Quiet Riot
Happy Friday! The 80’s metal is non-stop on METAL SHOP because you deserve a good ass kicking, and you know it.
On this date in 1983, QUIET RIOT released their third album “Metal Health,” the first heavy metal album to reach the top spot on the Billboard 200. QR went on a tour the same year, opening for BLACK SABBATH. The title track is known by a number of slightly different names. It was simply called “Metal Health” on the original vinyl release, but most subsequent reissues of the album on other formats call it “Bang Your Head”, with the phrase ‘Metal Health’ in parentheses, either before or after the “main” title.
Today in 1983, HELIX also released their third studio album “No Rest for the Wicked,” featuring the single “Heavy Metal Love.” After a long run as a standard bar band, they changed their image to a more image-conscious metal band and were finally signed to Capitol Records after being rejected by them three times.
METALLICA is working on a new album and it may be done this year as Lars Ulrich told Rolling Stone, “We’ve gotta finish the new record now. But thankfully we’re quite far along. Hopefully we should be able to knock that on the head this spring, I would guess. So we will be gearing up and playing shows and doing all that fun stuff again soon.”
JUDAS PRIEST is releasing a new concert DVD from last year’s “Redeemer Of Souls” tour later this month. Checkout a performance clip of ‘The Hellion/Electric Eye’ from that disc posted yesterday at this location – Click Here
Happy Birthday to former PANTERA Drummer “Vinnie Paul” Abbott, who turns 52 today and Happy Birthday to IRON MAIDEN Bassist Steve Harris, who turns 60 tomorrow (3/11).
For most of us in the U.S.A. and some parts of the world, we have the inexplicable duty this weekend of making sure that every single timepiece in our realm is changed, by force or by programming, to Daylight Saving Time. This is a highly unpopular and pointless mandate. The government wants us to eat our broccoli, but they have no problem with depriving us of that precious and vital thing called sleep?
Thanks for checking in! Look forward to reading your interesting updates and comments. Enjoy your abbreviated wknd!
Hello 80’s metalheads, lurkers, and surfers! There is word again of a possible DOKKEN reunion, this time from former bassist, Jeff Pilson, who says “we’re actually working really hard to try and pull something together right now. It has to fall in spaces where there is time off [from my gig with Foreigner], so I don’t know for sure whether it’s gonna happen. So let’s just say we’re all friendly now, we’re all past all the decades-old crap, and we all talk and everything’s great. Now it really is just down to scheduling and trying to figure it out. Because, you know, you’ve gotta do it right, if you’re gonna do it. We all feel that way. Pilson continued; “We shared something very special together. I think we’re all at the point in life where we kind of appreciate it now. And if we ever get a chance to do some more with it, I think… It would be very interesting, because we’ve never been in a situation where there wasn’t animosity, so I don’t know. [Laughs] Maybe it won’t work. I don’t know. [Laughs]”
In case you missed it, Sammy Hagar (The Red Rocker) made some interesting claims in this Dan Rather interview clip released over the weekend, saying “I was really as big as VAN HALEN.” Click Here to watch the video.
Man, I love the rockumentaries coming out now on some of the 80’s metal and hard rocks bands and how they really capture the hunger of the early days. The QUIET RIOT one was really good and now TWISTED SISTER is out today. Check out a clip of ‘We Are Twisted F***ing Sister’ at this location – Click Here.
Happy Birthday to QUEENSRŸCHE Guitarist Michael Wilton. He turns 54 today. Did you know he is also known as ‘The Whip,’ for how fast his fingers “whip” around the guitar fretboard? After original Queensrÿche guitarist Chris DeGarmo left the band in 1998, Wilton gradually began performing most of the songs that previously featured DeGarmo doing the main solo live, including “Silent Lucidity”, “The Mission”, “En Force”, “I Am I”, “Take Hold of the Flame”, “Best I Can”, “The Killing Words”, “Bridge”, “The Lady Wore Black” and “Anybody Listening?”, amongst others.
Happy Birthday to Andres Moreno listening to METAL SHOP in Bogotá, Colombia and Jacob Kulhanek listening in Houston, Texas.
Have a terrific Tuesday and never stop rockin’!
It’s the 30th anniversary for Quiet Riot’s landmark album ‘Metal Health‘ released on March 11, 1983. Artisan News spoke to drummer Frankie Banali (see below) at the Sunset Strip Music Festival last year about the band’s debut record and the huge success that followed.
When recording the album, Banali said, “We were booked on available time, so it wasn’t… Everybody thinks that you went in and you had all this money (to make a record), and it really wasn’t the case. We were going in and recording at midnight and ending at six or seven in the morning and coming back in the next day. But it was great. We had a lot of hopes and we thought it was a great record. We just didn’t think anybody would agree with us, and thankfully, we were wrong.”
Asked whether the band thought during the recording sessions that “Metal Health” would turn out to be such a huge commercial success and have such a lasting impact on the rock scene in the years that followed its release, Banali said, “No. How can you even imagine that? At the height of that record’s release, we were moving about half a million units a week. I mean, it was, like, ridiculous. Now you can’t even… If a record sells 50,000 copies, you’re No. 1. And we were moving 500,000 a week.”
Quiet Riot singer Kevin DuBrow died in November 2007 of an accidental cocaine overdose at age 52. Guitarist Carlos Cavazo replaced Randy Rhoads in the reformed Quiet Riot in 1982 and remained with the band into the 2000’s… he is now playing with Ratt. Bassist Rudy Sarzo has played with Ozzy Osbourne, Whitesnake, Dio and Blue Öyster Cult and is currently the bass player for Geoff Tate’s version of the band Queensrÿche.
Quiet Riot’s current touring lineup: Scott Vokoun (Vocals), Frankie Banali (Drums), Chuck Wright (Bass), Alex Grossi (Guitar).
‘Metal Health’ Original Track Listing:
1. Metal Health (Bang Your Head)
2. Cum On Feel The Noize
3. Don’t Wanna Let You Go
4. Slick Black Cadillac
5. Love’s A Bitch
6. Breathless
7. Run For Cover
8. Battle Axe
9. Let’s Get Crazy
10. Thunderbird
November 25, 2007: Quiet Riot frontman Kevin DuBrow’s body was found in his Las Vegas home… dead at age 52. He was believed to have died six days earlier of an accidental cocaine overdose.