* Music *
Sam Dunn: Here we are we've arrived in Los Angeles. And uhh,
not the usual transportation, we're in a leopard skinned limo,
because we're here to explore the glam metal scene.
* Music *
>> Growing up, the one style ofmetal I couldn't stand was
glammetal, hair metal, popmetal,whatever you
wannacallit,to me the styledidn't have the
powerandaggressionIloved aboutmetalmusicand
thebandsseem like boybands puttogether by musicexecs
just to sell records, but this style is still
a major chapter in the history of metal.
So I want to understand where it came from,
and where it fits in the evolution of this music.
* Music *
* Intro *
>> Glam metal emerged from the sunset strip in the 1980'sand
grewto become a massive phenomenonselling millions of records.
Butthe L.A. hard rockscene didn'tstartthere, more than
adecadeearlierVanHalen pioneeredanewsoundand look
onthestrip,so I'm meeting with VanHalen bassist Michael Anthony
to find out how they inspired the 80's glam metal movement.
Sam: When Van Halen started out in L.A. what was the scene like?
Mike Anthony: The scene in L.A. in '74 I think it was kind of
like still a very David Bowie, Ziggy Stardust type of deal.
Everybody was walking around with flared bell bottoms
and platform shoes and spandex and stuff like that,
and here we are from Pasadena, California.
Jeans and t-shirts coming into this whole scene,
Hollywood is like a whole other planet. We didn't go full-blown
glam but we had the platform shoes and we had stepped up the
look a little bit as we continued to play out in
Hollywood clubs out there, we were really successful.
It started to really build a following.
George Lynch: They changed everything locally here in
Southern California. They were massive I mean it was scary.
When all the other guitar players got wind of Eddie it
struck fear in the hearts of the rest of us.
I was pretty devastated.
Frankie Banali: I had never heard of Van Halen before.
Edward Van Halen sounds like a painter to me, so I expected to
see some old guy with a goatee and a little guitar sitting.
When I got to the Whisky, the line was around several blocks
to get in and I went in and all of a sudden
I see Van Halen for the first time... and oh my god.
Mike Anthony: I remembered we'd play shows and Dave would
tell Ed, he'd say "Hey when you go into one of your
hammer on solo's, turn away from the crowd because we don't
want any guitarist out there seeing what you're doing".
I think they just looked at Dave cause' Dave obviously was very
fashion oriented, and very physical and athletic on stage,
just that look with the long blonde hair and you know obviously
Dave was a very unique front man back then at that time.
Ben Liemer: They had inspired the whole L.A. scene because
people said these guys starved and suffered they played the
Roxy you know they were hanging out at the Rainbow.
They did it. We can do it too. And then it just exploded.
* Music *
>> Van Halen inspired young L.A.musicians that they could
makeit big and layedthe foundationforthenext
generationofmetal bands on thestrip anditwas Motley Crue
whopickedupthetorch andput theglaminglammetal.
So how did Crue kick start the glam metal movement?
Vince Neil: Me growing up, and when I first got into singing
it was always David Lee Roth was the guy that I looked up to.
Dave was kind of like me, born and raised in Los Angeles and
had that kind of beachy vibe. I saw myself you know in him.
Sam: Can you describe sort of what it was like to be there
before it became such a massive scene?
Vince Neil: It was just a lot of really cool bands on the strip
and around Hollywood. Started playing at local places;
Gazzarri's, Starwood and Troubadour places like that.
Me, Nikki and Tommy lived in an apartment above the
Whisky a Go-Go and we went out to the clubs together,
that's where the girls came in we would always
get girls to buy us drinks or we'd get some money from
some girls and go buy some cheap alcohol, drink it before we
went into the clubs. So it was a cool scene.
Nic Adler: I think for any scene on the sunset strip who evolved
it was because there was some sense of community at
that time, it was cheap to live on the strip so they weren't
just coming here once a week, they're eating here, they
were eating here, they were working here or partying here.
They were really able to refine the next look
because they literally lived it and did it every night.
Ben Liemer: These guys they were all starving in the early days,
a lot of them were sponging off woman,
woman would buy them make up, how they ever got people
to buy them all that food I don't know but they did.
Mike Anthony: I mean we didn't have any money back then, so
everything we did was very budget. But we had put out our
own record "Too Fast for Love" was our own label Leathur
Records we had a small distribution. Everybody passed
on us; nobody wanted anything to do with Motley Crue.
Vicky Hamilton: I loved it immediately.
It was just like, god this is so different and so great.
I was a record buyer for the record store;
Licorice Pizza, that was across from the Whisky a Go-Go.
So I put my ass on the line, I bought 300 copies.
We made this great window display and I had
in fluorescent pink "Motley Crue" across the front,
and Nikki brought me whips and chains and Vince came
in there and dropped a pair of pink panties in my hand
and I was like "Ew was somebody actually wearing these?"
* Music *
Sam: Why was the visual presentation of Motley Crue so important?
Barry Levine: To make a statement,
Nikki never felt the music was just enough,
I mean these guys were the embodiment of
what their music was about, what their lyrics were about.
I saw a vision of Motley Crue as young punk version of KISS.
Nikki always had a vision of being a real edgy
grounded theatrical band with no holds barred.
* Music *
>> You're very keen on the theatrical and appearance side,
which I think you're perhaps at the forefront of bands who do
care what you're like on stage and videos in a different way.
Nikki: It's our job. I mean we go out and we try to put on a
good show for the kids, and try and at least look presentable.
Nikki Sixx: We sort of lived in our own world, we were a
mixture of a lot of different kinds of bands and influences.
Most visibly the Dolls, early Aerosmith and Van Halen,
and we were taking our influences and wearing them on
our sleeves and when we hit the stage I felt an excitement that
we always wanted out of Rock n' Roll and Heavy Metal.
We felt the audience was seeing what they had been dying for.
Ben: Nikki Sixx was one of these conceptualizers, he was looking
at the big picture, how do we look, we want to have a
great stage show, they would do anything to get a reaction.
Vicky: He was always very experimental with things.
I remember when he got those leather platform boots that
came up over the knee. He decided then that he was
going to be doing all this pyro-technics stuff.
Vince: You got this stuff called pyro-gel, and you
know we just wanted to see... let's light Nikki on fire.
Ok cool. On stage we'd have it on the sword and
I'd touch the candle and the sword would catch on fire and
I'd hit Nikki with it, and we'd light him.
* Music *
Barry: It would go up and he would just bring his head back.
And it was like that was a special effect,
one that would put you in the hospital.
Nikki: It was how many more amps can we get on stage,
how much bigger could we make our pyro, we would go see other
bands and go "we can top that." You have to
experiment musically and visually to push the envelope.
Frankie: Motley Crue really had an attitude that they were gonna
make a huge huge impression. If you went to the extreme,
they did that times ten. It was all big big big big.
* Music *
>> By 1982, Motley Crue was signed to a major and
established themselves as the hottest band on the sunset
strip, and once Crue and other L.A. metal bands played the
US festival in 1983, the rock world started to pay attention
to what was happening on the strip.
* Music *
of any US festival, between 250 and 400,00 people.
>> In the early 80's heavy metal was blowing up in Europe and
bands like Judas Priest, Scorpions and Iron Maiden were
beginning to make a major impact in the US.
But when L.A. newcomers Motley Crue and Quiet Riot played
to massive crowds on the US festivals heavy metal day
the spotlight was turning to America.
Vince: As a young band to look out there and see
rolling hills of people where you couldn't see
where it ended was just unbelievable.
We were still just kids, this was '83,
we hadn't been on tour yet. I remember quiet riot
opened the whole show, we came out right after them.
Frankie: We had played to the single biggest audience
that I think anybody had ever played too,
and if Quiet Riot had never done anything beyond that date
it would have been enough for any musicians' lifetime.
>> Quiet Riot I'm gonna go and catch the set are you ready?
Quiet Riot: Yeaahhhh Lets do it!
* Music *
>> Quiet Riots performance at the US festival exposed
the band to a huge audience but it was
L.A. producer Spencer Proffer who honed Quiet Riots sound
and helped pave their way to commercial success.
Sam: Take me back to when you first met the Quiet Riot guys.
Spencer Proffer: I was driving around L.A. listening to
pop radio, 'Cum On Feel The Noize' came on
as an oldie by Slade, I said holy (beep) if I could
find a band to sing that song how cool would that be.
I went out to this club in Reseda, California and these
guys were singing 'Bang Your Head', singing 'Party All Night'.
So I went up to them afterwards and I said I'd like to
take you into the studio to record 4 songs, and I said
you need to do a song called Cum On Feel The Noize.
Kevin would go, "That's Noddy Holder that (beep) (beep)
from Slade, no way over my dead body",
I said sorry dude that's the deal.
Frankie: The day comes that we have to record 'Cum On Feel the Noize'
you know begrudgingly, and I start playing and it's sounding
pretty good, and Kevin is sitting on the other side of the
room and daggers are coming out of his eyes at me like a
cartoon, smoke is coming out of his ears and he was just livid.
Carlos Cavazo: We didn't like the idea at first, we didn't
wanna play it, you know we were being like little bratty kids,
wah wah wah we're not gonna do this, we ended up doing
it and it was probably the best thing we ever did.
* Music *
Frankie: We did the video for 'Cum On Feel the Noize' and
we were opening up for Black Sabbath in Rockford, Illinois
and we found out that night that Metal Health was
going to be number 1 on the billboard charts.
* Music *
Spencer: Quiet Riot was the magnet to the movement, and the
dominos fell behind that, all these other bands got signed
because you know how the A in our game works,
once you have a big hit everyone wants 20 of the same thing.
Lizzie Grey: That was when the record companies said
wait a minute this crazy weird stuff that Hollywood
is manufacturing is sellable, the country will buy it.
>>Afterthesuccessof Quiet Riot's'CumOnFeelthe Noize',
bands flocked from across America to L.A. to become
a part of the Glam Metal scene on sunset strip.
Sam: Describe for me why that it is that you decided
to leave Pennsylvania and come to Los Angeles?
Rikki Rockett: Central Pennsylvania is not fertile
ground for musicians and artists.
So we bought an old ambulance and I remember listening to
Motley Crue, Bret and I are assembling flooring in this ambulance
thinking to ourselves "How many people died in this thing?" and
we gotta drive this across the country, you know what I mean?
It just made sense they had the US festival out here, there was
all this energy out here, you know you think about California
you know you hear these bands on the radio,
you're just like I need to be a part of that.
* Music *
Sam: What was the scene like in L.A. at that time?
Erik Turner: It was freakin' awesome. I mean it was like
Monday night through Sunday night,
it seemed like thousands of people on the strip.
Bobby Blotzer: There was all these bands, you know playing
at either the Troubadour or the Whisky or the Roxy or Starwood.
There was always somewhere to go and see someone play.
Everybody would be hanging out partying having a good time
chasing girls and doing what we do.
Tawny Kitaen: There were no principles,
there was nobody telling you no.
It was also a time of decadence,
the indulgence of drugs, of possessions
and the way that you could really do that and
get away with it was by being a rock star.
* Music *
Stephen Pearcy: Yeeahhh! Check this out,
this is Hollywood as we know it today.
Vicky: The sunset strip became the social networking ground of
all those glam metal bands, they all had their posters,
the poles were about this thick with staple gun fliers.
Erik: That's what I think of is fliers, fliers, fliers.
The streets were covered with fifty bands out promoting
their shows. So how do you make your band stand out
from the other 30 fliers that somebody got?
Rikki: That's what we went out and promoted
and where we really really excelled. Most of the
record companies, almost all of them passed on us at least
twice they said you know you gotta build a following.
>> Los Angeles was at that point it was the heavy metal, or
rock n' roll capital of the world and we wanted to be big
fish in the big pond and you gotta be not only talented but
you gotta be determined to make it cause without determination forget it.
Rikki: We played one gig I remember we had to
open for somebody, I go, "Bret tell everybody
we're having a party when we're done".
He goes out on stage and tells everybody that as soon as we are
done the first 100 people in the room at the party up the street
got free beer. So nobody was there for the headlining act,
everybody was hanging out with us at the party and we were
like man let's do this every time. It put us to like
headlining status overnight. You know what I mean, it was
like you know, really worked.. Yeah. It really worked.
* Music *
Vicky: Poison were the kings of promotion at that point in
time and what happened was the girls all loved it,
and the guys followed the hot girls to see Poison
and that's when it started taking off.
Deena Weinstein: The woman liked hair metal because the men
were behaving as they do, they wear lots of make up,
they spend time doing their hair, the girls weren't
particularly interested in guitar solo's.
Rikki: You know the really heavy bands hated us,
which we thought was cool,
we probably got into close to thirty street fights.
People didn't know what to make of it, they either wanted
to (beep) us or fight us. And I'm proud of that (chuckles).
Scott Ian: We never actually backed going out and beating
up people wearing spandex and having big poofy hair,
but I certainly never told anyone to not do it.
Gary Holt: We were viewed as the hair bands as our nemesis,
we were the dirty motor headers and
they were the sissy nancy boys.
But secretly we went to their shows all the time
cause that's where all the chicks were.
* Music *
Deena: If you look at a seventeen year old guy,
what is his interests in life? Being a real man yeah, and
getting some. And so if you had to choose which way
you were gonna go, hair metal... got you some.
* Music *
>> By the mid 80's, the glam metal scene in L.A.
was booming, bands were fillingclubs on the strip
andsigning record deals with major labels. Once glammetal
videos made it to MTV, the movement started to sky rocket.
* Music *
Announcer: This is it. Welcome to MTV music television,
the worlds' first 24-hour stereo video music channel.
* Music *
>> MTV embraced glam metal giving bands a perfect show
case for the sound and look andcatapulting this music
fromthesunset strip into livingrooms across the globe.
Rikki: The minute 'Talk Dirty to Me' hit MTV it just started to
take off and we got the opportunity to tour with Ratt,
the first couple weeks there is like 20 people in the audience,
but by the first month all of a sudden the place is filled up
when we hit the stage, and that's when I started to go,
"Wow, this is really starting to happen"
* Music *
Nikki: In those days, everywhere you went MTV was on
cause it was the biggest radio station in the world.
There were kids across the globe that wanted something that was
gonna make them put their hands in the air and it was then that
I knew we could take this thing around the world.
George: We spent massive amounts of money on videos,
it was just another avenue to get us exposed
to a much larger audience.
Jerry: The minute you made a video you just reached every
single eye ball in the country, you've like wow ok,
there's your song, there's your band, there's your look.
Robert Walser: The bands that make it are the bands that
look good on TV because of the medium that it is,
and it rewards spectacularity.
Glam benefitted tremendously from MTV,
Glam was MTV ready because of the emphasis on spectacle
that already existed in the live concert.
* Music *
Deena: I am quite sure that if there was no such thing
as MTV we would have never heard of hair metal.
Cause' MTV, it's music teleVISION, it's look,
the sound was far less important than the look.
Derek: It was important, it was important in those days.
The fame was based on the MTV image;
they had to look the part and a stylist was brought in
to make them look the way they looked.
Bobby: Stephen always had this term with fashion metal back
then, because Stephen knew somebody on Melrose that owned
a store and had all these custom made clothes with all
the rhinestones and sequins and crazy puffy coats and
all this kind of junk, everybody had their hair up big.
That's what everybody did then.
Wouldn't do it now, that look, cause that was then.
George: I actually remember going to the guy that used to
make outfits, and he made everybody's outfits, from
Motley Crue to Krokus to Ratt. He had a pattern he would use,
but he would sorta just change the things on the pattern or
the colors so we all ended up looking the same
* Music *
>> By the late 80's, glam metal bands had become
media darlings and the genre was now a house hold name.
It was so pervasive that even established 70's hard rock
bands hitched their wagon to the glam metal
movement to help re-invent their careers.
Sam: What was your role in working with Whitesnake?
John Kalodner: I had been a fan of David Coverdale
and the Whitesnakes but I didn't feel like
they were making any commercial music.
I thought he was a star front man, star singer,
I thought he had a mediocre band and just average songs.
My job was to make them a commercial rock band in the
United States in order to get the look that was appropriate
for America in 1987. I just hired the best stylist,
the best make-up artists, best video maker.
Sam: I see you guys kind of got lumped in with glam metal.
David Coverdale: Well yes in some of the pictures it
kind of difficult to tell the difference between Whitesnake
and Poison unless you hear the record. We worked
with the same stylist who was doing Van Halen, Motley.
It actually just became more of a joke to us y'know cause it
was just sort of out of control, you know how much eye liner
shall we use? I don't know let's look like girls!
* Music *
Tawny: When I met David he was I found out about 2 million
dollars in debt to Geffen, but he was in a very hopeful
stage, he was very hopeful that his album was gonna sell.
>> ...Whitesnakes great!
>> Oh thousands, they're lined up outside for blocks and blocks.
David: For whatever reason we call it the Zeitgeist,
9 out of 10 hotels that I checked into, when I put the TV
on one of Whitesnakes videos was playing. MTV was the icing on
the cake and it saved me 3-5 years of hard road work
in the United States to achieve that kind of success.
That was the immense change of hundreds of thousands
of records to millions of records. I was familiar with
being an underground artist and still being successful.
To be so over ground was sort of uncomfortable clothes.
I wouldn't change a thing, regardless of the teasing,
it was uh, yeah my son of course has great amusement
looking at these photos, some of the photos at least.
Derek: The older musicians saw their opportunity by making
themselves part of that movement, it really raised their
career it makes them current. Those songs are pop dressed as
metal, they looked like metal but they were playing pop songs.
So they were able to capture both the hard rockers as well as
the female audience they were able to combine both that's why
it became that popular, because that's a mass appeal audience.
Phil Collen: It had a huge appeal, you know it was like
lots of girls going crazy, a lot of guys liked it as well, this
kind of looked like a pop band but sounded like a rock band
but the songs were a bit of both anyway
so it had a real genuine cross over. At the time a
really big rock album would sell about 2 million copies, but if
you crossed over into pop it went, right through the roof.
You would do a million in a week at one point and it was
ridiculous. And that was cool, geez why wouldn't you want that?
Deena: If you look at which songs were played most often on
the radio, it was the power ballad, it was family friendly
and it's romantic, romance brings in that
female audience and so it sells the rest of the album.
John: A power ballad is what allowed the audience for heavy
metal hard rock bands of the later 80's to become so huge,
many people would tell me it was their song whatever their song
was that they first kissed too, their first date, their first (beep) too.
Michael Sweet: The radio was playing the ballads,
you would achieve success in having a top 40 or top 20
or top 10 or number 1 song with the ballad much easier than
you would with the edgier side of the record.
Sam: Did you get excited about writing power ballads from a musicians stand point?
George: Does anybody get excited about writing power ballads?
I think we felt it was a necessary evil,
I mean our power ballads were our most successful songs.
Personally the things I liked least about Dokken were some of
the things we were recognized for the most and had the most
success with, but when you get to the point where
you start making music because it's the music you're supposed
to make rather than what you wanna make you're
definitely compromising but that's what we did.
* Music *
>> Although glam metal had become hugely popular by the
late 80's, many metal fans including myself felt the
power ballads and MTV image had gone way over the top,
and the music no longerfelt like metal. Thenglam metal
startedto crash, its downfall haslong been blamed on the rise
of the Seattlegrunge movement, but it'salso been attributed
tothe massive impact of L.A. hard rockers Guns n' Roses.
Sam: You know the history books kind of positioned G n' R
in a way as being sort of a giant killer.
Slash: Well I mean I wouldn't wanna say that we had
anything to do with killing it, I think a lot of those bands
didn't have that much substance so they would only last for so
long and then the interest level would just sort of wane.
Sam: You never attempted to throw on the spandex with the hair and make-up thing?
Slash: We never did the spandex or anything, there was a little
bit of make-up umm in the early days, there was a little bit of
hair spray that happened in the very beginning and there
definitely was a glam influence but it was more from say
Marc Bolan than it was the Bay City Rollers...
Sam: ...or Cosmo Magazine. Slash: ...or Cosmo yeah.
Neil Zlozower: There's pre-Guns, and there's after Guns.
Before Guns everybody was going to clothing designers
and having stuff made, and pretty much after guns
all the hair and hair spray started coming down
and all the makeup got less and less.
Bobby: When Guns n' Roses released their record,
I was like it was a bad ass record, a bad ass band
I was like okay we gotta keep on our toes here.
Kevin Estrada: I don't think Guns n' Roses helped kill hair
metal but I think they did create a new avenue of escape
for metal fans, musically they weren't doing what those glam
bands were doing , they were real, they were great musicians
and music was in their blood. That's what separated
Guns n' Roses from all those other bands.
Spencer: Glam wasn't musical enough. Melodically and
cord wise you couldn't go to that many places,
after awhile it wasn't that original anymore,
everything was cloning everything else.
Jerry: There was Warrant, then there was 25 mini Warrants,
and there was Ratt, then they made 25 mini Ratts.
Pretty soon it was just so saturated
Ben: The third and fourth generation glam bands had
gotten so ridiculous, it's like now we're gonna do a
power ballad and now we're gonna do a pop anthem and we've got
pink lip stick and peroxide hair, we've got tons of
whatever the stuff that makes your hair stand up,
I don't know what different brand names.
Slash: We thought the L.A. glam scene was just a lot of posers,
they just weren't genuine. So we were sort of the antithesis of
that and right under the heels of that came a bunch of cool
bands like Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Nirvana, Pearl Jam
and then they had an even more stripped down sensibility
that everything started to go in that direction.
* Music *
Spencer: The glam metal scene just dissipated because
it burned, that whole Seattle movement had an attitude,
it had a sensibility it was a little dark
but it was fresh and it was a change of pace.
Vicky: At that moment in time I got it, it was like
oh yeah this is taking over the world and fast.
I remember being at the Rainbow and thinking okay,
the hair bands better enjoy their last ride here.
Bobby: All I would hear on the radio was everything but all
of us, That's pretty much when it was like ooh man okay.
George: I experienced the backlash of being sort of a
semi-glam L.A. metal band, we did a show and the club was insane,
there was people spitting at us. I mean raining it down on us
the whole show, and I looked over at Jeff for a second and
he had opened his mouth to go up to the mic and
sing just got lucky or some (beep) song and I just saw
a big loogie go right down his throat.
We had to take him to the hospital and get a tetanus shot.
Frankie: I think it's over simplified;
you get a lot of musicians that say Nirvana and grunge did it.
That played a part into it only because almost all
styles of music at some point, their due date comes
and I think the due date for the bands of
the 80's was going to come to pass.
Rikki: A different generation was coming in and going
you know, I can't get with this I don't feel like that.
They're saying I don't feel like nothing but a good time I just don't.
I can't blame them for that, you know I'm not mad
at anybody for that, you know what I mean.
* Music *
Sam: I remember the 90's being a really bad time
for metal, if you were a metal head like me you didn't
really have much to be proud of. Not only glam had disappeared
but thrash had died and grunge was the new thing.
So what I've always wanted to know is
what happened to the lives of metal musicians?
Especially the glam metalers once this music had faded out.
Sam: Were the 90's a difficult time for you and Poison by comparison to the 80's.
Rikki: I flat out got out of music.
I went I'm gonna go for a little while do something
I've always wanted to do, I'm gonna go work on comic books.
I could not contribute to what Nirvana, Soundgarden and those
bands were doing. It wasn't where I come from, it wasn't
what I was feeling, it would have been disingenuous for me
to put out a record that sounded anything near like that.
Michael: That's when the band you know, disbanded and went
our separate ways and went okay, this isn't gonna work.
The other guys worked other jobs and that's when I
took on work at a family owned business, working a
cranberry bog business, a uh campground business.
Bobby: The year break I thought we were gonna have was
now turning into 4 years. You know the dough was going
pretty quick, we gotta buy some businesses,
I bought a flower shop and a vending business. Next thing
I know I'm buying 75 coke machines, candy bars all this
stuff and I had to service them. My hands smelled like quarters
and dollar bills for the next 5 years. Pretty funny though.
Sam: How do you remember feeling at that time?
Carlos: I felt like (beep).
I felt like a piece of bubble gum spit out on the ground.
We did so much for the label and also they want
nothing to do with you. I had to sell my houses and
everyone went through some financial difficulties.
It's sort of like having a girlfriend dump you I guess
you know, without knowing it, without having any heads up.
Derek: Ultimately when the time was up if you like as far as MTV
and radio, most of the bands that had garnered their fame
during that period weren't able to drag themselves out of that
hair metal bag. I'm in touch with Tom and he's still a great
friend and I'd put on a demo that he's just done and some
kids who were working for me came in and said
"Man that's great, who is this?" And I said "Cinderella".
And they said "Oh". Enough said.
* Music *
Sam: So I'm here n the outskirts of Baltimore, Maryland
for the M3 festival where there is Vince Neil, Cinderella,
Winger, Warrant and all these 80's hair metal bands
have all come to play, and so far it resembles more of
like a giant barbeque then a rock festival,
so we gotta go figure out why people are here.
Sam: Do you think people are here for nostalgia,
to relive that time or why do you think people are here?
Fan: I think they just wanna have a good time and live the
80's all over again, cause it was a great time.
Fan: Hot guys, long hair, rock and roll metal.
That's what I live for, I'm 45 and I still love it.
Sam: He's still got the good hair.
Fan: I know he's awesome that's why I love him.
>> We move on with our lives... >> the music stays with us...
>>...that's what daddies talkin' about.
* Music *
Frankie: I think that the advent of things like the
Rock Never Stops Tour and Rocklahoma, all those events,
it really was like a throwback to the 80's.
I think that it's safe to say that
the great majority of the audience were die-hard fans that
were there in the 80's when it all started. There's no
resurgence it's just that those bands are still willing to go
out there and work at any cost at whatever level they can,
it's really pay roll. Fun, but it's payroll.
Deena: Hair metal never recruited a younger generation
into it and so there's no hair metal community,
it's rooted in nostalgia today.
Bret: We're gonna take you back to 1986, off the Cat Dragged In
record, first big ballad you helped make big for us,
this is called 'I Won't Forget You'. Let's do it.
* Music *
Sam: Do you worry that people will just see you as
the nostalgia retro act is that a concern?
Rikki: Right this minute we are a nostalgia act in a way, and
I'd have to be honest with myself because I mean we're
playing our old songs we're not playing anything new.
That's nostalgia.
* Music *
>> Today's festival and country fair circuit has helped many
glam metal bands keep their music alive for audiences
across America, but this isn't the only way glam metalers
have managed to stay in the public eye.
>> Hey I'm Bret Michaels everybody, and it has been
smokin' hot, all so I can narrow down 20 of the finest woman
you've ever seen to find my one true rock of love.
Sam: Why do you think these guys have
translated so well to reality television?
Sam: Well they're stars so you can translate in most medias,
like a Bret Michaels he's always gonna be a star no matter what he does.
Mark Cronin: I think the main thing that has driven glam
metal stars into television and reality television
is kind of a timing issue. Television and music videos
made Poison, made Motley Crue and because of
that you see these guys going "Yeah, I'll do television".
They became rock stars for a reason, they went into
this for the adulation, for the crowds, I really feel like they
need to go on television to show people that they're still here.
>> Hey, this is Sebastian Bach, no this will not be your average show.
Sebastian: I think all this celebrity rock and roll started
with Ozzy, with the show The Osbournes. That was the first
time a heavy metal musician was outside of metal in
the public eye doing something. My wife had her own show,
I married Sebastian Bach which is a number one rated show,
I don't know if it was classified as a drama,
a horror, a comedy or all the above.
I like making albums, that's what I do and all this other
stuff happens, when people stop buying CD's,
you know well you got a TV show let's go.
If you wanna know the truth I don't do them because
I wanna do them, I laugh when they put me on a TV show
and I go, pfft I'm just gonna take all your money
and put it into metal.
Thank you for your money, cause I'm putting it on the stage.
>> Hello you have made it!
>> Although reality TV has proven a perfect match for some
glam metal front men, not all glam metalers have found
success on prime time television and managed to re-invent their careers.
So how do these bands make ends meet when they're
not playing the nostalgia festival circuit?
[Background talking]
Erik: Need to pour some vodka all over it.
This might be my new career man, food network.
Erik: If we're playing 50 shows a year that means I have about
200 days off. I've been here the last 18 years you know.
So I said what can I do what can I do to make some
money and keep busy and so I started working in a high end
guitar shop. I love guitars, I love gear so I do that a few
days a week as well. Then on the weekends we'll go play some
festival. It's an interesting perspective, because you go
play for a thousand of people, like a rock star then come home
Sunday, and then you know Tuesday you gotta be at work.
Sam: Why do you think so many of those bands came out of that L.A. scene died off?
Erik: It's easier to die off than it is to stick around
and fight it out and be tenacious and
not give up and be gluttons for punishment.
Jerry: Quitting is just never an option.
There was many a night where we could of just hung up the
old hat and shoot me in the head I can't take it.
Sam: Why do this at this time in your life?
Rikki: Well I'm not gonna be able to do Poison forever,
I'm not getting any younger so.. umm who knows I mean
maybe we'll be the glam rocks Rolling Stones I dunno.
I decided to start my own company with my name,
Rockett Drum Works, put my name on it.
I'm here you know, punch me if I do the wrong thing.
I feel like again I can bring something to the table, I feel
like it's something I could turn over to my son one day,
I can't really do that with Poison.
I really get excited about making a guys dream come true,
I'm the person that really does understand.
Sam: What's the balance of priorities for you right now,
Poison and Rocket Drum Works?
Rikki: Well Poison you know is obviously my priority cause I
know that's how I can make money and it's been my
life's' work you know. But this is more about craftsmanship,
I lived in Pennsylvania and it's a very working class area
of the country and when I came out here started dancing
around Hollywood trying to be a rock star I kind
of left a little of that behind but it really is in me.
Sam: I think it just sort of adds to the story of glam metal
that a lot of these guys have moved on and with someone like
Ricky he's actually managed to build a second career.
I think we have this assumption that they did their thing
in the 80's and they're all washed up and done.
And you know, some of them are, but some of them aren't.
Bands that survived were also the bands that ultimately
weren't just in it for the look and the lifestyle. Say what you
want about Poison, fact of the matter is a guy like Rikki
he had a vision for what they were going to be.
>> Even though I'm still not a fan of glam metal and
can't stand the outfits, many glam metal bands
are not the boy bands I thought they were.
After meeting with these musicians I have a new found
respect for their commitment to their music,
and I admire their determination despite
abuse from die hard metalers like myself.
Glam metal is clearly a much more important part of the
evolution of heavy metal than I ever gave it credit for.
*