All language subtitles for Bay Area Godfathers (2020)_en

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(metal guitar shredding)

♪ The core of the
earth is its womb ♪

♪ A fetus for a million years ♪

♪ Crawling up from
the underground ♪

♪ The creature appears ♪

♪ Sharp red thorns
armored skin ♪

♪ Eight legs sharp as knives ♪

♪ Breaking glass with
its sonic scream ♪

♪ The monster is alive ♪

♪ Gorantulla Gorantulla ♪

♪ Gorantulla Gorantulla ♪

♪ Gorantulla Gorantulla ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

- [Narrator] San Francisco
Bay Area music scene

has always been a
mecca for many styles.

From a summer of love and
the psychedelic sounds

of Jefferson Airplane

to the portal metal
of Blue Cheer,

the City by the Bay kep
producing talent after talent.

The 1970s spawned such
early hard rock acts

such as Montrose
with Sammy Hagar,

the Latin flavored
sounds of Santana

and, of course, the
experimental fusion

of early Journey.

The defining moment

for the Bay Area hard
rock scene was when

a young four-piece
from the East Bay

called Yesterday and
Today hit the clubs

in the mid 1970s,
setting the stage

for the soon to be
identifiable Bay Area

heavy metal sound.

♪ Nothing but a name ♪

- Late 70s, early
80s, a lot of bands

would come to high
schools and play at lunch.

I don't think they
do that anymore,

but Y&T would come
to Alameda High

and they would
play our auditorium

and they were a big band.

- There were so
many styles of music

that were just flowing through

all of these types of clubs

and, like I said, to some degree

that was an advantage for us

because we truly stuck out.

I mean in the Bay
Area, we stuck out.

There was nobody
playing hard rock

except for Ronnie Montrose.

Realistically, I mean
Journey was playing

more at that time more
spacey, kind of, you know,

almost instrumentally, you know,

oriented kind of stuff
before Perry got in.

I mean, they were
doing obviously songs

that, you know, singing,
Greg was singing

some great stuff.

But, they were a
little bit more about

the musicianship and less
about the pop singles,

you know, at that time.

- The thing about
San Francisco was

it's always been a hot bed
for music and entertainment.

It started back in the
late 40s, early 50s

with the bebop jazz clubs

and then the beatniks of
the early 50s, late 60s

comes into the Summer of Love,

all a sudden and then you have

all these clubs already and

all these magazines in place.

So Rolling Stone started
there in the 60s and stuff,

so when my generation got there,

it was the tail end of punk,

you had clubs like
the Mab, and the Stone

and the Waldorf and they
catered to all these things

so, you know, you had a
bunch of fans going already.

You had top notch nightclubs

and you had a media
that reinforced it.

- And then eventually
Sammy broke out

from Ronnie's band and then
started doing something

and he was the other
guy in the band,

you know, in the Bay Area

that was doing sort of
straight ahead rock and roll.

- As time went on, it was cool

to say, oh, I play heavy metal.

In those days, man,
people didn't wanna

be associated with that.

That's why I'm like
fuckin' get off of it, man.

A lot of these
fuckin' bands, man,

you know it's easy to
say you were metal.

Back in those days,
bands didn't want

to call themselves that.

- It just seemed a little
bit more free up here

than anywhere else I had been,

a lot more creativity, a
lot more people were more

apt to go out on a limb
and do different things.

There were great young
bands out back then

that never got a record
deal like Broken Man

or even bands like
the Horde of Torment.

All these old bands,
and Pandemic back then,

you know that were
bending what heavy music

was at that time.

It was really cool
to be a part of that.

- In the late 70s, you
know, you did have bands

like Yesterday and Today
that were really going strong

and then there was,

there was even bands
that I hadn't heard of

that people mentioned
like, you know Earth Quake.

Earth Quake was a very good band

from the East Bay that
had several albums out

in the late 70s and early 80s.

You know, Sammy Hagar, who
was born down in Monterrey,

you know, he was a rock
star in his own right

at the time here
in the Bay Area.

- The bands that started
that were hard rock

were yesterday and today
and this band called Harvey,

that were like black
guys that were killer.

They were hard rock.

- Harvey was an all
black rock band,

Reggie Harvey, Donnie Harvey,

I can't remember the other,

I can't remember the
bass player's name,

but great guys.

I saw Donnie Harvey
first from the band

I think called Status
playing the Lionshare.

I thought, man,
this guy is great.

- It really shows
how bands that were,

more just straight
ahead metal, you know,

as far as more progressive
metal influence

and then there's bands
like, I don't know,

there was like this band Steele,

that, you know, has this
kind of Judas Priest

thing going and
then was the bands

that were just definitely
like, you know, hair bands.

- Well, there was
Winterhawk, who were actually

Native Americans and
they rocked early on

and they got more
generic over time,

but Winterhawk, their
first album is intense.

And they got, like
everybody else, you know,

like Y&T, like everyone else,

they wrote like more and more
commercial songs and stuff.

- The other guy that
came out from that area

was Eddie Money.

Yeah, so it was
Eddie Money, Sammy

and Y&T that were constantly
playing all the time.

- It was just a
great scene there.

It was thriving,
just great form,

time for creativity,
it was wonderful.

- [Woman] Bay Area did
whatever they wanted,

but always so respectful.

- So Eric Martin was
one of the best acts,

Mile High is one
of the best acts.

Violation was a cool band.

- MK.

Chumby.

- Chumby.
- Chumby was great.

- And then there was Violation.

Bleufood.

And Anvil Chorus.

- Right.

- Who else was good?

There was Roadrunner.

(laughing)

What other great
bands were out there.

Hans Naughty.

Yeah, yeah, they were nice guys.

- They were our
biggest competition.

- One of the nicest
guys in the world.

- As musician growing up

in our early teenage years,

we were somewhat confused by

the psychedelic stuff
that like Hendrix

would kind of put out

and then there was the heaviness

that the Black
Sabbath records had,

which had a huge profound
influence on everyone.

Then there was the Y&T,

which was Yesterday and Today

because they were
hard rock homeboys,

you know, they're
right from here.

Then there was like
the Genesis influence

and then the progressive stuff,

like Allan Holdsworth and
UK and things like that.

That came in, and then Rush.

- A lot of bands
were progressive,

they were trying to play
progressive type rock,

what was popular on the radio

and they were kind
fuckin' snobby, dude.

They didn't like
that hard shit, man.

Really.

A lot of them jumped
on the bandwagon later,

but really in those
early days, my friend,

a lot of those bands,
they didn't think

that music was going
any fuckin' where man.

- The summer of 79,

I got a call from this
producer Bob Hayman

that was doing a rock opera
called "Rock Justice,"

that Marty Balin had written

and so he actually
knew who I was

from this all girl band,

so the all girl
band kind of opened

up the doors for
me to play with all

these other people,
so I did this,

it was a rock opera.

It was originally supposed

to be recorded for HBO.

One of the first HBO videos

that was recorded live.

And it was supposed
to be a story

about a rock singer who

gets hauled into court

for failing to have a hit.

So it's basically like a satire

of the record industry,

which Marty Balin
obviously knew a lot about.

And then Mike
Varney played guitar

and this is before he
had Shrapnel Records.

- But yeah, Steel
Wind was great.

The band I think
Airborne were around

for a minute that
turned into Heist.

Some of the guys turned
into Heist from Airborne.

They were great.

I used to go see all the bands.

I mean, the early years.

There was a lot of really
great stuff out there.

- [Narrator] By the late 1970s,

an every growing
choice of concerts

was giving exposure to the
European hard rock bands

that came over the pond

to play such festivals
as the Day on the Green

or the large venues
around the Bay.

Acts like Judas Priest,
UFO, the Scorpions

and Thin Lizzy all
started to inspire

a whole new generation
of young musicians.

But what really made
the biggest impact

was the explosion of the new
wave of British heavy metal,

spearheaded by Motorhead,
Saxon, Angel Witch

and Iron Maiden.

- After that school
year finished

in June of 1981, I
kind of just got,

I got a little kind
of disillusioned

with being there and
this was the first time

that I could sort of
take off by myself,

so I took off and
went back to Europe,

to England specifically
and that was when

I did the whole kind of runaway

with Diamondhead
and going, you know,

stayed with Sean
Harris and Brian Tatler

and went back to Denmark

and made some money and
went back to England,

you know, bought
records and found Saxon

and hung out with Motorhead

at their rehearsal
studio in London

and went to a bunch of shows,

the Port Veil Heavy
Metal Holocaust.

So that was that summer
and then I was so

kind of invigorated and so,

you know, fired up by
spending three months

in Europe, you know, July,
August, September of 1980,

then I came back and I
called this guy I'd met

briefly named James Hetfield
and then, here we are.

- A lot of my friends had bands

and they were all more
like Judas Priest,

that was like the big thing.

And then bands like from L.A.,

like that kind of look
with a lot of stripes

and yellow and red and black and

so I roadied for
a lot of friends,

bands like Black
Leather, Roulette

and I remember, I
had a lot of riffs,

but I didn't start a band yet

'cause I was really into Maiden,

but everybody was
doing the Maiden thing,

so I was just like, well,

you know, I really
don't wanna do that.

I want to try to do
something different

and it wasn't until
actually roadied

for my friend's band Roulette

and it was a show,

it was Roulette,
a band from L.A.

called Metallica, Laaz Rockit

and yeah, when
Metallica came on,

it was just like, it was
just like wow, this is cool.

You know, it was totally
something different.

It was totally
different like new wave

or British heavy metal.

Had that kind of guitar playing,

but the drums were
supper fast, you know,

kind of like GBH or something.

And I think for everybody,

it was just kind of like
automatically after that night,

I think they were
like the favorite band

in the Bay Area,

and they weren't even
from the Bay Area.

And they even moved up
here because of that.

They just felt the love.

- And I think the first
time we played the Waldorf

was probably 82 if
I'm not mistaken.

- Yeah.

- The scene was changing
very, very rapidly

at that time.

- It was.

- Music in general, so,

it was a great time to
play any club, you know.

The crowd was there.

It was exciting.

We really were lucky
to be able to play.

- It did seem to
spring up almost,

not overnight, but
the metal scene-

- But very, very rapidly.

- Exploded really,
really quickly

and it was right up our
alley, what we were doing

and it was just to
walk into a club

that felt like a unity there.

It might sound cliche,

people, you know, kind
of dressed the same,

were all there for
the same thing.

It was a scene for sure

and you felt it in
the air like a buzz.

- Without a doubt.

- And, you know, you
went to see other bands.

There were bands
around back in the day.

I can remember bands
like Griffin, you know.

- Great bands.
- Great bands.

- You know, Third Rail.

There was some really
good heavy rock bands

doing the same thing.

- Wizard.
- Yeah.

- When the Metal Monday
first came out in 1981,

yes, the new wave of
operation heavy metal

was going strong, but
I think it was born

out of its own movement, right?

The rebellious
movement against some

of those AOR melodic
bands like Journey

that were taking out
kind of the wimpier road,

no disrespect, but you know,

it was kind of
it's own movement.

I think what it
would've happened

even without the new wave
operation of heavy metal.

- A lot of the metal bands,

I mean Metallica was
around and Exodus.

You know, real infant stages,

but it was bands like
Roadrunner and Head On

and kind of more of the
straightforward rock stuff.

- Roadrunner was
going on when I was in

the other band as
a guitar player

and they were popular and stuff

and then, and head on
I thought was the best

of all of those bands,
you know what I mean?

They're like, you know,
and they were doing

the whole hair thing
and stuff, too.

And, you know, their stuff
was really commercial, too,

you know what I mean?

They had it all I thought.

- I loved Head On.

I always wanted to form a band

with Frank, the guitar player,

but we, we had already
tried to get in for Cinema.

But he wouldn't do it.

He wouldn't do it.

We wanted him bad.

- But Head On
should have made it.

Head On was everybody's dream.

And so for people
mentioning them,

it makes sense
because, you know,

they really were inspirational.

- As a singer, I was kicked
out of Righteous Sire

for a brief time
and then I went into

a band called Malibu Barbi

and was the singer
for Malibu Barbi.

- [Interviewer] They
were an all girl band.

- They were.

As a matter of fact,

I'm on Wikipedia as the singer

for an all-girl band.

Yeah, I'm pretty
famous for that.

- When I first got
here I fell into

hanging out with
people like that,

I hung out with Journey
and I had the privilege

of meeting Grace Slick,

so it was kind of
that arena rock thing

and then I auditioned for
a band called the New Girl

and the rehearsal studio
was I Hate Ashbury,

which is really cool to me

coming from upstate New York.

It was like Hendrix,
Joplin, Grace Slick,

you know hippie town.

So when I went
there, it was just

the breeding ground.

I mean that's where Metallica,

we used to eat at
the same pizza shop

and Exodus and Testament,

it was that hard core scene
that I got thrown into

and I was also a late
bloomer to Dio and Sabbath.

So, that was a whole
new world for me.

It was pretty incredible.

- Really, we had no
idea what was happening,

that we were creating
something in the Bay Area

Vicious Rumors, Death Angel,
Legacy became Testament,

Damage, Laaz Rockit,
you know what I mean.

The list goes on, Forbidden.

- Everyone thought
that were like like

in this secret
little club almost,

you know, you'd see
people dressed like this

and then whatever.

It wasn't total mainstream
and on the radio all the time,

so we felt that were jumping in

on the ground floor of something

that was a little bit
below the radar, you know.

- And it was changing
very rapidly at that,

at that time.

Through the early 80s,
all the way through

to the end, it was
changing, you know.

- We were all discovering,

these English bands
that were starting

to come over in 1980 and
Def Lepperd played in May

with Pat Travers, Scorpions
played in May 1980.

- The first time I
heard Merciful Fate

and King Diamond's voice,
I'm like what is this?

And the changes,
the guitar changes,

nobody ever did stuff like that.

It was kind of like
pretty much, you know,

the song's got 4:4 time,
it's got a bridge in it,

it's got a chorus and then
maybe a lead section and end.

That was the first
time where there was

a total change in the
middle of the song,

you know, that
went somewhere else

and I think a lot of.

- Journey.

- It was.

A total, it still is.

You know, those were
the types of things

that formed thrash metal.

You know, we were like let's
have changes like this,

you know, let's go-

- Come out of nowhere,
but totally fit.

- Right, except it still fit.

- I don't think
there's any one event

that brought

that created sort of the
Bay Area metal movement

or thrash movement or whatever.

I think everybody got inspired

around the same time,

so it was certainly the new wave

of British heavy metal.

You know, I was inspired by that

and a lot of other people
were inspired by that.

Saxon, bands like Iron
Maiden, of course.

You know, Tygers of Pan Tang.

Those bands were a big
influence on rock bands

with the foundation, of course,

with bands like Judas
Priest, Scorpions

and Deep Purple,

but the new wave of
British heavy metal

was the icing on the cake.

- July, Judas Priest
finally played

a big show at the
Warfield, 1980.

That was huge.

That was a huge metal scene.

You know, whoever
we'd get on tour.

The really, the biggest
one really didn't happen

till July of 1981 when
Motorhead arrived.

That changed everything.

- We were so interested
in what was going on

in other parts of the world,

what they were doing musically,

new wave of British, I mean
we all loved Def Lepperd,

Tygers of Pan Tang.

Tokyo Blade.

Angel Witch.

Crocus, I mean we loved
all of those bands.

Totally.

And those are the bands we
modeled ourselves after.

- It was actually very enticing

to be part of the scene,
like it was between 83

and 88 up there for whatever

just because it was
as loud, as crazy,

as partying, as any
scene going on in music

and we always kind of
felt like the underdog,

like the, you
know, the stepchild

or however you wanna
put it in terms

of these other markets.

And we sort of embodied
that and we embraced it

because we're gonna
go after it harder,

we're gonna party harder,

we're gonna be way
crazier than you people.

You know, if you want crazy,

we're gonna bring crazy
in and we certainly did.

- There were some, yeah,
some great thrash bands

and Legacy involved
into Testament.

I liked the more
progressive bands

like Blind Illusion
could go off,

could be everything from thrash

to these intense, you
know, Les Claybull

inspired jam sessions
and Anvil Chorus

was, of course, hard rock.

- And the scene was
so big and thriving

because we were
all in high school.

So you had that high
school word of mouth

that you don't get
with these newer band.

You say it ain't
like it used to be.

It's 'cause we were
all fucking kids, dude.

Like everybody told everybody.

They had kegger parties
and we tore down fences

and it was way different.

Things were crazy, you know.

A bunch of kids raging.

So you don't have that.

- There was Anvil Chorus
and then was a band

called Church of Metal

that turned into Metal Church

and went up to the northwest.

- With the Anvil Chorus guys,

they were the Church of Metal,

shortened it to Metal Church

and then Kurt moved
back to Seattle

and didn't hear from
him for two years.

- [Interviewer] Wow.

- Until they came back
with a great album.

But Merciless Onslaught,
one of the most intense,

I mean, faster than any,

I tried to get Lars
to audition as drummer

for Metal Church in 1981.

He disappeared.

That's the first
time he disappeared.

I don't think he
was ready to play.

- I showed 'em my
songs, to my manager

that ended up becoming
Death Angel's manager later,

and my manager now to this day

and Christina Aguilar's manager.

Christina, and she was just a,

had a little record
store that she started

at 18 years old, put
on Katrina Sudovsky,

put on her own gigs
and she just had

this really flair and taste

and was like beyond her years.

So I played her the thing

and I kind of sang the song.

She goes man,
that's really cool.

I could get you
some studio time.

So I got a little studio time,

made a little demo.

She was friends with Kurt Cam.

She played it for Kurt Cam

and he goes, "I wanna
get in production.

This guy's got like
a really cool voice.

It sounds like a guitar
sometimes or something."

So then I ended up
doing a demo with him

and that's how the band started.

- We started playing around 84.

We played tons of shows in 84.

Carl Albert was the singer

and we played in L.A., up
and down the West Coast.

Played with some great bands,

I remember playing
with City Kid,

ended up being Tesla

and they had opened
up for us one time.

Another time I thought,
ooh, man, yeah,

we're in trouble, these
guys are good, you know.

And, yeah, it was a,

we shared the bill
with Vicious Rumors,

shared the bill
with Armored Saint,

shared the bill with
Loudness, Keel, Saxon,

a lot of national acts.

- Like the guys
in Vicious Rumors

had just started their band.

We'd all like be
sleeping on couches.

Half the time there
was no PG and E

and everybody
survived by working

at record stores, which was like

the coolest job at that time.

- That Bay Area metal
scene was thriving

and happening before
Metallica ever showed up.

So anybody who's
out of the U.S.,

who sees this, just know

that the Bay Area
metal scene started

prior to that.

- [Narrator] The rise
of metal gave birth

to many European magazines.

This inspired the launch of

two highly influential
Bay Area fanzines,

"Metal Mania" and
"Metal Rendevouz."

In addition, College
Station's Rampage Radio

hosted by Ron Quintana
and Ian Pelham,

played a huge role in
supporting the scene.

Finally, the record stores,

specifically Bill
Burkard's Record Exchange

and the Record Vault,
not only brought in

the hard to find
European imports,

but hosted bands for in stores

and carried all the local
bands demo cassettes,

most notably Metallica's
"No Life 'Til Leather"

which brought the hammer down.

(heavy metal music)

- I really thought
the band magazines

served a super important part

of the metal community.

There wasn't so much that
they featured metal bands

on the covers or what have you

or even had articles on them,

but that's at least
where my friends and I,

that's where we
got our listings.

That's when we knew
who was playing,

who was playing Metal Mondays,

who was playing
Keystone Berkeley,

Stone San Francisco,
Keystone Palo Alto.

- And between everything
was this little

black and white rag,

this little thing,
all crumpled up.

I opened it up,
said, "Metal Mania."

I pulled out this little rag

that introduced me
to all this stuff,

I was reading
about Merciful Fate

and I said, I've got a,

they're suppose to
be as evil as Satan,

so you know, I'm in.

I wanted the heaviest stuff,

so that was my
introduction to everything

and I was 13 years
old at that time.

- And one day our
high school friends,

Tim Karochikov, who
grew up in the Ukraine

and he showed up with this
10-page really badly copied

on some cheap copier,
a little magazine,

couldn't even call it a magazine

with one staple in
the corner, right,

and he called it
"Metal Rendevouz."

I said, this is really cool.

This is kind of what we
were talking about, right?

And I looked through and I said,

"Manton, you did this?"

And where did you
get the interviews,

and he said, ah, and he
just talked to some people,

you know, local bands.

There's really nobody that
huge or famous was in it,

but the idea was there, right?

And idea and he really deserves

the credit for truly giving us

the kick in the ass
to get this thing

up and moving and
when we decided

to do another issue,
Bill Hale and I

fully involved and
eventually I took over

as editor and made it into

what it was towards
the end of the 80s

when we were publishing
125,000 copies in full color.

- And "Metal Rendevouz,"
I mean John and Bill Hale

took photos, I mean,
when I was young,

these were like rock
stars to me as a musician.

- And then "Art Jock," the
first real metal fanzine

from Holland, sent me
some of their issues.

So I start cutting
out pictures of theirs

and then pasting
them on my tape list

and then Motorhead played

and then suddenly I have
a million great pictures.

It was the same thing
in the fanzine scene.

You know, you bop, you had
"Metal Headbanger", right,

me, we had "Metal Rendevouz."

We weren't competing.

We were supporting each other
and we appreciate each other.

Ron Quintana with "Metal Mania,"

we were supporting each other

and appreciating each other,

you know, "Kick Ass Monthly,"
out on the East Coast.

- Then I put out,
I xeroxed copied,

these little, 8 by
11s, folded them over,

because we didn't have
enough to be a real magazine.

We didn't have enough
to be a real magazine

till much, much later.

But, so we folded them.

And they were
little metal manias

and Lemmy was on
the first few covers

and Judas Priest
and Scorps and Y&T

and you name it, but
that quickly evolved

in August of 1981.

- We brought in "Kerrang."

We were actually running a
U.S. subscription service

for "Kerrang" for a while.

Not sanctioned, but
simply, you know,

if you want Kerrang, we'll
mail it to you every month.

I brought in hundreds
of copies of each.

Each one, and then as
far as the fanzines go,

man, I tell you what, it was

like "Metal
Rendezvous" magazine.

"The Crucible," was a
magazine that we did.

- [Interviewer] "Metal Mania."

- [Bill] "Metal Mania," yeah.

- So San Francisco
was just exploding.

They kept doing, our show
expanded, Rampage Radio,

so we'd have to have
six hours a week

of local demos and metal
and metal and metal.

So, and then all the
local metal nights,

there was just so
many new bands.

When I got back from
Europe, I was amazed.

- I think Rampage Radio
was really instrumental

in exposing people to metal

that otherwise had never heard.

I'm pretty sure we
are the first ones

that ever played
Metallica on the air.

You know, the heavy metal scene.

I remember when
we got these demos

that we played it all the time,

we just started the whole
hey, everybody's God riff.

I think I remember that
because he started believing

that he was God.

- I think Rampage
Radio and Ron Quintana

definitely had a major impact,

because I remember
lots of my friends

were, they told me
about Rampage Radio

and I think it was Yngwie.

It was him spinning
Yngwie's demos

that really got
Rampage Radio known.

- The Record Vault.

The Record Vault was the bomb.

That had the best imports,

the best selection of wall
to wall metal and demos.

I got the Legacy demo there.

I mean they had
Attitude Adjustment,

they had all these great bands

before they ever got signed,

their early demos

and just all these
overseas, these bootlegs,

killer T-shirts,
anything you needed.

I would go spend
my entire paycheck

at the Record Vault.

- Everybody made a pilgrimage
to the Record Vault.

It was almost like a
religious experience.

That place, that was the place,

you know what I'm saying.

That's where you
heard all the news.

They introduced me
to Ron Quintana.

And you know Ron Quintana,

that was the first
person that I heard

call the music thrash.

He was the first person.

First person to play
us on the radio.

I love that guy, man, you know.

- We had a little record
store in Fremont, California

called The Record Factory.

And the Record Factory
was where I'd pick up my,

when I first got
there, you know,

my Iron Maiden stuff,
because you know,

I was still under the standards

that made Priest accept Saxon.

- We'd head to, The Record Vault

and the Record Exchange,

two different heavy
metal stores, you know,

that could actually
make a living

off of it being a heavy
metal record store,

so the scene was
thriving at the time.

This was the place to be.

- When I started going over
to London every month or two

and I'd bring back a
lot of memorabilia,

the really nice cast metal pins

and patches and
all the fun stuff,

so we had quite an
assortment of stuff.

- There was a store that
opened up in Lafayette,

it was called The
Record Exchange

and it was like
Lafayette's version

of the Record Vault
in San Francisco.

And I remember walking in there

and they didn't have
like anything commercial.

It was just like,
you know, they had

Unleashed in the East, they had

the new Iron Maiden record,

and you know I'd
never seen that.

I don't even know
what that was yet.

It was just like,
it just came out.

Then, you know, and
here I'm in eighth grade

just going wow,
what is this stuff.

It looked cool, you know,

it looked really,
everything was evil.

- I was virtually living
in my Volkswagen bus,

on Polk Street and
doing the Record Vault.

After the Record Vault,

I did, I went over
to Walnut Creek

and helped Bill Burkard
turn Record Exchange

into a metal store.

He was doing like a
new wave and punk store

and then we wanted to go metal

and he knew I had done
it over in Record Vault,

San Francisco, so we
started doing it there.

- I started to search
for the imports

and I hooked up with a
couple of really cool people

that helped me bring
stuff into the country.

'Cause at that time,
nobody was carrying it here

and all of a sudden I was
with the AC/DC records.

And that was, you know,
little old Walnut Creek,

37 miles outside of San
Francisco in Suburban

milk toast land and
we started to get

all these headbanger
kits coming out

from Berkeley and San Francisco.

- When I didn't do The
Record Vault anymore,

I did the Record Exchange
and we had Trouble,

we have Overkill,
we had Metallica,

we had Slayer.

You know, that was
another all metal store,

lined up around the corner
for these in stores.

- Me and a couple
friends of mine,

there was probably
about five of us

decided to cut school
because we were seniors

and went there to go meet them

to do the in store
and we got there

and there was no one
there, it was only them.

So, it was just my
friends and Motley Crue

and their wanted beer,

so we went and got somebody

to buy some Moosehead for us

and we shared
Mooseheads with them

and it was pretty cool
hanging out with them.

- So then we have Slayer
come to the in store

at Walnut Creek and
we let Slayer in

and that blonde-haired
dude that played guitar

tackled my Iron Maiden standup.

I had Eddie "Piece
of Mind" standup,

and this kid rolled in there

and just jumped on
that shit on the floor

and fucked it all up,

so I picked him up by the neck

and took him in the back room

and it was Jeff Hanneman.

I was pissed at that kid, dude,

I was gonna kill him.

And so there was
kids back there going

you're mean, you know,
'cause I was like

giving him some shit

and I was like, "Dude,
I would never go

to your house and fuck
your shit up like that,

dude, what did you do that for?"

And he goes, "Dude,
man, you're posers."

You know, and it's all
this kind of shit, dude.

- Nick Mars would just
kind of stand there

with the shades on,
kind of just, you know,

looking around
and he was talking

to me and my friends, "So,
so, where do you live?"

And we were like
kind of creeped out.

And then Tommy
comes up and sticks

a Moosehead right up his butt

and he's all like don't do that.

- Of course we sold
"No Life 'Til Leather"

and a couple different
versions of that

and the ones I sold that were
actually in Lars handwriting.

He wrote on each
cassette, I remember that,

'cause he was like I gotta
write this down, you know.

But they ran out, we'd
sell several we could

and we made a promise
to the bands back then

that we were never
gonna copy these things

and resell them on our own,

that we'd buy them from the band

if they could just bring
them out, you know.

And we held to that, as
far as I knew we did.

- The independent
record store for me,

was really about
the Record Exchange

and I cannot tell you
how many things, Bill,

a lot of them I didn't like,

some of them I did,

but I remember getting Holocaust

and thinking that was
the most amazing record.

Bill always had great
vinyl and I think

I even bought the
Violation seven inch there

and I always thought Violation

was this great Bay
Area metal band

that Leonard Hayes
had produced of Y&T

and I really thought
that band deserved

a better fate.

- [Narrator] The Bay
Area was long known

for producing guitar legends.

In the 70s, Carlos
Santana, Ronnie Montrose,

Neil Schon and
Y&T's Dave Meniketti

set the bar for guitar heroics.

In the 80s, the
pioneer in bringing

new guitar talent
to the public eye

was Mike Varney.

His U.S. Metal
compilation records

gave worldwide
exposure to new talent.

Mike also brought over

the newest guitar virtuoso
since Eddie Van Halen.

Yngwie Malmsteen.

All this created an exposure
of Bay Area shredders.

Joe Satriani, Marty Friedman,
Jason Becker among others.

They all became the
latest guitar heroes.

(heavy metal music)

- That's one thing
about thrash metals,

everybody really like a
lot of European bands,

so you have Shanker,
Wooley, Frank Marino,

you know Glen Tipton of KK.

So those were in
influences on thrash metal,

those kind of guitar players.

- I really think that
beyond Bay Area Magazine,

if somebody said
to me Brinkerhoff,

what are the most
important elements

or who was highly influential
in the Bay Area metal scene,

I really think was Mike Varney.

- What happened is I
was a guitar teacher

and I made a lot of money.

I was never a good
guitar player.

I had the skills
of like maybe like

a Punky Meadows or
something, you know,

and so I was giving all
these kids lessons, you know,

'cause I was a cool guy.

And I had all these kids around

and they were giving me
good money for lessons,

it was a good job

and I was like in
high school, you now.

And then all of a sudden,
is started losing students,

like two dropped out and
I'd be like what's going on,

what's going on
and then finally,

somebody came to me and said,

"This guy Mike Varney is
stealing all your students."

And I'm like, "Well, who's

this fucking Mike
Varney guy?" Right?

- It was 1980, and I
was a record collector

and was just kind of upset

that there was hardly
any metal coming out

and I knew people
were interested in it.

But I was having to
buy imports, you know,

and America was taken with disco

and taken with new wave,

which is watered down punk rock.

And things were just,

I just wasn't able
to get enough metal.

So I decided, well,
I'll get my own.

- So then I went to him

and I said something
like, "Hey, buddy,

why you stealing all
my guitar students,"

and then all this stuff.

And then he showed me what
a great guitar player he was

and I was like, "Well,
that's why right there.

He's a way better
lead than I am,

so that's why they're
all going to him."

- By the time I was 20, 21,

I had made, you
know met Jeff Pilson

and we did that
"Rock Justice" record

with Leonard Hayes
and Phillip Kennemore

from Y&T, Yesterday
and Today at the time.

But by 1980, I had already
kind of seen where the,

you know, bread was buttered

and didn't really
wanna be an artist

'cause I just thought
it was overwhelming odds

of doing anything and
I was trying to get,

gonna get married,
and I thought why

am I gonna work
so hard to be away

from this person that I love,

six to eight months
out of the year

if everything goes right.

So like I'm trying
to build a house up

at the front at night,

I'm taking the
bricks out the back

and not getting anywhere,

so I said I'm gonna do a label.

- I do remember I was so psyched

after that U.S. Metal album,

even though I didn't
think it was great

all the way through,

but I did like some
of the people on it.

I wrote to P.O. Box P in Navado,

wrote a letter to Mr. Varney

and get some call back from him

and, of course,
Varney's legendary.

He'd always call you
with somebody else

on the line that he
wouldn't tell you

is on the line.

He'd go hey, Brian,
what do you think

of like Pete Marrino of Lemans?

Oh, I think he's great.

Hey, Brian, Pete's on the line,

hey, say hello to
Pete, you know,

and he was always, you know,

and I used to joke with Varney,

he would always do what I'd call

the AT&T mix.

- I was looking at
the state of guitar

at that time and I thought,

God, Europe has
got Lily John Roth,

they've got Gary Moore.

They had all these
great players.

Then Hendrix and Van Halen,

I'm sure there were
a lot of people

that fell in the
cracks in between,

but we didn't really
have, you know,

a super shredder in heavy
metal at that point in time

that was new and
I knew there had

to be somebody out there.

So I wrote to magazines
state to state

or called the editors actually

and said, "Look, I'm
putting a record together,

the Best Unknown Guitar Players.

I think your area's
got somebody?"

"Oh, yeah, we got three guys."

So everybody, nobody said
we don't have anybody.

Nobody said, oh, we're not
gonna have anybody here.

Everybody had somebody.

- He promoted the guitarist.

And so it didn't have
to be that metal,

but the guitarist on
each of those songs

was ripping,
shredding like Chumby

and Lyle Workman, they
were just shredders

and we all worshiped shredders.

- So then Mike
called me and he goes

there's these guys in
Chicago called Lemans

and they're really cool
and they got rooster hair

like you, like
you might just fit

with these guys really well.

He goes, they need a singer.

The bass player's not
that great of a singer

and, but the band is killer

and it's got that
guy Derek Frigo

and I had seen Derek Frigo

'cause he came out
with Lucy Forbes.

Lucy Forbes was
trying to sell him

to a major band.

She brought him to
L.A. and San Francisco,

this is Derek Frigo.

And Derek Frigo was
like 12 years old,

13 years old and he
was already doing coke,

you know what I'm saying,

like at 13 years old and
he had the crazy rooster

and he was kind of
like a Jeff Beck meets,

who's the guy with Billy
Idol, Steve Stevens.

And he had great
Van Halen style.

- There were clubs to
play every weekend.

I met Mike Varney
very, very early on

from moving to San Francisco.

He had become a friend of mine.

He obviously really
trusted in my talent.

When Rude Girl ended,
as I said before,

I literally called
him immediately

and he hooked me up
with David Chastain.

- How I got in Anvil Chorus,

that after I was
in "Rock Justice,"

I'd known Mike Varney
from "Rock Justice,"

and he had these two
young guitar players.

I was 20 and they were 16,

so when you're 20
you're already like

I'm a grownup and
16-year-olds, high school kids.

It was Dan Meblin and Bob Gillis

and they were like
shredder guitar players

and so Mike Varney
got me into a band

with those two guys,

with this other singer named
Pete Marrino, Peter Marrino.

- So Bill Burkard he said,
hey, this exchange student's

over here from Sweden
and brought this

tape into this guy.

You should hear him.

So it was Malmsteen.

- How did it feel
dealing with the fact

that we had Yngwie
coming onto the scene?

How was that?

Well, let me tell you.

As a guitar player, it
was pretty shocking.

I mean this guy was pure talent

and he came from
another planet, Sweden,

and he came into our scene

and just kind of like,

just turned it upside down,

it was incredible.

And this after Van
Halen had already

single-handedly done that, too,

so this is like when I
was mentioning earlier,

we didn't really
realize we were in such

a special area or
a special time,

but this is one of those moments

where we kind of realized
where I could step aside

and think to myself wow, man,

this is something really
special going on here.

- And he gave Bill the tape

and Bill played it for him

and I said wow.

This is great, but oh
the guy's in Sweden,

I'm a young guy, I'm
thinking how crazy

it would be to deal
with immigration

to get some guy over here.

It just way above
my station in life

at that point in time.

I thought how can I do that?

Then like two months
later, Yngwie sent me

a tape directly,
just coincidentally

and I wanted to put him
together with Billy Sheehan

and Leonard Hayes.

That was the plan, you know,

that's what I wanted to do

and then Ron Keel
came up to my house

with his fiance Didi
and they were looking

for a guitar player.

I said well, here's
this guy I'm thinking

of doing something with

and I played it for Ron

and Ron's like oh,
yeah, man, that's,

that's the guy or whatever.

So I said okay, so,

Yngwie was really
excited about coming out

and doing it.

I got a letter from him
somewhere in my archives

where he's really psyched,
but that didn't last two long.

- [Woman] I loved him so much,

I had never seen Van Halen live

so this was extra exciting.

- Alcatraz, Yngwie had
already left Steeler

and so he'd started to,

he left to join up
with Graham Bonnett

who was this big huge,

you know one of his
big rainbow things

and so he had a
chance to move up

and so he was doing
this Alcatraz thing

and Alcatraz was supposed
to come out and play

and Anvil Chorus
secure the support spot

for this show, but
Alcatraz canceled

and so Ian came,
Ian Callen and Ron,

who they were from the
Rampage Radio Show,

Ian came with this idea and said

well, why don' we
just fly them up

and he can come out
and play with you guys

and he can play
with Anvil Chorus.

And I go, wow,
cool, let's do it,

okay, so Ian gets
in touch with Yngwie

and says hey, we know that
you wanna come up here,

there's a shit ton of fans,

you should come up
here and play for them,

you can play with this
backup band Anvil Chorus,

you know, their rhythm
section will play with you

and so Yngwie says,
"Yes, we'll do it."

- Yngwie had this band
that was called Alcatraz

and Anvil Chorus was
gonna open up for them

that night at, I think it was

not the old Waldorf.

It was that other place

that Bill Graham had
after old Waldorf.

- [Man] Warfield.

- Not the Warfield,
not the Kabukki.

It was on Columbus.

Wolfgang's, Wolfgang's okay.

I think it was at Wolfgang's

and possibly it
was the old Waldorf

they were gonna open up for

and we had done the sound check

and the entire Alcatraz
band ended up quitting

on Yngwie because
he was such a dick.

So after the sound check,

I went back to my house,

who I lived with Ian Callen

and I was talking to my
roommate Michelle Castro

going, "That fucking Yngwie,
what a dick that guy is."

And I'm like completely
banging on him

on the phone.

I turn around and
he's like standing

in my hallway with Ian

and I was like.

So we ended up having to be
his backing band that night.

- When I was in Cacophony
and we were doing like

the "Go Off" album live,
it was the first time

I felt like I was in a
band like Judas Priest.

This is like really,
(imitating heavy metal).

I was like this
is great you know.

- I remember Peter
Marrino saying

this is a short show, one time,

so let's skip guitar solos,

so I got all Yngwie on him.

- Mary Friedman
was around kind of

from the very beginning

and he was a teenager.

I wanted to do something
with him, yeah.

And so we got him
on the compilations,

I did the Hawaii record

and then he moved
out to San Francisco.

And he had some
demos that he'd made

on a four track or something

and I thought this
is cool stuff.

- I took all of my shit,

which is like nothing,

it was like a guitar and an amp

and small suitcase
and said I'm never

going back to Hawaii again.

I don't care what I'm doing.

And we had seven gigs in L.A.

and one in San Francisco.

All the L.A. gigs got canceled.

We get to L.A., we
though we were gonna

be superstars, we were so rad,

as soon as we play for anybody

we're gonna get
signed right away.

Look at all these metal
bands getting signed.

They're gonna love our shit.

All our gigs got canceled.

You set us up with one gig

in Radio City, which we did

and I don't remember much of it.

But I remember our next gig

was in San Francisco
the next day.

We had no transportation

to get to that gig, so
we were asking people

in the parking lot
hey, you wanna drive us

and our gear to San Francisco

for our gig tomorrow.

And so somebody did.

Some dude, a cool
dude named Ralph,

and if you're out there dude,

I'm thankful for the ride,

drove us all up to the
gig in San Francisco.

We played in Ruthie's Inn,

which is like a
big thrash place.

- [Interviewer] Right.

- And Legacy played there

with Alex Skolnik
was in the band

and we rocked that show.

I mean it was the best
show Hawaii ever had,

because actually we were playing

to fans who could
probably relate

to what we were doing.

And so it was a
small, KUSF, was it,

that the station?

- [Interviewer]
Yeah, Ron Quintana.

- That would promote metal

and it would promote
underground stuff like that,

so like the few
people in the audience

knew who we were and
to them it's like

oh, my God, they've arrived
from somewhere to play

and we played a really good show

and I have great memories

of that particular show,

but after the show, we all
went our separate ways.

I don't even remember
where the rest

of the band members were.

I never saw any of them again.

Didn't say like see
you or anything.

It's like show is over
and then we just like,

poof, we were gone.

- [Interviewer] And
what was your thought

when you first got together
with Marty Friedman.

- [Woman] It only
took a few minutes

for me to know he was a genius

and I wanted to learn from him.

- I remember being
at Hunt and Sound

in Santa Fe with
Dean Castranova,

Marty Friedman, Jason
Becker, Jimmy Oshi and me

and we were rehearsing
and I was like

pinch yourself
now mother fucker,

'cause you ain't ever gonna find

a band like this again.

- And then Jason Becker
sent me something,

he was 16 and so actually
I recorded Jason Becker,

we did "Perpetual Burn
when Jason was 17."

And his parents had to sign,

or his dad or whatever,
his parents signed

some kind of a
guardian type of thing

to make the contract
enforceable,

you know, 'cause he was a minor.

And it was really cool.

Jason was a wonderful guy

and is a wonderful guy.

And same with Marty.

And I thought that
Marty had some maturity

and you know know
experience, you know,

but then Jason had these
crazy musical ideas

and in a technically facility,

I thought that how
great would it be

if these guys got together

and did something.

So they just hit it off

like a house on fire.

They're still best
friends to this day

as far as I know.

- [Woman] After I left
Cacophony I recorded

a bunch of songs that were more

like Van Halen, so Varney said

that is why he recommended me

to David Lee Roth.

- Alex, definitely
with his sound

and my songwriting
and, you know,

riffs and stuff, together we had

the formula of what Metallica

and Exodus have as far
as being heaviness,

but then solo wise, you know,

we had, you know,
the George Lynch

and the Yngwie and
the Shanker kind of

old school melodicness
all put together.

- [Narrator] The new wave
of British heavy metal

certainly changed
the environment

of the Bay Area metal scene.

The young new bands
took this European sound

and elevated it to more
aggressive and faster levels.

Led by the arrival of
Metallica from Los Angeles

and the local rebels,
Exodus, they were

soon followed by Death
Angel and Legacy,

who later became Testament.

(heavy metal music)

- You know Slayer
started coming up here.

Death Angel popped up.

Actually they were
playing like the clubs

like a year before us and
then Exodus, of course,

and then Legacy and then Forbid

and the Violence,
it just all was like

a, it just all happened
so quick, it was weird.

You know all of a sudden
we had this new scene.

- Nobody knew what it was yet

and nobody knew
how to contain it

and nobody knew
how to security it.

- And then Metallica comes on

and it all kind of fit together

and gelled really well,

so those two bands were actually

very much spearheading
what was to become

this new Bay Area
thrash thing, you know.

My band, Anvil Chorus was doing

like this pompous kind
of keyboardy thing

and, you know, it was fun,

when I saw all this,

what the Metallica guys
and Exodus guys were doing,

it's like goddamn,
this is exactly kind

of like what I
wanna be doing, too.

I've always been like this.

- A lot of us in Exodus,

in Legacy and, again,
all the other bands

that were around at
the time, Death Angel,

you know possessed
and everybody all fed

off of that.

- When bands like Metallica,

you know even Slayer started,

they didn't move here, but
they would start coming

up here and playing
a lot of shows

because this is where
they would do good.

And then the fans
just adopted to that

and then you had all these bands

that didn't really know
what they wanted to do,

but when they heard
that, they kind like,

you know, bands
like my band, Legacy

and just Death Angel and Exodus,

they all kind of just changed
when those bands came.

And it was like a domino effect.

There was just so
many bands here

that just adopted that sound.

- I wasn't interested in
the Seattle scene at all,

but the Bay Area thrash metal
scene caught my attention.

It was like taking
what the bands

in the mid-80s were doing,

it took it up about two notches

and it was still hard
and guitar driven,

but yet melodic
at the same time.

- We didn't know
that it was like

the first incarnations
of certain genre music

or anything, you know,
but we just thought, look,

pushed the boundaries

as much as the next band

and you're all playing with
all the baddest of the Bay.

- But some of the guys
didn't wanna go thrash.

You know, this was a kid thing.

The youngsters were
like into the new thing,

which was thrash.

And the older guys, you know,

they were trying to like stick

with that 70s hard rock thing.

They didn't want the
screaming going on,

they didn't wanna get real fast,

so you had that kind of
shit going on at the time.

- When trash metal took over,

I think it fed all the people

who were into metal
that always felt

that it didn't
take it far enough

and it gave them a
platform and something

to follow and because of that,

when Metallica exploded,
I mean then bands

like Exodus started
getting more noticed.

Testament finally,
that got into form.

- The 83, I think Blizzard
evolved into Possessed.

- I remember there was
that band Blizzard.

Somebody, please hook me
up with a Blizzard demo.

- Okay, El Serito,
Metallica mentioned

they used to have parties
there late at night.

People were coming.

There was kids that was starting
a band called Possessed.

There was a lady Debby Bono

that was gonna manage them.

There was a band called
Monolith that was there.

- When I started there, I
had very little knowledge

of the heavy music
movement up here.

So guys like Jason
from Chaos, Harold O.

kind of helped refine to me

what the vision of metal was.

They kind of helped
to stir my interest

in what was going on
because even though

I was at the Omni and
I was primarily booking

a lot of the hair metal bands,

I had to learn that
genre real quickly

and so they kind of
like hand-held me

into the situation,
so I would, you know,

going from seeing bands
like Laughing Dead

and Death Angel and
all these bands playing

the Omni and getting
that experience

and getting to meet
who Chuck Billy is,

and all these cats, you know,

when they were coming up
right when they were starting.

It was a time when it
almost didn't matter

what was at the
room, people were out

to see the bands because
it was that exciting

because you never knew
when you were gonna see

the next Metallica at a venue.

It was that hot back then.

- I don't think at the
time we ever realized

that it would have the
effect that it did.

Perhaps even to this day.

The scene that the San
Francisco thrash scene created.

- Well, there was
no order back then.

I mean people would tie
string around barrels

and think that was a barricade

and they didn't know
what they were doing,

they didn't know what
was gonna happen.

- We didn't see the
need to put any kind

of onus on their experience.

We wanted them to
have that experience.

That was part of the
culture was the slam dancing

and the stage
diving and pogoing,

whatever, depending on
what show you're at.

So it was our job to make sure

that everything
that was doing that

were safe while
they were doing it.

- [Narrator] Led by Y&T

and he major European acts,

there were many who stayed true

to the more traditional styles

with bands like Vicious
Rumors, Laaz Rockit,

Steel, Griffin and
the more progressive

Anvil Chorus and Broke as Hell.

However, they were
often overshadowed

by the punk and the
burgeoning thrash movement.

(punk rock music)

- There wasn't too
much hard rock stuff

in San Francisco,
it was more punk.

Back in those days,
it was big time punk.

So people laughed at hard rock,

people laughed at
the hard rock guys

and the long-haired
guys 'cause punk

was a big fashion.

- The punk scene was just
exploding in London really

around that time that we left.

We really didn't touch
on punk ourselves.

I wasn't, I didn't
get exposed to it

till a lot later
really, until I came

to the States, but we always had

a passion for the harder rock

that was hard to
find on the radio

and place like that in the U.K.

I found it refreshing
when we came

to the United States and just
the FM radio thing just alone

and the exposure of bands

you just didn't hear on
the radio in the U.K.

Was very refreshing.

- I could just see
there was a trend coming

and so when I joined then in 77,

that was before Dead
Kennedys were known

or any of that stuff

and so it was the
Nuns, Crime and Dils.

Even Dils was from L.A.,

they had a very San
Francisco presence.

So we were kind of the first,
I think punk rock band,

I think to really
kind of do some stuff.

We were offered
some record deals

and, of course, we
didn't take any of them,

none of them were good enough.

I'm not the one that made
that decision at the time,

but our manager did.

But, so, yeah, we got
to play Winterland

a number of times,
that was kinda of cool.

We opened for Widowmaker.

I was so embarrassed,
I was apologizing

Ariel Bender, I said I
been a big fan of yours

and Spooky Tooth, you know,

I've been a fan of Widowmaker

and have Widowmaker
open for the Nuns,

just I thought at the
time at 19 years old,

this doesn't seem
fair, you know,

and he was very nice.

But, we played with Mother's
Finest and Roxy Music

and played with Dictators,

the Ramones, Blondie
a couple of times.

So we played all the venues at

the Starwood in
L.A., the Whiskey.

- Mickey's Mohawk
was a crossover

of like, you know, we
definitely had more

of the punk roots of things.

You know, not just the image
wise of the Mick's Mohawk,

but the music, too, it's
almost the same difference

of why Jetbo and
Guns 'N Roses kind

of had this clique.

Because we both were really
into the punk scene as well.

- And every once in a while,

we would cross over and go
play the punk club, you know.

Just for fun, just to
see what would happen

and, of course, our
fans would follow us.

It didn't matter where
we were going, so,

and the club owner just
loved it, you know.

- Well, we had already heard
about the punk rock scene

in the Bay Area,

which is why we came
here and landed here.

And you it did not disappoint

when we got here.

We immediately
started getting gigs

and it was a great
scene we got in.

- And when I saw James and Lars

at a Discharge Show at the Mab..

You know, this is when
Discharge was hard.

And I'm standing there, man,

back because understand
in those days,

it was not really cool
for long haired white guys

to go to a punk show.

It was not cool, man.

- I went to a couple
of Metallica parties

in San Francisco in like
people's apartments.

And stuff, but I always felt,

it wasn't my, they
weren't my good friends.

You know, we didn't
hang out a lot,

but it seemed like I got
some respect from them

and, of course, you know,
was at their party, but I-

- There was like,
there was no like

division of people.

Rock and roll was rock and roll.

I mean being that the
Mab, Mabuhe Gardens

was right across from the Stone,

I mean Head On would
play there all the time

and we had that group, you know,

full on punk rockers.

That was the punk place,

but then we could also
go across the street

and everybody intermingled.

It was just like Rock and Roll.

- Yeah, it wasn't like L.A.

'Cause in 1980 in L.A.,

you did not hang out,

if you had long hair and
you go to a punk rock club,

you'd get your hair cut off.

- And the next
thing I know, man,

Discharge were
playing their music

and the crowd was
ferocious, dude.

It was ferocious man.

I wouldn't go nowhere
near that shit, man.

And next thing I know
I see James and Lars

right in the middle
of that shit.

And them guys were
trying to hurt 'em, man.

It didn't mean shit.

James and Lars would
jump right back in there.

When I saw that,

I said them mother
fuckers is the real deal.

- The scene in San
Francisco supported both

and like I said there
were certain clubs

that the punk guys
were not so much at,

but they were more at the
others ones that, you know,

were next to the club
or down the street

or something like that.

And sort of, it was
segregated to some degree.

But we tried to, you
know, get in there

and just mess with people
every once in a while.

- We got lost a little bit
in the thrash movement,

you know, we were doing
the heavy metal thing.

I remember sitting down
with a couple people,

a couple labels and,
you know, in L.A. even,

said hey, if you guys
can kind of do this

and do that,

yeah, we'll get you the studio.

But, it just, we wanted
to play the music

that we were doing.

- The thing with Righteous Sire

is that, it's weird because
we didn't quite make

the thrash label.

We never could go
fast enough, you know,

with our abilities
and so we kind of just

always worked with what
we could work with,

but we would
borderline, you know,

and in the early
80s, thrash was big,

so I wanted to go
thrash heavier,

but I think our
abilities held us back,

so we were always stuck in
this category, you know,

where you had the big hair bands

and then you had
the other side it.

There was nothing between
except Righteous Sire

was in between maybe,
so I think that played

a big role in how
Righteous Sire, you know,

doesn't get recognized
that much, you know.

- You never lose if you
ere on the side of heavier.

Always, you always
win if you go heavy.

That's my stock and
training, that's what I do.

- There were some that
definitely got hurt.

I think Forbidden got
hurt a lot because

Forbidden was not
truly a thrash band.

They had thrash elements.

Craig Locecero can play
the shit out of a guitar,

but they were
miscategorized as being

in the same boat
as like an Exodus

and they just weren't.

- Yeah, there's like two,

the bands that went into
the more hardcore arena

and then the bands that
tried to do the arena

and Forbidden,
Evil and Forbidden

always thought we were
gonna like make that leap

into, you know, that next
level arena metal stuff

and that was always the plan,

it just never
worked out that way.

- You know, we were a little bit

on the outside of that
whole thrash metal thing.

I was coming from,
like, you know Sabbath,

Priest, Maiden,
Alice Cooper, Kiss,

you know, I was
thinking of those kind

of arena acts for
Vicious Rumors.

- You know, VR, we got signed,

things started to happen.

At the same time
in the Bay Area,

all the thrash
metal bands starting

having all the opportunities,

so I think in some way
we kind of got lumped

into the thrash thing.

- If you weren't like
100 percent into thrash

the whole time, you
knew that it was big

and it was cool and I know
I had a lot of friends.

And even some of the guys
in my band loved thrash, too

when they were kids
and younger, then,

but there was such
a ton of people

that were into just
regular giant rock

because that was
getting bigger, too.

- [Interviewer] Was that
style and influence on you

and were you into a lot of
those Bay Area thrash bands

at that time?

- Funny, not at all.

I came more from the
guitar player's side.

I loved metal, but I was more

into every style of guitar.

- When I was in
Cacophony, we played

a lot of those
thrash type of gigs

at the Stone and the
Omni and stuff like that

and I'd on KUSF
with Ron Quintana.

But I was always
kind of an outsider

from that whole like Exodus

and who are the other
bands, Testament.

- [Interviewer] Death Angel.

- Death Angel.

I was never really in
that group hanging out.

Mainly because I didn't
really party very much.

I was always working on
music and writing music

and recording and doing
that and these guys

were like socializing
and partying and stuff

and I was kind of on
the outside of that,

but I really always
liked their music

and would only
really see those guys

kind of at gigs and very,
like acquaintance at most.

- [Narrator] The Bay
Area was quite unique.

It was truly a community
where the musicians

supported each other, yet it
was not void of competition.

Once Metallica broke
into the main stream,

others were eager to
follow and many succeeded.

♪ Spirit whispers ♪

♪ Right behind your ears ♪

- Talk about this
and want to try

to be historically
somewhat accurate,

I think you gotta,
you can't separate,

you can't separate
Metallica from the scene.

- But the good thing about
the San Francisco scene

is you got all these bands,

you got all these fans,
then you had the media

to cover everything.

We had a great camaraderie.

It was like a brotherhood
or something like that,

a big gang.

And it doesn't matter
if you were a gang band,

you were a thrash
band or a metal band

or a rock band, we all
hung out at the same shows

for a long time,
I think until 86.

Everybody showed
up and you know,

guys from Head On showed up,

guys from Jetbo would showed up.

Exodus would show up everywhere.

Bail Off would show
up with Gary Hold

on every show and so
we were just like,

you know, we just loved
music, it was cool.

It was before it got segmented.

- You have somebody
like Davy Vain producing

the first Death Angel album,

someone in the glam band
producing a trash band.

Everybody got along and
everybody was friends

and everybody, it was genuine,

it was a genuine time.

- That's it, everyone
always says of course

'cause we did, 'cause
we were all like cool

with each other, but
at the same time,

everyone was like you know,

we were just trying to make
a name for our band, too.

When you're playing
with all these big

great bands and stuff
and you better have

the goods or you're
gonna get just like

booed off the stage.

You know, you want
to have the pit going

and stage diving going on.

- You were a little
bit on the outskirts

of most of those guys

'cause they grew up
on the northern part

of the Bay and the East
Bay and in San Francisco.

We were in Fremont,
which is like suburbs,

so we came out and
there was a little bit

of resistance to us at first

because we were so melodic

and we had a singer
that was so different

than anybody else,

but yet it was so
thrashy that it was

kind of like, they were a
little taken aback by us

at first, so they welcomed us in

after, it took us a few months

to kind of like
where Exodus was cool

and everything was cool,

'cause at first it was
like who are these guys.

I know you, but who the
fuck are these guys.

So, but that ended quickly
and it was only a blip,

but it was always cool
from that point on

and like especially now dude,

that camaraderie has
really flourished

and everybody is really happy

to see each other these days

when we all see each other.

Everybody's like dude, you know,

we did this together.

We were all a part of that.

You just kind of feel,
you don't have to say it,

but everyone knows it.

- But it was a lot less
segregated then you'd think.

A lot of people
that, you know, yeah

they talk crap to each other,

but usually they were there
to like hold the beers

in the air at the same show.

- There was really
no competition

between the bands.

They were all friends,
they were all brothers,

they all supported each other.

You went to a Laaz Rockit show

and all the Exodus guys
were in the audience, right?

And vice versa.

And that's what I loved about

the San Francisco scene.

There was no put down of bands.

They were all
supporting each other

and playing each other

because it was such
a tight community.

- We so need bands like
Death Angel, for example,

the thrash scene seemed to
fit hand in hand with it.

You saw people at
the thrash shows.

You'd also see them at the
classic metal shows, as well.

I think it was just the
whole vibe of it all.

And some of it was much
more heavier than the other,

but you'd see the same people.

And it didn't seem, even though

it was a healthy competition
between the bands,

it didn't seem, at
least I didn't see

any of the real cutthroat stuff.

I'm not saying it didn't happen,

but there was much more

of a sense of
community about it all.

And a support within the
bands for each other.

- Like all the
people in the bands

were all hanging out.

It wasn't like the
bands and the fans.

We were all just together.

There wasn't a separation.

- In the Beer Gardens,
everyone's walking around

like it's the mecca and
the warriors in movies.

Everyone's a gang and
everyone's got their thing

and these guys have
got their letter vests

and these guys are in debt.

You know, it's just,

that's what was fun
about it, I thought.

- We weren't treated
different, like you said.

There was no competition
we went through.

Even because we come
from out of town,

I don't they felt
we were a threat.

We were a visitor.

They welcomed us with open arms.

Look how Slayer
and Exodus became.

We became tight friends.

It was a good experience
for us out there.

- And Exodus didn't
really have a competition

because they kind of
just got the next deal

and then there was a lot
of other bands behind them.

- In the same way that
we may have inspired

the scene, the scene
also inspired us.

We may have
influenced the scene,

but the scene, do
you know what I mean?

So it's just one
big fucking mesh

of just people and

energy and moments, you know,

that just happened over
the course of a while

and it was like a
year or two where

it was just fucking vibing.

- We'd do the same.

We'd go there to
support other bands

and we always had a great night

when we went out to these places

and we always felt
warmly welcomed

when we played any
club in the scene.

- And there were some
great bands, you know,

that we got to see, as well.

You know, I remember
Roadrunner, Steele,

Exodus I saw, was you
at the Exodus show?

- Yes, yes, I was.

- So, you know, we're
talking probably 82, 83.

- Yes, they were competitive,

but at the same time,

if they saw one
of them in trouble

or needed help, they were
there to help and support them

and I loved that about
the San Francisco scene.

- The scene was fueled by drugs

and fueled by bands
trying to get deals.

Everyone was trying
to get a deal.

Everyone was.

The record companies
kept coming up weekly,

like to see Metallica,
to see Exodus,

to see us, see Vain.

We were the ones that took
the longest to get a deal.

I sat in every office
in L.A. with Varney

and we thought we
were gonna get signed

like three or four times,

and then finally
Columbia came back,

like a year later.

And I guess I owe it
all to Ron Quintana.

- But I think one of
the things about it

that was interesting
was for the most part

we didn't hold grudges

and I think that our scene,

we sort of policed ourselves.

And we didn't have the
attention all the time

of record companies
or executives

or these people
who looked at you

as if your behavior's
going to be a risk.

- I don't think anybody
here paid attention

to that either.

- I didn't really
get into the music.

I didn't hang around rockers,

so we were kind of isolated.

And so, and most of the
black people weren't with it.

They thought I
was fucking crazy,

you know what I'm saying?

But my folks, my dad, he
wasn't so much into it,

but they tolerated it.

My folks, you know,
my mom, she was,

you know, she was in my corner,

you know what I mean?

But most of the
people oh, they joked,

you know that's where some of
the determination came from

just getting ridiculed.

- [Narrator] Heavy metal shows

started to pop up all
over the Bay Area.

It all began with
the old Waldorf

when they started the
Metal Mondays series.

The first show
featured Motley Crue

with Anvil Chorus, followed soon

by Motorhead's first
appearance in San Francisco.

Clubs like the Three
Keystones in San Francisco,

Berkeley and Palo
Alto, Wolfgang's

and later the Omni, Off Broadway

and finally the haven
for the heaviest

of the thrash
bands, Ruthie's Inn.

(heavy metal music)

- So here we are, I'm
here with John Strednansky

in the heart of
downtown San Francisco.

We're standing in
front of yet another

historic building, why don't
you tell us about this John.

- This, believe it or not,

this was the old Waldorf

and, you know, when we
called the Stone ground zero

for the metal scene here,

this was really the genesis.

This was really the genesis.

- The beginning.

- The old Waldorf had shows here

back in the 70s,
like Pat Benetar

and those kinds of
rockers played here,

but 1981 met the
first Metal Monday.

Motley Crue and Anvil Chorus.

The really kicked off
what the San Francisco

metal scene was all about.

- There was a lot
of music going on.

There was a lot of bands
trying to play places

and there was nowhere to play.

So we'd do things like
put on our own shows.

- Let's mention our
good friend Cathy Page,

who used to work for KRQR.

She was amazing.

She was the one who
started Metal Mondays.

- Cathy.

- Cathy Page.

- [Interviewer] I
didn't know that.

- She was amazing,
everybody's mother, you know,

even though she
was a young hottie.

- But she also was
program director at KRQR,

which was the biggest FM
radio rock station up there.

So, she put on these shows

and if she liked you.

- Promote you.

- She'd help you out immensely.

- Thank goodness for people
like the Corona Brothers

who booked the Keystone Clubs.

Or Tony Isabella and
Rachael Matthews,

who booked us all
at the Waldorf.

These are essential people

that made these opportunities

for all the bands.

- That Metal Monday scene

at the old Waldorf.

That was the best
club to play at

at the time.

All the bands were
playing at the,

you know, there
was a lot of venues

in San Francisco.

There was, you know,
you had Morty's,

you had the Stone, you
had Rock on Broadway,

you had the Blue A Gardens,

and you'd have live
music five nights a week.

- But I think the
Metal Monday thing

was an all ages thing

and when that came on,

we were really ready
for something to happen.

- The Metal Monday
stuff, it was a legacy

by the time I was in the scene,

but that was already done.

So I had just come in
on the back end of that

and Ruthie's was it, right.

So you hit those, it
was like Laaz Rockit,

I'm thinking, was it Control,
like all those bands.

Anvil Chorus, you know.

And then whoever would
come up from L.A. to do it

and then Metallica
got their start

doing that stuff there.

- We were in tune
with these people

and they gave us a chance
and we got a chance

to do this Motley Crue thing.

- Anvil Chorus opened up for

both Motorhead and Motley Crue,

like way, well,
Motorhead had been around

and I think like I
remember Lemmy telling

us that we played
too many notes.

And I was thinking that's
what they said about Mozart.

- There was Anvil
Chorus, Hans Naughty,

and Motley Crue, I think
that's what it was.

We actually opened the show.

- Part of what I liked
about Metal Mondays

and even at the Stones
was some of the L.A.

Bands would come out.

I started to get hip
to some of these bands,

but I remember when Motley Crue

came and played Metal Mondays

and they came on,

I thought they fucking sucked.

My friends and I, we stood
at the back of the room.

We threw ice at them
while they're playing.

We're going Motley
Crud, fuck you.

- What's real interesting
about this club,

I mean, if you look around,
we're in such an oasis,

right, in downtown
San Francisco.

It's quiet up here.

This is built on top of a garage

and you kind of walk
into this tranquil garden

and here is one of
the coolest rock clubs

that I've ever been to, right,

the old Waldorf.

The Punchline in the
background was here

back in the early 80s,
so that's still around.

But it's real interesting where

they chose to put this club at.

- Yeah, I always thought a
very interesting location.

- And what's interesting
the way it's built,

if you walk inside, the back
stage door is right there,

right next to the front entrance

and the bands actually
just walk right

through the crowd to the stage.

It was very, very fan friendly.

- Overdrive was a
band that consisted of

Randy Fererra on bass,

Mark Pena on drums,
Mike Carsey on guitar

and myself on guitar and vocals.

And we were high school buddies.

And, you know, we
started playing

in the Bay Area music scene

when we were about 15, 16.

We would do gigs at the old
Waldorf on Metal Mondays

and we would play our set

and then we'd have
to go hand out

in the dressing room
'cause we were too young

to hang out in the club.

- The Waldorf Metal Mondays,

I remember being in high school

and them announcing
Righteous Siren

playing Metal Mondays

and I thought I was
a real rock star

when I heard my
name on the radio

and Mabue Gardens, On Broadway,

Keystone Palo Alto, the
Stone in San Francisco

was kind of our little
circuit, you know.

So we would just rotate
between those clubs.

We never really
traveled or anything.

We were always a Bay Area band.

- All these places, pretty soon

the old Waldorf had to have
metal bands every Monday.

Then the Mab had to have
metal bands every Sunday.

They had Brutal Sundays,

so all these clubs

starting added metal nights

and all these little kids

suddenly had places to
play, it was amazing.

- When I first
started coming up to

the Bay Area, we had connected

with Tambray Bryant,
Michael Oliver

with LNO Productions
and they were doing

a series of shows at
the Mabuhe Gardens.

That was my introduction

and it was a seedy,

I mean it started out
as a punk club, right?

And it was just this
seedy amazingly cool club

that was unlike
anything I've ever seen.

- The best place in town
to play was the Stone.

- No, the Waldorf.

- Well, the Waldorf was best,
but that didn't last as long.

- [Bob] Here we are.

So this is it, man.

The Stone.

Ground Zero.

- This was indeed ground
zero of the metal scene

here in San Francisco.

This was where, everybody
came here, everybody was here.

Everybody met up here.

First show for
Metallica outside.

- Metal Massacre Night.

- With, I believe it was Bitch.

Yes, what a night.

Really got everything
started here.

- And you were at that show.

You came up with Lars, right,

you grew up with him.

- I came up with Lars,

they picked me up in Monterrey,

we drove up together

and they actually asked me
to announce them on stage.

It was a great memory
and a fantastic start

to a whole new era in
San Francisco metal.

- The Stone had three clubs

and they were spread
throughout the Bay Area

and we played all three
of them religiously

and especially the
one in Palo Alto,

which was sort of
between San Jose

and San Francisco.

That just became
the place to play

especially for hard rock music.

It just, Keystone Palo Alto.

That was it and they'd jam it,

almost like a thousand
people into this place,

and it wasn't very big,
but the way it was set up,

you could do that.

- The Stone was a magical place.

The Omni was a magical place.

I don't see any
clubs like that now.

They might be in
like Philadelphia.

You know I went
on Gore Tour later

and I saw some clubs like that,

but they were on the East Coast.

But all that stuff has been,

it's like all in the Bay Area,

the clubs now are nothing
like that anymore.

They're all strip clubs now,

'cause you can't make the money.

- The Chatterbox, ah,
well, that was a fun place

because that was an
interesting crossover point

where punk and metal
kind of intersected.

It was kind of a small place,

not the greatest sound system,
but adequate, you know.

But the vibe, it was all
about the vibe and everything.

It had a Kiss pinball machine

and they had Johnny
Thunder's spray painted,

you know, some shit on
the rafters, you know.

So you can't argue with
pedigree like that.

- [Bob] We're at the location of

the old Keystone Palo Alto, huh?

- [John] Indeed.

You can't recognize
this place anymore.

It sure looked
different 30 years ago.

- [Bob] The old hangout.

- Yeah, this was kind of
where the whole South Bay

got going with their
heavy metal scene.

First show I ever
saw here was Saxon

back in 1982 when they
played the three Keystones

around the Bay Area.

- Gentlemen in Leather tour.

- Trauma opens down here.

How awesome's that
with cliff Burton

and this club endured
quite a while.

I believe I saw
Michael Shanker here

as late as 1995 or so.

So, this club
endured for a while,

but now gentrified in a whole
different neighborhood now.

- We played the Mabuhe Gardens,

we played the Rock on Broadway,

We played the Cocadrie,
we played Morty's,

we played the Omni.

The Keystone Berkely,
the Eye Beam.

On did I not say Ruthie's.

- [Interviewer] No, you
didn't say Ruthie's.

- Ooh.

Ruthie's Inn and every
club that existed.

The Farm.

- [Man] Yes!

- Yeah, we played
every fucking club.

- Well, luckily for us,
you could have pretty

hard core bands at the Mab.

And then the
popular metal bands,

but you had to go to Ruthie's

for the more intense
bands in 83 and 84,

so Slayer would play there first

and Megadeath would
play there eventually.

And, you know, just the heavier

and heavier bands
played at Ruthie's

'cause you could
get away with more.

You could do anything.

(laughing)

- There used to be a
club called Ruthie's

in Berkeley, California,

I don't think it's
there anymore.

And just sick.

Again, spit on, been
cans thrown at me.

It was just, as I said before,

a good training ground.

You had to learn how to
try to get the crowd in.

I loved it, it was
like football practice,

it was pretty wild.

- And my first club
show that I went to

was Exciter and
Griffin at the Stone

and my next club show was
Possessed and High Rex

at the Mab, Mabuhe Gardens.

- [Interviewer] Of course.

- And then next, not
even a few months later,

I was playing
Ruthie's Inn at 15.

- Then the Stone
and all the Stones,

those were hot spots,
as well as Ruthie's Inn

was here in the East Bay.

It was a place where
a lot of bands played

and at Ruthie's was
an interesting venue

because one night
you'd have punk rock,

the next night you'd
have rock and roll

and the next night
you'd have heavy metal.

- Ruthie's would
have a show Friday,

Saturday, maybe a
Sunday afternoon

and then Tuesday or
Wednesday during the week

there would be like Death
Angel, Forbidden, Evil

and Legacy, you
know, on a Wednesday

and it would start
at six, you know,

and the headliner
would go on 9, 9:30.

There was so much
of a scene that we

could have that
many bands and kids,

people would show up.

- I mean, even Armored Saints

and these bands that we were
all compatible in a way.

I think what we mostly
brought were great shows.

It wasn't necessarily about

a scene, because the
scene was evolving,

the scene was sort
of coming together

sort of harmoniously
between the bands,

especially at the beginning.

- Nobody knew exactly
where it was gonna go

and it grew in self,
when Ruthie's Inn opened,

it just opened up
a whole new field.

I mean, Ruthie's Inn, the
guy who ran Ruthie's Inn

was willing to put on anything

that would put
money in his pocket

and metal just like,
it was the perfect home

for it, you know.

There was no problem
with the police.

We were standing
down in the street.

- They weren't gonna come
down to where it was.

- They didn't want
to come to that area

and it was just a perfect,

it was the perfect
storm for metal.

- You remember Day
on the Green, right?

Well, West Robinson
had Day on the Dirt.

And it was at Aquatic
Park in Berkeley.

And it was a hell of a bill,

It was Blue Cheer,

it was Suicidal Tendencies,
Exodus, Slayer, us,

Roadrunner anda
bunch of other bands.

- Well, I remember us
playing a festival called-

- [Interviewer] Dirt Fest?

- Day on the Dirt, instead
of Day on the Green,

it was Day on the Dirt
and it was all punk bands,

Exodus, Suicidal was playing.

It's amazing.

- We played Ruthie's Inn a lot.

That was the place.

And there's that guy named
Wes, who's the book man.

You go in there and
you say at his house

and you played a show

and every band I talked to,

he owed everyone money.

I'm sure he still
owes us money, too,

but again, that
was a cool scene.

We played with a lot of bands.

Like I remember when
Legacy opened for us.

Alex was like 16 or something
like that, you know.

And yeah, I still
have a lot of memories

of that place fresh in my mind

'cause they were fun shows.

- When it came our
first opportunity

to play a show, I went
and talked to Wes Robinson

at Ruthie's Inn and I was
a snot nose cocky kid,

you know, and I was like
hey, I got this band

and I was like acting manager,
the youngest guy in the band.

Ralph's like go talk to him.

He's like you go talk to him,

so I did and we got offered
the Metal Church show

for the Eastern Front.

It was all these Eastern
Front series of shows

where no one knew they were
really being recorded for it,

but we were.

And so we played with
Metal Church that night,

opened the whole show
and people pretty much

freaked out for
us the first time.

- Yeah, Broadway Avenue
in San Francisco.

- During that area.

- The two-block
stretch had the Stone,

the Chi-Chi Club,
the Mab, which is now

the Rock on Broadway,
which is upstairs.

That was a special little area

and, of course, all your
wonderful strip clubs.

But in San Francisco.

- For 20-something
musicians that was

a great moment in time.

- Then we had our
friend Brent Turner

open up the Rock on Broadway.

- He did real well
there for a while

until he started
having his bouncer

throw people down
that flight of stairs.

Two-story flight of
stairs, straight line,

Don Chichi would just like ah!

- A band could play Oakland

and in that same month
play San Francisco

and still draw 250 people,

which is unheard of now.

But it was a different
scene back then.

- John Nadie with some
of the money he made

off the Nadie System stuff,

he opened up the
Omni in Oakland.

I'd go to a lot of shows there.

I saw probably every
local metal band,

I mean Vicious Rumors.

Testament when they were Legacy.

Blind Illusion with
Les Claypool, Trauma

with Cliff Burton.

- After the Stone and
everything kind of tamed down,

the Omni in Oakland
was the place.

- Yeah, none of this
conversation could happen

without mentioning.

- Yeah, the Omni was essential,

just as essential and important.

- And the thing about,
especially about the Omni was

you would go in there
and all the bands

would be in there.

So, you know, not playing,

just having beers or whatever

and there was kind of a rule

that you didn't
talk to the bands,

you just sort of left them alone

and me being me, I did not leave

any of them alone.

I was like oh, dude, you know,

I can't believe I'm meeting
you, you know, whatever.

And they were all
just unbelievably cool

and they all would give me tapes

and, you know, at the
time it was all tapes

and I grew into it really big

in the late 80s up
into the early 90s.

- Or even bands like Lynch Mob,

you know George Lynch's project.

They would play
these three rooms

and three or four
dates in the Bay Area,

sometimes getting
an outside promoter

and they would still do
like 800 tickets a night.

- All of the bands
were very lucky.

There was a good variety
of clubs to play, you know

and a good following
when you got there.

Just very proud to be
part of that whole area,

that whole scene
that just sprung up,

it was wonderful.

- But we had these
great places to play

where you could put on shows.

- With really big stages.

- Yeah, and pyro
because my manager

could finagle his freaking way

into saying it's
gonna be really small.

I don't know how many
stages we set on fire

or blew holes in the roof.

- [Narrator] The
world took notice.

Soon the Bay Area bands
were touring the planet,

appearing at many
of the prestigious

European clubs and festivals.

The record labels
started to sign them

one after another, gaining
them international acclaim.

(heavy metal music)

- Finally, when we went
over in 82 to the U.K.,

we went over there to record
the "Black Tiger" record,

we met with some of
the A&M guys over there

and they're like, I don't know

what your American
counter partners do,

but we're kicking ass
over here for you guys.

You guys are, you know,
you guys are taking off

and you haven't even
played a show here yet.

And we were like, you know,

we had seen some of the stuff,

but we didn't know what
was actually happening

until we started playing
shows over there.

- What's interesting
is that the scene

that was in San Francisco
was just maniacal and crazy

as it was, this scene started
to spread everywhere else.

I mean the Anthrax guys saw it

in their turf in New York.

You know, as we did the
"Killing Is My Business" tour

and went across the country,

you could see that scene
was building everywhere,

you know, across the country

and then as we all
started to go to Europe,

it was like okay,
this is new scene.

This isn't even the old
of new wave of British

heavy metal scene,

this is a brand new one.

- Because when we
first went to New York

for the first time, we
toured with Venom and Slayer,

like we were doing interviews
and like talking to people,

yeah, we heard you
on W blah, blah, blah

in fucking Syracuse, New York

and like people were putting
in the word back then

to like, you know, get
this music out there

and get it heard.

- Every time we tried
to form something

in the Bay Area with the
people that were there,

it turned into
drama and disaster

and it's still that way,

'cause I still have
property there,

so it's the place.

I thought it was the place then,

now I know that it's
true, it was the place.

You know, so if I imported
people from Chicago,

it went better and
the Chicago guys

were like meat eaters,

they were like, they were
like ready to kill people,

you know, like let's go
out and play, come on man.

And the Bay Area guys
are like well, man,

you know, after we done
smoking some joints,

I guess we'll, you know it was
like totally different guys.

- It you look at the
different, the different scenes

that there are

with Florida having
the death metal scene

and, you know, San
Francisco being considered

the thrash metal scene

and L.A. being considered
the hair metal scene

and, you know, with all
these different things

that are going on, it's kind of

a like-minded
mentality, you know.

And I think that's why
certain scenes thrive

because all the bands

are doing certain
things the same.

- The Bay Area metal scene is,

even though it got
a lot of publicity

in the underground presence,

it never got the
mainstream publicity

that L.A. got from metal or
what Seattle got for grunge

and even our history books

that cover the history
of the Bay Area,

even in articles,
they always talk about

the Summer of Love in the 60s
with the Jefferson Airplane

or the Grateful Dead or whatever

and they even cover
the 70s punk explosion

in the Bay Area with
the Dead Kennedys,

the Nuns and the Avengers
and things like that.

And then of course we
had the classic rock,

Journey, Night Ranger, Santana.

You know Huey
Lewis and the News,

and all that stuff,

that gets a lot of publicity.

And of course Metallica does,

because they were from here

because they had so much success

and sold so many
millions of records,

but then the whole
overall metal scene,

which was out here, which
I had worldwide success

seems to get ignored
or overlooked

and I think that's just
a crime and an atrocity.

(heavy metal music)

- One time I was
hanging out with Lemmy

and, you know, and he's
know to be so hard core

and we just, I just
played with Skid Row

and Hammer Sathotia.

At the end of the show,
all of us in Skid Row,

Yngwie got on stage and Lemmy
and Robert Plant were there

and Lemmy got on stage

and we did "Train
Kept A-Rollin'."

And Lemmy, I was
standing right next Lemmy

'cause I was like man,
this is the Hammer Sethotia

and Lemmy's here and
this is the first time

I played here and he
went over to the bass,

he had his bass on and
he just put his hand

across the top and it just
went (imitating ripping).

Then he looked at me and
goes, this is my settings.

And so after we did the show.

We were walking down the street

and I had like these
leather pants with rings,

so I looked kind of,
still kind of glammy

whatever you want to call it,

to me it was rock and roll.

It's like, you know,
the Stooges glam,

I don't know, to me it's
just rock and roll, you know.

So walking down the street,

I'm walking next to Lemmy

and there's a big
party we're going to.

And some kid comes
up and yells to Lemmy

hey, Lemmy, that guy's a poser.

He's wearing the,
look at those pants,

what a fag or
something like that.

And he goes, hey,
shut the fuck up

you snot nose.

He goes, those trousers
are rock and roll.

It's about getting pussy.

If I could get my ass in there

I'd wear them too if
I got laid tonight.

And the guy's like
oh, sorry Lemmy.

- I saw Steeler up in
Sacramento play a warehouse

and I wish I could
recall all the details

of why they ended
up in a warehouse,

but show up, I'm all
excited to see Steeler

and Yngwie's not
there on guitar.

It's this guy Kurt James,

who was a great player,

don't get me wrong,
he's fabulous.

And so, I watch the show,

they play the whole record.

It's all good everything

and I go to Ron at the show,

"Where's Yngwie, where's your

guitar player, where's Yngwie?"

He goes, "Yngwie Malmsteen
is a penis with fingers."

And I still remember that quote.

- I played with then
at Hunt Sound that day,

and there was this rich woman

named Sally Procter that lived

and she was like the
heiress to Procter & Gamble

and she was a big partyer and

he had a warehouse with
all the sound equipment

in Navado, so she
called me that day

and I was rehearsing
with all them

and she goes, I got
Metallica up here

at my studio.

Come up here and sing
Led Zeppelin songs

'cause James didn't want to

or he was too high or something.

I don't know what it was,

so I came up there totally
high out of my mind, right,

and sang Led Zeppelin
songs with Metallica.

- This mother fucker probably
has something to say.

- Hello.

Georgio, what's up.

- We're talking Bay
Area metal dude.

Good for you.
- Good for you.

(heavy metal music)

(technological music)

(heavy metal guitar shredding)