Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History of Metal (24 page)

CONNIE HAMZY:
Me and another girl blew David Lee Roth at a production office in Barton Coliseum. I’ve [blown] Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson [from Rush], but I have not had Neil Peart. That I regret, but Peart doesn’t give it up very easily.

JEANNIE CRANE (groupie):
The high is being with these rock stars because you feel that you’re important and you’re famous, too, even though you might go home in the morning to your simple life. [After I was handed a backstage pass by someone in the crew] Vince Neil was like, “Why don’t you come back and party with us?” I was [sixteen] and was so nervous, and I was shaking. I went, “Yeah, I’ll be there!” I went back to the hotel and was up all night partying with the band. You’d have sex with them and then they’d very candidly ask you to leave.

CHERYL RIXON:
I always loved rockers. They’re more honest and straight-ahead. There’s no pretense about what they want. But when it comes to the sex and groupies, I think it’s more a case of being alone on the road away from home and needing some companionship.

ROXANA SHIRAZI (groupie, author):
I tend to really surprise rock stars, as I can easily conduct an orgy or get a band to do me at once, and the next minute I can start talking about political theory.
Groupie
to me is very one-dimensional. Man, when I go to hang out with bands, if they don’t give
me
fun or get me off sexually, I leave or tell them to go and find me someone who will. I genuinely don’t [understand] girls who do things just to please these guys. What do they get out of it?

BRET MICHAELS:
I do not consider myself sleazy. I consider myself a good host of a good party, and some sleazy things may occur, but it’s all in the eyes of the beholder. It looks great on TV, if they were slapping themselves in the ass and sticking stuff up the vajayjay every two seconds. But eventually you gotta cook, have dinner, and talk about what’s going on in the world—“How about Obama, is he working?” There’s gotta be some amount of intelligence going on.

While bands and groupies had no ethical qualms with the lifestyles they led, others were appalled by the unbridled hedonism in metal videos and song lyrics—especially a group of Washington, DC–based politicos who banded together in 1985 under the name Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). The group included Tipper Gore, wife of future vice president Al Gore, and Susan Baker, wife of ex-U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker. Metal was far from their sole target: along with W.A.S.P., Twisted Sister, and Judas Priest, the group also took aim at Frank Zappa, Prince, and Madonna.

FRANK ZAPPA (1940–1993) (1985 speech to the Senate):
The PMRC proposal is an ill-conceived piece of nonsense which fails to deliver any real benefits to children, infringes the civil liberties of people who are not children, and promises to keep the courts busy for years dealing with the interpretational and enforcemental problems inherent in the proposal’s design. It is my understanding that in law First Amendment issues are decided with a preference for the least restrictive alternative. In this context, the PMRC demands are the equivalent of treating dandruff by decapitation.

SUSAN BAKER (PMRC):
The material we are concerned about cannot be compared with “Louie Louie,” Cole Porter, Billie Holliday, et cetera. Cole Porter’s “The birds do it, the bees do it,” can hardly be compared with W.A.S.P.’s “I f-u-c-k like a beast.” There is a new element of vulgarity and violence toward women that is unprecedented. While a few outrageous recordings have always existed in the past, the proliferation of songs glorifying rape, sadomasochism, incest, the occult, and suicide by a growing number of bands illustrates [this] escalating trend that is alarming. Judas Priest [wrote “Eat Me Alive,”] about forced oral sex at gunpoint, [and that] has sold over two million copies.

ROB HALFORD:
[For “Eat Me Alive”] we were all fucking pissed out of our minds in a little studio in Ibiza being very hedonistic, and I was writing whatever came to mind. I don’t know where the title came from. We were falling about in the studio because we all thought it was really funny. I don’t think we knew that song was going to end up on Tipper Gore’s hit list. It was just a moment that had a lot of repercussions, and I’m glad it did because that’s what rock and roll is about. I still think it’s very important that rock and roll carries that title and energy, and vibrates and irritates.

IAN HILL:
Tipper Gore and the Washington Wives were trying to get rock and roll banned, and it was real right-wing Nazi-type stuff. Obviously, that was never going to work. The thing is, heavy metal bands aren’t the establishment. The establishment is people like Michael Jackson, Bob Dylan, and Barbra Streisand. And that’s the kind of thing the people in power listen to. They don’t understand anything else. And some of them think, “Well, if I don’t like it, nobody else should either,” and try to put a stop to it, which is rather ludicrous. I’ve got no problem whatsoever with rating records. It’s the same thing with movies. But trying to ban it as something that’s detrimental to the country—I mean, c’mon.

After a well-publicized Senate hearing, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) agreed to place “parental advisory” labels at the bottom right hand corner of records deemed potentially inappropriate for young, impressionable ears. Some outlets, including Walmart, refused to carry albums with warning labels. But the titillation that accompanied obtaining an album with a parental warning increased the marketability of many metal bands. Still, in the post-PMRC climate, some had to compromise. Poison and Guns N’ Roses were forced to change album artwork to appease conservative lobbyists. Neither band suffered. Poison’s 1988 sophomore offering—
Open Up and Say . . . Ahh!
—went quintuple platinum in America, and GN’R’s
Appetite for Destruction
had sold eighteen million in the United States. The two groups were on opposite ends of the glam/Strip spectrum, of course. Poison had a happier, less abrasive aesthetic. Vocalist Bret Michaels, bassist Bobby Dall, guitarist Rikki Rockett, and original guitarist Matt Smith moved to LA from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, in early 1984, changing their name from Paris to Poison before adding guitarist C.C. DeVille and exploding with flashy neon intensity.

VICKY HAMILTON:
Poison did several Reseda Country Club gigs with guitarist Matt Smith, prior to C.C. I tried to get Slash in the band. Slash actually auditioned and got the job. He said, “Yeah, I’ll take the job, but I’m not gonna wear all the fucking makeup. And I’m not gonna say, ‘Hi, my name is Slash.’” You know, Poison had that whole thing in the early days where it was, ‘Hi, I’m Bobby.’ ‘Hi, I’m Rikki’ . . .” Slash was like, “I’m not doing that. Sorry.” Enter C.C., who would do anything.

BRET MICHAELS:
Poison is not a resurgence of the glitter rock scene of the seventies; we’re just products of the music and bands we were influenced by. The first two records I bought were Led Zeppelin
II
and Lynyrd Skynyrd [
pronounced 'lĕh-'nérd-'skin-'nérd
]. And then I stole KISS’s
Alive
from Sears. That went over big when my dad made me return it after I bragged that I stole it. My first influences were those guys, the Beatles, and the Stones. And then I bought a Strat [guitar] because I thought Jimi Hendrix was the bomb, and he played one. That’s where I was coming from. Poison has three things onstage: attitude, image, and most of all, that down-to-earthiness, that rolling-in-the-mud attitude of being with the crowd.

WILLIAM HEIN (founder, Enigma Records) [1986 interview]:
[Their songs] might tend to cut off the more intellectual side of the market. I can’t see too many Philip Glass fans going crazy over Poison. I’m not too concerned. It seems obvious to me that this band is going to have huge appeal. I think, actually, Poison is going to end up selling more records than KISS.

BRET MICHAELS:
I first realized I was a rock star the day I got to play Texas Stadium when we shot the “I Won’t Forget You” video. Paul Stanley was onstage with us jamming. Steven Tyler was in the wings with David Coverdale, and we were playing to 83,000 people on our first album. Afterwards I got completely hammered and dove into what I thought was a really deep fountain at Texas Stadium at the Cotton Bowl, but it had a shallow bottom and I banged myself up pretty well. I faked my way through the injury because I didn’t want anyone to know I was hurt. The night ended at Carl’s Corner truck stop to eat. There were probably six people in there and I don’t think anyone knew who we were. So the same day I realized I was a rock star was also the same day that humbled me. I think that’s what’s helped give me such a long career. Every time something good has happened, I’ve sort of gotten a kick in the teeth that came with it. That’s what helped make me a fighter.

RONNIE JAMES DIO:
All Poison had to offer musically was a load of crap. They were just a hair band with makeup, but they were supposed to be heavy metal. I laughed at all that. Heavy metal bands, to me, were always Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. Sabbath created that form of music and I was in that band. So when you’re in a band that pioneers a style of music, you look at everyone else who tries to emulate it and go, [sarcastically] “Yeah, sure. You’re a
real
heavy metal band.”

Though they shared some of the same audience, Guns N’ Roses was grittier, heavier, nastier, and more self-destructive than Poison. The road to GN’R’s formation was long and convoluted, encompassing the bands LA Guns, Hollywood Rose, and numerous other musicians before the group’s “classic” lineup solidified in 1985 with the addition of Indiana-bred vocalist Bill Bailey (aka Axl Rose) and his friend, guitarist Izzy Stradlin.

TRACII GUNS:
I met Axl through Izzy, who I first met in 1982 or 1983. He was playing with a friend of mine’s band, Shire. We became good friends, and within a year he was living at my mom’s house. He kept telling me about Axl. He showed me pictures: “He’s my best friend, I’m going to get him out here and do this band.” Axl came out to LA a couple of times. He went back and forth between Izzy’s girlfriend’s house, my mom’s house, and guitarist Chris Weber’s house, until he ended up in LA Guns. We were best friends for a couple of years. Then, when I went back to do LA Guns, I tried to do a heavier version of Guns N’ Roses.

STEVEN ADLER:
Tracii had LA Guns, Axl and Izzy had Hollywood Rose, and then they got together and turned into Guns N’ Roses. That was with Rob Gardner on drums and Tracii and that was only for about a week.

TRACII GUNS:
The first LA Guns show was 1983, or ’82. I recall the very first show we did with Paul Black singing. It was the closing night of the Cathay de Grande. One of the highlights for me was Mentors singer El Duce right in front of me all night, with his pants around his ankles, going, “Tracii Guns is god!” He was the sweetest man.

IZZY STRADLIN (ex–Guns N’ Roses):
This lineup started with Duff, Steve, Axl, Slash, and myself like two days after rehearsal. Duff said, “I got a West Coast tour—Oregon, Seattle.” We had six people in his car [and] a U-Haul trailer. We made it to Bakersfield and the car broke down. But we made it. We played all the shows. That’s how the band really cemented. It’s a survivalist band. I ran away from home when I was almost seventeen. I’ve been out in LA ever since. Same with Axl.

STEVEN ADLER:
Tracii and Rob weren’t ready to be road dogs. And me and Slash had already played with Axl, Izzy, and Duff, and we’re like “fuck yeah, we’ll do it.” We were in this guy Danny’s car, this big old Cadillac, with a U-Haul, and we’re driving through Bakersfield and the car caught on fire, and I got some truck driver to give the band a ride. We had our guitars and our bags and we’re in this big eighteen-wheeler, and he takes us to Medford, Oregon. It must’ve been the coolest scene ever, to see five guys with their guitars and suitcases standing on the freeway hitchhiking. Then these two hippie girls picked us up. That was our first show as Guns N’ Roses. But we did shows as Hollywood Rose and Rose. Actually, the first GN’R show was at the Troubadour. That was on a Thursday night, and Friday morning we were on the road.

JERRY CANTRELL:
At a Guns N’ Roses concert, me and [vocalist] Layne [Staley] were trying to pass a demo tape to Axl Rose, through the fucking gate. When we first met, Layne actually had this other band. [Late bassist] Mike Starr and I were in this band called Gypsy Rose. We got canned after a week ’cause I couldn’t do squiggly diddlies on my guitar and they found a bass guitarist that could do better Steve Harris impersonations than Mike.

VICKY HAMILTON:
Axl called me when I worked at Silver Lining Entertainment as an agent and said, “You come highly recommended. We want you to book some shows for us.” I was like, “Cool, send me a demo.” He said, “No—can’t I come and play it for you?” I said, “Well, you could if I had a stereo system here.” He said, “That’s okay, I have a ghetto blaster.” A few hours later, he and Izzy showed up with “Back Off Bitch” and a lot of the songs that were on
Appetite
. I was like, “Shit. This is good.” I actually booked them at the Music Machine without even seeing them live. It was like this slo-mo moment where I was introducing Slash to Axl. Slash says that he met Axl before that and he probably did, but I thought I introduced them. Whether I did or I didn’t, I
did
reintroduce them that night. They stood there talking for quite a while. Chris Weber was basically leaving the band. His parents were shipping him off to England or whatever. At that point, Steven Adler was in the band, too.