Skid Row
If you ever wanted a quick reference to where your favorite hair metal band got their start, check out this Hair Metal History Map put together by Phil D.
Phil writes… “I spent dozens of hours putting it together and now, I’m trying to share it with those who would appreciate it! It is a work in progress and I would love any suggestions or input!”
Band choices were made based on the look, subject matter, attitude, lifestyle, time period, influence, affiliated bands, radio/TV play, and Phil’s memory.
Click on any band photo to see where they are from. You can also click the ‘Timeline’ tab that will show the hair metal movement origins in 1977 and where it grew across the U.S. and Europe through 1994.
Thanks for the great work Phil!
Launching a new month and Spring Break for me starts now, but the 80’s metal rolls on 24/7 on METAL SHOP.
Here’s a 2-minute readup on this mostly Fool-free Friday, April 1st.
There is nothing to contradict the earlier reports of Axl Rose guest singing for AC/DC on the remaining 10 scheduled tour dates, so we are accepting it as fact. This article lays out the evidence quite nicely.
For Axl’s other band, all signs point to a sneak-peek GUNS N’ ROSES warm-up show tonight at a Los Angeles club. The exact location is also unconfirmed, though several sources point to the Troubadour. This will be the first time Axl appears on stage with both Slash and Duff McKagan since 1993.
History tells us David Lee Roth quit VAN HALEN on April 1, 1985, but history is wrong. Roth left the band in 1985 and the idea of him springing this news on April Fools’ Day makes for a great story, but the truth is Eddie delivered the bad news in the pages of Rolling Stone in August, “The band as you know it is over,” he said. “Dave left to be a movie star. He even had the balls to ask if I’d write the score for him.” Eddie then made clear that he’d moved on. “I’m looking for a new lead singer … it’s weird that it’s over. Twelve years of my life putting up with his bulls–.”
AC/DC Guitarist Angus Young celebrated his 61st birthday yesterday (3/31). Former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach turns 48 on Sunday (4/3).
Of course it’s “All Fools’ Day,” an Elizabethan smart-mouthed play on “All Saints’ Day” and if you’re a fool for classic metal, you may have bought this headline today, ‘Metallica to stage Master Of Puppets… on ice!’ courtesy of teamrock.com… hopefully only for a second. This April Fool’s prank was definitely better the headline posted on Loudwire ‘James Hetfield Quits Metallica to Join the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’
That’s a wrap. Updates during my Spring Vacation will have to come between beers, but rest assured, I’m on top of it 🙂 Upon my return, the IRON MAIDEN tour will be in my neighborhood… can’t wait! In the meantime, I’m enjoying this great footage from Wednesday night’s New York City stop – Click Here
Rock on kids!
Hi there! Back for another merry round of what’s up in 80’s Metal.
Photos, video and stories are coming from the big weekend of live metal in Las Vegas.
METAL SHOP listener Bianca Trujillo attended the MEGADETH concert last Friday (Feb. 26th). Check out her recap and photos at this location – Click Here
METAL SHOP’s Ralph Cartel attended the IRON MAIDEN concert on Sunday (Feb. 28th). Check out his recap and photos – Click Here
A new Twitter account purportedly belonging to former GUNS N’ ROSES guitarist Izzy Stradlin has appeared on the social media site, according to The Pulse Of Radio. Two sources have apparently confirmed to The Wall Street Journal reporter Neil Shah that the account is real, with Stradlin himself — or the person behind the account claiming to be Stradlin — tweeting a video of himself playing guitar. But more importantly, the first tweet from the @IzzyStradlin999 account on Feb. 22nd read, “At this point in time, I’ve no involvement in the upcoming April 2016 GNR shows.”
Former DIO and current DEF LEPPARD guitarist Vivian Campbell was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2013 and is continues to battle the disease, saying recently, “It keeps coming back. I’ve done three rounds of chemo, stem cell transplant and I really thought would be it with the stem cell transplant, but no, it came back, so I’m kind of resigned to the fact that I’ll probably deal with the rest of my life. But I’m really not at all concerned with it; it’s just maintenance. I put it on par with going to the dentist. It’s a little bit more involved than that, but it’s just something that I got to keep doing.”
Today in 1997, a MÖTLEY CRÜE fan who claimed his hearing had been irreparably damaged after a show in New Jersey had his lawsuit thrown out of court. The judge told Clifford Goldberg who had sat near the front of the stage, knew the risk he was taking.
Happy Birthday to original SKID ROW drummer Rob Affuso. He turns 53 today.
On this date in 1982, KROKUS released their sixth album “One Vice at a Time”, featuring the single “Long Stick Goes Boom” and today in 2005, JUDAS PRIEST released the album “Angel of Retribution”, their first album since 1990’s ‘Painkiller’ to feature Rob Halford.
That’s all I’ve got so far. Check in, chime in….and thank you!
Time to kick Tuesday’s ass with 80’s metal and hard rock… Maiden, Priest, Metallica, DIO, Crue, Scorps, RATT, Megadeth, W.A.S.P., Dokken and more spin 24/7 on METAL SHOP.
Happy Birthday to SKID ROW founder and bassist Rachel Bolan (real name: James Richard Southworth). His stage name ‘Bolan’ is a tribute to one of his childhood idols, T. Rex frontman, Marc Bolan. Did you know Rachel Bolan sang back-up vocals on Mötley Crüe’s Dr. Feelgood album?
Late MOTÖRHEAD frontman, Lemmy Kilmister was a regular at The Rainbow Bar & Grill on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, CA. A memorial was held there on the day of Lemmy’s funeral on January 9th and a mural was painted on the bar’s wall as a mark of respect. Now, a life-size bronze statue of Lemmy will be erected outside the venue.
From the WTF file, former QUEENSRŸCHE Singer Geoff Tate Is Working On Jazz Album.
Dave Mustaine has discussed the possibility of re-recording MEGADETH’s debut ‘Killing Is My Business… and Business Is Good!’ with the band’s current lineup, saying “If I did go back and record any old songs, it would probably be like a brand new interpretation of our greatest hits, because I think that focusing on any one record and showing an interpretation of all of our great songs by a new lineup would be more exciting. You never know. We might do that.”
Really excited for IRON MAIDEN’s return to the states in two weeks. The Book Of Souls World Tour starts Feb. 24th in Sunrise, FL. Maiden posted the photo below on the band’s Facebook page yesterday with the caption “We’re still packing!! Glad it’s a big plane…”
Have a rockin’ day!
Eddie Trunk’s “Friday Night Rocks” radio show on New York’s Q104.3 FM: Sebastian Bach on why a reunion of Skid Row’s classic lineup hasn’t happened yet: “There’s one dude out of five that doesn’t wanna do it; it’s so simple. That’s what’s happening.”
“I will always be the singer of Skid Row, no matter what. There’s no other guy. It’s like… John Corabi (who was briefly in Mötley Crüe as Vince Neil’s replacement in the mid-90’s), I love ya — it’s great — but where’s Vince? I mean, that’s the way it is. Walk down the street with me and count how many times, ‘Youth Gone Wild! Skid Row!’ It’s like people shout out of the cars.”
“Dude, if a promoter comes to me with a legitimate business offer, it’s very easy for me to walk on the stage and stand behind a mic and sing my own songs that I’ve been doing for 25 years.”
“If one dude wants to make all the fans that put us where we are happy… I mean, we all talk about KISS all the time. KISS makes the fans the boss. I mean, I think it’s kind of crazy. It’s like you take your football and you go home and the game is over, ’cause it’s your football. It’s like, ‘Can I borrow your football? ‘Cause we’ve got a game going here.'”
Metal-Rules.com: The one thing which has been in the headlines lately is that one certain photo [of you and former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach]. You know what I’m talking about here?
Sabo: Right.
Metal-Rules.com: What’s the story behind that?
Sabo: I had flown into L.A. that day because Duff McKagan, whom I manage, was doing two shows at the Viper Room and… So I flew in and I went there and one of the guys, an assistant of ours told me, he goes, “Sebastian’s here,” and stuff like that. I’m like… I don’t mean… I mean, I hold no ill will or any bad blood or anything — everybody else can have that. I have no negativity in my life whatsoever. So at the end of the show, I was in the dressing room and it was very small at the Viper Room dressing room and I saw him standing across the stage and I… I mean, across the room, and he made a beeline over with his girlfriend, had his hand out, and I shook his hand, you know, “How you doing? How you doing?” Exchanged the pleasantries and stuff. It was all very cool and very cordial; no heavy talk, like, “Come on, dude, we got to put this band back together.” It was nothing like that, you know. It was like, “How’s your family doing?” “I’m sorry that you got divorced,” you know, and she was a lovely girl and asked me how the kids are, you know… showing pictures and everything like that, and he’s like… bunch of people shooting pictures and he’s goes, “Let’s take a picture together,” and sure enough, you know, it was, you know, that’s the one that ended up out there.
Metal-Rules.com: Yeah, that’s the way how gossips start…
Sabo: Yeah, that’s okay. I mean, other people keep talking, but it’s really, so… it’s far simpler than people are making it out to be, whereas you know we have a long history together. It was one of those things where I did not want to… I don’t know I didn’t want to sit there and be like an angry prick or anything like that. I mean, life goes on and you make the most of it and I keep all negativity away from me, so…
Metal-Rules.com: How did you like the comments he put out later on?
Sabo: What about in the future… you know what?! That’s him, you know, that’s him — you know I don’t know what to do… I… The way I look at it is, you know, I don’t know what tomorrow’s going to bring. I just… hopefully we’ll make it on the plane home, you know. I kind of look at life like that lately. It’s too short. I’d rather enjoy the moment. If something like that happens down the road, then it happens, then it’s supposed to be, and if it doesn’t, then it wasn’t supposed to be, you know?! That’s just the way… that’s life, you know. To me, it’s no… I’m not going to beat myself about the head over it and I’m not going to push for it or whatever. It’s like if little things present themselves in a way that.. that’s its conducive and everybody wants to do it, then that’s something to talk about, but right now it’s a non-issue.
Metal-Rules.com: He seems to be a kind of kind of guy who always says out loud what he thinks.
Sabo: Of course. I mean, that’s just, I guess, that’s just the way he’s always been, but, you know, going back to like us meeting again, something like that, I didn’t… again, because he was cool and he was sober and he wasn’t hyper and he was… he was nice, you know, it was a nice ten-minute… ten-, fifteen-minute conversation with him and it wasn’t any big deal, and I’m glad it wasn’t a big deal — I’m glad it was just as cordial as it was.
Some great hair band photos from back in the day were posted at accesshollywood.com.
Ratt in their full 80’s regalia, strike a pose, Chicago, Jan. 1, 1990
Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi poses for a pic with fellow hair metal god Joe Elliot of Def Leppard, Jan. 12, 1989
A young Sebastian Bach rocks out with his band, Skid Row, at The Forum, Los Angeles, Jan. 3, 1990
Hair metal kings Motley Crue — Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Nikki Sixx and Mick Mars pose for a shot, Jan. 1984
Brett Michaels attends a taping of the television Show’ ABC in Concert’ at the Hard Rock Cafe in Los Angeles, April 30, 1991