All language subtitles for Nothin.But.A.Good.Time.The.Uncensored.Story.of.80s.Hair.Metal.S01E02.1080p.HEVC.x265-MeGusta[EZTVx.to]_English (SDH)_track2_[eng]

♪ MTV.♪

L.A. was a magnet,
Hollywood was a magnet,

bringing everybody in.

And then they were a big part

of the second half of
the Sunset Strip bands.

FEMALE REPORTER:
What do you think of
the whole heavy metal scene

-in L.A. right now?
-It's happening.

There's so many bands
in L.A. now.

Everybody's coming out to
L.A. to get signed.

Look at Guns N' Roses,
look at Poison.

They come out here, they get
signed, they're millionaires.

♪ Don't need nothin'
but a good time♪

♪ How can I resist?♪

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

♪ And it don't
get better than this.♪

It don't get better, baby.

[audience applauding]

Here they are, in person,
the explosive Moötley Cruüe!

["Looks That Kill"
by Moötley Cruüe plays]

RICHARD BIENSTOCK:
Early '80s hard rock bands
like Moötley Cruüe

were starting to
become so famous

that they were outgrowing
the local L.A. scene.

While they were out on
big national tours,

it left an opening for new bands
to come to Hollywood

and try to make it
on the Sunset Strip.

And you just have
this massive influx

from all over the country,
and that's really

when the Strip

takes off and
it's just like a carnival.

STEVIE RACHELLE:
It was like this
outdoor party on the street.

You know, you had four
or five venues:

the Whisky, you had the Roxy,

the Rainbow, you had Gazzarri's

and the Troubadour.
All this stuff

within, you know,
a half a square mile area.

COREY TAYLOR:
There's the early era,
which was a little edgier.

But then there was the mid-'80s,

where everybody kind of
leaned into the glam.

♪ When it gets hot♪

♪ You're freezing♪

♪ Cold blood is
all you bleed...♪

TAYLOR: You know?
Like, it was party music.

They wanted every concert
to be Saturday night.

They wanted everything to
feel like it was

the best time of your life.

And all of the '80s glam bands

all had that vibe to it.

RIKI RACHTMAN:
Poison was the band
that hit it first

of our scene.

Like, they're after Moötley Cruüe

and after Ratt
and after Great White.

Poison was after that,
and Poison was the first one

to start to hit it big.

♪ ♪

BRET MICHAELS:
We grew up in
Central Pennsylvania.

And I met Rikki, who's,
you know, Rikki Rockett,

who's, like, my best buddy.

So Rikki and I form a band,

and we meet Bobby,
who was a lot like me.

He's just
a straightforward rock player.

One of the most important
and fun evenings of your life

is picking out what's going to
be the name of your band, right?

So we went through
all these different names.

So then, finally,
it hit us. This is it.

We're going to be Paris.

There was some thought
put into this.

No one knew us outside of
the neighborhood of Webercroft

that we lived in,
but in our mind,

if we called our band Paris,

they would think we were
internationally famous.

We used to do shows with them

when they were called Paris,
in the old days, and, uh...

You know, starting out,

I didn't think,
musically, they were very good.

We went into the dressing room
and they started playing.

We had to stay in there.

So we weren't watching them,
we were just hearing them.

And we were like, "Oh, man,
these guys. I don't know."

And then we'd hear the crowd,

and we'd go,
"What is going on out there?"

[laughs]
So we'd open the door and look

and the girls,
it would be like The Beatles.

We started producing
our own shows.

We'd rent a VFW hall,

Fishing Creek
community building,

to be exact.

Everybody showed up
and it was like

we were throwing
the ultimate backyard party.

And then we hit the wall.

No record deal.

So, now came our big move

and I said, "Guys, we are going
to go out to Los Angeles."

So, on our trip
across the country,

we came up with the name Poison.
It's badass,

it sounds rock and roll.

It was just "Poison"
from that time on.

When we came out to L.A.,
we were like,

we're not going to give up,

but L.A. is overwhelming.

There is a lot of bands here.

There had to be 10,000,
12,000 rock bands.

So, here we are,
living behind a dry cleaner.

We have no money.

Matt Smith, our first guitar
player, one of our best friends,

his girlfriend Laura,
she's pregnant.

He said, "Look, we're not
making any money.

"We're starving.

I need to tell you guys this.
I'm going to go home."

Heartbreaking for us
because we're like,

we're just starting to vibe.

All the labels are starting to
become interested.

So then,
we put up for auditions.

The first one was Slash.

So, Slash comes.
This guy could play guitar.

Vibey, looked cool.

C.C. then comes,

didn't bother
to learn any of our songs.

He goes, "Ah, guys,

I got this other one."
♪ Na-na-na♪

And he's playing
all these riffs.

So, our first rehearsal,

we, um, stumbled through it.

I said, "My vote's for Slash,"

which may have inevitably caused

the rift between C.C. and I

and many a fistfight later.

But Rikki and Bobby are like,

"Look, C.C.'s a good songwriter.
We heard some of his riffs."

I said, "You're right."

He is completely awesome
guitar player,

awesome songwriter.

And it just worked.

♪ ♪

-Take a flyer tonight,
there, boys and girls.
-All right.

RACHELLE:
Walking down Sunset Strip,

every band
was handing out a flyer.

"This is our band.
Come and see us."

A lot of the bands
would staple them

on the telephone poles
or glue them to

anywhere there was a surface.

You know, for a show,
most bands would make

hundreds, maybe a few thousand,

but I know that we would make

5,000,

sometimes 10,000
or more flyers for a show.

But the big thing that every
flyer needed was a slogan.

You needed something
to stand out.

We had one that said,
"Used, abused and cumfused,"

and Warrant used "Melts in
your mouth, not in your hands."

And, of course,

that's, what, an M&M slogan,

but it was used in a sexual
connotation that, you know,

my cock is going to
melt in your mouth,

not my-- not your hand,
you know?

We were relentless
at putting flyers out.

Everyone else had

the white paper
or canary yellow.

Those were the hot flyers.

We didn't have
that kind of money.

Sir Speedy had this green paper
they could not get rid of.

They go, "If you all want them,

we'll give you the whole skid."

What an incredible blessing.

Every flyer was poison green.

Every other flyer on
those posts was all white.

It ended up being our thing,

and every time
people would see those,

they knew it was a Poison show.

Everywhere you went,
there was Poison flyers.

Construction sites, phone poles,

bathrooms on the mirror,
they were everywhere.

They weren't
the first people to flyer,

but they started
the massive flyering, I believe.

ROXY PETRUCCI: You'd just shower
the area with posters,

and you'd plaster them over
somebody else's poster

because you're playing, right?

And we would see Poison,
and we'd take our poster

and put it over Poison's
'cause we're playing that night.

It was an absolute
flyer war in Los Angeles.

You know, we would just
staple that stuff up, roll.

You'd come back an hour later,
they stapled over ours.

I'm like, "Oh, hell no."
Boom, boom, boom, back.

We would do the last shift
at, like, 4:00 in the morning,

so we knew ours
were going to remain.

I was passing out flyers
like everybody did,

and at the end of the night,

you'd just
wind up at the Rainbow.

I mean, it was always the place
that stayed open latest.

It was kind of like
the after party

for all of the flyering
that you did.

MICHAELS:
The Rainbow Bar and Grill

was the centerpiece.
This was the mothership.

They've always
taken care of, like,

musicians in that parking lot.

You know, they'd be like, "Hey,

someone paid for a pizza."

They would literally walk it out

and say, "Anyone needs--"

There'd be like, 40 of us

starving musicians
grabbing a slice of pizza.

The Rainbow was the place
because you could

-get two drinks and you could--
-Oh, yeah.

And there was food,
so that was the key.

It was getting to get
some food somehow,

because, I mean, really,
we were dead broke, man.

Being at the Rainbow

is kind of like
being at the zoo.

You sit at a booth
and people just,

they walk around in circles,
just looking to see

who's at the seats.

You'd go to the Rainbow
and you'd see

Lemmy hanging out.
You'd see, uh,

Quiet Riot. Everybody was there.

Anybody who was anybody
was there.

DON DOKKEN:
Damn David Lee Roth,

he always hogged the bathrooms.

You know, I want to
go out and pee

at the Rainbow,
and the door's locked.

And I'm like,
I didn't even have to ask.

"David, get your ass
out of there."

'Cause, you know, he's in there
getting a blowjob.

It was just

debauchery.

Girls giving blowjobs
under the table,

and people are
chopping coke on the tables,

and the table's chopped up.

It was just
blow, blow, blow, blow.

There's a hierarchy at
the Rainbow Bar and Grill.

So, you start on
the other side of the street,

'cause it was always packed.

Then when
you're flyered up enough

and you started to become

a little bit bigger
in Los Angeles,

you got into
the main parking lot,

and when you went in, you know,
you start at the front,

you're not able to
go to the back booth,

table six, just yet.

But as the popularity
of your record,

uh, got bigger, you know,

you sold records, you're on
the cover of some magazines,

you got to have your own booth.
It was awesome.

♪ ♪

I think it was
Poison's first album,

Look What the Cat Dragged In,

which was alarming

because they actually looked

really hot on the cover.

MICHAELS:
So, the album cover,

we have a very limited budget,

so we shot it
with a friend of ours.

Like, literally,
that first album cover is

in his, like,
parents' living room,

and he just did
close-ups of our face.

They put
the four of them in there.

There was people that loved it,

there was people that hated it.

Back then, getting on MTV

at that point, you had made it.

And we did "Talk Dirty to Me."

we put together probably
about five, six grand.

You know,
altogether, everything.

Sold everything we had,

put it all in
shooting that video,

and boom, it exploded.

All of a sudden,
MTV's hotlines blow up.

Cat Dragged In was
the first independent record

to sell over three and a half,

I think, four million copies.
Unheard of.

♪ You know, I never♪

♪ I never seen you
look so good♪

♪ You never act
the way you should♪

The great thing with Poison
is we held our publishing,

our record label,
touring, our merchandise.

That was
the entrepreneurial side of us.

We bet on ourselves.

And when it paid off,
it was amazing.

All of a sudden,
we're opening for Ratt,

we're playing arenas,
amphitheaters,

and it was just, it was awesome.

♪ ...cellar door and, baby♪

♪ Talk dirty to me.♪

So, with Poison, there's

a lot more pop,

there's a lot more
bright colors.

There's Silly String
at their shows,

and there's balloons,
and they're really making it

more of a happy,
celebratory party.

They've earned their place
in musical history.

No matter how many of
these pretentious fucks

want to deride them
and tear them down,

it's like, fuck you, man.

You write a fucking
more fucking fun song

than "Talk Dirty to Me,"

and then we'll talk.

Until then, shove your head
back up your fucking ass.

♪ Ooh, yeah.♪

KRIM: In a lot of ways,
the rise of MTV

coincided with the rise
of '80s hard rock.

The network began in 1981,
the same year

Moötley Cruüe formed,
and early days of MTV

were everything
you would want them to be.

It was brand-new.
It was exciting.

I love the fact that I was
always seeing things that

you weren't getting
anywhere else,

and I think that's obviously

what allowed MTV
to make its mark

'cause, at the time,
MTV was still

24 hours of music videos.

FULL METAL JACKIE: Videos have
evolved so much over the years,

but at that time,
they had to be super literal.

It's like Dokken
"Breaking the Chains."

Like, literally breaking chains.

We're like, yes!

Breaking the chains.

I'm chained up.
Then they cut to me.

I'm in a kimona laying on a bed,
and I break the chains.

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

And then the director
arbitrarily

had a girlfriend,
and he inserted

her face in the video.

We didn't know about it.
You know, I said,

"I love you, I love you,
and I'll come back."

She goes, "I'll come back."

♪ Said she loves me♪

♪ She'll come back♪

♪ She wants to try...♪

I look back,
and it's embarrassing.

And they played it
every 35 minutes.

But the truth was,
when-when MTV came out,

they didn't have
a lot of content.

Well, when you grew up in Iowa,

there was nothing there.

So, I would come home
from school, and I'd put on MTV,

and I would just watch
hours of music.

STEPHEN PEARCY:
The minute you got that video,

you were gonna have
a built-in audience right away,

and it helped extremely.

I think what it did to the music
was it made people

think visually about music now.

You know, it's like,
"What will the video look like?"

It definitely made it
so if you had a face for radio,

you couldn't
make a living anymore.

MTV killed the ugly rock star.

Not intentionally,

but, um, bands like Poison
absolutely benefited from that.

They were good-looking guys,

and they were very MTV-friendly.

FULL METAL JACKIE:
White Lion was one
of my favorite hair bands.

And, you know, I could pretend

that Mike Tramp being hot
at that time wasn't a reason,

but, like, we're being real.

I had a giant poster--

you remember those
door-sized posters?--

of Mike Tramp on my closet door.

It was like he was standing
in my closet.

[laughs]

♪ Wait♪

♪ I never had a chance
to love you...♪

People can kiss my ass.

White Lion's fucking awesome
and... for real.

Like, I have gotten
in so many arguments

with people about this
'cause some of their songs

are so fucking sticky.

It's junk food music
'cause the melodies are so good,

you gain weight
listening to them.

♪ Wait, wait♪

♪ I never had a chance
to love you...♪

MIKE TRAMP:
On MTV,

they asked us to overdo
ourselves in the video.

More hair, more clothes,

tighter pants,
and stuff like that.

The visual
definitely overpowered

the songs and the musicality.

♪ No, I never had a chance
to love you.♪

We wouldn't be here
if it wasn't for MTV, you know?

Um, theHysteria album
came out.

It actually tanked.

It hadn't made the money back
and all of this.

And then we released the video
for "Pour Some Sugar on Me,"

and, all of a sudden,
this song's getting requested

in-in Florida,
all over the place,

and we're like, "That's weird."

♪ Pour some sugar on me♪

♪ Ooh, in the name of love...♪

COLLEN:
So, the girls in all
the Florida strip bars

were doing pole dancing
to "Pour Some Sugar on Me."

That's really how
that song happened.

Went to number one after this.

And the strip club thing,
I mean, bless-bless the girls

for dancing to it. It, um,

it made it work for us,
you know?

In hair metal,
you had to have the hot girl,

and she was probably getting,

she was getting rained on
or something.

There were always,
there was some sort of moisture

going on, some sort
of precipitation.

Um, it's cringeworthy,

and, you know, people took it
to different levels.

And, at the time,
you know, people thought

it was sexy, you know, having
the lead singer's girlfriend

sprawled out
on the hood of a car.

But I think there's a couple
that really put it over the top.

♪ She's my cherry pie♪

♪ Cool drink of water,
such a sweet surprise♪

♪ Tastes so good,
makes a grown man cry♪

♪ Sweet cherry pie, yeah...♪

SWEET:
Warrant was all about having fun
without hurting anybody.

I know that we didn't see it

as a misogynistic video,

although, it was in hindsight.

Well, Warrant "Cherry Pie"
had Bobbie Brown,

the star of the video,

getting hosed down by the band

with a fire hose and having

a, uh, triangular piece
of cherry pie

land right in her crotch.

I don't even know if that
got flagged at the time.

Objectifying women
kind of became the rule.

You look back on it now,
and you're like,

"How did we let them
get away with that?"

The amount of sex
that was going on

in my life was insane.

I could be at the Whisky,
walk upstairs,

and there'd just be
a girl or two, just like,

"Are you going to the bathroom?"

Like, yeah.
"Can we go with you?" Yeah.

And it's like...
That was normal.

You know?
And it became so normal

that it was like,
"No, I got to piss.

No, don't come in the bathroom."

You know? It's like,
you know, whatever.

And that leads to such
a skewed point of view.

A lot of these guys
came from the Midwest,

and they came out here
with no place to stay.

And these women
would flock to them,

and they would do anything
to be with them.

So, these women would feed them,

they would take them home,

or they'd take them
and get them an apartment.

I mean, I even paid rent
for a couple of them.

It was such a sexist, um,

environment.

The guys, they really did
look down on women

during that time.

And-and the freaky thing
about it

is that the girls
went along with it,

I have to say.

It was a very
male-dominated scene.

So, in a lot of ways,
the women of the scene,

like Lita Ford,

like Femme Fatale,

Vixen, they were

kind of stuck having to work
six times as hard.

Now, this next group
is some hot girls

and gals that wear leather

and they play metal music,

and let's bring them on, Vixen!

[crowd cheering]

["Edge of a Broken Heart"
by Vixen playing]

♪ I can't believe
I could have been so blind♪

♪ But love is strange♪

PETRUCCI:
When I joined Vixen,

they wanted
a harder edge drummer,

and they sent me a demo,
and I listened to it,

and I was like,
"Wow, it sounds really good."

♪ I've been living on the edge♪

♪ Of a broken heart♪

♪ I don't want to fall♪

♪ I don't want to crawl...♪

PETRUCCI:
I wanted to play so hard

that my hands would bleed,
and they did.

I would have blood
on my snare all the time.

I just thought,
the harder I hit,

the more they were gonna
take me seriously.

And the record companies
just shied away.

They were like, "Well,
we already have a girl band."

Like, they were allowed one
or there was, like, a quota

or something, and we thought,
"That's ridiculous."

A good band is a good band.

We had some good songs,
you know?

But they did, you know,
they would say some stupid shit.

I remember, one time,
I was in the Rainbow,

and I was talking to Lemmy,

and I'm not gonna say
who it was,

but he came up,
and he says, "You know,

you're really good for a girl."

And I was just like... [sighs]

You know,
it's a backhanded compliment.

And-and he walked,
I said, "Well, thank you."

And he walked away.

And then Lemmy says to me,

"You know, next time
somebody says that to you,

just say, suck my dick."

And I said, "Perfect."

So, the next guy
that said that to me,

-I just said, "Suck my dick."
-[laughter]

PETRUCCI: Oh, yeah.
We had plenty of guys

that came around, too,
and they were, actually,

more shy than anything.

Groupie girls
are more aggressive.

The guys weren't like that.
They were like,

"Oh, can I have your autograph?
Can I have a hug?"

But, uh, pretty innocent.

Although, with Madam X,
that's a different story.

Our fans,
they were pretty outrageous.

One guy just took it out,
laid it out on stage,

and he's standing there,
and my sister walks over.

She wore these big stilettos, so

she went over there, and she...

foot on it and just smashed it.

He loved--
He was, like, into it.

Vixen's, like, the standout,

but I don't think
that girls were given

the opportunity to act tough
and be taken seriously.

The world was not ready
for that at that time.

♪ ♪

You got the new LP here.
It is called Theatre of Pain,

and you've got a new video

you were just telling me.

Which one have you
just finished?

"Home Sweet Home,"
the ballad of the album.

INTERVIEWER:
It's a ballad?

How do you feel
about releasing a ballad?

Is that, uh, in keeping with

what people expect
from you guys?

If you can expect
something from us,

-we'll probably not do it.
-Yeah. [laughs]

Theatre of Painwas
a very tough record to do.

You know, on the road,
Moötley Cruüe,

they partied hard,

and there was stress
and there was pressure.

The only saving grace, really,
I think, was "Home Sweet Home."

Tommy just sat down
at the piano and

started playing it
right in the studio.

And who would've thought
that that was... that would

be a huge hit for Moötley Cruüe.

It was a huge hit.

"Home Sweet Home"? Yeah.

Power ballads were-were
a big deal for a lot of artists,

but particularly
for the-the hair metal artists

because that was the way
they got radio traction.

There was a sudden genre
that happened.

It was, like, these bold,
powerful chords,

slow strumming
with meaningful vocals

that typically
would start off soft

and get louder and louder.

Then they'd be
really forceful at the end,

and it wasn't really rocking,

it was kind of like rolling.

The formula was,

you release a rock song

and then you release a ballad,

and everybody buys your record
because of the ballad

and then gets...
listens to the rock song.

Record companies
would obviously want to get

more bang for their buck.

So, if their band's got
a potential for a ballad,

and it can tap into
another audience, you know,

that was the format, and
it shows you're not just, like,

one-trick pony, you got some
other shit going on as well.

I don't mind the power ballad.

I like to have a few
to choose from,

which is why Warrant-- sometimes
we'd put three on an album.

[laughs] It was, like,

who doesn't love power ballads?

♪ Heaven isn't too far away♪

♪ Closer to it every day♪

♪ No matter what♪

♪ Your friends might say...♪

A power battle
will get a chick every time,

you know, and it sells.

And when you fill
an arena up with girls,

the guys are coming.

And bands that had
those power ballads,

dude, you know, they banked.

MICHAELS:
When you're writing a song,
I don't know it's a hit.

Like, when I was writing
"Every Rose Has Its Thorn,"

I didn't ever once think,
"This is a hit song."

What I thought is, "I'm in pain.
I have a broken heart."

I wrote this sitting in the back
of a Minnie Winnebago.

♪ We both lie silently still♪

♪ In the dead of the night...♪

I had brought my guitar
to the rehearsal,

and Bret said, "I have this song
I'd like you to hear."

And he took it and he played it,

and-and I... That was the...

probably the only time
in-in my life

when I heard a song once,
and I said, "Oh, boy,"

and I knew that, uh,
we would have a hit

with-with "Every Rose."

♪ That's why they say
every rose♪

♪ Has its thorn...♪

TAYLOR: The power ballad
became a big thing.

That became how you tapped into
your romantic side, you know.

And as a guy who could
play guitar and sing,

it became
how you could talk to chicks.

[laughs]

So it was just easier.

It's like, listen, I can
sit here and babble at you,

or I can play "Every Rose
Has Its Thorn" for you

and let you make
your own conclusions.

-[crowd cheering]
-Yeah.

BIENSTOCK:
Poison ushered in a fun era

of pop rock and power ballads,

but the music
of the Sunset Strip

was about to get
a little grittier.

And that's thanks to
an underground band

that never made it big,

even though their influence
was massive.

["Boulevard of Broken Dreams"
by Hanoi Rocks playing]

♪ ♪

BILLY ROWE:
Hanoi Rocks was
a huge influence.

It was the one band
that we all just kind of

just were wowed over.

♪ All these broken dreams♪

-♪ Have made me see...♪
-They had the look,

they had the sound,
they were great songs.

Yeah, I'm a huge fan.
Hanoi Rocks, yeah.

Just saw that
Oriental Beat cover,

and I was like, "Wow, these guys
look fucking great, man."

I thought Michael Monroe
looked amazing.

He was so cool.

When you saw Michael Monroe,
who was like

a handsome fella
with tattoos,

it was like, "wow."

You want to feel invisible?
Stand next to that guy.

♪ Do I have to sell myself
somewhere?♪

♪ On the boulevard
of broken dreams...♪

MICHAEL MONROE:
I was born in Helsinki, Finland,

and I decided
"I'm gonna be a rock singer"

when I was eight years old,
so...

I left home when I was 17,
and left out to the world

and started a band
called Hanoi Rocks.

In Finland,
the atmosphere really,

I must say,
was in the late '70s,

people are very closed-minded

and they were like, "Who do
these guys think they are?"

We came out wearing makeup
and dressing up for the show,

and it was, uh, shocking
to a lot of people here.

But then, uh, we were, uh...

We became one of
the biggest bands in Finland.

People appreciated us, you know,
by-by '84, and, uh,

that was really something

'cause, uh, we really changed
people's attitudes,

and people had to become
more open-minded

and lighten up a bit.

We had this drummer, Razzle,

this English guy who was
determined to be our drummer.

He used to come to our shows,

some of the first shows
we played in London.

He came up to me and he said,
"Where's your drummer?"

"I don't know.
Someone around here."

He goes, "I'll break
his fucking... fucking legs."

You know, "Your band is great,
um, you know,

"but you need me as a drummer.

You know,
your drummer is wrong."

I was like... [chuckles]

He was determined
to be our drummer.

Then we called him
and we auditioned him.

And, uh, the way
he was playing and stuff, uh,

technically, he wasn't that
great, but we figured, you know,

he had such a great attitude
and a great style

that, you know,
he-he'll be fine.

So, when he joined the band,

we got signed worldwide
to CBS in, uh, 1984,

and we were building up
to be a big name,

and, uh, we probably
could've been a really...

You know, uh, make it
in the world and, uh, stuff,

but, uh, fate had other plans.

REPORTER: The lead singer
of the heavy metal band

Moötley Cruüe was in court today.

He was ordered to begin
serving a 30-day jail sentence

for manslaughter
and drunk driving.

Moötley had a party, you know,
with the Hanoi Rocks guys.

And Vince decided
to take Razzle for a ride

to go down to get beer.

And so when he went
over the hill,

he lost control

and hit a car

with two kids in it

and crippled them,
and Razzle died.

MONROE:
I called my mom just to say
that it was Razzle,

and, uh...

She cried
'cause she-she remembered him.

You know...

She remembered him, uh,
coming over to, uh, you know,

to have a little--
She made this, uh...

...this, uh, this cranberry
kind of porridge

that they make in Finland,
that's, uh... [stammers]

He-he really loved it.

It's so sad,

but it was an accident.
You know, what can you do?

And so, um,
but that-that's what happened.

And that's when...

Then-then in the end,
you know,

I didn't want to continue
with Hanoi,

uh, the way it was going.

Uh, there was a bunch of drugs
involved and stuff,

and I was like, hmm.

It wasn't the same anymore,
and...

So that was the end of...
end of Hanoi.

I believe that bands
like Guns N' Roses and Jetboy

and Aster and all the--
all of us, Poison,

really picked up the pieces
from-from that band

of part of what could've been
their success.

I don't think there would be
a Guns N' Roses

without Hanoi Rocks,
I really don't.

If you look at Izzy Stradlin

in any of
the Guns N' Roses videos,

you know what Hanoi Rocks
looked like.

The creepers, the tight jeans.

It's the same thing.

Certainly Izzy brought that
to L.A.

Izzy was in Hollywood Rose,
and that was named after Axl.

They grew up together
in Lafayette, Indiana.

They were best friends.

But Hollywood Rose was
Izzy's vision.

Like, you know,
kind of this, like,

high-energy Hanoi Rocks
kind of thing,

and that turned
into Guns N' Roses.

And that was such a...

you know, kind of
a stressful time for me.

[laughs]

♪ ♪

I met Slash in 1976

at Third Street
Elementary School

when I was in the fifth grade.

And, uh, he lived a block away.

I didn't even know it,
literally one block away.

So we became really good
friends, we carpooled.

Not much later,
we started riding BMX together,

and we were just
causing trouble, riding bikes,

that kind of stuff.

Then we lost touch
for about a year,

and then, uh,
we kind of met back up again.

I said, "So, what's going on?"
He says, "I'm in a band."

"So, what instrument you play?"
He said, "Guitar."

I knew that something was
gonna be good there.

He had the right tone.
He had the right sound.

And the notes he was picking
just, you know,

they give you goosebumps.

And we went to Bancroft and
Fairfax High School together.

You know, walked to school
talking about like,

you know, "Hey, did you hear
the new Rush record?"

Like, "Yeah, it's fucking
killer," you know.

And he had a little jam band,
and I had my band.

And this is gonna sound
really egotistical for sure,

but Slash and I,

we knew that
we were the best guitarists

in the school,
you know what I mean?

BIENSTOCK:
Tracii and Slash
would continue to be

in different bands
throughout their teens.

You have, um,
Slash and Steven Adler

playing together
in Road Crew.

And Tracii started L.A. Guns
with a little help

from his friend and roommate,
Izzy Stradlin.

GUNS:
The first gig
that L.A. Guns did was

with Hollywood Rose and Poison,
and it was their first gig.

They had just come in
from Pennsylvania,

and that was the first day
I heard Axl sing.

And I look at Izzy,
I go, "Holy shit."

He goes, "I told you, man."

Like, I go, "Whoa. Okay."

So there's Axl wailing.
It was like, oh, my God.

The voice is thick as a house.

It wasn't just screaming,
you know.

It was just like so passionate
and, you know, powerful.

CANTER:
Hollywood Rose needed
a guitar player,

so Slash joined.

But after three months,
it fell apart,

and Axl immediately joins
L.A. Guns.

GUNS:
Axl ended up singing
in L.A. Guns,

and it didn't take long.

Like, "Wait a minute,
wait, wait. Let's just...

let's change the name
of the band to Guns N' Rose.

You know, like that,

and somehow it turned
into Guns N' Roses that night.

The name Guns N' Roses
came about

from Tracii Guns and Axl Rose.

And I-I said, "Well,
let's call it Guns N' Roses."

Call Izzy
first thing in the morning.

"Hey, do you want to
come play with us?"

And he's like,
"Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah."

[stammers] And I told him, I go,

"We're gonna call the band
Guns N' Roses."

He's like, "Oh, that's cool."

[chuckles] You know,
like in a very typical Izzy.

Like, "Oh, that's exciting."

All of a sudden, like,
our shows are selling out,

but now it's getting real,
now it's getting stressful.

Interpersonal relationships
in the band are falling apart,

and drugs are coming into play.

And, you know,
Izzy was researching heroin.

Axl was dabbling in ecstasy
before it was even a thing.

Duff was clearly an alcoholic
already.

You know, things like that.

Steven Adler was in the band
now.

And, you know,
Steve would kind of

do whatever everybody else did.

They were maturing
faster than I was,

and I wasn't ready for that.

I still had braces on,
if that gives you any indication

of the difference in maturity.

It got too serious for me.

You know, it got to the point
where I was just like,

"I feel like I'm gonna die,

so I probably shouldn't be
in this band."

And...

in the end, it was the right
choice for me personally.

Uh, but it was wild
watching that rise.

It's like, oof, like, okay,

I knew this was gonna be big,
but really?

[laughs]:
Like, this is the biggest
fucking rock and roll band

in the world, you know.

After a while,
I felt really grateful

that I was able to
leave Guns N' Roses,

reform L.A. Guns
and then still have success,

because then
we have "Ballad of Jayne,"

which is our biggest hit.

♪ What a shame♪

♪ What happened to Jayne...♪

That happened
because it had to happen.

You know what I mean?

I'm not a spiritual guy,

but there's some weird energy
that goes around this planet

that puts things together
and pulls them apart.

Axl and Izzy want Slash
to join Guns N' Roses

because Tracii is out,

and they have a gig booked
at the Troubadour

the following Thursday.

Of course Slash joins
Guns N' Roses.

They do this gig at
the Troubadour, and it worked.

There were four people there,
and it went great.

We were terrible, but
even though we were terrible,

we had this magic where...
we couldn't do no wrong.

So, now they go off to Seattle.

Duff is from Seattle,
and Duff booked this gig.

They threw their equipment
in this car.

They're heading
up the Grapevine,

and sure enough,
the transmission dies.

It's a long way to go.

Now they're hitchhiking.

They didn't have any money.

And they ended up stealing
onions and carrots

from farms to survive, and...

But they did make it
to that gig.

They played the gig,
and now...

they show up at Canter's

for a good meal,
'cause they haven't had

a good meal in, like, a week.

And something changed.

Because they suffered together,

they're now blood brothers
from that suffering.

So if you look at that picture

and you look
on the look on their faces,

that's a band
to be reckoned with.

ZUTAUT:
At this point,
I work at Geffen Records.

And I'm driving
down Sunset Strip,

and I see a poster
on a telephone pole,

and it says: Guns N' Roses.

I don't know what it is,

but it's these two pistols

with roses wrapped around them.

And he gets out of his car
at a red light, pulls it off,

gives it to his secretary,
"Make sure I'm at this gig."

ZUTUAT:
I go to the Troubadour,

and the minute
they hit the stage,

the whole room
was electric shocked.

And it was the loudest gig
in a club I have ever heard.

It was so loud,

smokers literally
pulled cigarettes

out of their packs,
stuffed them in their ears.

But it was unbelievable.

They went into
"Welcome to the Jungle."

By the time they hit
"Mr. Brownstone,"

I saw everything
I needed to see.

And I went to David Geffen,

and I said,
"Look, David," I said,

"A band's coming
to meet me today,

"and we have to sign 'em
immediately,

or it's gonna cost us
triple the money."

So the band show up at 4:00.

Axl looks at me,
and I'm not kidding,

he goes, "I want $75,000

"in cash by Friday at 6:00 p.m.

"If you have the money,

we have a deal."

I'm like, you know,
come back at 6:00 on Friday,

and I will have the money.

That's a lot of money
for someone that never

has more than five bucks
in their pocket.

And, you know, the money went
for, believe it or not,

equipment, clothes, tattoos
and, of course, drugs.

Now, after two weeks, they
had no more money. [chuckles]

And they want to go in
and record.

ZUTAUT:
How do you take these
five walking balls of chaos

and get them focused enough
to make a record?

They were flat-ass broke,
didn't have a penny,

couldn't pay rent,
had no place to live.

So, we moved them into a house

on the Cecil B. DeMille estate,

and, um, there
they could go crazy.

But they went too crazy there.

They call it, um, Hell House.

And the band had
ripped all the toilets off,

and they were-- they were
shitting in the sink,

and it was
an unbelievable junkie den.

So, we're a year after signing,
and we're not even

yet ready to make a record.

That's when everything
started going off the track.

When they were that close
from getting dropped by Geffen,

they were that close
from going to jail,

they were that close from,
to dying.

They were getting evicted.

Everything was going wrong

and no new music was coming out.

In talking to David Geffen,
he was like,

"You got to find 'em a manager."

And so every manager,
I called Bernstein and Mensch,

and, you know, I called Doc,
I called everybody,

and nobody wanted to do it.

Well, Tommy came to me,
and he said,

"I've signed this band,
and I'm looking for management."

At which point I said,

"You're out of your
ever-loving fucking mind.

"I've done some research
on this band.

"They're a fucking disaster.

"And I'm willing to bet you
that their latest disaster

"is probably occurring
right now.

"And the next phone call
you're going to get

is from some calamity
that they're responsible for."

What I did not know,

in September of 1986,

when I signed a contract
to work with them,

was at that point,
Eddie Rosenblatt

looked at Tom Zutaut and said,
"He's got three months.

"If he doesn't make
this look like a viable project

in three months, they're done."

NIVEN:
Guns N' Roses was a mess.

They'd rented them a house
up in the Hills.

And I rode my bike up there,
and the first thing I saw

was a broken toilet
by the front door.

And I went, oh,
that's an interesting sign

from the universe.

It was supposed to be
a band meet,

and there were two there.

It was Izzy and Slash.

So I sat down with them,
at which point...

Izzy slowly...

folded...

into the table.

He was out.

Slash looks at me, and he says,
"Come to the bedroom.

I want to show you something."

And I go into the bedroom
with Slash,

and there in the corner

is a fucking huge snake.

I fucking hate snakes.

And he pulls out
this little white rabbit

and feeds it to this monster
in front of me.

And that was
my first meeting with GNR.

[laughter]

So, we got this idea
to do a fake indie record.

Slash even came up with
this Uzi Suicide record label,

so we created an imprint.

So it totally looked indie,

but it was really
funded by Geffen

and, you know, was called
"Live Like a Suicide."

CANTER:
Guns N' Roses quickly recorded
"Live Like a Suicide,"

and Axl had an idea
of where he wanted

to have the release party:

at a rock and roll club
called the Cathouse,

owned by his friend
Riki Rachtman.

♪ ♪

INTERVIEWER:
So, uh, what do you make of this
whole scene at the Cathouse?

I think it's great. I love it.

-What's so great about it?
-The women.

[laughter]

Most girls dress, um,
a little skimpier than I.

I'm really pretty conservatively
dressed here tonight.

INTERVIEWER:
You're dressed conservatively?

I am.

1986. September 23rd.

Cathouse opened up as
a rock and roll dance club.

Just rock and roll.
My roommate was Taime Downe

from the band Faster Pussycat.

And we were roommates
in Hollywood.

And the truth of the matter is,

we opened up a place
that we could get free drinks,

meet girls and wouldn't
have to clean it up.

And it became so popular.

I mean,
it was mentioned in songs.

It was notorious.
It was sleaze, debauchery.

All that stuff happened
at the Cathouse,

and that's what made it
different, because it wasn't

run by a promoter,
it wasn't run by a club owner.

It was a bunch of punks
like me and Taime.

This is a goodie.

My official Cathouse
membership card.

I don't think many people
held onto this guy.

Got you into
some real debauchery.

Name it. Sex in the bathroom
all the time.

So, because the women
were there,

then like celebrities and stars

and like Mickey Rourke
and Robert Downey Jr.

and, uh, Nicolas--

I mean, all these people were
hanging out at the Cathouse.

I went to the Cathouse
every Saturday night for months.

For as long as it
was open, you know?

It just was all about
getting laid

and, uh, just being, uh,

as nasty, dirty as possible.

[laughs]

Then Axl asked if they could do
a record release party

for their independent EP,
which was "Live Like a Suicide."

And it was Guns N' Roses,
Faster Pussycat,

Jetboy and L.A. Guns.

Those were the first bands
to play at the Cathouse.

CANTER:
And after that show,

they come up with,
"You're Crazy,"

the song, "You're Crazy."

Good song, but not enough
for Tom to say,

"Let's go in the studio."

I felt like the band
needed this one song

to really push it through.

I mean, we had
"Welcome to the Jungle."

We had "Paradise City."
We had "Night Train."

But we needed that song
that would-would

bring that band to a level
above all the other bands.

And we didn't have it yet.

We were rehearsing,
and we're taking a break,

and Slash was playing, you know,
that circus song.

[vocalizes
"Entry of the Gladiators"]

And I said, dude, play that
but with half of those notes.

And he went. I said,
"Dude, right there, that's it."

["Sweet Child O' Mine"
by Guns N' Roses playing]

Marc Canter says,
"You got to come

"to the show at Madame Wong's.

They've got the song."
And so I go,

and I'm like, well, that's
Slash's sound check doodle.

They took Slash's
sound check doodle,

and Izzy and Axl,

they turned it into a real song,
and it's great.

So, we finally get
"Sweet Child O' Mine."

♪ Whoa, oh, sweet child
o' mine.♪

And I'm like, that's it.
That's the hit.

We got it.

♪ ♪

Good luck finding a better album
than Appetite for Destruction.

I can remember listening
to that album so many times

that I wore out my cassette.

It's some of
the best musical moments

you'll ever fucking hear
in your life.

RACHTMAN:
Hearing the demo tape, you knew
it was something incredible.

Hearing the album, you knew
it was something amazing.

NIVEN:
There was one time
a few years back

where I was introduced
to somebody.

We were having dinner.

And he makes
the most absurd comment.

He looked at me and he said,
"You got to tell me,

"how did you make
Appetite for Destruction

sound so dangerous?"

And I'm sitting there going,

what you do is you get it

as live on tape as possible,

and you look for the performance
rather than the perfection.

And you remember that what
makes a perfect recording

are the imperfections
that you decide to keep.

You know, Appetitewas out,
but it wasn't really going.

It was so, so hidden and buried.

And, you know, somehow the band
managed to conjure up,

like, 200,000 in sales.

And Geffen was ready
to, you know,

tell them to go make another
record, this record is done.

And Tom Zutaut's like, "Uh-uh,
this record hasn't even begun."

But you got to get MTV
to play the video,

and MTV won't play
"Welcome to the Jungle."

The people who ran programming
were research-based,

and "Welcome to the Jungle"
felt maybe a little heavy.

So I remember Ed Rosenblatt,

who was the president of
Geffen Records at the time,

basically said, "Play it once
a night in the middle of night.

Just try it."
And it was almost immediate.

Like it just-- It just blew up.

CANTER:
And pretty soon,
"Sweet Child O' Mine"

was the number one song,

and they were selling
200,000 copies a week.

So, Guns N' Roses is
the biggest band in the world.

Axl tells me that they want
to do a show at the Cathouse.

And Slash's mom shows up

with her friend

David Bowie,
and David Bowie is fucked up.

And David goes, "I'll go up
and play with Guns N' Roses."

And David Bowie goes up and he
puts his arms around this girl

and he's like...
[slurring]

and she's like,
"Fuck you, David Bowie."

[slurring]
She's like, "Fuck you,"

and she runs down the stairs
to tell her boyfriend,

who happens to be Axl Rose.

Security guard comes up,
says to me,

"Riki, Axl Rose is chasing
David Bowie down the street

saying he's going to kill him."

How do you react
to something like that?

So I just walked the other way.

But Axl was really chasing
David Bowie down the street,

saying he was going to kill him
in front of the Cathouse.

Guns N' Roses, they had
a little bit more

of a serious street attitude,

and, uh, it was a little bit
more greasy and dirty,

and, uh, people could
really relate to it.

I think that one of the reasons

that Appetite for Destruction

is the largest debut
selling rock album

ever made
in the history of rock music

is because of that raw,
primal energy that it had.

When Guns N' Roses came out,

they really just effortlessly

changed the game.

They really symbolized

the end of this excess.

The culture shifted this way

to find something
that was more real,

more organic,

you had to have lived it.

You look at Guns N' Roses,

is the perfect example.

All of these dudes
were more comfortable

sleeping on a sidewalk than
they were sleeping on a bed.

You know, and kids like me,
who grew up fucking homeless,

off and on,
we could identify with that.

They connected

because they stood for the value

of the least of souls.

Urchins from under the street.

Part of the whole romance
of a gig

is 15,000 people celebrating

that those motherfuckers
up there beat the odds.

They got out of town.
It's possible.

These motherfuckers prove it.

[applause]

Okay, and the winner is...

-All right.
-ALL: Guns N' Roses.

RACHTMAN:
You didn't realize what
a magical time you were in.

We could do whatever we want,
and we would do everything,

and it was so great.

WEISS: Really, I didn't
think this decade,

this genre,
would ever end, really.

I mean, I just thought
it was gonna keep going.

And then, of course,

you know, this band from Seattle

started making some noise,

and that was literally
the end of the era.

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

♪ MTV.♪