Original subtitles

♪ MTV.♪

REPORTER: They have been both revered and reviled.

Moötley Cruüe has the potential of attracting more

young listeners than any other rock band in the world.

Takes you away, you know? If you're depressed or bored

or something, you put on Moötley Cruüe and you just,

you're having fun again.

It's just what kids do, you know?

I mean, I'm 14 and...

it's just something I love. [chuckles]

Hard rock.

-REPORTER: But sex and violence? -What's wrong with that?

REPORTER: Tomorrow we'll show you a rock concert

given by a band which many parents

consider to be the most violent

and pornographic musical act in the country.

♪ ♪

BRET MICHAELS: In the '80s, it was an exciting time in music.

There was some vibe that was happening.

It was amazing.

And it's such a shame, 'cause we didn't realize

that we were part of the best era in rock and roll.

You would walk down the Sunset Strip

and there would be just hundreds and hundreds of people.

It was flamboyant,

it was artistic and fun.

They wanted everything to feel like it was

-the best time of your life. -Don't go half-assed

into that good night.

Go all the fucking way, full throttle.

That is what rock and roll and '80s was about.

TOM BEAUJOUR: The history of hair metal is really this arc

that goes from

very, very humble beginnings

to the biggest heights of success,

filling arenas,

total domination of MTV,

and then, was literally obliterated overnight.

It was a very violent end to a very triumphant run.

♪ Don't need nothin' but a good time♪

♪ How can I resist?♪

♪ Ain't lookin' for nothin' but a good time♪

♪ And it don't get better than this♪

♪ It don't get better, baby.♪

♪ ♪

RICHARD BIENSTOCK: The Sunset Strip has,

obviously, a rich history in rock and roll,

going back to at least the '60s, where you have The Doors

and you have everyone playing at the Troubadour.

Uh, you get into the '70s,

and rock and roll is in decline in a way,

because there's a big turn towards new wave.

♪ Here in my car, I feel safest of all♪

♪ I can lock all my doors♪

♪ It's the only way to live♪

♪ In cars...♪

Right around 1979,

is when the new wave explosion happened in L.A.

BIENSTOCK: While new wave bands were taking off,

rock and roll bands were struggling.

And nothing's really happening for a lot of these

long-haired rock bands,

and they are seen as dinosaur music.

They would tell us, "This is not coming back."

The last band to actually get signed from Los Angeles

that made it big in rock and roll was Van Halen.

Right after Van Halen, they shut the door.

BIENSTOCK: After Van Halen's record deal,

the long-haired rock and roll dinosaurs

were basically out of business.

But there was a small club band who continued

to play rock and roll called Quiet Riot,

who had the next prodigy guitar player.

♪ Just a big black set of wheels♪

♪ Is what it takes to get me off♪

♪ I'm gonna drive all night, spin my wheels all night♪

♪ It feels all right♪

♪ It feels all right...♪

SARZO: 1978, I came here

to actually audition and join Quiet Riot,

and I went to check them out.

The lights went down, then the band starts playing,

and immediately, all the girls rushed

to the guitar player, Randy Rhoads.

And I'm going like, "Wow,

He's incredible."

[guitar solo playing]

That sound... [imitates guitar playing]

...was so dark.

So demonic.

So evil, coming out of this little blond man.

[laughs]: You know what I mean?

♪ ♪

Terror on guitar. I mean, you know.

Talk about scorched earth, my God.

Yeah, he was something else.

SARZO: So, I was playing in Quiet Riot with Randy,

and the focus was on

getting a record deal.

That's the only reason why Quiet Riot existed.

The record labels are so unwilling to take a chance,

especially in L.A., where all the record companies are.

They figure, it's-- they have to go out of L.A.

to get a band that they're gonna sign, usually.

REPORTER: But they don't want just any recording contract,

and that's probably the problem.

Record companies figure now that it costs them

from $250,000 to $500,000 to break an act.

And at those prices, there just aren't many buyers

for Quiet Riot or any other act.

The labels were totally not interested.

They wanted Elvis Costello, they wanted The Knack.

They liked that music a lot more than hard rock.

People at record labels want to feel smart,

and you feel a lot smarter signing

Elvis Costello than you do signing Quiet Riot.

The record labels, at-at some point,

it-it was pretty obvious the-the party was dying off,

as far as parties at our clubs.

And money was, you know, becoming a little tighter.

And, yeah, it was kind of a sad time, really.

You know, one day, I was in my office

and this crazy-looking guy came to the door,

and we had bars up, and I could hear him dinking on the bars.

And I'm looking over and...

it was Nikki Sixx, and he said, "A-A new band.

I need to get my new band in." I'm like,

"Oh, my God," you know, "What is your new band?"

"It's gonna be great, it's gonna be called Moötley Cruüe,

and I'm gonna play bass."

I'm like, "Do you know how to play bass guitar?"

"Well, I'm learning." [laughs]

♪ ♪

What I considered the beginning of-of hair metal,

really, was Moötley Cruüe.

I remember this little ad in Music Connectionmagazine,

this little tiny picture of Moötley Cruüe,

and it was just their heads with their hair.

So, we skateboarded up to the Troubadour

where they played, and that was it.

I was like, "Yeah, that's how you do it."

You know? "Okay, I get this now."

You know, and, uh, that was the beginning.

♪ ♪

TOMMY LEE: At the time we came out,

the Knack was really big

I mean, with "My Sharona" and all that stuff.

And we were playing the clubs, and all of our friends

in other rock bands had cut their hair off

and got their little skinny ties.

And that was the flavor of the week.

And here we were, only long-hairs in Los Angeles,

still, like, grinding out rock and roll songs.

DOC McGHEE: When I went to see them, they were absolutely horrible.

They couldn't-couldn't play any worse than they did.

They rolled around and blew shit up and...

didn't know the song-- it-it wasn't very good.

DON ADKINS: Their motivation,

when I was really close with the guys, was,

it was all about the music,

it was all about the women,

and then, also, food.

KEEL: Early Moötley Cruüe was hilarious. [laughs]

Not to put them down, but, you know, these guys

didn't have any money, and I-- I mean, I get it.

And for a while, Moötley Cruüe lived in an apartment

just up the street from the Whisky.

And they'd run down the hill, come into my office

and start foraging for food and cigarettes out of my trash cans.

Finally, I catch Tommy Lee.

"What are you doing with my phone book?"

He said, "We ran out of toilet paper."

You know, Moötley Cruüe grew up watching bands

that were larger than life.

Led Zeppelin

and The Who and Kiss.

And they were like, "We want to do that,

"we just don't have the same type of stage to do it on,

so we're gonna do it in these tiny clubs."

I don't know if Nikki told you the story,

we used to light him on fire.

We all lived in this one apartment together,

and I'd go grab the rubbing alcohol,

and Vince and I would douse Nikki.

And then we'd just light him on fire

and he'd stand there burning.

[cackles]

And we were going, "Yeah, this is great," and so,

like, then, we took that to the stage.

Vince came out with this sword,

with the tip of the sword was on fire.

And Vince would take this sword and just touch it to his feet...

[imitates flames whooshing] ...and he'd be on fire.

KEEL: Nikki wasn't looking for a gig

on the Sunset Strip or at the Whisky.

He was looking to conquer the world.

And I thought, you know,

"We should probably give this guy a shot.

We'll give him a-an off night."

And then, they did really, really well.

I'm Tom Zutaut, and, uh, I am known

for discovering great rock bands, and a few others.

By the time I was 18, I was working for Elektra Records.

So, at this time, I'm technically a marketing guy,

but one of the first things I-I knew

was I wanted to do A&R.

So, one day I'm sitting

at my desk, and this guy walks in and he says,

"Hey, go to lunch with me."

And so, he takes me to get some ribs

somewhere in Downtown L.A., and he goes, uh,

"My dad's Joe Smith," and I go, "So, you're the son

of the chairman of Elektra records."

I mean, I'd seen him a couple of times, I never even met him.

And he goes, "Well, what do you think of my dad's music?"

And I said, "To be honest with you, Jeff,

"the music absolutely sucks.

I-It is ridiculous."

And the next day, as soon as I get to work,

um, "The chairman would like to see you."

And I'm like, "Oh, my God.

He freakin' told his dad."

And I thought I was gonna be fired,

so I was kind of scared.

But I went up there, and...

You know, I-I-- You got to remember,

I'm this, like, you know,

18-and-a-half, 19-year-old nerdy kid, right?

But anyway, Joe looks at me, goes,

"All right, wise guy,

my son tells me our music sucks."

And I go, "Well, I'm not gonna lie to you, it does suck."

And he goes, "What can you do about it?"

I said, "Not much.

"If your A&R department would have listened to me,

"we'd have hits like, uh, Joan Jett, 'I Love Rock 'n' Roll,'

"and, you know, we would have had The Human League,

"uh, 'Don't You Want Me,'

we would have had Soft Cell, 'Tainted Love.'"

And I rattle off all these things,

and he goes, "Can you prove that?"

And I had a record of everything that they passed on.

And so he looks at me and he goes, "I'll tell you what."

He goes, "The next thing you see

"that you think is gonna be huge,

"bring it directly to me.

Don't even go to the A&R department."

Well, as luck would have it,

I'm driving down Sunset Boulevard,

and I see this sign on the Whisky,

and it says, "Moötley Cruüe, sold out,"

and I see 500 or more kids lined up to get in.

And I walk in, and it is packed to the rafters.

And Moötley Cruüe hits the first song,

and I see these kids go absolutely berserk.

And I was like, "This is what is gonna destroy

"Flock of Seagulls.

"This is the end of that music.

"And they're gonna start

"the next movement in rock music.

They're the band that's gonna explode this scene."

So the next day, I call Joe Smith's office,

and I say, "Listen, I'd like to see the chairman,

um, I have something to discuss with him."

And she's asking me, "What?" and I said,

"Just tell him that I found the band."

FULL METAL JACKIE: Moötley Cruüe was

just the epitome of...

rebellious, scary,

fiery, you know, hard rock.

They were, early on,

doing something that all bands were like, "All right,

I think we got to make our own little version of that."

BILLY ROWE: The band that was big in L.A. at the time

would be Moötley Cruüe.

And then, you know, along comes W.A.S.P.

They were not too far behind.

♪ I wanna be somebody♪

♪ Be somebody soon♪

♪ I wanna be somebody♪

♪ Be somebody, too...♪

COREY TAYLOR: W.A.S.P., man.

I mean, Jesus Christ, the ambition.

The fact that they were gonna be the biggest,

baddest, craziest, loudest

fucking band ever.

STEVE RILEY: The look of W.A.S.P. was so over-the-top.

And them and Moötley, they-they broke open a door.

When they asked me to join,

I went to see them at the country club

and my wife said to me,

"You would fit in good with this band."

-And I said, "Really?" -[laughs] "Thanks, baby."

I was like, "Wow."

And I had to jump in feet-first

and, uh, get into that mode, and it was pretty wild.

So, you had W.A.S.P. with, you know,

doing the "Tormentor" fucking scene

with the female model.

RILEY: And the chick was on the rack where they cut her throat.

And we would do this thing in the middle of the show

where we would do a drone and just carry on

this beat behind Blackie running around with this

box of meat, tossing it at the audience.

This raw meat, this old,

this old livers...

-NICKELS: Shit like that. -...and tossing it at the-the audience,

and they loved it, they ate it up.

He's throwing meat at the audience.

And blood.

And I used to think, you know, it's just--

what do you call it-- corn syrup.

Movie blood? No, it was blood.

They have spikes and leather

and chains and they have, you know,

assless chaps and they have a codpiece

made out of a saw blade.

And they had a friend

that worked at JPL

that would create these things.

When I was a kid, I had the opportunity

to work at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

And Jet Propulsion Laboratory is basically

the birthplace of rocketry.

So, Blackie

wanted to make some really impressive things.

He started drawing some sketches out and said, "Okay,

"let's make something that looks kind of like this:

spiky, radical."

So we took big saw blades and tried cutting them in half.

And what you find out when you try to cut something like that

is it's all tempered steel and you shatter it.

And then, ultimately, I had to talk to some of the guys

at JPL on how to detemper them

so we can cut it and make-make gadgets out of it,

you know, like the-the saw blade armbands

and the crotch pieces and stuff.

I think that must have been hard,

playing and walking around with that saw blade,

'cause it was big and it was sharp, too.

-And he was on stiletto boots. -[chuckles]

But he also, you know,

about, uh, a year later, he-he modified

the codpiece and put some explosives in it,

so he could lean back and, from his codpiece,

they would shoot into the audience these fireworks.

Yeah, one night, we just heard a big boom,

and he went down on his knees,

and the thing backfired into his balls.

And I'm sitting back there watching all this shit,

and I'm going, "Wow."

BANE: The fire sign at the Troubadour, uh, dumped

ten gallons of propane in, like, three minutes, man.

It definitely scorched the ceiling.

And the scorch marks are still up there.

Yeah.

Around '82,

there was a big 'surgence of heavy metal bands.

But Ratt, we didn't want that heavy metal image.

Robb and I really did want to have females

in the audience 'cause we'd go see these bands,

and, like Moötley and, you know, W.A.S.P.,

and it was all dudes.

And we were like, "No."

♪ ♪

TAYLOR: There are so many amazing songs from that era.

Um, the one that pops to mind is "Round and Round" by Ratt.

It's one of the most perfect

pop hard rock songs ever written.

And it-it's based around a very simple riff,

but it's complicated to-to play,

'cause if you can't play it right, it doesn't sound right.

Those are the perfect songs to have.

♪ Round and round♪

♪ With love we'll find a way, just give it time...♪

Ratt had a very unique look.

Ratt was aiming for a more female audience,

so they intentionally toned down Moötley's harder vibe

for a lighter, sexier look and sound.

Look at these girls.

-How you girls doing tonight? -[all screaming]

-Yeah! -You know what?

-Check this out. -Open the door!

This is Hollywood as we know it today.

How you girls doing tonight?

You've got this big old car. Look at this thing.

-Well, okay. Let's check it out. -Get in.

I'm gonna go in here just for a minute.

Just for a minute, so check this out. Huh?

[laughs] Did I hook up with any of the Ratt guys?

You know, I'm gonna tell it to you this way.

It's hard to work in a candy store

and not taste the sweets.

One night, I was out in the club,

and Robbin Crosby from Ratt walked up to me

and leaned into my ear and whispered,

"When is it my turn?"

PEARCY: I mean, Robbin and I were like the dynamic duo, you know.

"Ratt-man and Robin," okay?

We wanted another guitar player.

And so, Robbin says, "Well, I know this kid

"named Warren DeMartini.

"He's really good, but he's young,

and we should try him out."

I-- you know, I got-got a phone call from,

I believe it was Stephen, it was either Stephen or Robbin.

"The slot opened up. Do you want to join Ratt?"

I was like... [blows raspberry] I don't, you know...

I'm like, "I'm-I'm enrolled in a JC down here, man.

"I... [chuckles]

"I don't know, m-- well, maybe after the first semester,

or something, you know?"

He's like, "No, man, you'd have to move up tonight,

"because you-- there's a...

"you know, there's a booking at the Troubadour

uh, on Friday."

And I'm like, "I could probably get on the road

"and then tell my mom about this move

from L.A.," not have to have that...

'cause she was, she had gone to the store.

So I, uh, I called him back, I'm like, "Okay, I'm in."

And-and I, and I started just, you know, just packing my amp

and my, and all-- and all my stuff.

And from out of the fog, I can just see these headlights.

And though even I never, ever thought about it before,

I just knew it was her car.

Sure enough, uh, it-it was her,

and she's like, "Why," you know, "Where are you going?

Why are you all, why-why are you sweaty?"

You know. [chuckles]

"Moving to L.A., Mom."

Randy, on behalf of the over half million readers

of Guitar Playermagazine in the U.S.

and in 70 countries throughout the world,

I'd like to present you with the 1981 Best New Talent Award.

-Congratulations. -RHOADS: Thank you.

[applause]

I've got a lot of work to do,

and make-makes you realize there's a lot of responsibility.

And this-this tour, uh, I want to really

get myself together and work harder, you know?

'Cause I-I'm really proud and honored and...

I don't want to stop here, you know?

BIENSTOCK: After leaving Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne,

one of the most notorious rock stars in the world,

was looking for the best new guitar player

to help launch his solo career.

And he quickly landed on Randy Rhoads.

So Randy winds up playing with Ozzy Osbourne,

and he's really only there for a short time.

He's there for the first two records,

uh,Blizzard of Ozz andDiary of a Madman.

But with those two records, Randy produces

some of the most iconic guitar work ever.

♪ ♪

In 1981, Randy helps his friend Rudy Sarzo join the band,

and shortly after, they go on tour.

We had been driving straight from Knoxville, Tennessee,

and where we actually took the bus was

to the Calhoun brothers' depot.

Randy winds up taking sort of a joyride

on the plane that they have there with

the bus driver who's also a pilot.

He invites, uh, Rachel,

Sharon's personal assistant, and he said, um,

"I'm just gonna take it easy, not do any maneuvers."

And now, Randy, he had fear of flying, so Randy goes,

"Oh, you know, if that's what you're gonna do,

just go up and down, I want to go."

And he says, "Rudes, Rudes,

you want to come?" and I said, "Oh, no, no,

"I'm just gonna wait until we get to the hotel,

and I got to get some sleep," so he says, "Okay."

And that was the last time I saw him.

So I'm asleep and I'm awakened by...

...a boom!

You know, it was a-a sound and an impact.

REPORTER: According to police,

the three were on an early-morning joyride

after staying up over 24 hours.

While some members of the Ozzy Osbourne band

slept in their tour bus parked next to the house,

the other three buzzed overhead, circling the bus three times.

On the fourth time, they didn't make it.

And we're there in the middle of nowhere,

not knowing what to do,

realizing that Randy and Rachel just crashed.

And... as it-- as...

as the bodies were burning,

we waited for a couple of hours

for the fire department to arrive.

We're in the middle of nowhere.

We do deeply regret the loss of Randy Rhoads

and Rachel Youngblood.

Uh, we thank the fans of the band for staying with us,

and, uh, the tour will resume shortly.

Uh, Ozzy will make a statement next week, I'm informed.

We went to a local hotel, motel.

I couldn't stay in the room, so I walked down the street.

There was a church, and I said, "Okay, let-let me get some...

some comfort here somehow, some way."

And all of a sudden, this-this person starts...

moaning and screaming in-in such agony.

I-I had to lift my head, see what was going on.

Then I realized it's Ozzy.

He was just sitting there, you know?

And I just left him alone.

I just, I just... got up, and...

It was his pain.

When we laid Randy to rest, we were in the car

traveling to the cemetery,

and Ozzy is...

All h-he would say is, "I promised

"D-Delores, Randy's mom,

"that I was gonna take care of him.

"And, uh...

I brought him back home in a box."

♪ ♪

♪ Sit there thinkin'♪

♪ In your room...♪

So now, you know, I'm back on the Sunset Strip,

and I'm looking around,

and, um, I find this band Dokken.

And I thought "Breaking the Chains"

was this awesome song.

♪ Breaking the chains around you♪

♪ Nobody else can bind you♪

♪ Take a good look around you♪

♪ Now you're breaking the chains...♪

I was working in a very small

distribution company called Greenworld.

And there's a white Bentley pulling up outside my office,

And there's this guy in a bandana getting out of it,

walking into my office, tossing me a record,

putting his feet up on my desk.

That was the first time I met Don Dokken.

I'd already made my "Breakin' the Chains" in Germany.

It was out in Europe only.

I had no record deal in America.

So, I went in there to say,

"Hey, man, you know, I'm trying to

get you guys take my record and put it out."

And Alan worked there.

So, I lived with his record for a while.

He came back into the office

and I told him, "I can't sign you."

And he was apoplectic.

But I looked at him, I said, "Don, how old are you?"

And he said, "I'm 30."

I said, "The very worst thing I can do is

"sign you to this tiny little label.

You need to be on a major label right now."

And Alan introduced me to Don,

and that deal went through.

And the rest, of course, is history.

BIENSTOCK: Don Dokken is

an interesting figure on the Strip

because he's somebody that knows everybody.

He's kind of a mover and shaker.

He helped out a lot of other bands as well.

And the band he probably helped the most was Great White.

♪ ♪

DOKKEN: First time I saw them was at the Troubadour.

That's how I discovered them and produced

their first album with Michael Wagener.

And me and Don became really good friends.

He was instrumental to this band's career.

♪ I'm out on the road and I'm rocking♪

♪ Stick it, stick it...♪

JACK RUSSELL: Clearly, we wouldn't have got signed without him,

'cause he's the one that put us onto Alan.

Don tells me, I need to go and see this band

called Dante Fox, so I go and see them,

and they suck.

He just didn't like the band at first.

He thought, you know, we were just not

his cup of tea, being from England.

And I told Don, "I don't think they're very good."

And he said, "Well, you missed something.

Go and see them again."

So I did,

and they still sucked.

Until the encore,

and they played a version of "No Doctor"

that fucking took the top of my head off.

And at that moment, I went, "Got it."

RUSSELL: He was going to sign us to Greenworld,

and the Hein brothers,

who were the ones that owned the company,

told him no, he didn't want to sign us.

We're like, "Aw, you got to be kidding me."

We're that close, you know?

I go, "Well, what are we going to do now?"

He goes, "Hell, what am I going to do?"

I go, "I know what you're going to do.

You're going to manage us."

Oh, fuck no.

If I'd known anything about fucking management,

I'd never have fucking done it in the first place.

You out of your fucking mind?

But my one way out of it was,

"Jack, I fucking know nothing about management."

And his reply was, "You'll learn."

MARK KENDALL: We couldn't think of a name.

I mean, anybody that's been in a band,

it's the ultimate torture,

trying to think of a name, you know?

So, our bass player came up with this name, Dante Fox.

It was really just out of abandonment

of trying to think of names that we said,

"Okay, that's it. That's good enough for us, you know."

Well, Dante Fox--

I think you might agree with me--

sucks as a name.

Of course, the first thing I'd have to do

as a new manager is change the name of the band.

A car went by, and Kendall was hanging out of

the window of the car, waving at me.

There were two kids to my left,

and one said to the other, "There goes Great White."

Light bulb.

♪ Well, the times are getting hard♪

♪ For you, little girl...♪

ALAN: I said, "Let's change the name."

And, of course, Jack put up a big defense.

He said, "Well, we're going to

lose our following."

I said, "Yes, all 23 of them."

23? Well, I say 500.

He's lying.

♪ I said my, my, my♪

♪ I'm once bitten, twice shy, babe♪

When you talk about indulgent excess,

and you go to the Oxford English Dictionary,

there's an eight by ten of Jack Russell.

Why does Alan think I'm a pain in the ass?

Well, there's a myriad of reasons. Um...

I mean, I'm sure he's told you some.

ALAN: Jack and I used to like to drive the tour bus.

This one night, Jack was driving.

The fucker's high.

Oh, the bus. On Xanax.

Yeah, that was quite a hoot.

I remember, I was sitting there in the front of the bus,

and all of a sudden... [makes crashing noise]

...I crash into the median.

Scraped the whole side of the bus down.

I was up in my bunk, and then I wasn't.

I was on the floor.

And there's Jack, standing there looking goofy.

And I can hear him laughing.

He's going, "Uh-oh, Jackie's in trouble."

The next day, I get up,

and I hear a knock on my room, my door.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

I'm like, "Who the hell is that?"

I open the door, it's Niven,

and he pushes me on my ass.

He goes, "You almost killed me last night.

You almost killed all of us."

I'm like, "Oh, I'm sorry."

[laughs]

What am I going to do, you know?

It's history by now.

That's old news, man. What's going on now?

[chuckles]

And I go down to his room

and I tear his room apart.

I go through all his baggage, all his clothing.

I make him open his mouth.

I cannot find his motherfucking stash.

There's a knock on the door, and this tech kind of

pokes his head in and he goes, "Hey, Niv,

"I don't want to be a snitch or anything,

but did you look under his weave?"

Oh, yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I used to wear a weave, yeah.

And he found it

stuffed up in there. [laughs]

Yeah. Um...

Well, we were together for about maybe

three or four months, possibly.

And so, I'm on my way to work,

and I always stop by this liquor store to

get a Coke and whatever, you know, something to eat.

And I saw in this newsstand,

it said, "Jack Russell,

Whittier-ite, Shoots Live-in Maid."

I knew he lived in Whittier, California,

but I go, it can't be the same guy.

So I go in the phone booth and call his mother,

and she tells me, yep,

he went and did it this time or whatever, so...

I was really into cocaine at one time in my life.

Well, more than one, but this was when

I was really bad because I didn't have any money.

So, I had a couple of recourses,

and one of them was like,

well, I could go in to these coke dealers and rob them.

You know, so I got a friend of mine,

we put on ski masks.

We had a-- He had a gun and a knife.

And we went in and said,

"Give me your coke or I'll blow your head off."

And I remember, the first time we did that,

the guy goes, "Oh, not again."

I had to start ch-- I chuckled to myself, you know?

And, um,

I went to try to do this again,

and we smoked some PCP before we went in.

And, big mistake.

I blacked out and my friend split.

He saw I was, like, too loopy and he bailed.

And I went out and started, uh,

talking to the maid. And, you know,

I don't know why I was.

I mean, obviously I was a little high.

Now, from here,

I don't remember. I just have to tell you

what they read to me in court from what the maid said.

She said, I walked in, came outside.

She was watering the plants, and I held a gun

and I said, "Where's the coke?"

And she says she thought

I was a friend of the guy's playing a joke on her.

She said, "No Coke, just Pepsi.

Go to refrigerator, help yourself."

And I said, "Where's the coke?"

You know? And she finally realized that

I'm not messing around, that I'm really serious.

And she started wrestling with me with a hose.

And the gun went off.

And the coke dealer heard that down the hill,

and he looked up and he saw

this guy with a ski mask and a gun

wrestling with the maid with a garden hose.

Somehow, she gets away.

He runs in the house, gets in the bathroom, locks the door.

She gets away from me in the house,

and she says she gets in the bathroom with him.

And I somehow shot through the door.

And the bullet went through the door,

hit a St. Christopher medallion on her neck,

over her heart, and ricocheted into her shoulder...

...saving her life and mine.

So they sentenced him to eight years.

And I'm going, "Holy God, I got to get a singer now."

This ain't, you know...

Nobody waits eight years, you know.

So, uh,

they ended up cutting it in half,

and then, when he went into this youth authority prison

or whatever, they cut it in half again.

Worked out perfectly.

I mean, I got out of jail, got back with the band.

A year and a half later, we signed

our first record deal.

So the timing on that was absolutely perfect.

Meeting Moötley Cruüe, uh,

I was at Elektra

as the, uh, senior vice president of A&R,

and I had an assistant named Tom Zutaut.

And he said,

"Werman, you have to do this band.

You are the guy to do this band."

They came into my office for a meeting,

and they didn't trust a lot of record label guys.

But Tommy said,

"Listen, if this guy's going to

produce our record,

we really should listen to him."

You'd go in to walk in the studio

and there was a hot tub in there,

so there'd be eight girls in the hot tub

while we're trying to do a record.

You'd have two blow dealers,

one guy over here, one guy over there.

Right? It was... It was just every day...

craziness.

Going to those sessions was like

walking into a giant party.

Everybody was high.

Everybody was-was snorting coke, drinking.

Um, what other drugs? Who knows?

But the music was good.

A lot.

Um, one or two things.

Nope.

[chuckles]

With Moötley Cruüe, they were not

as professional as I would have liked,

but they were good.

Tommy was one of the two best drummers

in all the groups that I did.

He was the driveshaft for the band.

Nikki was the creative one,

but Tommy was the spark.

"Shout at the Devil" was kind of a basic album,

but the fans sure seemed to like it,

and it's still their favorite.

They definitely caused a big stir.

ZUTAUT: So "Shout at the Devil" comes out,

and there was a lot of controversy.

A lot of the religious media were, you know,

"This is Satan. This is the Devil."

I'm a Christian and I do not like the words.

To me, they're all Satan worship, about Hell,

about devils, about satanic.

I don't want anything to do with it.

The reason why we put it right out here

and we said look at this.

There's a pentagram.

Buy why don't you read?

We're telling these, you know, religious fanatics,

read this. "Shout at the Devil."

Doesn't say "Shout with the Devil."

-Yeah. -It's at the Devil.

Uh, you mentioned a lot about this

heavy metal music. Is all of it bad?

No, in fact, there's a real good videotape

out now from the Parents...

Let's see, it's the Parents Music Resource Center.

You can look at that and get some good ideas about

what music is good and what is bad.

DOC McGHEE: Every day,

you have to deal with,

you have a pentagram on the record.

So, people go, "Oh, well, Walmart won't carry that."

Okay, well, then don't sell it at Walmart.

Uh, but, yeah, it definitely had a dark side to it,

but people love that shit.

The problem was we didn't have any airplay.

And we realized that

the way to really get this out there

is we have to get the word of mouth up.

We have to get the band on a great tour.

And then we had, in '84,

we went out with Ozzy.

OSBOURNE: That tour with Moötley Cruüe,

I don't know how any of us survived.

I mean, because, after that tour,

we all ended up in treatment centers.

All of us.

Ozzy was just my hero through life

because everything I loved about Moötley Cruüe,

they looked up to Ozzy for. [laughs] So...

He was like the mafia boss of this thing I loved.

They hung out together. They did everything together.

It was a crazy tour.

And it was...

Yeah, it was, it was pretty crazy.

It was real crazy, actually.

[laughter]

We'd hang with Ozzy, like, after the gigs at the hotel.

So, Ozzy had this crazy idea.

You know, in nice hotels, you know,

you put your shoes out,

you know, have these shined,

and I'll wear nice shoes in the morning.

So, he goes hobbling down the hall,

and he literally pulls his pants down

and he just takes a big shit in these shoes, right?

And just had to laugh about it.

Like, oh, they're gonna wake up, guys are gonna go out

and grab his shoes and just go,

mush.

You know, Ozzy mush.

And so, anyway,

dude was fucking nuts.

I loved Moötley Cruüe so much when I was a kid that,

when they came to my town,

I called every single hotel in the yellow pages

asking to be put through to a room

under the name of their manager, Doc McGhee.

And after calling for hours,

this guy answered the phone,

and I said, "Is that Doc McGhee?"

And he said, "No, this is Doc's brother, Scott."

And Scott McGhee was so impressed

that I had called every hotel in the yellow pages.

He said, "That's awesome.

"How would you like it if I give you backstage passes

for the show tomorrow night?"

And that was how I met Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee.

I mean, I didn't have anything to say to those guys.

They were just my heroes.

I mean, I'm not gonna blame my drug addiction

on Moötley Cruüe and all of the bands of the '80s,

but I could, you know? [laughs]

Because they made it look so cool.

They just made it seem so awesome

to just have sex and do drugs.

McGHEE: It was all about girls.

They would, you know, have girls

after the show and everything else, strippers or whatever.

Then they say, "Hey, come get on the bus with us.

We're going to Charlotte." Oh, cool.

Then they party and everything else all the way to Charlotte.

When they get to Charlotte, the guys would end up taking off

and going in their-their rooms,

leave the girls on the buses.

Then Rich Fisher would have to take them,

walk of shame at 7:00 in the morning

to the Greyhound bus station,

put them on the bus back to where they came from.

-PRODUCER: Oh, geez. -And then we charged the guys.

I go, "So, Vince, you owe $650..." "For what?"

Well, it was Candace and Bambi and Christmas that you...

"I didn't do it. Fucking Tommy fucked her.

I'm telling you, I didn't have anything to do with her."

I go, "No, you're paying for her. I don't care."

When you were out on a Moötley Cruüe tour,

every human depravity came out and was drawn to the band.

There were times when it was really difficult because,

with a band with no moral code or compass,

that would do anything,

you know, I was exposed to a lot of things

that would go against any religion

that you can think of.

And there was a time period where

I felt like I had unleashed

some demonic force into the world.

Nikki escorted me, uh, on the bus,

you know, I'm following him, feeling good.

I'm like, all right. I'm going on the bus with the Cruüe.

And then, Nikki starts biting me.

And I'm like, "What's going on?" You know?

And he's like, "Draw blood."

I'm like, "Draw blood? What?"

He's like, "Yeah, draw blood." And so...

He's biting me. And, like, he wanted me to bite him back.

I'm like, "I'm not doing that."

Yeah. [stammers] Moötley Cruüe had this thing

called the Dark Angels.

Okay? And they would bite you.

They'd bite you in the forehead. Bite you right...

They'd bite you right in the middle of the forehead.

They'd bite you in the arm.

And they didn't bite like... They didn't go...

And you go, "Oh, what the fuck was that?"

So, they bit you, it was like a dog bite.

My brother Scott had about five weeks

you could see the teeth marks on his forehead.

Nikki and Tommy both were trying to bite me, so...

and I wasn't gonna put up with it.

I think it was Nikki first came,

and I grabbed him, and I pulled him down,

and then Tommy jumped on me,

and I pulled him over my shoulder,

and they were both on the ground. I just started

punching the shit out of 'em.

And I punched 'em so many times that I threw up on 'em.

[laughs]

And then, all Tommy said was,

"Dude, you hurled all over me."

[laughs]

They bit a lot of people.

I mean, there was a fight scene in Sweden.

There's 1,500 people

in a ballroom at the Grand Hôtel

in Stockholm, Sweden, to do

Monsters of Rock.

AC/DC, Van Halen, Moötley Cruüe.

All of a sudden, Nikki gets up and walks over

and bites Eddie Van Halen in his shoulder.

And you see Eddie go, "Ow! What the fuck was that?"

And so, Tommy goes over and bites him.

Now, everybody's pissed.

15 minutes later, Vince goes over to bite him.

Eddie grabs Vince by the face, throws him on the table.

They start fighting, and Malcolm from AC/DC

looked at Nikki and said, "You bite me, mate,

and I'll chew your fucking ear off."

And Nikki grabs him by the hair,

slams him against the wall and says, "I'll tear off your head

and shit down your neck, you little midget,"

and throws Malcolm.

Then Tommy and David Lee Roth

are up on the table fucking doing kung fu fighting

or some shit like that.

And David Lee Roth is... Wah!

And fucking Tommy, he's... Wah! [laughs]

All fucking fighting and throwing people over tables.

And then they get thrown out of the hotel.

Then the next morning,

it's like Tommy goes, "Oh, dude, wasn't it a great night?"

I go... [laughing]

I go, "Tommy, we're at dinner with everybody.

We got thrown out of the fucking hotel." He goes,

"That was a shit hotel. I didn't like that hotel."

And then I go, "But you bit Eddie Van Halen."

"Why, did he say something?

"Is he pissed?

Dude, we just bit him because we love him."

I go, "You're fucked up. You don't bite people." [laughs]

Two-thirds of the way through the tour,

we're in New York at Madison Square Garden,

giving Moötley Cruüe their first gold record.

So, that tour, the record went from

100,000 units to half a million in, like,

three or four months.

Literally, almost every kid, after the concert,

the next day went out and bought the record.

And after they bought it,

they told ten friends about it that bought it.

-The music is great. The way they dress. -Moötley Cruüe rocks.

They're cute.

They-They're awesome. You know, they just...

Totally babes.

And then radio started taking notice,

and, you know, they became the hip band.

♪ ♪

I made one of the toughest decisions.

Yeah, I got to say, the toughest decision I've ever made

in my career was actually to leave Ozzy because

Sharon, Ozzy took great care of me,

but I-I couldn't stay.

I leave Ozzy to rejoin Quiet Riot.

And so, Quiet Riot was doing a show,

and this man goes, "Hi, my name is Barry Fey.

I'm the promoter for the US Festival."

And I go, "What's that?"

[cheering]

Well, the US Festival was

Wozniak, who started, uh,

Apple Computers.

He, um, decided to do this festival

out in San Bernardino, which we ended up calling

the dust festival

because it was just in the middle of this dirt ball.

REPORTER: The US Festival features David Bowie, Van Halen,

the Clash, and 22 other groups spread over the three-day event.

Sunday's heavy metal lineup

outsold the other days two to one.

SARZO: Oh, definitely, the US Festival

is the biggest crowd I've ever played for.

350,000. It's a blur.

It's just, like, this massive amount of people. Sea of people.

INTERVIEWER: What are you looking forward to most today?

Uh, seeing...

Getting backstage and seeing Rudy Sarzo.

Quiet Riot was added to the bill a little bit late.

Did you have enough time to rehearse?

-We've been on the tour. -We've been rehearsing on the road for the last six weeks.

-We've been touring with Scorpions. -So, you're ready to go?

What's the first tune you're gonna open up with?

"Danger Zone."

ANNOUNCER: KMET and US Festival '83

want you to welcome Quiet Riot!

[crowd cheering]

REPORTER: Morning gets underway

with Quiet Riot, featuring

Rudy Sarzo, formerly from Ozzy Osborne's band.

They will be followed by Moötley Cruüe.

McGHEE: That was where I think they got the most recognition

out of, was at the US Festival.

You guys are fucking hot.

[cheering]

Everybody got a drink out there?

Well, if you don't, man, why don't you come backstage

and everybody have a drink with me right after the show.

All right!

This song right now is "Shout at the Devil."

So, what I want is everybody's fucking hands up in the air.

And when I saw them live on stage, I was like,

"Holy... Wow."

Blown away.

I mean, the whole crowd, 200, 300,000 kids

singing, you know, "Shout at the Devil,"

and everyone's just chanting.

It was awesome because it was

these four guys

that were just larger than life.

You know, you just knew that

it wasn't gonna go away.

Like, the '80s was there.

It just all came together.

And that's why, like, today, 40 years later,

we're still reminiscing and talking about it.

And it's the strong... To me,

it's the strongest decade

of rock and roll

that will be remembered

infinitely-- and infamously, too.

Moötley Cruüe became huge after that,

and so did Quiet Riot,

whose albumMetal Health became the first

hard rock record to ever reach

number one on the Billboard charts.

♪ Cum on feel the noize♪

♪ Girls rock your boys...♪

BEAUJOUR: "Cum on Feel the Noize" leads to Quiet Riot

breaking the doors open

for everyone because that song

becomes an enormous hit.

"Cum on Feel the Noize" had...

Even though Quiet Riot was a metal band,

it had a poppier side to it.

It was the first real taste of pop metal.

It was gonna expand into people who think

metal music was not for them

'cause it was just a great anthemic song.

Still is.

I said this album would never get in the top ten.

It was too heavy metal, and it went to number one.

So what, you know, what do I know?

Heavy metal was very popular in the early '70s.

And then it sort of lost its momentum,

and this whole new wave nonsense came into vogue,

and I think we've broken it open

for whoever the next guy's gonna be.

Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org

♪