1 00:00:19,437 --> 00:00:24,859 Lemmy! Lemmy! Lemmy! Lemmy! Lemmy! Lemmy! Lemmy! 2 00:00:24,942 --> 00:00:26,861 A statue of Lemmy Kilmister 3 00:00:26,944 --> 00:00:30,114 was unveiled last night at The Rainbow Bar & Grill. 4 00:00:30,197 --> 00:00:35,578 The Los Angeles bar's outdoor patio has now been dubbed "Lemmy's Lounge". 5 00:00:35,661 --> 00:00:37,997 I just want to welcome everybody here. 6 00:00:38,122 --> 00:00:40,875 This is truly an event from the fans. 7 00:00:40,958 --> 00:00:46,464 Want to thank Mikeal, the Maglieris here for putting this on, and honoring Lemmy. 8 00:00:46,547 --> 00:00:47,298 Yeah. 9 00:00:47,381 --> 00:00:49,091 We're here for a very special night, 10 00:00:49,175 --> 00:00:52,762 we're showing tribute to one of our dear friends. 11 00:00:52,845 --> 00:00:54,889 Let's open up this statue. 12 00:01:02,605 --> 00:01:05,107 Lemmy! Lemmy! Lemmy! Lemmy! 13 00:01:05,191 --> 00:01:08,944 Lemmy is always here, and now Lemmy is permanently here, not going anywhere. 14 00:01:09,028 --> 00:01:11,739 He's at home here, and they've enshrined it. 15 00:01:11,822 --> 00:01:14,909 And this to me is going to be, basically, rock n' roll mecca. 16 00:01:14,992 --> 00:01:18,287 Everybody from rock n' roll's gotta come here one time in their life and pay homage. 17 00:01:18,370 --> 00:01:22,124 Lemmy! Lemmy! Lemmy! Lemmy! 18 00:01:22,208 --> 00:01:24,418 Lemmy! Lemmy! Lemmy! Lemmy! 19 00:01:59,286 --> 00:02:02,706 Alright, we are Motörhead. And we are going to kick your ass. 20 00:02:12,174 --> 00:02:15,469 It was like a party every night. It was crazy. 21 00:02:15,553 --> 00:02:17,972 It was absolutely insane, I've never seen anything like that. 22 00:02:18,055 --> 00:02:20,641 If you were cool, you could get away with anything. 23 00:02:20,724 --> 00:02:22,810 I used to get away with murder in there. 24 00:02:22,893 --> 00:02:26,438 I'd see musicians getting head under the table and shit like that. 25 00:02:26,522 --> 00:02:28,566 I said do what the fuck you want, I don't care. 26 00:02:28,649 --> 00:02:30,401 It was bacchanalia. 27 00:02:30,484 --> 00:02:33,195 It was exactly how you'd picture it, times ten. 28 00:02:33,279 --> 00:02:34,822 It was the place to be. 29 00:02:34,905 --> 00:02:36,407 It was the rock n' roll café. 30 00:02:36,490 --> 00:02:40,494 I was here every single night hanging out. All of us were. 31 00:02:40,578 --> 00:02:41,871 You'd see everybody here. 32 00:02:41,954 --> 00:02:43,664 Slash, Ozzy, Lemmy. 33 00:02:43,747 --> 00:02:45,499 - John Bonham. - Motley Crue. 34 00:02:45,583 --> 00:02:47,084 - Keith Moon. - Van Halen. 35 00:02:47,168 --> 00:02:48,669 - Jimmy Page. - Janis Joplin. 36 00:02:48,752 --> 00:02:50,838 - Jimi Hendrix. - The list goes on and on and on. 37 00:02:50,921 --> 00:02:52,381 Mikeal] It was different then. 38 00:02:52,464 --> 00:02:54,717 There was a culture, a glamorous culture, 39 00:02:54,800 --> 00:02:57,595 the likes of which will not happen again. 40 00:02:57,678 --> 00:03:00,514 And the watering hole of all of it... 41 00:03:00,598 --> 00:03:01,974 The one great hub... 42 00:03:02,057 --> 00:03:03,434 The only rock mecca... 43 00:03:03,517 --> 00:03:06,729 The church of rock n' roll... The Rainbow. 44 00:03:25,956 --> 00:03:29,919 The Rainbow somehow was sort of when the planets line up. 45 00:03:32,379 --> 00:03:34,548 A special place at a special time. 46 00:03:36,800 --> 00:03:39,637 It didn't happen in the Valley, it didn't happen on Ventura Boulevard, 47 00:03:39,720 --> 00:03:41,680 it didn't happen in Iowa or Wyoming. 48 00:03:43,057 --> 00:03:46,060 It happened in Los Angeles. Perfect weather. 49 00:03:46,143 --> 00:03:49,021 And up the hills, everybody lived there. 50 00:03:50,022 --> 00:03:52,650 They all came from all over the world. 51 00:03:54,818 --> 00:03:57,655 And at night they would all come down and celebrate life. 52 00:03:59,740 --> 00:04:01,784 Anything was possible. 53 00:04:21,595 --> 00:04:26,058 My name is Mario Maglieri Sr., 54 00:04:26,141 --> 00:04:28,519 and I've been here 42 years. 55 00:04:28,602 --> 00:04:31,105 I've fed more musicians you can shake a stick at. 56 00:04:32,064 --> 00:04:34,441 My grandpa had a restaurant back in Chicago. 57 00:04:35,567 --> 00:04:38,737 Know what, I had rock n' roll in my bar in Chicago 58 00:04:38,821 --> 00:04:40,572 before you ever heard of rock n' roll. 59 00:04:40,656 --> 00:04:44,243 Lots of people have been critical of rock n' roll for a long time, 60 00:04:44,368 --> 00:04:45,744 but if I may say so, 61 00:04:45,828 --> 00:04:49,748 I think for the wrong reason, because they thought it was bad music. 62 00:04:49,832 --> 00:04:51,875 Well, actually, it is worse than that. 63 00:04:51,959 --> 00:04:57,756 As here used it is a cynical, commercial exploitation of the emotions of children. 64 00:04:57,840 --> 00:05:01,051 Rock n' roll music in the United States is dying. 65 00:05:02,845 --> 00:05:05,055 One of his partners from the restaurant, Elmer, 66 00:05:05,139 --> 00:05:06,640 was gonna open a business out here. 67 00:05:06,724 --> 00:05:10,769 Elmer Valentine, he saw the Whisky in France, 68 00:05:10,853 --> 00:05:12,563 and he brought it to America. 69 00:05:12,646 --> 00:05:16,400 He went to Europe, and in France saw a club called Whisky A Go Go, 70 00:05:16,483 --> 00:05:19,445 that had these girls standing behind the bar on the ledge dancing. 71 00:05:19,528 --> 00:05:21,864 That's where he came up with the concept of the Go-Go girls. 72 00:05:22,573 --> 00:05:26,368 So he opened the club January 16, 1964. 73 00:05:26,452 --> 00:05:29,580 When I went there about less than 2 months after it opened, 74 00:05:29,663 --> 00:05:31,623 the guy couldn't run it. They were robbing him blind. 75 00:05:31,707 --> 00:05:34,752 Elmer had called my Dad and said "Come in and straighten this out." 76 00:05:34,835 --> 00:05:38,630 Yeah, I'll come down there. $200 a week, a lot of money. 77 00:05:38,714 --> 00:05:42,551 My Father came in, to like, reorganize the business and run the business. 78 00:05:42,634 --> 00:05:44,219 I fired everyone in the place, 79 00:05:44,303 --> 00:05:47,181 got all new help, and uh, I straightened it out, 80 00:05:47,264 --> 00:05:49,350 and it became successful the way it is. 81 00:06:00,361 --> 00:06:04,239 We had I think three cages of girls dancing on the stage. 82 00:06:04,323 --> 00:06:08,285 And we had more movie stars in there than you could actually count. 83 00:06:08,369 --> 00:06:11,288 Packed house every night. Was like a hang out. 84 00:06:11,372 --> 00:06:14,083 Here he is with a song called 'Going to a Go Go', 85 00:06:14,166 --> 00:06:16,293 Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. 86 00:06:27,096 --> 00:06:30,432 We were the first club to integrate that we brought black acts in. 87 00:06:35,104 --> 00:06:38,357 Los Angeles, they didn't want blacks in the street, 88 00:06:38,482 --> 00:06:41,568 so I fucked 'em all, I brought 'em all for the whole year. 89 00:06:41,652 --> 00:06:44,696 Smokey Robinson, Martha Reeves, The Temptations, The Tops. 90 00:06:44,780 --> 00:06:46,824 You name 'em, I had 'em. 91 00:06:46,907 --> 00:06:50,911 He's color, a human being, you know, God put us all here for a reason. 92 00:06:50,994 --> 00:06:52,830 I don't care what color you are. 93 00:06:56,041 --> 00:06:57,334 I don't give a shit. 94 00:06:57,418 --> 00:06:59,878 And the visitor to Hollywood soon discovers 95 00:06:59,962 --> 00:07:04,675 that this small town has a wealth of entertainment, but much more. 96 00:07:05,509 --> 00:07:07,928 My Grandpa moved out to be a manager at first, 97 00:07:08,011 --> 00:07:11,306 and you know, eventually over time started buying into the business. 98 00:07:11,390 --> 00:07:13,517 His whole family at that point moved out here. 99 00:07:13,600 --> 00:07:15,394 Everyone, you know, was living in LA. 100 00:07:15,477 --> 00:07:18,272 I was 16 years old when I started at the Whisky A Go Go. 101 00:07:18,355 --> 00:07:23,235 He was a busboy, God, in the 60's at the Whisky. 102 00:07:23,318 --> 00:07:26,363 I was a kid, he did not want me there, 103 00:07:26,447 --> 00:07:30,075 and I insisted that he bring me in there, that I wanted to come in and work there. 104 00:07:30,951 --> 00:07:35,038 I would come in and work, maybe five, six nights a week, 105 00:07:35,122 --> 00:07:37,249 and I was still going to High School, then College. 106 00:07:37,332 --> 00:07:39,751 But on my nights off I wasn't allowed to go in there. 107 00:07:40,919 --> 00:07:42,713 He did not want me in that environment. 108 00:07:42,796 --> 00:07:45,632 It was an era of peace and love and free drugs, 109 00:07:45,716 --> 00:07:48,010 and he just didn't want me to become a part of all that. 110 00:07:48,093 --> 00:07:51,763 He thought I'd fall prey, so to speak, of what was going on around me. 111 00:07:51,847 --> 00:07:53,348 I personally had a ball. 112 00:08:00,063 --> 00:08:03,275 My Father ran the business as far as the nightclub end of it. 113 00:08:03,358 --> 00:08:04,568 The booking was done by Elmer. 114 00:08:04,651 --> 00:08:07,029 Johnny Rivers was there for a year. 115 00:08:07,112 --> 00:08:11,283 And then after rock n' roll started in, then we started with rock n' roll. 116 00:08:12,159 --> 00:08:13,785 The Doors started as the house band. 117 00:08:13,869 --> 00:08:16,330 We're paying them about 50 bucks a week, 118 00:08:16,413 --> 00:08:19,833 a case of beer a night, whatever, just to keep 'em entertained. 119 00:08:19,917 --> 00:08:23,003 How The Doors got booked in the Whisky to begin with 120 00:08:23,086 --> 00:08:25,797 was Chris Gowdy, who worked in our office as a bookkeeper, 121 00:08:25,881 --> 00:08:28,175 and Charlotte, who's a ticket taker at the front door, 122 00:08:28,258 --> 00:08:30,385 went to a club called The London Fog, 123 00:08:30,469 --> 00:08:33,222 they saw Jim, and they wanted to screw Jim. 124 00:08:33,305 --> 00:08:34,973 That's why they got hired. 125 00:08:35,057 --> 00:08:38,310 The Doors opening for Johnny Rivers 126 00:08:39,603 --> 00:08:43,065 and getting booed off on the stage. 127 00:08:55,619 --> 00:08:58,288 They learned their trade. They came and rehearsed all day. 128 00:08:58,372 --> 00:09:02,167 That 'Light My Fire' song that became 12 and a half minutes, 129 00:09:02,251 --> 00:09:04,211 I heard that for two and a half hours at a time. 130 00:09:04,294 --> 00:09:06,922 By the time it came out on the radio and became famous, 131 00:09:07,005 --> 00:09:09,132 I was like, "Oh my God, do I have to hear this again?" 132 00:09:13,804 --> 00:09:15,055 Mother. 133 00:09:27,025 --> 00:09:29,528 Turn it off! Turn these fucking--! 134 00:09:29,653 --> 00:09:31,613 Actually when I met Oliver Stone, 135 00:09:31,697 --> 00:09:33,782 this was years later, after he did the movie 'The Doors", 136 00:09:33,865 --> 00:09:35,534 I had to correct him. 137 00:09:35,659 --> 00:09:37,160 Hey, come on, man! 138 00:09:39,830 --> 00:09:41,164 Here's your act right there. 139 00:09:41,957 --> 00:09:44,251 My Father did not throw Jim out. 140 00:09:44,334 --> 00:09:47,045 Jim had a habit of like kinda dropping his pants. 141 00:09:47,129 --> 00:09:50,424 Now I know today, they wear their pants below their ass, 142 00:09:50,507 --> 00:09:52,259 in those days you didn't do that. 143 00:09:52,342 --> 00:09:54,761 The girls would go crazy in the audience. 144 00:09:54,845 --> 00:09:56,638 And one night in particular, 145 00:09:56,722 --> 00:09:59,016 and this is where the movie got it misinterpreted, 146 00:09:59,099 --> 00:10:02,060 is he decided to do a frontal nudity, 147 00:10:02,144 --> 00:10:04,438 and kind of showed his works onstage. 148 00:10:04,521 --> 00:10:08,066 My Father got so ticked off that he pulled the plug. 149 00:10:08,150 --> 00:10:10,110 Jim jumped off the stage onto the dance floor, 150 00:10:10,193 --> 00:10:13,530 went down the steps of the dance floor, went up on the second landing, 151 00:10:13,614 --> 00:10:15,407 and peed over the balcony. 152 00:10:15,490 --> 00:10:18,910 Literally like, to say screw you back to my Dad for unplugging him. 153 00:10:18,994 --> 00:10:20,871 Went up in the dressing room and hid, 154 00:10:20,954 --> 00:10:23,332 and at two in the morning he came down and apologized to my Dad 155 00:10:23,415 --> 00:10:25,876 and they were back onstage the next night. 156 00:10:25,959 --> 00:10:27,544 Jim Morrison used too many drugs. 157 00:10:27,628 --> 00:10:30,505 He was not a bad kid, he was a good kid. 158 00:10:30,589 --> 00:10:33,467 Like I'd tell him "Hey," you know I called 'em names, 159 00:10:33,550 --> 00:10:35,427 "You get out on that stage at 9 o'clock, 160 00:10:35,510 --> 00:10:38,805 not 5, not 5 after, you're not I'll beat the shit outta ya." 161 00:10:43,435 --> 00:10:48,357 The Whisky was the place where the happening acts were happening. 162 00:10:49,941 --> 00:10:52,944 If you come out to LA as a band, 163 00:10:53,028 --> 00:10:54,571 you really want that on your resume, 164 00:10:54,655 --> 00:10:57,240 that you've played at the Whisky A Go Go, I mean, it's a big thing. 165 00:10:58,241 --> 00:11:01,620 My Dad was 17, 18 years old working in these clubs, 166 00:11:01,703 --> 00:11:04,706 and it's mind-blowing the people he had to have come across. 167 00:11:06,083 --> 00:11:08,919 At the time you're not aware of what's going on around you, 168 00:11:09,002 --> 00:11:12,631 you know, I'm hanging out with Jimi Hendrix and Arthur Lee from Love. 169 00:11:12,714 --> 00:11:14,633 I mean, just to be sitting at the Whisky 170 00:11:14,758 --> 00:11:17,761 and have someone from The Beatles or have Andy Warhol sitting in there, 171 00:11:17,844 --> 00:11:19,846 I mean that's just, it's unbelievable. 172 00:11:21,264 --> 00:11:24,142 And I was the busboy for probably six, eight months 173 00:11:24,226 --> 00:11:27,104 and then I was the manager when my Dad wanted to take a night off. 174 00:11:27,187 --> 00:11:31,108 I worked into bartending. I learned the business from the ground up. 175 00:11:31,191 --> 00:11:33,944 Out of College, Law School, everything else I did, 176 00:11:34,027 --> 00:11:36,655 the best education I had was right here on the Sunset Strip. 177 00:11:47,207 --> 00:11:50,085 Janis Joplin came in, and her name's Pearl by the way, 178 00:11:50,168 --> 00:11:51,586 Janis was her stage name. 179 00:11:51,670 --> 00:11:54,798 And she sat down in the middle booth of the Whisky, 180 00:11:54,881 --> 00:11:59,094 she had like four glasses of Southern Comfort on the rocks, 181 00:11:59,177 --> 00:12:01,012 and on or about her fourth one, 182 00:12:01,096 --> 00:12:05,434 my Dad said put a case of Southern Comfort into Pearls trunk. 183 00:12:06,393 --> 00:12:07,686 She leaves with her manager, 184 00:12:07,769 --> 00:12:12,858 the next morning on the news they said that Janis Joplin had died of alcohol poisoning. 185 00:12:12,941 --> 00:12:16,027 I thought, well, the booze I gave her, I must've killed her. 186 00:12:16,111 --> 00:12:18,071 She had all those drinks, and I mean, I was a kid. 187 00:12:18,155 --> 00:12:20,490 So for like three days, I thought I killed her 188 00:12:20,574 --> 00:12:24,244 until the coroner's report came out and found out she actually OD-ed, 189 00:12:24,327 --> 00:12:25,787 and no, I did not kill Janis Joplin. 190 00:12:25,871 --> 00:12:28,457 And here's the world famous Whisky A Go Go on the Strip, 191 00:12:28,540 --> 00:12:32,419 a favorite dancing spot for both the mods and movie stars who want to get it on. 192 00:12:32,502 --> 00:12:34,921 Let's drop in and see what's happening tonight. 193 00:12:40,051 --> 00:12:42,971 The Whisky was pretty essential, 194 00:12:43,054 --> 00:12:46,808 it was one of the first great rock n' roll clubs. 195 00:12:46,892 --> 00:12:51,229 It's the Old Marquis in London, it's the CBGB of the West Coast, 196 00:12:51,313 --> 00:12:54,441 it's the place that you know everybody's gone through. 197 00:12:58,445 --> 00:13:00,989 You thought it was this big, massive concert hall, 198 00:13:01,072 --> 00:13:04,451 you can't fit more than 200 people inside. 199 00:13:04,534 --> 00:13:09,456 It was just a regular bar with people, and yet anybody who's anybody played there. 200 00:13:09,539 --> 00:13:12,250 A lot of great artists over the years, Led Zeppelin. 201 00:13:12,334 --> 00:13:14,377 Buffalo Springfield is another big band, 202 00:13:14,461 --> 00:13:15,962 Fleetwood Mac is another big band, 203 00:13:16,046 --> 00:13:18,757 Alice Cooper, you know, all these bands when they were nothing. 204 00:13:18,882 --> 00:13:21,927 When you first start out, and before you figure out your game, 205 00:13:22,010 --> 00:13:23,428 The Whisky's the place to do it. 206 00:13:23,512 --> 00:13:27,057 I cannot tell you how many thousands of people got started on this street. 207 00:13:27,140 --> 00:13:32,270 Everybody, they've all done their first tour through the States in clubs, 208 00:13:32,354 --> 00:13:34,773 so they ended up at the Whisky in LA. 209 00:13:34,856 --> 00:13:37,859 The first time we ever played in Los Angeles was at the Whisky, 210 00:13:37,943 --> 00:13:41,238 and there was like a line around the block twice. 211 00:13:41,321 --> 00:13:44,783 We had opening nights probably two to three times a week with major groups, 212 00:13:44,908 --> 00:13:48,954 and then you always had the house band, Chicago, CTA at that time. 213 00:13:50,622 --> 00:13:52,415 They were, like, I think seven guys 214 00:13:52,499 --> 00:13:55,085 living in a one bedroom apartment on the Hollywood Boulevard. 215 00:13:56,002 --> 00:13:59,506 We didn't have much of anything. I mean we're just trying to survive. 216 00:13:59,589 --> 00:14:05,345 We all lived together in a little house on Holly Drive under the 101 217 00:14:05,428 --> 00:14:07,973 and, you know, coming to the Whiskey to work 218 00:14:08,056 --> 00:14:11,935 was a chance to make some dough to feed ourselves 219 00:14:12,018 --> 00:14:16,565 and to possibly get, you know, 220 00:14:16,648 --> 00:14:18,567 a connection to something even better. 221 00:14:18,650 --> 00:14:21,528 We were opening for Velvet Underground, 222 00:14:21,611 --> 00:14:23,947 they were promoting their very famous first album 223 00:14:24,030 --> 00:14:26,616 with the Andy Warhol banana on the cover. 224 00:14:26,700 --> 00:14:29,828 And not only did we, sort of, become the house band, 225 00:14:29,911 --> 00:14:33,707 that would be on the off nights, not the nights when-- 226 00:14:33,790 --> 00:14:36,334 - Like the big names. - The big names would come through. 227 00:14:36,418 --> 00:14:40,380 But we did get access to the club during the daytime. 228 00:14:40,463 --> 00:14:44,551 We were in here rehearsing that was to become Chicago Transit Authority, 229 00:14:44,634 --> 00:14:45,635 the first album. 230 00:14:49,514 --> 00:14:51,558 This was a sounding ground, 231 00:14:51,641 --> 00:14:56,396 and a place for us to really write and arrange the music 232 00:14:56,479 --> 00:14:58,523 that put us on the map. 233 00:15:04,404 --> 00:15:08,450 Next thing you know, we had record company executives in here 234 00:15:08,533 --> 00:15:10,660 and bidding wars were starting. 235 00:15:10,744 --> 00:15:15,498 And so we wound up acing a deal with Columbia Records, 236 00:15:15,582 --> 00:15:19,085 which started here. 237 00:15:26,176 --> 00:15:28,053 West Hollywood's a popular part of LA, 238 00:15:28,136 --> 00:15:30,055 you know obviously you had Tower Records there, 239 00:15:30,138 --> 00:15:32,015 you had a lot of nightclubs around there, 240 00:15:32,098 --> 00:15:34,100 and it just had cemented itself 241 00:15:34,184 --> 00:15:37,312 even before the Whisky as being sort of the entertainment strip. 242 00:15:38,480 --> 00:15:42,734 You know, this is the Whisky on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood. 243 00:15:42,817 --> 00:15:47,030 Palm trees, suntan chicks, and it was just, it was cool. 244 00:15:47,113 --> 00:15:51,076 Sunset Blvd was packed with people strolling, 245 00:15:51,159 --> 00:15:53,244 you know, it was like a party on the sidewalk. 246 00:15:53,328 --> 00:15:58,083 Going to a concert was an event, it was the gathering of the tribes, 247 00:15:58,166 --> 00:16:02,462 and the streets were just filled with really interesting, 248 00:16:02,545 --> 00:16:04,631 attractive, glamorous people. 249 00:16:04,714 --> 00:16:08,843 And you'd just hop from one club to the next, you know, 250 00:16:08,927 --> 00:16:12,514 passing joints and just, "Hey brother, what's happening?" 251 00:16:12,597 --> 00:16:16,476 You'd walk up the street and people would hand you a hit of acid. 252 00:16:16,559 --> 00:16:18,436 Every night there was people on the street, 253 00:16:18,520 --> 00:16:20,438 the street was full of young people. 254 00:16:20,522 --> 00:16:24,901 Just strolling up and down the street you would meet movie stars, 255 00:16:24,985 --> 00:16:26,987 rock stars, everyone. 256 00:16:28,947 --> 00:16:34,077 A wandering band of members of a so-called religious cult with a leader they call Jesus 257 00:16:34,160 --> 00:16:36,830 has had three of its followers arrested 258 00:16:36,913 --> 00:16:40,959 in the investigation of the murder of Sharon Tate and six others. 259 00:16:41,084 --> 00:16:42,961 Charles Manson. 260 00:16:43,086 --> 00:16:46,339 The girl called me at home and said there's a guy downstairs, 261 00:16:46,423 --> 00:16:48,633 we're closed, he won't get up. 262 00:16:48,717 --> 00:16:52,679 So I'll be right down there, so I drove down all the way to the Whisky, 263 00:16:52,762 --> 00:16:55,640 and I go downstairs and said "What are you doing here?" 264 00:16:55,724 --> 00:16:57,267 He said "You know who I am?" 265 00:16:57,350 --> 00:17:01,146 I stopped him, "I don't give a fuck who you are, okay?" 266 00:17:01,229 --> 00:17:05,233 "Now you gotta leave or you don't, I'm gonna kick your ass." 267 00:17:05,316 --> 00:17:06,568 He says "I'm Jesus." 268 00:17:06,651 --> 00:17:10,572 I tell him "I'm God, motherfucker, now get up from that chair." 269 00:17:10,655 --> 00:17:15,118 He got up, or I'd of had to beat the shit out of him. Either one. 270 00:17:15,201 --> 00:17:18,913 The Whisky was a club where groups came to see other groups play. 271 00:17:20,123 --> 00:17:21,499 That was a change in time, 272 00:17:21,583 --> 00:17:24,419 and if you give credit to an individual, it'd be my Dad. 273 00:17:25,962 --> 00:17:28,840 He literally came out and stood at the front door of The Rainbow, 274 00:17:28,923 --> 00:17:31,217 so the groups started coming in here to hang out. 275 00:17:31,301 --> 00:17:32,927 The Rainbow was originally the Villa Nova, 276 00:17:33,011 --> 00:17:34,721 which was a famous restaurant in itself. 277 00:17:34,804 --> 00:17:39,017 I was here with my parents when it was Villa Nova in the 50's. 278 00:17:39,142 --> 00:17:41,478 It was loaded with movie stars. 279 00:17:41,561 --> 00:17:45,440 Marilyn Monroe dated Joe Dimaggio in that booth right behind us. 280 00:17:45,523 --> 00:17:47,525 I was friends with Tony Curtis. 281 00:17:47,609 --> 00:17:50,737 I believe it was around the time that they were making 'Some Like It Hot', 282 00:17:50,820 --> 00:17:54,783 that Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis would meet here at The Rainbow, 283 00:17:54,866 --> 00:17:57,786 then called the Villa Nova, and have their little liaisons, 284 00:17:57,869 --> 00:18:00,830 and then went out to the bungalows up by the ocean. 285 00:18:01,623 --> 00:18:04,334 She was cheating on Arthur Miller, her playwright husband. 286 00:18:04,417 --> 00:18:06,878 Arthur Miller found out, and wanted to fight with him. 287 00:18:06,961 --> 00:18:09,672 And then it was either the director of 'Some Like It Hot' 288 00:18:09,756 --> 00:18:12,842 broke it up, or Arthur Miller decided it wasn't worth fighting with him. 289 00:18:12,926 --> 00:18:16,054 Tony promised to stop the relationship with Marilyn Monroe, 290 00:18:16,137 --> 00:18:18,681 and they all agreed and shook hands, and that was the end of that. 291 00:18:22,977 --> 00:18:26,064 The Whisky was a place where groups came to see other groups. 292 00:18:26,147 --> 00:18:29,901 Now the groups were coming up to The Rainbow to hang out, to hang with one another. 293 00:18:33,363 --> 00:18:36,533 We had a private club upstairs called The Vampires Lair. 294 00:18:37,283 --> 00:18:40,370 The Hollywood Vampires, it was a club of people that just all hung together. 295 00:18:40,453 --> 00:18:42,789 It was Micky Dolenz, and Alice Cooper. 296 00:18:42,872 --> 00:18:47,752 You had Ringo, John Lennon, these people hung in here all the time. 297 00:18:47,836 --> 00:18:51,256 The Hollywood Vampires were me, 298 00:18:51,339 --> 00:18:57,053 Alice, Harry, Keith, and John, that was kind of the core. 299 00:18:57,137 --> 00:19:02,976 So they were hanging out up there, and then... Oh, I can't look. 300 00:19:03,935 --> 00:19:09,232 Shortly after it opened, we were kind of a drinking men's club, 301 00:19:09,315 --> 00:19:14,154 like you would have in England, you know, call it the Priars or something. 302 00:19:18,158 --> 00:19:20,743 I think maybe it might have had something to do with the fact 303 00:19:20,827 --> 00:19:24,330 that this had such a cool, like private, private, private-- 304 00:19:24,414 --> 00:19:27,417 you know, it was tough enough to get downstairs, 305 00:19:27,500 --> 00:19:32,255 you know, and then to get up here, over The Rainbow was like another level, 306 00:19:32,338 --> 00:19:35,341 and then to get up here was basically impossible 307 00:19:35,425 --> 00:19:38,553 unless you were one of those guys. 308 00:19:48,771 --> 00:19:51,357 Every kind of act you could imagine, 309 00:19:51,441 --> 00:19:54,152 every kind of drug you could imagine, probably went through there, 310 00:19:54,235 --> 00:19:56,154 I'm not going to point fingers at anyone. 311 00:19:56,279 --> 00:20:00,575 We were just smoking and drinking and laughing and puking. 312 00:20:01,451 --> 00:20:04,662 There probably wasn't a whole lot of people that even wanted to go up there. 313 00:20:04,746 --> 00:20:06,664 It's like all those weirdoes. 314 00:20:10,919 --> 00:20:12,962 Contrary to a little bit of urban myth, 315 00:20:13,046 --> 00:20:18,760 Alice and I, we were into sports, Harry was a basketball player. 316 00:20:18,843 --> 00:20:23,181 And Alice's idea was to start a softball team 317 00:20:23,306 --> 00:20:25,099 called the Hollywood Vampires. 318 00:20:30,813 --> 00:20:35,485 He got t-shirts made and we would play these charity games, 319 00:20:35,568 --> 00:20:40,198 and we'd go out and raise money and stuff, then we'd come here and get hammered. 320 00:20:49,415 --> 00:20:51,960 But The Rainbow is just a great restaurant, 321 00:20:52,043 --> 00:20:55,213 and it got to the point where it was probably 322 00:20:55,338 --> 00:20:59,384 one of the premiere rock places along the Sunset Strip. 323 00:21:00,426 --> 00:21:03,054 The Rainbow became the home of the moving stars, 324 00:21:03,137 --> 00:21:07,934 where rock stars and musicians and the movie stars came to see one another. 325 00:21:08,017 --> 00:21:10,728 Literally to be seen or to see who's here. 326 00:21:11,562 --> 00:21:14,107 It was more than instantaneous, it was kind of unbelievable. 327 00:21:21,572 --> 00:21:25,660 Gene]Anybody who was in town, whether they were recording or playing a show 328 00:21:25,743 --> 00:21:26,536 would come here. 329 00:21:26,619 --> 00:21:30,415 This was the hub. Main acts would come to LA, 330 00:21:30,498 --> 00:21:33,001 they'd come here on a night off to see what was going on. 331 00:21:33,084 --> 00:21:36,629 Bands who were actually the innovators of all, of all music. 332 00:21:39,382 --> 00:21:41,551 James] The Who, or The Stones. 333 00:21:41,634 --> 00:21:43,553 Well, I met 'em all. I talked to them. 334 00:21:43,636 --> 00:21:45,179 Give 'em booze, whatever they want. 335 00:21:45,263 --> 00:21:48,182 Was it James Brown wouldn't go in any other restroom but here? 336 00:21:48,266 --> 00:21:50,435 You'd never know who you were gonna see. 337 00:21:50,518 --> 00:21:52,395 Zeppelin would come in all the time, 338 00:21:52,478 --> 00:21:55,940 they'd put the big round table in the middle, all of Zeppelin were there. 339 00:21:56,024 --> 00:21:59,819 Deep Purple would come in, The Who, and it was packed, 340 00:21:59,902 --> 00:22:03,906 it was absolutely packed, and it was really a fun different era. 341 00:22:11,164 --> 00:22:14,167 And it's really a restaurant in a club. 342 00:22:15,877 --> 00:22:18,338 I have a lot of memories of that kitchen. 343 00:22:19,589 --> 00:22:21,466 So busy, all the time. 344 00:22:23,301 --> 00:22:26,846 Always having something to eat, even if you had no money, I mean he would-- 345 00:22:26,929 --> 00:22:28,806 Mario was always, 346 00:22:30,308 --> 00:22:35,313 "Eh, pay me later, you know, whatever, I didn't hear anything." 347 00:22:40,318 --> 00:22:44,113 It's not just the location of it, because it's right in the middle of everything, 348 00:22:44,197 --> 00:22:45,573 but the food's really good. 349 00:22:46,866 --> 00:22:49,869 They have the best damn soups, the pizzas are notorious, 350 00:22:49,952 --> 00:22:54,582 I always tell my friends you get a Spago steak at a Rainbow price. 351 00:22:54,665 --> 00:22:57,794 The steak, you gotta pay 60, 70 dollars for a steak, 352 00:22:57,877 --> 00:23:00,004 I've got the best steak in this city right here. 353 00:23:00,088 --> 00:23:03,299 You feel sick, you gotta eat some Rainbow chicken soup. 354 00:23:03,383 --> 00:23:05,510 It's the only way to cure your throat. 355 00:23:06,719 --> 00:23:10,348 My name is Miguel Murillo, and I'm the chef at The Rainbow. 356 00:23:10,431 --> 00:23:15,686 Miguel is a mainstay, without a doubt, he makes sure this place runs right. 357 00:23:15,770 --> 00:23:21,359 I started working here April 1972, 358 00:23:21,442 --> 00:23:23,986 started as a busboy, I'd never cooked before. 359 00:23:24,070 --> 00:23:26,322 He used to clean toilets, now he's the chef. 360 00:23:26,406 --> 00:23:30,451 Miguel did the movie Up In Smoke, Cheech and Chong used to hang in here. 361 00:23:30,535 --> 00:23:33,329 In fact, Cheech married one of our waitresses. 362 00:23:33,413 --> 00:23:36,207 We smoked this whole lid, man, and I haven't even had a buzz yet. 363 00:23:36,290 --> 00:23:38,709 We had a French chef that we first opened The Rainbow with 364 00:23:38,793 --> 00:23:42,130 and Miguel watched him prepare the food, 365 00:23:42,213 --> 00:23:45,508 and then with my mother's recipes he incorporated into it 366 00:23:45,591 --> 00:23:47,218 and developed the menu we have. 367 00:23:47,301 --> 00:23:49,595 The consistency is unbelievable, 368 00:23:49,679 --> 00:23:51,973 since I was a kid it tastes exactly the same. 369 00:23:52,056 --> 00:23:53,808 Miguel's been here 43 years, 370 00:23:53,891 --> 00:23:57,895 we have not one or two, but many long, long time employees. 371 00:23:57,979 --> 00:24:00,857 It's not unusual for someone to be here 25, 30 years. 372 00:24:01,816 --> 00:24:03,901 The same chef and the same owner 373 00:24:03,985 --> 00:24:07,029 have been around for about 30, at least 30 some odd years. 374 00:24:08,030 --> 00:24:11,033 It was like, you know, go in the kitchen. It was like your house. 375 00:24:11,117 --> 00:24:13,494 I remember being there as a little kid running around, 376 00:24:13,578 --> 00:24:16,414 my whole childhood my Grandfather would work late nights 377 00:24:16,539 --> 00:24:19,417 until three in the morning every night, my Dad same thing. 378 00:24:19,542 --> 00:24:22,920 As kids we didn't go to bed until two, three in the morning, 379 00:24:23,004 --> 00:24:24,755 because it was just what our family was used to. 380 00:24:24,839 --> 00:24:28,926 I made it a family, I want my family. What else you got in life? Nothing. 381 00:24:31,971 --> 00:24:34,056 I took care of my people that came in, 382 00:24:34,140 --> 00:24:37,018 "Hello, how are ya, how's your kids, how's your wife?" 383 00:24:39,437 --> 00:24:41,272 It's like that TV show Cheers, 384 00:24:41,355 --> 00:24:43,483 people like to go where everybody knows your name. 385 00:24:49,238 --> 00:24:51,991 And to this day, we are now 43 years later, 386 00:24:52,074 --> 00:24:54,285 and they are still coming here on a regular basis. 387 00:24:54,368 --> 00:24:57,538 You can come on a Monday or Tuesday, which you wouldn't even expect it, 388 00:24:57,622 --> 00:24:59,999 and you may have five or ten rock stars. 389 00:25:00,082 --> 00:25:02,418 Ozzy's here about three, four times a week. 390 00:25:02,502 --> 00:25:06,631 Lemmy from Motörhead bought a place right down the street so he would be near The Rainbow. 391 00:25:06,714 --> 00:25:09,091 He makes no bones about it, he has to be by The Rainbow. 392 00:25:17,558 --> 00:25:21,187 Lemmy is a God. Lemmy is awesome, he's always been a part of this club, 393 00:25:21,270 --> 00:25:24,357 he loves hanging out at The Rainbow. He's always at The Rainbow. 394 00:25:24,440 --> 00:25:26,442 He's like furniture there, he's always there. 395 00:25:26,526 --> 00:25:29,111 People call and they think he owns the place, 396 00:25:29,195 --> 00:25:32,281 you know, I get all these calls, what does Lemmy have to do with The Rainbow, 397 00:25:32,365 --> 00:25:33,699 it's like he just hangs out there. 398 00:25:33,783 --> 00:25:35,993 Lemmy, he still comes here. 399 00:25:36,077 --> 00:25:38,746 Plays the machine on the bar, that's all he does. 400 00:25:38,829 --> 00:25:41,082 But he minds his own business, such a nice guy. 401 00:25:41,165 --> 00:25:45,002 He's in front of the machine all the time, drinking his jack and cokes, 402 00:25:45,086 --> 00:25:47,505 and uh, you don't bug him. 403 00:25:47,588 --> 00:25:50,258 One of the coolest things about The Rainbow 404 00:25:50,341 --> 00:25:53,469 is celebrities like to hang out there cause they don't get messed with. 405 00:25:53,553 --> 00:25:56,973 People who are famous can hang there and kind of sit in a corner 406 00:25:57,056 --> 00:26:00,351 and keep to themselves, and not get fucked with by every person that walks by. 407 00:26:50,693 --> 00:26:54,488 That guy helped me out in Vegas one time with another joint we had there, 408 00:26:54,572 --> 00:26:57,950 and Lemmy's a good man. 409 00:26:58,034 --> 00:27:01,287 He's an amazing guy, he's a great person, and we all adore him. 410 00:27:27,438 --> 00:27:29,315 It was the kind of crowd that I liked. 411 00:27:29,398 --> 00:27:32,526 I wasn't really crazy about like the Sky Bar, or the W. 412 00:27:32,610 --> 00:27:34,904 These places struck me as a bit pretentious, 413 00:27:34,987 --> 00:27:38,699 you know, leisure suit attitude, you know sports jackets, it's just, I don't know. 414 00:27:38,783 --> 00:27:41,661 This is rock n' roll. This is as rock n' roll as it gets. 415 00:27:52,380 --> 00:27:55,800 A rock star is a peculiar thing, 416 00:27:55,883 --> 00:27:58,427 it's come to mean you're extraordinary. 417 00:27:58,511 --> 00:28:01,013 You can be Bill Clinton, you're a rock star, 418 00:28:01,097 --> 00:28:04,433 or Obama, or whoever it is you think is cool. 419 00:28:04,517 --> 00:28:07,103 You can't say, "See that guy over there, he's a hip-hop star," 420 00:28:07,186 --> 00:28:08,521 it fucking means nothing. 421 00:28:08,604 --> 00:28:10,564 "That guy over there, he's a country star." 422 00:28:10,648 --> 00:28:14,735 Take your pick, "That guy's a heavy metal star," it means fuck all. 423 00:28:14,819 --> 00:28:19,949 There is only rock, because as much as we love Sinatra, and the Rat Pack, 424 00:28:20,032 --> 00:28:21,242 it's not this thing. 425 00:28:22,201 --> 00:28:25,579 Mom and Dad and outside culture didn't effect it, 426 00:28:25,663 --> 00:28:29,667 so peoples hair grew longer, they wore more flamboyant clothes. 427 00:28:29,792 --> 00:28:33,754 Straight guys like Robert Plant were wearing chick clothing, 428 00:28:33,838 --> 00:28:38,092 and the sort of ambiguous nature of guys moving like girls, and stuff. 429 00:28:38,175 --> 00:28:42,680 It was not judgment, in fact, I don't remember the word gay being uttered. 430 00:28:42,763 --> 00:28:44,515 You just did whatever you wanted to do. 431 00:28:45,516 --> 00:28:48,602 When people say tell us a story, it doesn't have to be sexual, 432 00:28:48,686 --> 00:28:52,022 if it's rock n' roll, it's always about sexual. 433 00:28:52,106 --> 00:28:56,652 If it's country music it's about your beer and your truck or your hog or whatever. 434 00:28:56,736 --> 00:28:59,488 That's why we picked up guitars in the first place. 435 00:28:59,572 --> 00:29:02,700 What do you think, we have some great secret to impart to the world? 436 00:29:02,783 --> 00:29:06,454 I don't look like Bob Dylan, nobody pretends to be that. 437 00:29:06,537 --> 00:29:07,621 We just wanted to get laid. 438 00:29:07,705 --> 00:29:11,667 The Rainbow was really a place where rock n' roll musicians 439 00:29:11,751 --> 00:29:14,587 could go and hang out, and just be themselves, 440 00:29:14,670 --> 00:29:17,089 and be able to you know, have a good time. 441 00:29:17,173 --> 00:29:19,008 The kind of good time that a musician wants to have. 442 00:29:19,091 --> 00:29:23,262 You know, the reputation was rock n' roll-- sex, drugs and rock n' roll. 443 00:29:24,263 --> 00:29:28,225 People want to live a kind of a rock n' roll gypsy lifestyle 444 00:29:28,309 --> 00:29:30,227 where you don't have to apologize. 445 00:29:31,771 --> 00:29:34,023 There was even a magazine called Star, 446 00:29:34,106 --> 00:29:37,234 and on the cover of every issue of star were groupies 447 00:29:37,318 --> 00:29:40,362 who would tell their stories of bedding down Robert Plant, 448 00:29:40,446 --> 00:29:44,116 or the Aerosmith guys, or whoever. They were celebrated. 449 00:29:46,410 --> 00:29:49,955 We get to fuck the prettiest boys, you get to smoke the best dope. 450 00:29:50,039 --> 00:29:53,375 You get to meet all the most far out people. It's magic. 451 00:30:01,801 --> 00:30:04,678 You just had to be cool about it. That was the sort of fine line. 452 00:30:20,152 --> 00:30:24,156 Once I finally got out of high school in 1978 453 00:30:24,240 --> 00:30:27,743 my first thing to do was to pack up the car and come to Hollywood. 454 00:30:30,788 --> 00:30:34,250 It was in the heart of the disco era, 455 00:30:34,333 --> 00:30:37,419 rock was a secondary thing. 456 00:30:38,546 --> 00:30:42,758 The very first night I came out in '77 I came to The Rainbow, 457 00:30:42,842 --> 00:30:46,804 and then I came every night after that for years. 458 00:30:48,180 --> 00:30:52,059 There were all these guys waiting for a chance, going through different bands. 459 00:30:53,644 --> 00:30:57,481 I'm talking about me and Nikki Sixx, Blackie Lawless 460 00:30:57,565 --> 00:31:00,442 and we were all hanging here wondering what was going to happen to us. 461 00:31:09,243 --> 00:31:11,203 I was an aspiring rock n' roll musician 462 00:31:11,287 --> 00:31:14,373 and hanging out at all the various clubs in LA, 463 00:31:14,456 --> 00:31:19,086 you know, sort of doing that thing that you do which is going to check out bands, 464 00:31:19,169 --> 00:31:21,171 going to sort of network so to speak. 465 00:31:28,971 --> 00:31:31,599 I mean all kinds of interesting stories 466 00:31:31,682 --> 00:31:34,101 about things that have developed at The Rainbow, 467 00:31:34,184 --> 00:31:38,063 from record deals to songs, to bands, members of bands meeting, 468 00:31:38,147 --> 00:31:40,900 I mean all kinds of, you name it, it's happened there. 469 00:31:48,324 --> 00:31:51,577 Rock music in the 80's all came out of The Rainbow and The Whisky. 470 00:31:58,167 --> 00:32:02,880 I was a stalwart at The Rainbow. I have a long history with Mikeal and Mario. 471 00:32:02,963 --> 00:32:06,175 I first met them unbeknownst to them 472 00:32:06,258 --> 00:32:09,553 probably when I was like 15. 473 00:32:09,637 --> 00:32:13,974 I used to make fake IDs and we'd go in there on the weekends. 474 00:32:14,058 --> 00:32:16,560 Mikeal was always hanging around the door. 475 00:32:16,644 --> 00:32:19,021 He finally busted me with my fake ID 476 00:32:19,104 --> 00:32:21,440 and I'd gone down there with Steven 477 00:32:21,523 --> 00:32:24,276 and he was using the fake ID I made for him. 478 00:32:24,360 --> 00:32:26,570 He walked right in, and I got held up. 479 00:32:26,654 --> 00:32:30,532 I was drunk too, and I was pissed, so I went back to my pad, 480 00:32:30,616 --> 00:32:34,870 and I went into my Mom's clothes, 481 00:32:34,954 --> 00:32:37,164 cause it was Tuesday, it was ladies night. 482 00:32:37,247 --> 00:32:39,375 So I went through a bunch of her shit 483 00:32:39,458 --> 00:32:43,045 and I put together this makeshift female sort of get up, 484 00:32:43,128 --> 00:32:46,173 and some make-up and that, and I padded my chest up 485 00:32:46,256 --> 00:32:48,926 and did the whole nine and went back up there and got in. 486 00:32:49,051 --> 00:32:52,346 But then suddenly I realized the grim reality 487 00:32:52,429 --> 00:32:56,308 is that I'm dressed as a girl in The Rainbow. It did work though. I got in. 488 00:32:58,352 --> 00:33:01,105 Well, I would probably be breaking the law by saying 489 00:33:01,188 --> 00:33:02,940 the first time I was let in here. 490 00:33:04,400 --> 00:33:07,611 As a musician you could live on a bowl of chicken soup and a loaf of bread 491 00:33:07,695 --> 00:33:09,613 because they always gave you a loaf of bread, 492 00:33:09,697 --> 00:33:12,157 which was like the thing you fill up on 493 00:33:12,241 --> 00:33:14,785 but then you get a little bit of nourishment with it. 494 00:33:14,868 --> 00:33:16,537 It was a big bowl too. 495 00:33:16,620 --> 00:33:20,457 There's so many that literally give credit to my Dad 496 00:33:20,541 --> 00:33:24,461 because yeah, he supported them while they were coming up. 497 00:33:24,545 --> 00:33:26,088 And he always took them under his wing. 498 00:33:26,171 --> 00:33:28,841 If someone came in and it looked like they were down and out on their luck, 499 00:33:28,924 --> 00:33:32,302 or trying to get started, my Dad was always like, here, gotta feed you. 500 00:33:32,386 --> 00:33:33,637 Have a bowl of soup. 501 00:33:33,721 --> 00:33:35,973 I met Mario in The Runaways days, 502 00:33:36,056 --> 00:33:40,185 we had an apartment around the corner up here on Clarke street. 503 00:33:40,269 --> 00:33:42,980 And we would come to The Rainbow every night 504 00:33:43,063 --> 00:33:46,692 and Mario would take care of us every night 'cause we didn't have any money. 505 00:33:46,775 --> 00:33:49,278 You know, in those days I might have had enough for a beer. 506 00:33:49,361 --> 00:33:51,405 Mario was always very, very cool about it. 507 00:33:51,488 --> 00:33:55,242 He'd hook me up with the next, maybe, even a refill. 508 00:33:56,702 --> 00:33:59,329 You know, I don't know why he was so sweet to me but he was. 509 00:33:59,413 --> 00:34:01,999 And to this day I always thank him for it. 510 00:34:02,082 --> 00:34:07,838 Mario really gave us a place to put a roof over our heads. 511 00:34:07,921 --> 00:34:11,341 We were trying to be rock stars, learning, 512 00:34:11,425 --> 00:34:15,679 and reaching out for different people to help us, and Mario was there. 513 00:34:17,931 --> 00:34:21,435 The Runaways had the largest attendance record 514 00:34:21,518 --> 00:34:24,855 in the history of the Whisky a Go Go 515 00:34:24,938 --> 00:34:28,317 that wrapped around The Rainbow four nights in a row. 516 00:34:48,003 --> 00:34:51,340 Your Grandpa let me in there, he'd buy me a meal, I didn't have any money. 517 00:34:51,423 --> 00:34:55,010 I've seriously heard that story from a thousand different people. 518 00:34:55,094 --> 00:34:56,637 It's me, it's my nature. 519 00:34:56,720 --> 00:34:58,597 I feel sorry for the guy down there, 520 00:34:58,680 --> 00:35:00,224 not the guy up, but the guy down here. 521 00:35:00,307 --> 00:35:02,226 You gotta treat everybody well, 522 00:35:02,309 --> 00:35:03,936 no matter who they are, it don't matter. 523 00:35:04,019 --> 00:35:06,855 Except Manson, he's nuts that guy. 524 00:35:21,495 --> 00:35:24,665 Around that period that I came up to Hollywood, you know, 525 00:35:24,748 --> 00:35:27,251 that was the era of Van Halen. 526 00:35:27,334 --> 00:35:30,587 You know, Van Halen got signed out of the Whiskey in the late 70s. 527 00:35:35,634 --> 00:35:39,263 I got to see them do their first album at The Whisky, 528 00:35:39,346 --> 00:35:43,058 and it was insane, I'd never heard of them. 529 00:35:45,894 --> 00:35:47,688 Me and my friends were all into Van Halen 530 00:35:47,771 --> 00:35:49,898 and they were playing, they were doing some release party. 531 00:35:49,982 --> 00:35:51,775 So I come down, I was a little kid, 532 00:35:51,859 --> 00:35:55,362 and there's just thousands of people in the street. 533 00:35:55,445 --> 00:35:58,240 I mean you've never seen so many people in your life 534 00:35:58,323 --> 00:36:01,243 and they're all in front of the Whisky trying to get into the Whisky 535 00:36:01,326 --> 00:36:02,202 to see Van Halen. 536 00:36:02,286 --> 00:36:04,496 And someone announces that the tickets are on sale 537 00:36:04,580 --> 00:36:06,206 at Tower Records down the street, 538 00:36:06,290 --> 00:36:08,667 so everyone runs from The Whisky over to Tower Records 539 00:36:08,750 --> 00:36:11,670 trying to get their tickets, and then some fuck up happened over there, 540 00:36:11,753 --> 00:36:13,505 the tickets end up being sold here. 541 00:36:13,589 --> 00:36:16,884 Sold the 500 tickets in about four seconds, and it was just mayhem. 542 00:36:16,967 --> 00:36:18,552 I mean, the SWAT team, you know, 543 00:36:18,635 --> 00:36:22,764 the whole nine yards was out here protecting the Sunset Blvd from this, 544 00:36:22,848 --> 00:36:25,601 like, potential riot from this Van Halen crowd. 545 00:36:25,684 --> 00:36:29,229 I went up to The Rainbow just to, you know, say hi to my Grandpa and stuff, 546 00:36:29,313 --> 00:36:31,148 and he made me walk Weird Al Yankovich into the show. 547 00:36:31,273 --> 00:36:34,151 So I got to go see Van Halen with Weird Al. 548 00:36:34,276 --> 00:36:36,069 And it was the coolest night ever. 549 00:36:40,908 --> 00:36:45,162 When we saw Van Halen take off and it was a local band, 550 00:36:45,287 --> 00:36:49,041 and everybody was aware of who they were, and how good they were. 551 00:36:49,124 --> 00:36:52,294 We knew a door had flung open on that. 552 00:36:59,301 --> 00:37:01,053 I've seen a lot of bands at the Whisky. 553 00:37:01,136 --> 00:37:04,556 But one of the important gigs for as far as The Whisky, 554 00:37:04,640 --> 00:37:08,143 and LA and all that was I saw Motley Crue there. 555 00:37:10,437 --> 00:37:13,398 Motley Crue, this leather and chain clad band 556 00:37:13,482 --> 00:37:16,360 pushed their way through the LA club circuit just two years ago. 557 00:37:16,443 --> 00:37:19,196 Now with the release of their second album Shout At The Devil, 558 00:37:19,279 --> 00:37:23,200 Motley Crue has them waiting around the block for hours in the cold and rain. 559 00:37:23,325 --> 00:37:24,993 Motley Crue! 560 00:37:25,911 --> 00:37:27,704 A lot of us got record deals. 561 00:37:27,788 --> 00:37:32,167 Quiet Riot, Motley, W.A.S.P., Ratt, Dokken, 562 00:37:32,251 --> 00:37:34,711 that's when we really took over the strip. 563 00:37:34,795 --> 00:37:36,797 It was just crazy here. 564 00:37:46,890 --> 00:37:51,019 From right here at The Rainbow down to the edge of The Whisky corner, 565 00:37:51,103 --> 00:37:53,188 it was just packed. 566 00:37:53,272 --> 00:37:56,775 Get set for three hours of the loudest, rudest, 567 00:37:56,858 --> 00:38:00,362 crudest, heaviest, meanest, music around. 568 00:38:00,445 --> 00:38:04,825 It's time for the Headbangers ball. 569 00:38:07,661 --> 00:38:11,498 It was just total domination on TV, radio, concerts, 570 00:38:11,581 --> 00:38:16,420 everything was dominated from the bands that came from this strip right here. 571 00:38:16,503 --> 00:38:18,755 I think Poison are fucking great! 572 00:38:18,839 --> 00:38:22,676 And there were so many signed bands living here and all friends, 573 00:38:22,759 --> 00:38:25,470 so it was a real, real community and a really cool scene. 574 00:38:25,554 --> 00:38:30,559 I was signed with W.A.S.P. for four years, all the way up to about '87. 575 00:38:31,351 --> 00:38:33,395 We were all touring so much, 576 00:38:33,478 --> 00:38:37,691 we weren't even aware that there was a second wave of metal coming out of LA. 577 00:38:43,822 --> 00:38:45,324 How the fuck are you doing? 578 00:38:46,033 --> 00:38:47,993 Is it fucking hot in this fucking place? 579 00:38:52,914 --> 00:38:54,374 Been a long time. 580 00:39:06,053 --> 00:39:07,637 Approximately one year ago, 581 00:39:07,721 --> 00:39:10,307 an LA club band hoping to gain recognition 582 00:39:10,390 --> 00:39:12,768 released their first album Appetite for Destruction. 583 00:39:12,851 --> 00:39:17,064 They say the stones to the 60's were the kings of their genre. 584 00:39:17,147 --> 00:39:19,858 They say Aerosmith in the 70's was the same thing, 585 00:39:19,941 --> 00:39:24,112 they say in the late 80' going into the 90's it is Guns N' Roses. 586 00:39:26,782 --> 00:39:29,159 It was just Guns N' Roses, LA Guns, 587 00:39:29,242 --> 00:39:32,579 Faster Pussycat thing happening and the whole city was buzzing, 588 00:39:32,662 --> 00:39:37,584 and I was fortunate, I got right out of WASP and right into LA Guns. 589 00:39:37,667 --> 00:39:41,630 I just watched that whole thing, that whole second wave take over too, 590 00:39:41,713 --> 00:39:43,507 especially GNR, how big they got. 591 00:39:45,509 --> 00:39:48,845 Axl Rose, he came on stage and he started talking, 592 00:39:48,929 --> 00:39:51,807 he said we played this town in Florida, 593 00:39:51,890 --> 00:39:54,768 and the Mayor said we'll never play there again. 594 00:39:54,851 --> 00:39:58,855 Well he can suck my dick, he grabbed his privates. 595 00:40:00,565 --> 00:40:02,484 One of my biggest shows as a kid 596 00:40:02,567 --> 00:40:05,570 was Guns N' Roses and Metallica at the Rose Bowl, 597 00:40:06,863 --> 00:40:09,950 and I run into my Grandpa at like 12 years old, 598 00:40:10,033 --> 00:40:11,701 and he's like, what the fuck are you doing here? 599 00:40:11,785 --> 00:40:14,329 Like the last person you'd think you're run into 600 00:40:14,413 --> 00:40:17,374 at a venue that holds a hundred thousand people is your grandfather. 601 00:40:17,499 --> 00:40:18,500 But that happened. 602 00:40:19,626 --> 00:40:20,377 He's hanging out. 603 00:40:20,502 --> 00:40:23,380 They invited him down, he was there, you know, he had his laminate on, 604 00:40:23,505 --> 00:40:24,673 you know, he was going backstage. 605 00:40:24,756 --> 00:40:27,217 I was trying to go to the bathroom and I ran right into him. 606 00:40:27,300 --> 00:40:32,055 Guns N' Roses was a good show, good group, I like them. 607 00:40:32,139 --> 00:40:33,390 I still like 'em. 608 00:40:35,392 --> 00:40:37,811 In the early days of Guns N' Roses, 609 00:40:37,894 --> 00:40:40,063 we used to hang out at The Rainbow all the time. 610 00:40:40,147 --> 00:40:43,316 When I joined Guns N' Roses, we always came back here. 611 00:40:43,400 --> 00:40:46,069 You know, we had our booth, which is the corner booth. 612 00:40:46,153 --> 00:40:48,697 Slash's name is on that booth. 613 00:40:50,824 --> 00:40:53,285 We all sat there, but he claimed it. 614 00:40:54,453 --> 00:40:57,622 You know the booth thing is just something that materialized, 615 00:40:57,706 --> 00:40:59,833 I don't know if it was intentional. 616 00:40:59,916 --> 00:41:03,378 They just put this one picture of me in the back booth, 617 00:41:03,462 --> 00:41:07,883 and that sort of just turned into, like, Slash's booth somehow. 618 00:41:07,966 --> 00:41:11,178 They probably thought maybe, you know, with all those pizza's and stuff, 619 00:41:11,261 --> 00:41:14,181 maybe it's time to give him some sort of a booth, you know. 620 00:41:20,770 --> 00:41:23,356 We always felt protected in our booth 621 00:41:23,440 --> 00:41:28,111 and people didn't really bother us because this was our place. 622 00:41:29,738 --> 00:41:33,575 And Mario, the guys and Mikeal would say, "Hey, this is your home. 623 00:41:33,658 --> 00:41:35,535 You could do whatever you want here. 624 00:41:35,619 --> 00:41:37,621 You want to film a video, do it." 625 00:41:37,704 --> 00:41:41,541 there was no contracts or asking for money, or any of that bullshit. 626 00:41:49,132 --> 00:41:52,385 The first video that I performed in with Guns N' Roses 627 00:41:52,469 --> 00:41:54,429 was shot right here at the Roxy with Arnold. 628 00:41:55,514 --> 00:41:58,725 We all sat in here waiting for our scenes to come up 629 00:41:58,808 --> 00:42:01,645 because as you know, filming stuff, you gotta set cameras or lights. 630 00:42:01,728 --> 00:42:05,482 Arnold had a trailer that was parked in the parking lot, we'd all go over there. 631 00:42:05,565 --> 00:42:10,320 I remember we went in there and he's smoking cigars and drinking Goldschlager. 632 00:42:11,404 --> 00:42:13,740 And we all did shots with him. 633 00:42:16,159 --> 00:42:19,162 So by the time we shot the last scene where Arnold comes out of the Roxy 634 00:42:19,246 --> 00:42:21,122 and we're all standing in a line 635 00:42:21,206 --> 00:42:24,167 where it's Slash, me, Duff, Dizzy and Axl, 636 00:42:24,251 --> 00:42:26,878 we'd been in here for about four hours drinking heavily. 637 00:42:28,380 --> 00:42:31,508 So, by the time we got to the film set, if you watch, 638 00:42:31,591 --> 00:42:35,011 we're very wobbly on that last scene, specially Slash. 639 00:42:43,478 --> 00:42:45,355 You know, we shot many videos here. 640 00:42:51,152 --> 00:42:54,864 When we shot part of a video called Estranged, 641 00:42:54,948 --> 00:43:00,453 which is one of a three part epic video series 642 00:43:00,537 --> 00:43:01,913 that Guns N' Roses did. 643 00:43:01,997 --> 00:43:03,957 I remember going to that, 644 00:43:04,040 --> 00:43:07,335 and that was just amazing to see a video being filmed at our club. 645 00:43:07,419 --> 00:43:10,880 And then I gave them a guitar that I threw off a cliff 646 00:43:10,964 --> 00:43:12,966 for the "Don't Cry" video. 647 00:43:13,800 --> 00:43:16,970 That was a good Les Paul too, it went neck first off this cliff, 648 00:43:17,053 --> 00:43:22,392 and it came back in three pieces, and we sort of tied it back together. 649 00:43:24,811 --> 00:43:27,439 We don't buy any of this memorabilia or the guitars and things, 650 00:43:27,522 --> 00:43:29,357 they're given to us regularly. 651 00:43:30,191 --> 00:43:34,070 Phil Campbell from Motörhead gave me the one that's over my head somewhere here. 652 00:43:34,154 --> 00:43:37,574 That's like a $5000 guitar, but he wanted it to be in The Rainbow. 653 00:43:37,657 --> 00:43:40,702 We got Eddie Van Halen's guitar up there, we've got tons of drum heads. 654 00:43:40,785 --> 00:43:42,454 I mean all sorts of cool memorabilia. 655 00:43:42,537 --> 00:43:43,913 And all the pictures on the walls 656 00:43:43,997 --> 00:43:46,166 of all the famous rock stars that have been here or-- 657 00:43:46,249 --> 00:43:48,043 I've given them their gold albums. 658 00:43:48,126 --> 00:43:49,711 It's a little bit of a museum, 659 00:43:49,794 --> 00:43:52,380 it's like we're the real Hard Rock Café, you know. 660 00:43:52,464 --> 00:43:56,259 The story I heard is that the guys who started Hard Rock, 661 00:43:56,343 --> 00:43:59,137 got the idea from The Rainbow. 662 00:43:59,888 --> 00:44:01,306 I would not be surprised. 663 00:44:02,182 --> 00:44:06,478 So Mario, you know, I brought him one of my Guns N' Roses snare drums, 664 00:44:06,561 --> 00:44:11,066 which was like a signature series drum that they made for me, 665 00:44:11,149 --> 00:44:15,654 it says "To Mario and The Rainbow, Matt Sorum, Guns N' fucking Roses". 666 00:44:16,237 --> 00:44:20,158 And Mario says, "Matt, what's with the language? 667 00:44:20,241 --> 00:44:21,993 You know I don't like it when you cuss." 668 00:44:22,077 --> 00:44:26,289 You know, I'm like, "Mario, I mean, we're in The Rainbow, I mean, really?" 669 00:44:26,373 --> 00:44:30,251 He takes a piece of tape and covers up the "fuckin'." 670 00:44:30,335 --> 00:44:33,880 He thought I should be respectful of what's on the wall, 671 00:44:33,963 --> 00:44:36,675 and not everybody wants to see the word "fuckin'," okay? 672 00:44:37,926 --> 00:44:41,388 So, still up there and it still got that old piece of tape 673 00:44:41,471 --> 00:44:44,432 from over twenty years ago. 674 00:44:45,433 --> 00:44:46,935 Are you still doing rock n' roll? 675 00:44:47,018 --> 00:44:49,229 A few heavy metal comedians around. 676 00:44:49,312 --> 00:44:50,814 Yeah, I had a lot of fun with it. 677 00:44:52,774 --> 00:44:56,528 I was good friends with Sam Kinison, who came to The Rainbow all the time. 678 00:44:56,611 --> 00:45:00,824 We used to come here, and the funny thing is that Sam would often drink, 679 00:45:00,907 --> 00:45:04,577 and yet we would be called upon to help walk some of the rock stars out the door. 680 00:45:04,661 --> 00:45:07,163 Like Ozzy Osbourne, he'd get a little tipsy. 681 00:45:13,211 --> 00:45:16,881 And then me and Sam Kinison would walk them out to the car. 682 00:45:22,262 --> 00:45:24,305 And it was an honor, here I am with a legend like this, 683 00:45:24,389 --> 00:45:27,142 and I'm helping him walk to his car. Hooking up under his arm. 684 00:45:27,225 --> 00:45:29,227 "Oh thank you Ron, appreciate it. 685 00:45:29,310 --> 00:45:30,562 Thank you very much, thank you Sam." 686 00:45:30,645 --> 00:45:34,774 And then of course, me and Bill used to help Sam Kinison get to his car. 687 00:45:35,692 --> 00:45:38,194 He had this great car, it was a corvette, it said EX REV, 688 00:45:38,278 --> 00:45:41,948 'cause Sam was a Pentecostal minister in a former life. 689 00:45:42,031 --> 00:45:44,826 Nobody ever helped me out the door and I'm kind of jealous. 690 00:45:44,909 --> 00:45:47,662 - What was Ozzy like? - Oh Ozzy's great, so funny, so mellow, 691 00:45:47,746 --> 00:45:50,457 you know I was expecting, "Ah, you got any bats on you? 692 00:45:50,540 --> 00:45:53,543 Rawr! Can I get some raw meat, you know?" 693 00:45:53,626 --> 00:45:55,253 And he's not like that at all, he's so kind. 694 00:45:55,336 --> 00:45:59,382 You know, he's so British, "Hello, how are you? I've always been afraid to meet you." 695 00:45:59,466 --> 00:46:00,341 That's what he told me. 696 00:46:00,425 --> 00:46:03,553 "I'm afraid to meet you because I heard you were too wild for me to hang out with." 697 00:46:03,636 --> 00:46:06,598 Oh yeah, yeah, great, Ozzy Osbourne's afraid to meet me? 698 00:46:49,390 --> 00:46:53,144 I can't tell you how many people that my father has lectured on their drug issues. 699 00:46:53,228 --> 00:46:54,479 Of using drugs. 700 00:46:54,562 --> 00:46:57,565 He will turn to customers here that are regular drinkers 701 00:46:57,649 --> 00:47:00,318 still to this day and say "You drink too much." 702 00:47:00,401 --> 00:47:04,030 We sell drinks for a living, okay, he will sit down and tell them "You drink too much." 703 00:47:04,113 --> 00:47:06,991 There's a few characters like that in town 704 00:47:07,075 --> 00:47:11,287 who cared about the people that frequented their establishments. 705 00:47:11,371 --> 00:47:14,707 That wasn't uncommon, it is now. 706 00:47:15,458 --> 00:47:16,668 Mario's an exception. 707 00:47:16,751 --> 00:47:21,798 That's why I didn't care so much when my daughter Amy would come around. 708 00:47:21,923 --> 00:47:23,925 Because I knew that there was this 709 00:47:24,008 --> 00:47:28,012 protective almost family thing. 710 00:47:36,229 --> 00:47:38,273 Matt] When I got some success, 711 00:47:39,148 --> 00:47:41,901 I remember my drinking getting a little out of control. 712 00:47:41,985 --> 00:47:43,736 'Cause now I had money to buy beers, 713 00:47:43,820 --> 00:47:47,490 and buy beers for my friends, you know, and do some shots too. 714 00:47:47,574 --> 00:47:50,451 And I remember Mario pulling me aside one night 715 00:47:50,535 --> 00:47:53,913 and he literally gave me that fatherly talk, 716 00:47:53,997 --> 00:47:56,291 because my Dad wasn't around up here in Hollywood. 717 00:47:56,374 --> 00:47:59,252 I was a kid running around on my own, you know. 718 00:47:59,335 --> 00:48:02,547 And he said "Matt, I don't like how you're acting kid, 719 00:48:02,630 --> 00:48:03,840 you're drinking too much." 720 00:48:04,799 --> 00:48:06,467 I was like "Aww, come on, Mario." 721 00:48:06,551 --> 00:48:11,180 "No! Listen to me. I'm telling you you drink too much, simmer down." 722 00:48:12,932 --> 00:48:17,520 And, you know, that really stuck with me, you know, because he-- 723 00:48:18,688 --> 00:48:23,192 he was like a father figure to a lot of us who had come to Hollywood, 724 00:48:23,276 --> 00:48:24,861 you know, looking for the dream 725 00:48:26,362 --> 00:48:30,909 and we were away from family and any sort of grounding, you know. 726 00:48:32,994 --> 00:48:35,580 Over the years, you know, I had different issues, 727 00:48:36,748 --> 00:48:39,959 and Mario had taken care of me a few times. 728 00:48:40,043 --> 00:48:42,587 He definitely saw where I was at, 729 00:48:42,670 --> 00:48:46,841 and he did give me sort of a speech as to, you know, what the fuck am I doing, 730 00:48:46,925 --> 00:48:48,301 why would I, blah blah blah... 731 00:48:48,384 --> 00:48:52,805 And, you know, and I listened to him within reason. 732 00:48:52,889 --> 00:48:54,557 You know, I took it to heart. 733 00:49:00,355 --> 00:49:02,941 The grunge era came in the 90's, 734 00:49:04,317 --> 00:49:05,902 it cut down everybody on the streets, 735 00:49:05,985 --> 00:49:08,821 you know, it wasn't craziness out on the streets in the 90's. 736 00:49:12,867 --> 00:49:16,037 Because it is more overcast here, 737 00:49:16,120 --> 00:49:21,292 we don't spend 300 days a year playing volleyball like they do down in California. 738 00:49:21,376 --> 00:49:25,213 You tend to spend more time indoors. Whether reading a book, or seeing films. 739 00:49:25,296 --> 00:49:27,966 Or practicing music in your garage. 740 00:49:47,527 --> 00:49:50,029 Musical tastes changed, 741 00:49:52,448 --> 00:49:55,660 the glamorous part of the scene came and went. 742 00:49:56,744 --> 00:49:59,330 Once the guys started cutting their hair 743 00:49:59,414 --> 00:50:03,584 and looked like, let me see, are you a Domino's pizza delivery boy? 744 00:50:03,668 --> 00:50:05,920 Do you work for the sanitation department? 745 00:50:06,004 --> 00:50:08,131 Or are you in a band? You're done. 746 00:50:14,220 --> 00:50:18,808 As far as the flow when it comes to The Rainbow, it kept a consistent thing. 747 00:50:18,891 --> 00:50:21,811 The Rainbow was still kind of catering to the 80's people. 748 00:50:21,894 --> 00:50:25,356 You know, The Rainbow kind of kept that rock n' roll, 749 00:50:25,440 --> 00:50:27,900 that old, you know, 80's rock feel alive. 750 00:50:27,984 --> 00:50:32,155 But, as far as The Whisky, it definitely affected the business. 751 00:50:33,489 --> 00:50:36,951 The economy changed, and when the economy changed, the industry changed. 752 00:50:38,703 --> 00:50:41,748 You had the record companies that backed every group. 753 00:50:41,831 --> 00:50:45,501 When we threw a party at the Whisky, you had Capitol, you had Atlantic. 754 00:50:45,585 --> 00:50:48,296 You had all these major companies that literally came behind the groups 755 00:50:48,379 --> 00:50:49,422 and backed them up. 756 00:50:49,505 --> 00:50:51,507 The record companies, they weren't throwing out 757 00:50:51,591 --> 00:50:55,344 several thousand dollars a night to promote a new group that was coming out. 758 00:50:55,428 --> 00:51:00,016 And back in the late 90's when the record sales started to drop 759 00:51:00,141 --> 00:51:02,393 and music became free, 760 00:51:02,477 --> 00:51:05,021 the bands stopped making money, so the bands stopped touring. 761 00:51:05,104 --> 00:51:07,231 That's when it got bad, and that was my generation. 762 00:51:07,315 --> 00:51:11,319 Money got tight. There were times that it was strained. 763 00:51:11,402 --> 00:51:13,029 My grandpa got real sick. 764 00:51:13,112 --> 00:51:16,157 He had cancer, and they had to take him for chemotherapy. 765 00:51:16,240 --> 00:51:19,869 He had a very rare type of cancer that was in his face. 766 00:51:19,952 --> 00:51:22,830 They actually had to remove his nose at one point. 767 00:51:22,914 --> 00:51:27,043 He had a 10 percent survival rate, well he beat that, he was tough. 768 00:51:27,168 --> 00:51:29,045 And my Dad was by his side, 769 00:51:29,170 --> 00:51:31,172 so it was basically my Dad and my Grandpa, 770 00:51:31,255 --> 00:51:33,758 for a long time, were just non-existent. 771 00:51:33,841 --> 00:51:35,426 When it comes to my son, 772 00:51:35,510 --> 00:51:37,595 at first it was like, you have to cover the business, 773 00:51:37,678 --> 00:51:39,764 you know, you run the weekends and answer the phone. 774 00:51:39,847 --> 00:51:43,684 And I'm actually quite amazed that he picked everything up just like that. 775 00:51:43,768 --> 00:51:46,437 Within two years all of a sudden he's booking groups. 776 00:51:46,521 --> 00:51:49,857 I've been around it my whole life, so it was just natural, 777 00:51:49,941 --> 00:51:51,859 I just took over and started doing everything. 778 00:51:51,943 --> 00:51:54,153 No matter what was going on in our personal life, 779 00:51:54,237 --> 00:51:55,738 no matter what was going on at home, 780 00:51:55,822 --> 00:51:58,199 it was like, I couldn't let that effect business. 781 00:51:58,282 --> 00:52:00,743 Like the business needs to go on, this is what we live off of, 782 00:52:00,827 --> 00:52:02,745 the show must go on, literally. 783 00:52:21,430 --> 00:52:24,684 I started off, I did all System of a Down's first shows here, 784 00:52:24,767 --> 00:52:26,018 all Hoobastank's first shows, 785 00:52:26,102 --> 00:52:29,063 I was booking Hoobastank for 10 years before they got a record deal. 786 00:52:29,147 --> 00:52:31,566 Linkin Park, I booked those guys for years, 787 00:52:31,649 --> 00:52:33,693 we did Eminem's first LA show. 788 00:52:33,776 --> 00:52:36,487 You know, we heard about this white rapper Eminem, 789 00:52:36,571 --> 00:52:39,365 and it was all the big rage. You know, he wanted fifteen hundred bucks, 790 00:52:39,448 --> 00:52:41,951 we were like, wow that's a lot, but we'll give it a shot. 791 00:52:42,034 --> 00:52:45,121 That show is the first show that Dr. Dre saw him, 792 00:52:45,204 --> 00:52:47,540 and that's when he got signed, right after that show. 793 00:52:48,916 --> 00:52:53,421 Anything out of that late 90's early 2000's generation we helped out, 794 00:52:53,504 --> 00:52:56,841 and we booked all their shows and started them from the ground up. 795 00:53:01,053 --> 00:53:03,723 My grandson, thank God he came along, 796 00:53:03,806 --> 00:53:06,767 you know if it weren't for him forget about it, it wouldn't happen. 797 00:53:06,851 --> 00:53:10,479 I'm very proud, proud of the fact that my son was able to take over, 798 00:53:10,563 --> 00:53:13,149 and this kid was born with a silver spoon, or gold spoon in his mouth, 799 00:53:13,274 --> 00:53:15,568 doesn't have to work, didn't have to do anything 800 00:53:15,651 --> 00:53:19,071 and he gets out and works as hard if not harder than I worked. 801 00:53:19,155 --> 00:53:20,156 Day and night. 802 00:53:20,239 --> 00:53:24,952 And that brought a joy to my father, that was his pride, was his grandson. 803 00:53:26,954 --> 00:53:28,998 He keeps that place open seven days a week, 804 00:53:29,081 --> 00:53:32,126 when we used to open maybe three, four days a week. 805 00:53:32,793 --> 00:53:36,714 And he knows the music better than my son, probably better than me. 806 00:53:36,797 --> 00:53:38,507 He's a booker, that's what he does. 807 00:53:38,591 --> 00:53:41,427 To me it was never about the partying or about the fun. 808 00:53:41,510 --> 00:53:44,972 Like I'm just a music freak, I love music, I love concerts. 809 00:53:45,056 --> 00:53:48,476 And now he runs the whole show over there. He runs it all for us. 810 00:53:48,559 --> 00:53:52,271 I don't really have an actual position at either place, I'm just the boss. 811 00:53:52,355 --> 00:53:54,607 I rarely will walk into the Whisky, 812 00:53:54,690 --> 00:53:57,652 and to be quite honest with you I'm at an age where I can't stand the noise. 813 00:54:02,323 --> 00:54:04,450 I've had some pretty crazy shows. 814 00:54:04,533 --> 00:54:06,994 I've had some shows where they get pretty violent. 815 00:54:07,078 --> 00:54:08,371 It just depends on the crowd. 816 00:54:08,454 --> 00:54:10,623 I had a friend over at Taang! Records, 817 00:54:10,706 --> 00:54:12,500 he was like, "Oh let's put these British bands, 818 00:54:12,583 --> 00:54:17,046 you know like really just like Oi! type punk rock bands," 819 00:54:17,129 --> 00:54:20,299 and I mean, this place just broke out into a riot. 820 00:54:23,261 --> 00:54:26,305 There was like skinheads, and the non-skinheads, 821 00:54:26,389 --> 00:54:30,935 they're fighting, I mean you had every type of bad person in the punk rock scene 822 00:54:31,018 --> 00:54:34,772 all at one place at one time, literally just fighting. 823 00:54:34,855 --> 00:54:39,735 Somehow a gunshot went off, the place was berserk, 824 00:54:39,819 --> 00:54:43,614 SWAT team, the barricades, the whole nine yards, I mean it was insane. 825 00:54:43,698 --> 00:54:47,660 Another one, it was like a hardcore show, pretty rough crowd. 826 00:54:47,743 --> 00:54:49,996 These thugs came in and started a big fight. 827 00:54:50,079 --> 00:54:51,664 There's trash cans getting thrown, 828 00:54:51,747 --> 00:54:53,499 people getting the shit kicked out of them. 829 00:54:53,582 --> 00:54:56,544 We had it to the point where all the security guards were inside the club, 830 00:54:56,627 --> 00:54:58,212 and the maniacs were outside. 831 00:54:58,296 --> 00:55:01,173 My sister's husband was just hired as a security guard here. 832 00:55:01,257 --> 00:55:03,342 He doesn't really know how to deal with these situations. 833 00:55:03,426 --> 00:55:06,554 He goes outside, the second he walks out there he gets clipped in the jaw. 834 00:55:06,637 --> 00:55:08,848 And I mean, there's just blood gushing everywhere, 835 00:55:08,931 --> 00:55:12,226 so we go out to help him, he goes around the side trying to help somebody else, 836 00:55:12,310 --> 00:55:13,894 and gets hit again. 837 00:55:15,938 --> 00:55:17,440 Fully destroyed his jaw, 838 00:55:17,523 --> 00:55:20,276 like broken every little piece of his jaw. 839 00:55:20,359 --> 00:55:22,320 And then that was his last day of security. 840 00:55:24,488 --> 00:55:25,906 Um, he sells real estate. 841 00:55:25,990 --> 00:55:28,534 You know. It's a lot calmer of a job. 842 00:55:33,748 --> 00:55:36,292 This is tradition at its core, you know. 843 00:55:36,417 --> 00:55:40,171 And thank God, because I'd hate it to fall into somebody else's hands. 844 00:55:47,303 --> 00:55:50,306 Sunset Strip as we know it is being stripped away a little bit. 845 00:55:50,431 --> 00:55:53,309 You can find construction going up everywhere on the strip. 846 00:55:53,392 --> 00:55:57,897 Developers buying old buildings to replace them with luxury hotels. 847 00:56:29,136 --> 00:56:31,097 The Rainbow hasn't changed at all. 848 00:56:31,180 --> 00:56:33,307 I came back to Los Angeles, 849 00:56:33,391 --> 00:56:38,145 and I remember walking into The Rainbow after not seeing it for 15 years 850 00:56:38,229 --> 00:56:42,108 and going "It hasn't fucking changed." 851 00:56:42,191 --> 00:56:47,154 They've always seemed to keep the integrity of the club intact. 852 00:56:47,238 --> 00:56:49,323 It's so real. 853 00:56:50,282 --> 00:56:52,701 And it has been-- I don't know how they do it. 854 00:56:52,785 --> 00:56:56,288 It goes back to the atmosphere, you keep that comfortable atmosphere. 855 00:56:57,248 --> 00:57:01,669 This is still the base décor that you see around here from the old Villa Nova. 856 00:57:03,421 --> 00:57:06,048 Finish the booths, or redo the tops of the tables, 857 00:57:06,132 --> 00:57:07,967 but you have to keep it looking the same. 858 00:57:08,050 --> 00:57:09,844 If you change it-- my father taught me that. 859 00:57:09,927 --> 00:57:12,346 If you change it, you'll change the face of the business. 860 00:57:12,430 --> 00:57:14,890 And so people today are still comfortable being here. 861 00:57:17,017 --> 00:57:20,855 We want people to feel like they're in rock n' roll. 862 00:57:20,938 --> 00:57:26,152 Now we have a whole revitalization of the 80's rock movement, 863 00:57:26,235 --> 00:57:29,613 and I love the fact that you can go to The Rainbow, 864 00:57:29,697 --> 00:57:32,783 feel the rock vibe, come to the Whisky and see Dokken, 865 00:57:32,867 --> 00:57:34,994 or see Warrant still in this day. 866 00:57:35,077 --> 00:57:36,620 That's what we're going for, 867 00:57:36,704 --> 00:57:41,041 I'm not really a fan of music of today, and where music's going. 868 00:57:52,678 --> 00:57:56,307 Technology is the new crack of music. 869 00:57:56,390 --> 00:58:00,352 It's too easy to press a button and sound better than you normally do. 870 00:58:00,436 --> 00:58:03,397 So almost everybody that gets up on stage, 871 00:58:03,481 --> 00:58:06,859 I'm talking about big bands, are not playing live. 872 00:58:21,916 --> 00:58:26,462 It really isn't this thing of wanting to learn how to play a guitar. 873 00:58:26,587 --> 00:58:29,798 Wanting to master drums, wanting to play bass or sing. 874 00:58:34,261 --> 00:58:36,138 It's part and parcel of the digital age 875 00:58:36,222 --> 00:58:38,432 and also the way the record companies 876 00:58:38,516 --> 00:58:40,267 have decided the direction that they've gone. 877 00:58:40,351 --> 00:58:43,187 But I think that the magic that you hear on a record 878 00:58:43,270 --> 00:58:46,148 comes from people really interacting in the same room. 879 00:58:46,232 --> 00:58:50,736 It's not something that you can do from different people's living rooms from a distance. 880 00:58:57,159 --> 00:59:00,204 Having outlets, you know, venues for young bands 881 00:59:00,287 --> 00:59:03,415 to get together and do their thing is essential. 882 00:59:03,499 --> 00:59:05,167 Especially if we're discovering music, 883 00:59:05,251 --> 00:59:08,003 I mean that's an art that is close to dead. 884 00:59:10,464 --> 00:59:12,049 I think it's a shame, 885 00:59:12,132 --> 00:59:17,721 it makes it really difficult for new young acts and artists 886 00:59:17,805 --> 00:59:19,515 to get a foot in the door. 887 00:59:20,975 --> 00:59:24,979 The music business itself is not catering to rock n' roll at all. 888 00:59:26,230 --> 00:59:27,773 I miss those times. 889 00:59:32,653 --> 00:59:36,156 You know, as far as rock is concerned, it's not viable to make music. 890 00:59:39,034 --> 00:59:42,371 Here, I'll play a game with you and see if you can answer this question. 891 00:59:43,163 --> 00:59:46,417 From 1958 until 1988 892 00:59:46,500 --> 00:59:52,172 name 100 classic, iconic bands that will stand the test of time. 893 00:59:52,256 --> 00:59:56,218 Let me see, I've got Elvis, The Beatles, The Stones, 894 00:59:56,302 --> 01:00:00,055 Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, in pop and R&B and stuff 895 01:00:00,139 --> 01:00:02,558 you've got The Jackson Five, Michael Jackson, Madonna, 896 01:00:02,683 --> 01:00:05,311 even disco, Donna Summers on that level. 897 01:00:05,394 --> 01:00:09,732 Motown, The Supremes, it all happened at the same time. Okay. 898 01:00:09,815 --> 01:00:13,319 From 1988 until today, 899 01:00:13,402 --> 01:00:16,530 give me 5 bands that will stand the test of time. 900 01:00:18,282 --> 01:00:19,617 It's not on that level. 901 01:00:20,576 --> 01:00:22,244 Good evening, thanks very much for joining us, 902 01:00:22,328 --> 01:00:24,163 the breaking news tonight is sad. 903 01:00:24,246 --> 01:00:27,791 A founding member of one of the most popular music acts of all time has died. 904 01:00:27,875 --> 01:00:31,587 Just 67 years old, and he was quite simply, a rock star. 905 01:00:31,670 --> 01:00:34,882 The rock legend David Bowie has died, 906 01:00:34,965 --> 01:00:37,676 he was 69 years of age. 907 01:00:37,760 --> 01:00:40,554 Tributes from around the world this morning for Tom Petty, 908 01:00:40,638 --> 01:00:44,433 who died overnight at the age of 66. The legendary rocker-- 909 01:00:44,516 --> 01:00:48,187 Musician Prince has died at his home in Minneapolis, 910 01:00:48,270 --> 01:00:50,314 he was 57, and had been-- 911 01:00:50,397 --> 01:00:55,527 Paul Katner, a giant of the 60's music scene has died. He was 74-- 912 01:00:55,611 --> 01:00:57,029 Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister, 913 01:00:57,112 --> 01:00:58,906 the front man for the heavy metal band Motörhead 914 01:00:58,989 --> 01:01:01,075 has died at the age of 70. 915 01:01:01,158 --> 01:01:06,705 Sunset Strip rock club owner Mario Maglieri has died at the age of 93. 916 01:01:22,596 --> 01:01:25,557 That day I was in such a state of shock, there was-- 917 01:01:25,641 --> 01:01:27,893 I mean, just people on top of people, 918 01:01:27,976 --> 01:01:29,520 and literally in a state of shock. 919 01:01:31,313 --> 01:01:33,524 He was the godfather, he was the icon. 920 01:01:34,274 --> 01:01:36,985 And nobody could ever take his place. 921 01:01:37,069 --> 01:01:39,780 He was my hero, my hero. 922 01:01:42,700 --> 01:01:46,662 He gave us this block of rock n' roll. 923 01:01:47,538 --> 01:01:49,581 I don't know where we would be without it. 924 01:01:58,132 --> 01:01:59,508 An era is gone. 925 01:02:05,848 --> 01:02:09,685 But Mikeal will carry on and become an icon too I think. 926 01:02:09,810 --> 01:02:13,814 And Mikey, the grandson, he's just amazing. 927 01:02:16,734 --> 01:02:19,361 I think my son is the future of the club, 928 01:02:19,445 --> 01:02:24,283 and he's done a tremendous job of carrying on that generational thing. 929 01:02:27,035 --> 01:02:30,289 My two daughters, they keep it strong, keep it alive, 930 01:02:30,372 --> 01:02:32,708 we're a very close knit family. 931 01:02:32,833 --> 01:02:35,043 - She lives across the hall. - She works down at the Whisky. 932 01:02:35,127 --> 01:02:36,420 - She works at the Whisky. - I do. 933 01:02:36,503 --> 01:02:39,339 I worked here for many years. Now I'm raising those cuties. 934 01:02:39,423 --> 01:02:40,966 Now I have a grandson, 935 01:02:41,049 --> 01:02:43,010 I have another generation that will come into it. 936 01:02:43,093 --> 01:02:45,220 And hopefully he'll be the next one to come through. 937 01:02:45,304 --> 01:02:47,097 I've got a daughter, we're good. 938 01:03:08,535 --> 01:03:10,954 The premise of rock n' roll 939 01:03:11,038 --> 01:03:13,749 and the understanding of what the word really means. 940 01:03:16,001 --> 01:03:20,631 Icon, which yeah, eventually will we lose those icons, 941 01:03:20,714 --> 01:03:22,841 are they making any new ones? 942 01:03:25,385 --> 01:03:29,890 And I think that's what Mikeal Jr has holding in his hands. 943 01:03:29,973 --> 01:03:32,726 What kind of entertainment is he gonna bring to Sunset Boulevard 944 01:03:32,810 --> 01:03:34,520 that's gonna say that's the next big thing? 945 01:03:34,603 --> 01:03:36,355 Where's the next Guns N' Roses? 946 01:03:36,438 --> 01:03:38,774 Cause when you look at Guns N' Roses, 947 01:03:38,857 --> 01:03:41,777 it wasn't just a band, it was a cultural shift 948 01:03:41,902 --> 01:03:45,489 of music, fashion, style, 949 01:03:45,572 --> 01:03:48,242 as sense of being of who you were as an individual. 950 01:03:48,325 --> 01:03:51,036 Like The Doors, like Van Halen. 951 01:03:51,119 --> 01:03:54,915 Like any other band that came out of the Sunset Strip. 952 01:03:54,998 --> 01:03:58,377 The one great thing that I learned through rock n' roll 953 01:03:58,460 --> 01:04:02,172 is that something big will happen, 954 01:04:02,256 --> 01:04:04,174 where everyone all of a sudden, 955 01:04:04,258 --> 01:04:08,720 you stop in your tracks and go "Holy shit. Something is exploding." 956 01:04:11,348 --> 01:04:14,017 So if you're a rock n' roll musician, you know the history of rock n' roll, 957 01:04:14,101 --> 01:04:17,271 you know that rock n' roll will never die. 958 01:04:39,293 --> 01:04:42,087 The Rainbow is a right of passage for the world of rock n' roll. 959 01:04:42,170 --> 01:04:45,048 This is the strip. This is the home of rock n' roll. 960 01:04:46,508 --> 01:04:48,176 I'd hate for that place to go, 961 01:04:48,260 --> 01:04:50,512 it'd just sort of kill what's left 962 01:04:50,596 --> 01:04:54,474 of a really iconic chapter in music history. 963 01:05:31,094 --> 01:05:34,640 This thing, this small little place, 964 01:05:34,723 --> 01:05:37,893 just serves burgers and beer and booze and stuff, 965 01:05:38,894 --> 01:05:41,521 but both Whisky and The Rainbow 966 01:05:41,605 --> 01:05:44,566 mean bucketsful for the culture. 967 01:05:45,609 --> 01:05:47,319 This place still breaks records. 968 01:05:48,362 --> 01:05:51,365 People from all over the world come here just to see it. 969 01:05:52,950 --> 01:05:56,328 Major, major artists, major, major movie stars 970 01:05:56,411 --> 01:05:58,664 still come through here on a regular basis. 971 01:05:59,706 --> 01:06:01,625 I don't think rock will ever die, 972 01:06:01,708 --> 01:06:04,086 I don't think the music will ever die so, 973 01:06:04,169 --> 01:06:07,255 The Rainbow and this strip will be here forever as far as I'm concerned. 974 01:06:07,339 --> 01:06:11,551 It's not the biggest place, but it's the place. 975 01:06:12,719 --> 01:06:14,763 For me it was the greatest time of my life. 976 01:06:17,683 --> 01:06:20,227 Rock n' roll is about celebrating life. 977 01:06:35,033 --> 01:06:36,618 I want that feeling to continue on. 978 01:06:36,702 --> 01:06:38,870 I want them all to feel like they can always come back. 979 01:06:38,954 --> 01:06:40,414 This is their home. 980 01:06:43,625 --> 01:06:48,380 It's gonna stay, and it is the history of the Sunset Strip. 981 01:06:51,883 --> 01:06:56,805 This classical period, where possibly the best records of all time were made. 982 01:06:59,099 --> 01:07:02,602 Being in the atmosphere of Hollywood and creativity of that era. 983 01:07:03,395 --> 01:07:07,482 It was just the coolest feeling and vibe that I ever experienced. 984 01:07:09,943 --> 01:07:15,866 The idea of pursuing your dreams, and that energy. 985 01:07:17,367 --> 01:07:21,580 And I really believe that The Rainbow is the vortex for that energy. 986 01:07:23,123 --> 01:07:26,126 This is the history, these are your roots. 987 01:07:26,877 --> 01:07:29,379 The next kid can come in here, 988 01:07:29,463 --> 01:07:31,965 and some old guy like me can sit him down and say 989 01:07:32,049 --> 01:07:37,971 "Listen kid, once upon a time, there was a special place, it was called The Rainbow."