!

BR: Aerosmith.  Either of those bands would be wonderful.

FR: If the Stones ever tour again, I wouldn’t complain about that either.

Are you guys planning to tour?

MF: Oh yeah.  We decided not to book a bunch of shows this summer because we wanted to concentrate on writing.  The band is back together though.  We’re not necessarily riding the nostalgia train or the 80s rock train.  We came out of that period, but the band is current.  The idea is to move forward with the roots that we have in that great period.

So you’re still going to play “Feel the Shake,” but you have new stuff.

MF: Definitely.

BR: That song is timeless.  Rock n’ roll is timeless.

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The Hair Metal Files: Teenage John’s High-School Reunion

Posted in Essays, The Hair Metal Files with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 1, 2009 by jnagle4

M3 Rock Fest

The backstage area bustled with activity.  I kept reminding myself that I was there as a journalist, not as a fan.  It was really hard though, especially when Stephen Pearcy emerged from the dressing room.  RATT was three minutes from the stage.  A roadie handed him a microphone and he was pacing back and forth, psyching himself up.  He stopped pacing long enough to say hello to me again.  He gave me a high-five.

“Hey man, we didn’t have time to hang out this time around.  Next time we’ll grab a brew or something,” he said, before returning to his routine.

The other members of RATT emerged: Warren DeMartini, Bobby Blotzer, Robbie Crane and John Corabi.  I shook hands with each of them and wished them a good show.  The road crew finally kicked me out, and I went to my seat.  When I got there, they were playing “Slip of the Lip,” my all-time favorite slice of RATT n’ Roll.  It was a surreal end to a surreal day.

The M3 Rock Fest felt like one giant high school reunion.  The bands had all toured with each other at one time or another during their Aqua-Net heyday, and greeted each other with hugs and laughter.  It was a high school reunion for me too, as guys I worshipped in high school kept walking by me.  Every few minutes a van with tinted windows would pull up, and someone would get out.  When I came back from the concession stand, I found Nuno Bettencourt and Gary Cherone of Extreme lounging in the pink chairs of the backstage area.  Gilby Clarke went motoring by on a golf cart, waving to me as he passed.  Jani Lane was talking shop with Marq Torien of the BulletBoys.  I was totally professional, but in the back of my mind I was thinking, “Holy shit….Mark Slaughter is standing over there.”

I also ran into people that I hadn’t seen in years, like Linda, who I first met as a teenage mallrat.  She worked at Hot Topic, and held t-shirts for my mom to approve.  I ran into Tammi, who I first met through the Poison board.  She helped me meet Bret Michaels back in 2005.

I kept my game face on for most of the day, but there were times when I couldn’t help but flex my geek muscles.  Keri Kelly’s mouth hung open when I told him that I remembered him from Big Bang Babies.  I asked Gilby Clarke why he didn’t play any Candy songs during his set.  He shook his head in disbelief and said “Um, I forgot them all.”  Jetboy laughed when I told them I caught a Stryper bible.   Jani Lane put “I Saw Red” in his setlist for me, because we had the same first name.

Twisted Sister was the headliner of the festival, a spot they deserved.  Dee shook my hand and said hello as he got out of the van.  I didn’t see him again until his performance.  His onstage alter-ego is as fierce today as it was in 1984.

The M3 Rock Fest was my ultimate teenage fantasy come to life.  I thought about Teenage John all day.  His freakouts would have been on the outside, instead of a series of inner monologues.  His hands would have been shaking as Nuno Bettencourt acknowledged his presence.  He might have gotten a little misty talking to Stephen Pearcy. He would have had tons of fun.  Adult John had fun too, but in a different way.  It was cool meeting these guys, but it was much better having real conversations with them.  Teenage John bubbled to the surface only once.  Jani Lane was playing “Heaven,” and asked the crowd to sing it with him.  Teenage John burst forth and sang about the sparkle in Laura S.’s eyes, completely free of irony.

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The Hair Metal Files: M3 Rock Fest

Posted in Music, The Hair Metal Files with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 4, 2009 by jnagle4

m3-rock-fest

In the summer of 1999, Poison, Ratt, Great White and L.A. Guns teamed up for a tour of amphitheatres.  Hair metal was considered dead and buried, and industry professionals doubted that the tour would be a washout.  They were wrong; it was one of the most successful tours of the year.

A decade later, hair metal has risen from the dead and packs sheds every summer.  A new development is the 80s rock festival, which began two years ago with Rocklahoma.  This year, the M3 Rock Festival will bring the Aqua-Net faithful to Charm City.  Here are some of the bands that will be invading Meriwether Post Pavilion on May 30.

Twisted Sister

twisted-sister

If you need one reason to check out the M3 Rock Fest, Twisted Sister is it.  They still look, sound and perform as if it was 1984.  Dee Snider is even more frightening in middle age, and his voice is even more powerful.  Come for the hits, but stay for the more obscure songs like “Under the Blade,” “SMF,” and especially “Burn in Hell.”  The Sisters don’t perform very often, so if you haven’t seen them, don’t pass it up.

Ratt

ratt-2008

Although they are primarily known for their ubiquitous 1984 hit “Round and Round,” Ratt had much more to offer.  Guitarists Warren DiMartini and the late Robbin Crosby updated the tandem guitar sound of Thin Lizzy for the 1980s.  Crosby’s melodic playing provided a backbone to DiMartini’s lightning-fast shredding.  Singer Stephen Pearcy doesn’t have a good voice in the traditional sense, but his sleazy drawl gives Ratt its flavor.  Besides, all their songs are about strippers with hearts of gold.  Isn’t that what we all want out of life?

Extreme

extremepressshot1fp5

It’s easy to make jokes about Extreme, since their two biggest hits were primarily acoustic.  Their lyrics could be a bit clunky at times (“Rock a Bye-Bye” anyone?), but Nuno Bettencourt is probably the best guitarist the genre ever produced.  He shreds, but he’s got taste and feel.  Even when he’s playing a million notes a minute, it’s never shredding for the sake of shredding.  He knows when to play and when to hold back, and that cannot be taught.

L.A. Guns

la-guns

The Steve Riley/Phil Lewis version of L.A. Guns might not have the band’s namesake, but they deliver the goods live.  Would you rather hear Phil Lewis sing “The Ballad of Jayne,” or the dude from Rock Star: Supernova?  I thought so.

KIX

kix

KIX is the pride and joy of Baltimore and will probably end up stealing the show.  Their songs still hold up, Steve Whiteman has charisma dripping from his pores, and Brian Forsythe and Ronnie Younkins are riffing machines.  I would be afraid to follow them on any bill, but in Baltimore?  Forget about it.  The Hammerjacks faithful will be en masse.

Steel Panther

steelpanther-01-big

If I get to hear “Big Boobs” live, I will die a happy man.

Keel

keel

I think I know what to expect from Keel’s set.  They will probably play “The Right to Rock,” which will remind us that we’ve got it, the right to rock.  That’s awesome and all, but the real question is….will Keel tell us that his horse is a Harley?

Other Bands on the Bill:

Dokken

Jani Lane

Bulletboys

Slaughter

XYZ

Y&T

Jetboy

Gilby Clarke

SLAMM

If you are a fan of the genre, you don’t want to miss this show.  Tickets can be purchased at all Ticketmaster outlets and Ticketmaster.com, as well as the Meriwether box office.

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