All language subtitles for Nothin.But.A.Good.Time.The.Uncensored.Story.of.80s.Hair.Metal.S01E03.1080p.HEVC.x265-MeGusta[EZTVx.to]_English (SDH)_track2_[eng]

♪ MTV.♪

Let's talk about the title
of this thing--

Nothing but a Good Time?

Come on, guys. Let's talk
about the irony of that.

Let's talk about the betrayals,

the treachery,

the egos, the people who died.

It was nothing but a good time?

Not the fucking life I lived.

♪ Ooh, 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.♪

NARRATOR:
For most of the '80s,

the biggest rock bands
were coming out of Los Angeles.

But there was
another music scene emerging

on the East Coast,
and groups from this area,

like Skid Row, would be among
the last great bands of the era.

♪ Since I was born,
they couldn't hold me down♪

♪ Another misfit kid,
another burned-out town...♪

My love for that band
knows no bounds.

It was street,
it was dark, it was lethal.

And yet, it still had
that glam sensibility.

♪ On the wall,
we are the youth gone wild...♪

DAVE "SNAKE" SABO:
I grew up

in a little town called
Sayreville, New Jersey,

commonly known as...

BOTH:
Slayerville.

We met in a music store,
Rachel and I,

and I'm like,
"This guy is a rock star.

I got to get to know him."

And we hit it off,
and we were like,

"Maybe we should try
writing songs together."

I was really good friends
with Jon Bon Jovi, and

he was such a great mentor.

-We have them
to thank for so much.
-So much.

DOC McGHEE: When I signed
Bon Jovi, Davey Sabo,

you know, wanted me
to manage him.

And he said,
"I have this band, Skid Row."

And the songs were pretty good.

Their delivery was...
They weren't ready yet.

So we're at Jon's house,

and all of a sudden, Doc starts
talking about these plans.

And Rachel and I are just
going, "Cool, yeah."

-Yeah.
-Like, not...

It's not registering.

-That he meant us. [laughs]
-Right.

He's talking about it,
"And we're going to do this,

and we're going to do this,
and we're going to do this."

-It sounds like Jon's going
to have a busy year.
-Yeah.

And finally, Rachel and I look
at Doc, and we're like,

-"Are you managing us?"
-[laughs]

And he goes, "Yeah.

-What do you think I'm doing?"
-Yeah.

And then I go, "Well,
what if it doesn't work out?"

He goes, "Get a razor blade
and draw a warm bath."

[both laughing]

That's Doc McGhee.

McGHEE:
The problem was that the singer

that they had
just didn't have...

what I...
You know, he was good.

He was good,
but good's not good enough.

And so,
we spent the next nine months

auditioning singers like crazy.

And a friend of ours,
Mark Weiss, a photographer,

found Sebastian.

So 1985, I shot

Madam X.

A year later,
Maxine calls me up

and says,
"I have a new singer, uh, called

"Sebastian Bach.

"He's young,
he's from Canada, and

we want to fly you over
and take some pictures," so,

I went over there,
became fast friends.

Four months later, I was

getting married,
and I asked my secretary.

I said, "Invite that band
that I hung out with

for a couple of weeks.
They were fun."

They made it over, and Sebastian

went on stage
and started singing.

You know, he just blew everyone
away. He had this high voice,

and, you know, they were jamming
for, like, 30 minutes.

[holding sustained note]

SABO:
Mark told us, "You guys
should audition this guy."

Also, Mr. And Mrs. Bon Jovi
happened to be at the wedding.

They were like,
"There was this guy

who sang pretty good
at Mark's wedding."

McGHEE:
We found Sebastian Bach, and

that was the difference between
chicken shit and chicken salad.

It just changed
the whole dynamics of Skid Row.

And now the songs, uh,
came to life.

♪ Through the sleepless nights♪

♪ Through every endless day♪

♪ I'd want to hear you say,
I remember you...♪

FULL METAL JACKIE:
Sebastian Bach represented

the ultimate rock star.

He was hot.

He, like, didn't give a shit
what anybody thought.

Dudes wanted to look like him.

Girls wanted to, you know,
hang out with him or whatever.

♪ Yeah.♪

-[song ends]
-[cheering]

McGHEE:
He was a really good front guy,

crazy and all, but that comes
with the territory.

Yeah!

-[indistinct chatter]
-No!

McGHEE:
He was pretty much

insane all the time.

Everything I always say.
[laughs]

They knew
he was going to be trouble,

you know, from the time
they met him, but they also knew

he was a star,
and this is the guy

that can get us
to where we want to be.

Um, you know,
it didn't end happily.

Today was Sebastian Bach Day

up in Springfield,
Massachusetts.

Or at least
it was in Springfield's

Hampden County Hall of Justice,

where the Skid Row singer was
arraigned today

on assault and mayhem charges

that could,
if proved in a trial,

put him behind bars
well into the next century.

The incident was recorded,

and we're going
to show it to you right now.

During Skid Row's set, the
singer was struck by a bottle

hurled from the audience,
and he hurled it back,

allegedly striking a
17-year-old girl in the crowd.

Bach then leaped
into the audience,

allegedly landing on the girl

and also,
kicking another fan in the chin.

The girl sustained
facial cuts and bruises,

and Bach was apprehended

after the show
by Massachusetts State Police.

WEISS:
Once he had that success
of, you know, people wanting

his picture taken by him
and him being on MTV,

it might have acted
as a catalyst

where his true personality
came out.

BACH:
The focus that I received made

the other dudes in the band
hate my guts.

We got asked to open for KISS
on the Reunion Tour in...

on New Year's Eve in New Jersey.

And Rachel didn't want
to do the show.

Needless to say,
this pissed me off.

And I called him up, and I said
I was going to kick his ass.

You know, and I wasn't
[bleep] around. I-I...

I wanted to kick his ass.

And I let him know,

and they fired me.

McGHEE:
He's alienated
the other guys, and,

so, that's why there's
no reunion of Skid Row, I guess.

He had the X factor,
without a doubt.

And, um, it was just,
like, you know,

dude needs
to calm down a little bit.

-[Sabo laughs]
-Needs to chill,

pump the brakes a bit, you know?

But it is what it is,
and, you know,

we wouldn't be here
doing this doc if-if, uh,

the five of us
didn't originally get together.

When we went to Brazil,

to South America and Brazil
for the first time,

we're on a plane on the way
home, and I remember,

"Oh, wow. We're on the same
flight as Skid Row. Cool."

All of a sudden, you know,
we're up in the air,

and I hear Sebastian just,
like, singing quietly.

He's making up crazy shit.

Like, everybody's trying
to sleep,

and I just hear this guy.

♪ Like a door without a knob♪

♪ Like a ship
without a sail...♪

He's just singing shit

for hours.

And we're like, "Shut the..."

What is he doing?
But he's pounding back alcohol.

So finally, the girl comes over
with the cart,

and she's like,
"I can't give you any more."

It's like, Sebastian, like,
just does not want to hear that.

So she's like, "No, I can't.
I have to cut you off."

So, she goes away.

I see Sebastian get up,

and I see him
go down the stairs,

and I see him come back up
with a bottle.

So he's fucking drinking it.

She comes back,
she sees the bottle, walks away.

-[bell dings]
-All the lights come on.

The pilot comes out,

and he's telling them like,

"You're breaking the rules.

I'm going to have
to report this."

Sebastian gets up.

He doesn't realize
Sebastian's, like, six-four.

He's towering
over the captain right now.

Sebastian
then grabs the captain,

throws him
into the carpeted wall.

The fucking pilot is shaking.

By the way. it was all
of Extreme, all of Skid Row,

and for some reason, a couple
in their, like, 60s or 70s

that were, like,
on vacation or some shit,

all the way behind Skid Row.

We all tackle Sebastian,
we throw him down

onto the ground.
We're in the air.

We're all on top of him,
and-and we're like...

He's like,
swearing at this fucking guy,

he's gonna kill him. I'm like,

"You can't fucking
take him down.

This guy's flying the plane."

Like, this...
We got to get ahold of him.

Everything slows down
for a second.

I see all the Extreme guys
are on top of Sebastian,

and all the Skid Row guys
are just sitting down,

reading a fucking magazine.

And I look up at Snake,
I'm like,

"Yo, dude, you got
to fucking do something."

He goes, "What, this?"
He goes, "This is every day."

But, yeah, that was

my Sebastian story.

Baz on a plane.

♪ ♪

The band got together back

in 1985.

We played clubs in Boston

until we got
kind of a big following.

And then, we signed
with a label out here in L.A.

Extreme was

always the kind of
a bastard child

of what people wanted
to call hair metal

because we were
kind of a funkier band.

We didn't really play metal.

♪ Get the♪

♪ ♪

♪ Funk out.♪

And we had horns,

and it was... it was... People
didn't know what to do with us.

And especially with songs
like "More Than Words."

♪ Saying "I love you"♪

♪ Is not the words
I want to...♪

BETTENCOURT:
Nobody thought
that was going to be a hit

because they were
looking at us, you know,

like it was James Taylor or
some shit. Like, "What is this?

You know, like Beatles?"
Then all of a sudden,

I get a phone call
in the middle of the night

saying, "More Than Words"

is gonna hit
number one tomorrow.

It's like, what?!

♪ Let me go♪

♪ More than words♪

♪ Is all I ever needed you
to show...♪

It wasn't just

the States.
It was from the States

to Israel to South Africa

to UK. It just...
it just exploded.

I remember MTV calling us,
and they said,

"Hey, would you guys come
perform your acoustic stuff?"

And we said to them,
"Well, only if we can play

our rock and roll stuff
on acoustics, as well."

So they said, "Great."

And I was like, "Wow,
what an interesting concept.

"A bunch of guys sit
playing acoustic,

"but play their rock stuff,
as well,

with an audience
sitting around."

And that was beforeMTV
Unplugged came out. They owe us.

We should have gotten
some royalties for that show.

I think we created it. You know,
people say to me all the time,

"Hey, was 'More Than Words'
a blessing or a curse?

"Because it was acoustic,
and, like,

"and that was one
of your biggest hits.

Did they know
you were rock band?" I said,

"Let me see. 'More Than Words'
is number one globally,

"we get to do more albums,
the venues were bigger,

"we tour the world.

"'More Than Words' isn't a hit,
I'm working at Burger King.

I don't know which one. Which
one are you going to take?"

[laughs]

NARRATOR: By the late '80s,
the Sunset Strip

was more popular than ever.

This led to a scene being
overrun by copycat groups

who were filled
with ambition and flash,

but lacked original substance.

By the time we came out,

they were running out
of band names.

It's, like, Dangerous Toys,
BulletBoys,

Pretty Boy Floyds,
you know, uh,

Bang Tangos, Bang Gangs.

You know, everything was just
kind of in the same thing.

KRIM:
It was all going so fast,

and there were so many bands
getting signed

that it just became,
after a while, it just

became laden with clichés,
and the third generation

were so derivative
that it just got played.

McGHEE:
Our business is

whatever is good,
we will sign 50 fucking things

that are terrible
and ruin what we had.

PENELOPE SPHEERIS:
I was driving by Roxy one night

and everybody was spilling out
into the street

and they all looked different,
all of a sudden.

They all had like, cowboy boots

and bandannas tied around them
and long hair

and I said something else
is going on here. [laughs]

♪ Ain't so bad, ain't so bad.♪

TAYLOR:The Decline
of Western Civilization Part II

was a movie I was obsessed with

and I had seen the first one

and I loved it just because
it was the punk scene

and I loved that music,
you know, but II...

it was a revelation.

Because for better or for worse,

it was a real look into
what was going on at the time.

My philosophy as a documentarian

is to be objective.

You get to say whether
you like it or not.

I'm not stuffing it
down your throats,

saying, "Hey, this
metal shit's so great."

I'm not doing that.
I'm just saying it's right here,

take it or leave it,
love it or hate it.

Mom, have a drink.

-Yes, ma'am?
-SPHEERIS: Chris, do you
drink very much?

-Pardon?
-Do you drink very much?

Uh, yes, I do.

I'm a full-blown alcoholic.

The Chris Holmes thing...

I mean, that-that took on
a life of its own.

And, well, I drink is--
because, look, watch.

SPHEERIS:
What?

And of course the Chris Holmes
part, it's kind of funny,

but it was really sad
to see, you know,

the disease in full effect

when Chris Holmes was drinking
in the swimming pool.

SPHEERIS: I wanted to put
Chris in the pool

because I thought
it would perhaps

sober him up a little bit

because when he got there,
he was pretty drunk.

And, um...

honestly, um...

I thought I didn't get anything.

No, Jeff, I walked away
from that interview

and I said to the producers,

"We've got to find the money
to reshoot Chris Holmes

"because it's screwed up.
It-it was a mess.

A disaster.
I didn't get anything."

Turns out, it's the best scene
in all three movies.

SPHEERIS:
I think the audience
shouldn't wallow

in their self-destruction.

It's not good for kids, either,
to see that, in my opinion.

It's not a good example
for kids.

And neither is Jackass,
by the way.

-[Jeff laughs]
-[laughing]

Yeah, I'm gonna be
a famous rock star, yeah.

We'll be rock stars.

I'm going to be a rock star.
I am going to be.

SPHEERIS:
What if you don't make it
as a rock star?

Oh, I will.

But what if you don't?

In ten years, what are you
going to be doing?

See, I-I will, though, see.

You saw the raw hope

in people's eyes of people just

bound and determined they were
going to fucking make it,

but they couldn't tell you why.

You know, and that
always bothered me.

Like, I was just like, "You
can't just have blind hope,

you have to have something
you're gonna pin it on."

I can't picture not making it.

See, if you came and
heard us, you'd really...

You'd think the same thing, too.

SPHEERIS:
That you were definitely
gonna make it?

Oh, yeah.

RACHELLE: The guys from Odin
when the singer said,

"Oh, I'm going to become famous,
bigger than Robert Plant."

And then they asked him,
"Well, what if you don't?"

And he says, "Well, if I don't,
I'm gonna kill myself.

But I'm going to."

SPHEERIS:
Is it worth killing yourself
for, if you don't make it?

Well, there's nothing else
that I can really do

except music, you know?

Of course, death isn't funny,
but the way he said that,

sitting in the hot tub,

35 years later...

He's still not dead
and he's still not famous, so...

NARRATOR:
At this point, the hair metal
scene was at its peak

and the call for new talent
had never been higher.

To keep up with
that demand, younger

and less experienced acts
were getting signed

more quickly than ever.

One such group was a poppy
New Jersey teen garage band

called Trixter.

♪ ♪

STEVE BROWN:
I started Trixter
when I was 12 years old.

I read in Circusmagazine

that Def Leppard's drummer
Rick Allen was 15 years old

when he joined the band
and I said,

I'm gonna beat those guys
to the punch,

I'm gonna be 12 years old
and start my band.

And I-I'd been playing for
a couple years already,

I'd already wrote
a couple songs.

The first song I ever wrote
was a song called "Mistress."

So, what happened--

Yeah, the first words
were great,

"You're a mistress of the day,

"you're a mistress of the night,

looking for a fool
and a fool to bite."

I used to just look
at the lyrics

of, like, what all my
favorite bands were writing

and, like, take lines
and copy them.

And my mother was kind of like,

"Why are you writing a song
about a mistress?"

You know, you're 11 years old
or 12 years old.

But that's what it was.

I was like, "I don't know
what any of this means.

It sounds cool."

In Paramus, where we grew up,
it's a shopping mecca.

So we would go every Saturday
with flyers

and we used to go give them out
to all the girls.

We're playing Sunday night
at the China Club.

We're playing, you know,
Friday night at Studio One.

And that was our Sunset Strip.

We didn't have the Rainbow,

so we would go
to the Suburban Diner

and we'd eat fucking disco fries
and cheeseburgers.

Everywhere we played, it was
packed to the gills with girls.

Next thing you know, all
the record labels start coming.

They're all coming out
to my mom and dad's house

in Paramus, New Jersey.

And the labels would sit there
and watch us.

My mom would make them,
you know, ShopRite iced tea

and make them sandwiches and...

So we signed with Mechanic,
MCA Records.

And then from there,

we played in Staten Island,
New York,

Long Island and New Jersey.

And then we became friends
with the guys in Skid Row.

And Snake and Rachel
were fast friends.

And they were sort of like
our big brothers

and really looked out for us.

So, the record comes out,
we released our first single,

and most importantly,
we're gonna make a video.

["Give It To Me Good"
by Trixter playing]

I knew that this video
had to be us being us.

We're gonna film us
riding dirt bikes,

playing ball at
our middle school,

doing flips with the girls.

♪ Give it to me good♪

♪ Give it, give it♪

-♪ Give it to me good♪
-♪ Give it to me good.♪

We finish the video
and my manager calls, said,

"You guys are gonna go out
on the road for two weeks."

Next thing you know, "Give It
To Me Good" gets added to MTV.

And that first two-week tour
turned into 13 months.

Yeah.

I was-- I was 18 at that point.

Yeah, 18 going on 19.

And so we hit the road,
first tour,

we get in a tour bus

and it was like the coolest
thing in the world, man.

It was summer camp
for a bunch of kids

from Paramus, New Jersey.

And our tour manager goes,
"Hey, man,

you guys, what do you want
on your rider?"

And we were all like,
"What's a rider?"

And he goes,
"Oh, you get stuff backstage."

"Like what?"

"You can get beer, you can
get soda, you can get--"

"Oh, what? We can get that?
We can get--?"

He goes, "Chips and salsa."

And back in 1990 in New Jersey,

we didn't know what
chips and salsa was.

I didn't know.

So, we learned about
real rock and roll stuff.

So we got a case of Corona,
we got a case of Coke,

Country Time lemonade,
chips and salsa,

and water and a couple towels
and that was our rider.

And then from there,
the record was taking off,

we get our first call
that we're gonna

finally do our
first arena shows.

All we ever wanted to do
when we were kids,

with Trixter, is play an arena.

Our first arena show,
opening up for Poison,

Muskogean, Michigan,
we were like, "Holy shit."

And I swear to God
I never felt so powerful

after playing an arena
for the first time.

And I'll never forget
coming off stage,

and there's Bret Michaels,
and, like, ten girls.

You know, ten, like,
I guess they were strippers.

I don't know.

And he hands us each a bottle
of champagne.

And he goes, "Welcome to
big-time rock and roll, boys."

Trixter, right?
They're breaking.

We bring 'em out, and literally,
I go to the dressing rooms.

I have the whole sign.
I put a big star.

And I said,
"Welcome. This is your party."

And it is filled with booze,
other substances,

and tons
of beautiful girls in there.

That party that night was good.

They-they had a...
We had a good time, trust me.

I said,
"Listen, you better start...

"You better start living it up

'cause it's all going over
to my dressing room."

[laughs]

[Beavis and Butt-Head laughing]

KRIM:
Beavis and Butt-Head

were these two aptly named

animated characters. A guy named
Mike Judge created the show.

And they loved
to do disgusting things,

and they loved
to tear apart the bands

they didn't think were cool.

-BUTT-HEAD: This is stupid.
-BEAVIS: Yeah.

[laughs]
And it sucks, too.

[both laugh]

And it became a huge MTV hit.

You know,
they became cultural icons.

At the time, I thought
it was fucking hilarious.

I was just like,
"Oh, this is great."

BUTT-HEAD:
I thought people usually

look cool in leather jackets.

BEAVIS:
Yeah.

-[laughs]
-What's wrong?

How come these people

all look like wussies?

TAYLOR: Then you start
to think about

the ramifications of it

and the fact that it's, like,

you're going to throw a bag of
flaming shit on all these bands

that worked really fucking hard
for a long time.

You want me to talk
about Beavis and Butt-Head?

You know, it's... It bummed--

-It's an old story.
-It's such an old story...

-Don't waste any time on it.
-Uh, it just, it bums me out.

It didn't help us.
Put it that way, you know?

We were doing big shows.

What was it, like, 10,000
or 12,000 people, and...?

BEACH:
Yeah. And it was overnight.
It was...

And we knew it
'cause we were on tour, and,

uh, this kid knocks
on the bus door.

He said,
"Yeah. Hey, you guys.

"Listen, I just wanted you
to have this videotape.

"It's a new, uh...
it's a new cartoon.

"It's called
Beavis and Butt-Head,

and you really need to see it."

And we were like, "Really?"

And so, we put it in,
and we were like, "Oh, no."

Hope you don't mind. I brought
some buds from the youth group.

Wow, you were right, Stewart.

This party kicks rear.

They put the Winger shirt

on the kid who they fucked with.

Let's go to the mall.
I know this great new place.

-This sucks.
-Yeah.

BEACH:
And people just
stopped coming to our shows

that week, and we canceled
the tour a few weeks later.

-INTERVIEWER: Fuck.
-Yeah.

The nerdy kid
on Beavis and Butt-Head

wearing a Winger T-shirt, uh,

definitely
hurt the Winger brand.

Powerful. It's amazing

-that, you know, television.
-Yeah.

They made us and they broke us.
Boom.

TAYLOR:
That's probably where

a lot of the national
disdain for some

of these bands came from,
was the fact

that, you know,
these two cartoons

were shitting all over this...
pretty much this whole genre.

I think that signaled the change
and set the stage

for the, uh... the meteor
that killed the dinosaurs.

♪ ♪

♪ Whoo!♪

RACHELLE: You know, I remember
the very first time

that I was really moved in
concert was the Moötley Cruüe show

on the Shout at the Devil
tour in 1984.

And in watching that show,
I told myself,

"I'm going to do that."

And so, at some point, a buddy
of mine had went to visit L.A.

He came home, and he called me,
and he's like,

"Steve, you got
to come over here.

I got to tell you
about my trip to Hollywood."

And, um, I go to his house,
and he's got all these flyers

of all these bands.

And one of the flyers was
for a band called "Tuff."

And it said,
"Wanted lead singer."

And then it listed,
like, influences.

Van Halen, David Lee Roth,

Vince Neil, Moötley Cruüe,

Bret Michaels, Poison.

And I was like,
"That's-that's me.

That's-that's who I am."

In, you know, my Wisconsin band,
I was known as the...

the David Lee Roth guy.

So, 72 hours later,
I bought a one-way flight,

and I tracked the band down,

and we did a rehearsal
and an audition,

and then I became the singer.

And Tuff became really big
really quickly.

We played our first show
together in August.

By November,
we were a headliner.

You can be in L.A. in '87

and have bands
that are influenced by

Poison, whose first record

came out in '86.

So, if a guy like
Stevie Rachelle from Tuff,

he looked exactly like
Bret Michaels.

RACHELLE:
I saw the similarities.

We did have a similar look,

but whoever "gets there first"

gets to be
a little bit more of, like,

"I'm here,
and you're all copying me."

♪ Baby♪

♪ Times are changing♪

♪ I see it in your eyes♪

Their first big single,
it's a power ballad called

"I Hate Kissing You Goodbye."

♪ I hate kissing you♪

♪ Kissing you goodbye♪

BIENSTOCK:
It's got the big
lighter-waving chorus,

it's got the big guitar solo,

it's got the really
well-produced video.

And, uh, they put it out,
and MTV saw it

and immediately loved the video.

We suddenly
entered the countdown

almost immediately,
and went from number nine to

seven to five to four,
up to three.

♪ I hate♪

♪ Kissing you♪

[whispering]:
Goodbye.

BIENSTOCK:
It's actually doing
pretty well on MTV

on their daily call-in show,
Dial MTV.

It's pretty high up on it.

Pretty low on Dial MTV
that same week

is "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

["Smells Like Teen Spirit"
by Nirvana plays]

RACHELLE:
"Smells Like Teen Spirit"
came out within a few weeks

of our video hitting MTV,

so we're up here, and
they're climbing underneath us.

When the '90s came in,

it literally was like
a nuclear missile.

I mean,
it literally just exploded.

And, um, I don't remember
thinking, like,

"Oh, this sucks.
Now our career is over."

Like, we didn't think that.

Nobody really realized
what was about to happen.

BIENSTOCK:
Tuff had probably two or
three weeks to have a career

before it all just kind of
explodes in their face.

RACHELLE:
And, of course, it was just
such a different look,

a different sound.

And, um, you know,
not only did that take us out,

but it took everybody out.

You know,
they just suddenly just

overwhelmed all of our bands,

and our bands
were no longer relevant.

It was, like, erased.

SPHEERIS: Somebody said
that they want to give me

the credit for
destroying hair metal

by making the movie.

And I said, I didn't destroy it.

It imploded.

I mean, look at it.

It's not going to be
going on for centuries, guys.

It's not that meaningful.

I-I think it was just...
it was just time, you know?

I mean, that style
had dominated the '80s.

And when you have
that level of dominance,

there's nowhere else,
really, to go, you know?

Except for off the cliff.

♪ Bye-bye, baby, bye-bye♪

♪ That was all she wrote♪

STEPHEN PEARCY:
It became fake.

Same designers,

same directors.

A lot of them didn't play
on their own records.

When you looked like me,
you know,

and I'm a, you know,
a third generation copy,

and I say that, you know,
because it's just factual.

Like, you have your David
Lee Roth, your Vince Neil,

your Bret Michaels,
your Stevie Rachelle.

It, you know, I get it.

We had the look.

And I think, as much as

we had created this frenzy,

um, we just weren't
that great of a band.

BETTENCOURT:
It started to be clones

of clones of clones.

You didn't know
which was who anymore.

You could put a fucking song on,

and you weren't sure
what fucking band it was.

When it gets to that point,

a movement is coming.

Everybody's like, enough.

People were getting tired of
the songs that meant nothing.

Partying, drinking, girls,

stupid innuendos like
"cherry pie."

The tongue in cheek of it
was just getting lost,

because with grunge,
now you're getting into

feelings and emotions.

Trying to say Nirvana

and Soundgarden
killed the scene.

It's like, no,
they were just great.

They had something new to offer,
a new sound, you know?

A more heartfelt message,
maybe, at the time,

or more introspective,
less "party, party, party."

We were on tour in Europe,

and I believe L.A. Guns

-were opening for us.
-Yeah.

And Tracii Guns goes, "Dude,
I got a bunch of cassettes.

Do you want to listen?"
"Oh, yeah, cool."

And "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
starts playing,

and I'm like, wow, this shit's
really, really catchy.

I go, "What label is this on?"
He goes, "Geffen."

I go, "We're fucked."

It just happened overnight,
where, you know,

there used to be
amazing shows of these bands,

these hard rock,
you know, or metal bands

every night of the week.

And then, one day, you're
looking and it's, like, nothing.

Yeah, it was pretty quick.

In fact, we started
to do a video for

"Tear Down the Walls,"
the ballad.

We were in the midst of it,

and they called us
while we were doing the video

and said, "That's it.
We're pulling the plug.

Just stop it now."

You know, like,

"We're not going to
continue with this video."

Yeah. So, they pulled the plug.

They said, "You know,
we're going to have to move on."

[laughs]

In '91, when White Lion

plays a show at the Ritz
in New York, our hometown,

five blocks away from our record
company, Atlantic Records,

and nobody from
the record company shows up.

Usually, the backstage
would be full of record company

and the friends
that could meet girls.

So, it just told me, this is it.

So, then I end the band
that was my dream,

and then when I came back home
to my house in California,

no managers called,
no record company calls.

All the people
that were making money

from the band, nobody called.

And then you tell yourself,

"Well, I guess
I made the right decision."

JACK RUSSELL:
And you look back, you go,

God, we've just played
thousands of shows.

Thousands. We put out

nine records,
or whatever it was.

And it just went by so fast,
and it was all over.

We went from selling
almost three million to

down to 750 on Hooked,

and then from
750 to 250 on Psycho City.

And then after that,
it wasn't even worth counting.

[laughing]:
You know what I mean?

We sold three records.

BROWN:
1991, with the Scorpions,

we played Arco Arena
in Sacramento, California.

22,000 people, sold out.

You couldn't fit
another person in there.

A year later, December of 1992,

we play that same arena

with KISS and Great White,

and there are 1,500 people there

in a 22,000-seat arena.

So you can imagine
what that looked like.

I mean, it was like crazy

to go out on stage and there's
basically four rows of people

in this giant arena.

And that was definitely
one of those moments

when you realized, man,
this is... this is not good.

The scene is definitely over.

PHIL COLLEN:
We were doing state fairs,
and that sucked.

You know? I mean,
some of them were fun.

I mean, I don't want to
say it sucked,

'cause we were
still playing live

and we were still getting
great reactions.

But we're in a field
in Missouri somewhere.

You know,
when I left the band in '93,

I had to get a day job.

My brother lives in L.A.
and he has a sign company,

so I call him and I go,

"Hey, you got any work?"

So I went and I learned how to

do lettering
and paint billboards and...

Getting a day job's
not beneath me.

You know,
I'll do it if I have to,

but I'd rather not.

When I look back at

my 20s, when I look back at

the Sunset Strip,
when I look back at the '80s,

I'm absolutely proud
of what we did.

You know, we're not...

we're not a band
that sold millions of records.

I have no gold
or platinum records. None.

But you look at it like this:

The guy that grew up

in his bedroom in the Midwest,

and he's looking in the mirror,

you know,
as he's got his stereo on,

and his mom and dad
are in the other room,

and his sister's, you know,

doing her cheerleader thing
in the backyard,

I was that guy at one point.

I was the guy
that looked in my mirror,

had a turntable, played music,

had Moötley Cruüe posters
on my wall,

and like I said at that concert,

"I'm going to do that."
And I did.

I'm very proud of what I did,

even though it might be
to some others, not a big deal,

to me, it was,
and it's all good for that.

Let me know, too, man.
I'm dragging a little bit.

[laughs]

That coffee just
ain't cutting it.

-Yikes.
-MAN: Yeah, you're on.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: The same month
thatNevermind came out,

Poison made
an infamous appearance

at the MTV Video Music Awards.

It was a visceral display
of another key reason

for hair metal's decline,

which was the rampant problem
of substance abuse

within the bands.

He's got diabetes,
he takes one pill a day.

You got to see him,
he's like a walking stick.

Swear to God.
I wish I should be so lucky

to be diagnosed with diabetes.

Only knowing me,
I'll go the other way.

-We have speed?
-I'll become 400 pounds
and be dead.

They'll bury me in
a goddamn fucking piano case.

-Bret, why don't you tell--
-You always heard about

-the guy in the...
-Guinness Book of World--Yeah.

Guinness Book of World--
Died in a piano case.

How the fuck could you
fit a guy in a piano case?

They should say a coffin
the size of a piano case.

How are you going to
mish him up,

unless you're from Milwaukee?

So we're playing live
at the MTV Awards.

There was a lot of
partying going on,

and C.C. had
a really great time,

so he's lit.

-But they're not--
-DEVILLE: I want to know

what you just came up with

that fucking riff, man, huh?

He deserves a fucking
bullet, man, eh?

It can't be that bad.
I'm playing it, right?

Ten years later.

MICHAELS:
It was the craziest moment

in our career.

So, we're playing live,

and we go out there
to do "Unskinny Bop."

Hit it, C.C.

♪ ♪

And all of a sudden...

[imitates guitar riff]
And I'm like, holy fuck.

We're supposed to
be playing "Unskinny Bop,"

and we're now live

doing "Talk Dirty To Me."

♪ When you say
those words to me...♪

We're in the middle of playing,

and all of a sudden,
he must have stepped on

his own guitar cord.

Boom.
The guitar cable comes out.

♪ At the drive-in♪

♪ In the old man's Ford♪

Come on!

He puts it back in.
We finish up the song.

We go to the side of the stage.

He says something to me, right?

And I'm like, "What'd you say?"

Boom. It was an instant,

knockdown, drag-out fist fight.

Like, it was boom, boom.

I mean, I'm talking

boom, boom, boom.

And here we are fighting,

rolling on the ground underneath

Cindy Crawford and Arsenio Hall,

who are trying to
move out of our way

'cause they have to go out

and introduce the next band.

And they're looking down
like, "What's going on?"

I'm like, "Sorry about this."

[laughing]:
You know, it was just...

A couple broken noses,

a loss of a tooth or two.

We parted ways that evening
for a little while.

♪ ♪

Welcome back
to The Week in Rock.

Rumors that the rock band Poison

is on its last legs
may turn out to be true,

according to
lead singer Bret Michaels.

In an interview in
the new issue of RIP Magazine,

Michaels says that
guitarist C.C. DeVille

and bassist Bobby Dall,

who've been rumored to
have serious drug problems,

have, in fact, both checked in
to drug treatment programs.

For almost all of those bands,

their lifestyle was a reflection

of the music
that they were making.

But what we didn't
realize is, man,

they were fucking hanging on
by their nails.

It's definitely
a cautionary tale,

especially as an addict myself,

of watching that shit go,

and then you realize,
this is like, man,

and it's only, it's only fun
for about a second.

And then, when you realize
that the wheels

are off the fucking...
the wagon,

and you're just screaming
down the hill towards oblivion,

how the fuck am I gonna stop?
You know?

And...

You know, some people did,
some people didn't.

♪ ♪

Nobody died on my watch.

I didn't lose anyone.

And that...

took a lot of effort, too.

How come Steven left the band
at this critical juncture?

Steven didn't leave the band.

-LODER: Or how come you...
-Stephen was fired.

LODER:
Oh, okay.

ROSE:
We gave him every ultimatum.

We had Steven
sign a contract saying

if he went back to drugs,
then he was out.

LODER:
Yeah.

He couldn't leave his drugs.

That's the crazy part.

That I'm so--
they kick me out of the band

and tell the world it's
because of drugs.

Stevie was really frustrated,

and the problem wasn't
whether he took smack or not.

I mean, I had fucking Slash
in my own home

going cold turkey,
and I would wipe the vomit

out of his mouth and count out
his fucking Valiums.

All right? This was part
of dealing with shit.

The thing we couldn't deal with
with Stevie

is he couldn't play
the same fucking thing twice.

And that's a problem
when it's the drummer.

And one thing
I will note is that,

as fucked up as Steven got,

nobody had his exuberance
who followed him.

He loved playing
in that band so much.

It was very self-evident
in his feel and his swing,

and nobody's been able
to match that exuberance.

Some of the bands we toured with
were fucked up. Sadly fucked up.

Not in a good way, where it's
like rock and roll fucked up,

to a point where
you couldn't recognize

what somebody
was playing on stage.

You didn't know
what song it was.

I think they knew what it was,

but we were like,
nah, not even close.

SWEET:
Jani came drunk
to a-a gig one night

and messed up a song,

and he turned around
and pinned it on me.

Said, "Have another drink,
Steve."

And I was like,
"I'm not the one drinking."

So, Jani got into
a lot of his demons

and let that kind of thing
took over his life.

Yes. Yes.

He fell apart, basically,
when his marriage fell apart,

and he wanted to just be solo
in many ways,

and so that...

...forced the band
into bankruptcy

when he left the band,

and so the band split up,
everybody lost everything...

...because Jani lost everything.

Yeah, anybody else
could rock and roll,

but nobody else
can Ratt and roll.

INTERVIEWER:
What is your definition
of what Ratt and roll is?

How does that differ
from rock and roll?

Just the same.
It's just the way we do it.

-INTERVIEWER: Fair enough.
-You got to see it to believe.

[laughs]

[sighs, stammers]

I-I just don't think
I want to...

you know, talk about that.

I mean, it got terr...
it got terrible.

I mean, um...

It got terrible.

Robbin Crosby said, um...

"Quitting heroin is like
quitting breathing."

So... you know?

It's-it's hard
to talk to somebody

that-that is-is...

...um, in the grips
of something like that.

GUNS: Robbin Crosby,
you know, from Ratt,

you know, he ultimately
died of AIDS,

from dirty needles,

from being addicted to heroin.

He lost everything.

He was the nicest guy,
talented guy,

good-looking guy,
nice Laurel Canyon house

with the pool
and Ferrari in the driveway.

Everybody loved him.

He lost everything
because of heroin.

I started smoking crack.
I was doing everything.

-INTERVIEWER: Jesus.
-Crack was the worst.

[crew laughs]

If anyone out there is
thinking about it, don't do it.

Ugh... [laughs]

I ended up in jail, um,
because of drugs.

Uh...

I remember... it was...

I think I had just gone through
a strip search or something,

and they were taking us
up to where it was, like,

this big dorm with
all these prisoners. [chuckles]

And, you know,
we are single file,

and I'm walking up this hallway,

and I remember thinking,

you know, thinking back to say,
like, the Capitol Center,

where the crowd's
singing along and...

And I thought, "What happened?

How did I get here?"

Like, it was crazy
'cause I-I'd, you know,

I'd been on drugs
through the '90s,

and, um, so the drugs were out
of my system at that point,

so I was starting to think
a little clearer.

When I finally did get to rehab,
it was like, uh...

It was almost
this symbolic thing,

walking through those doors.

It was, like,
I don't want to go back there.

And I just went forward
through these doors

and just became willing
to do whatever I had to

to change my life,

like, get back on track.
It was like...

It was a nightmare
at the end of the '90s.

It was terrible.

No. [laughs]

["Blow My Fuse" by KIX playing]

♪ Come on start a fire♪

♪ In my electric chair♪

-♪ Baby♪
-AUDIENCE: ♪ Cross my wires♪

♪ Light up my hair...♪

NARRATOR:
In the early 2000s,

hair metal began to make
a big comeback.

Festivals like M3 and Rocklahoma

started to bring in huge crowds
eager to relive the '80s.

♪ Blow my fuse♪

♪ Hey, hey♪

♪ Got nothing to lose,
blow my fuse...♪

FORSYTHE:
We're back where
we first started,

back in 2003.

We just thought
it was a local thing,

but when we branched out
and started going

around the country
to different places,

we realized that
it was a resurgence.

PETRUCCI:
I don't know.
I mean, you go out there

like we played M3 tonight.

That place was packed,

and you got '80s bands

putting on a show.
They're loving it.

And you have young kids
out there, too.

You have old to young,

and they're all loving it.
There's something there,

and I don't think
it's going away.

When you're there
at 56 doing it,

you still play with emotion,
you still fucking go for blood.

You still bend a note like it's
the end of the fucking world.

I just want to remind everybody

of the mythology
of rock and roll.

MICHAELS:
The most incredible thing
is the music

withstood the test of time.

And this is nearly 40 years
into my career, right?

To be able to have
been out on one of

the highest-grossing tours ever,

and to be out here now, look at

three to four
generations of fans,

and those fans

are jumping up and down,
and I'm jumping up and down.

We're celebrating it together,

and that's
an incredible feeling.

These bands that we're
talking about from the '80s

are bigger now
than they were then.

I mean, stadium tours,

hundreds of thousands
of people are buying tickets.

It's crazy.

-No.
-Metal is not dead.

It is not dead.

No. Metal will never die.

I think the rebirth of glam rock

came with

the overcorrection because music

was way too fucking serious.

Not everything has to be about
solving the world's problems.

Sometimes, you just want
to hold a chick's hand

and tell her
how fucking hot she is.

People want shit that makes them
want to fucking sing along,

pump their fists,

shotgun a beer,
and then fucking hang

and-and see what happens
at the end of the night.

It's just that fucking simple.

GUNS:
People love it.

You know, it brings them
straight back to those years,

and it's magic.

Yeah, I'm at every show.

I enjoy going to them,

you know, this time around.

Uh, you know,
not-not anymore, no. [laughs]

The drugs now are,
like, you know,

blood thinners and, uh,
high blood pressure medicine

and shit like that,
so-so a little different,

little different.

You know, uh,
s-surprisingly, yes.

I have, uh,
I have showed the girls

when they were in their prime

-at a few Poison shows.
-[laughs]

Moötley Cruüe shows.

It might. You never know.

-[laughing]
-I've had enough Fireball.
It might happen.

[laughs]

I think, looking back on it,

a lot of that music
was really good.

You can call them classics now.

They're-they're, actually,
in their own way, timeless.

They're-they're
good songs that stand

the test of time.

SABO:
We always looked

at this whole thing

as a gift.

This was not a birthright.

Success is not

something that you're owed.

It's something that you earn,
and it's a gift.

Be humble and grateful
for everything

that comes your way,
the good and the bad.

And this way,
you'll be able to ride that wave

wherever it will take you,

and you'll end up
in the sun again.

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

♪ MTV.♪