Heavy-metal-country: The collaboration you didn't know you needed
Read about some of my own LA hair metal scene history, and what I think about today's thriving country artists.
I’m not ashamed to admit it — I’m a ‘80s hair metal guy.
That’s mainly due to my musical upbringing during that era. When I was a teenager, I shipped myself off from Long Island to the West Coast, where I was the drummer of the Sunset-Strip-bred Black Cherry. We were one of the leading bands of the sleaze rock scene in LA during the late ‘80s. Our singer, Paul Black, was the original frontman of L.A. Guns, which had dismantled when some of its members left to form a band called Guns N’ Roses.
Peep me on the left! You probably couldn’t recognize me with all that hair!
Black Cherry was heavily influenced by the bands and sounds that we all loved — ‘70s Aerosmith, the Stones’ "Dead Flowers" era, and a hint of Hanoi Rocks. It was fun while it lasted, but with my bandmate’s drug habits and us not being the most marketable band in the world, this unfortunately led to our demise in 1990 or so. We probably wouldn't have lasted anyway with grunge creeping up at the same time.
Even though hair metal and Black Cherry are now just visions of the past, that music still stands out to me today. Whether it’s Love/Hate, Guns N’ Roses, and the greatest debut album of all time, Appetite for Destruction, Junkyard, Vain, or Ratt, I still listen to this stuff almost daily.
LA Guns in 1988. Credit: Paul Natkin / Contributor (Getty)
This leads me to revisit one of my favorite underrated hard rock bands of all time from that same late ‘80s era … Junkyard.
I feel bad for the guys from Junkyard. During the Black Cherry days, we used to gig together all the time. Aside from their debut, which made Geffen Records think they could be the next GN’R, Junkyard didn’t achieve too much success, although they should have.
Junkyard in 1991. Credit: loudersound.com
