99 Fun Facts About 80s Hair Band

Which band recorded Metal Health (1983), the first heavy metal album to top the Billboard 200?

Quiet Riot: its cover single's climb to No. 5 helped carry the album past The Police's Synchronicity to No. 1 in November 1983.

Which English group originally recorded 'Cum On Feel the Noize', a 1973 UK No.1 covered into a US hit in 1983?

Slade: their original stalled at No. 98 in America, while the 1983 cover climbed all the way to No. 5 on the Hot 100.

Before moving to Los Angeles, Poison started out in Mechanicsburg, a town in which US state?

Pennsylvania: the band, first called Paris, had a local following there but saw no bigger break coming, so it headed west.

Which future Guns N' Roses guitarist auditioned for Poison but lost the lead guitar spot to C.C. DeVille?

Slash: the job went to New Yorker DeVille, who brought along his own song 'Talk Dirty to Me', which became a Poison hit.

Which Poison ballad did Bret Michaels write in a Dallas laundromat after phoning his girlfriend?

Every Rose Has Its Thorn: on the call he heard a man's voice in the background, and the song went on to top the Hot 100.

Def Leppard formed in which English city?

Sheffield: Joe Elliott met the band's guitarist after missing his bus home, offered to join on guitar, and became the singer instead.

Def Leppard's 'Pour Some Sugar on Me' stalled at No. 2, but which Hysteria single became their only US No. 1?

Love Bites: producer Mutt Lange first brought it to the band as a country-style ballad.

Where was the August 1986 Monsters of Rock festival, one-armed drummer Rick Allen's first major concert since his accident?

Castle Donington: Allen had lost his left arm in a car crash on New Year's Eve 1984, and he played an electronic kit with extra foot pedals.

Which keyboard-driven 1984 single gave Van Halen its only Billboard Hot 100 No. 1?

Eddie Van Halen wrote the synth line around 1981 but the rest of the band rejected it for years; it was played on an Oberheim OB-Xa.

Van Halen's album 1984 peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, held off the top by which record?

Thriller: the album holding Van Halen at No. 2 carried Eddie Van Halen's own guitar solo, on 'Beat It'.

Which former Montrose singer replaced David Lee Roth as Van Halen's frontman in 1985?

Sammy Hagar: Eddie Van Halen found him through a car mechanic, who suggested that one of his customers would be ideal for the job.

Before becoming Van Halen, the Van Halen brothers' band called itself Genesis and then which name?

Mammoth: as boys Eddie started on drums and Alex on guitar, until Eddie told his brother to take the kit and he would play guitar.

Which 1984 single was Twisted Sister's only Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100?

We're Not Gonna Take It: its melody draws on the Christmas carol 'O Come, All Ye Faithful'.

Which Twisted Sister frontman testified against the PMRC's warning labels at a 1985 Senate hearing?

Dee Snider: he told senators that 'Under the Blade' was about the fear of surgery, and that any sadomasochism in it was in Tipper Gore's mind.

Twisted Sister made its name in Long Island clubs, but its roots were in Ho-Ho-Kus, in which state?

New Jersey: American labels kept refusing to sign the band, so its first record deal came in Britain instead.

On which 1982 Whitesnake album did 'Here I Go Again' first appear?

Saints & Sinners: the original only reached No. 34 in the UK and was not released as a US single, but the 1987 re-recording went to No. 1 in America.

Which band did David Coverdale quit in 1976, before going on to form Whitesnake?

Deep Purple: Coverdale had joined them in 1973 as an unknown, going straight from selling clothes in a North Yorkshire boutique to fronting the band.

Which model on the cover of Ratt's 1984 debut Out of the Cellar went on to star in Whitesnake's 1987 videos?

Tawny Kitaen: she was dating Ratt guitarist Robbin Crosby when she posed for the band, and she married Whitesnake's David Coverdale in 1989.

Which veteran comedian appeared in drag in Ratt's 1984 'Round and Round' video?

Milton Berle: his nephew Marshall Berle managed Ratt and got the TV legend into the video, where he played both the head of the house and a matron.

Dokken's 1987 single 'Dream Warriors' was recorded for the soundtrack of which horror sequel?

The video had the band interacting with the film's characters, and the single reached No. 22.

Dokken recorded its debut album, Breaking the Chains, in 1981 in which country?

Germany: the album first came out as a Don Dokken solo album, and was only later reissued under the band's name.

The band Europe, of 'The Final Countdown' fame, comes from which country?

Sweden: the band's first two albums did well only at home, until a 1985 deal with Epic Records took them worldwide.

Joey Tempest's lyrics for 'The Final Countdown' were inspired by which David Bowie song?

Space Oddity: Tempest wrote the song as a grand opener for concerts, and the band never expected it to become a hit.

Future W.A.S.P. frontman Blackie Lawless briefly played guitar for which glam act on a 1975 Florida tour?

New York Dolls: after the tour he went to Los Angeles with Dolls bassist Arthur Kane and helped start the Killer Kane Band.

Which W.A.S.P. guitarist is interviewed drunk in a pool, mother beside him, in The Decline of Western Civilization II?

Chris Holmes: he insists the scene wasn't faked, though director Penelope Spheeris later said he had been refilling the vodka bottle with pool water.

Great White's biggest hit, 'Once Bitten, Twice Shy', was a cover of a UK single by which artist?

Ian Hunter: Great White had already called their 1987 album Once Bitten, and they titled the follow-up ...Twice Shy and put the cover on it.

Before it became Great White, the band performed under which name?

Dante Fox: after its 1984 debut on EMI, the renamed band had to release its next album independently, until Capitol signed it and reissued the record.

Which 1991 Skid Row album was the first to debut at No. 1 after Billboard began using SoundScan sales data?

Slave to the Grind: SoundScan's point-of-sale counts made No. 1 debuts common, where before 1991 only a handful of albums had managed one.

Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach, raised in Peterborough, Ontario, was born in which country?

The Bahamas: at 18 he was heard singing at rock photographer Mark Weiss's wedding, and that led to him joining Skid Row in 1987.

Skid Row's management reportedly paid $35,000 to which guitarist for the rights to the band name?

Gary Moore: the name belonged to his 1960s Irish band Skid Row, where he had played alongside a young Phil Lynott before Thin Lizzy.

Which 1987 debut album overtook Boston's in 2008 to become the best-selling debut album in the US?

Appetite for Destruction: it drew little notice on release, and only took off a year later once its singles got radio and MTV airplay.

Axl Rose's girlfriend Erin, subject of 'Sweet Child o' Mine', was the daughter of one half of which duo?

The Everly Brothers: Erin Everly, Don Everly's daughter, appears in the song's video, and she married Axl Rose in Las Vegas in 1990.

Bon Jovi named Slippery When Wet after visiting what kind of establishment in Vancouver?

an exotic dance club: the band's first cover, a woman in a wet T-shirt, was swapped just before release for a wet garbage bag.

Vince Neil was fronting which band when Mötley Crüe discovered him in 1981?

Rock Candy: Neil was fronting the Cheap Trick cover band when his old high school friend Tommy Lee approached him about joining.

What was the nickname of the Hanoi Rocks drummer killed in Vince Neil's 1984 car crash?

Razzle: Nicholas 'Razzle' Dingley died as Neil's passenger when the singer crashed his Pantera, and Neil was ordered to pay $2.6 million to the victims.

Which 1989 album, made after Mötley Crüe got sober, is the band's only Billboard 200 number one?

Dr. Feelgood: though the band had just got sober, Nikki Sixx wrote the title track about his drug dealers.

Nikki Sixx wrote 'Kickstart My Heart' about surviving what?

a heroin overdose: Sixx was revived in December 1987, and within weeks he entered rehab, with the whole band soon following him.

Mötley Crüe's Shout at the Devil (1983) covers 'Helter Skelter', originally by which band?

The Beatles: Paul McCartney wrote it to out-roar The Who after Pete Townshend called one of their singles the loudest, dirtiest thing they had done.

What was Warrant's second album going to be titled before it became Cherry Pie?

Uncle Tom's Cabin: when Columbia's president asked for one more anthem, Jani Lane wrote 'Cherry Pie', and it took over the album's title.

Which band's T-shirt did wimpy neighbour Stewart wear on Beavis and Butt-Head?

Winger: the band blamed the running joke for hurting its career, though Kip Winger later made peace with the show's creator, Mike Judge.

Which VJ became the long-running host of MTV's Headbangers Ball after Kevin Seal and Adam Curry?

Riki Rachtman: the show he took over was popular enough to spawn a 1989 tour with Anthrax, Exodus and Helloween.

Which grunge band's major-label debut reached No. 1 on Billboard's album chart in January 1992?

Nirvana: even its own label hadn't seen it coming, having hoped only for modest sales, so the album's rise to the top was a surprise.

Which Sunset Strip club, run by a gangster-costumed owner, featured Van Halen nightly in the late 1970s?

The Doors were also a house band there before signing; Poison, Warrant and Guns N' Roses all played it on the way up.

Which Sunset Strip club, opened in 1964, hired the Doors as its house band?

Whisky a Go Go: as co-founder Elmer Valentine told it, the female DJ he put above the floor started dancing, and the club helped popularize go-go dancing.

The glam-metal jukebox musical Rock of Ages is set in which Sunset Strip club?

The Bourbon Room: in the story, a German developer threatens to tear down the Sunset Strip, the club included.

The August 1989 Moscow Music Peace Festival, organised by manager Doc McGhee, was held at which venue?

Central Lenin Stadium: the festival there inspired Scorpions singer Klaus Meine to write 'Wind of Change'.

Christian metal band Stryper's name references 'with his stripes we are healed', a verse from which book of the Bible?

Isaiah: at concerts the band also threw Bibles into the crowd, a trademark alongside its yellow-and-black stripes.

All-female glam metal band Vixen, of 'Edge of a Broken Heart', started out in which city before moving to Los Angeles?

Saint Paul, Minnesota: an early version of the band appeared in the 1984 film Hardbodies, playing an on-screen band called Diaper Rash.

Lita Ford's biggest hit, the 1989 ballad 'Close My Eyes Forever', was a duet with which singer?

Ozzy Osbourne: Ford was then managed by his wife, Sharon, and he says he told Ford she could have the song and he wanted nothing from it.

Which Dynasty actress married Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee and later Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora?

Heather Locklear, who for years shot Dynasty and the police drama T.J. Hooker at the same time, married the guitarist in Paris after her divorce from the drummer.

Van Halen's concert rider banned which colour of M&M's, as a test of whether promoters had read it?

Brown M&M's in the bowl warned the band that a promoter had skimmed the contract, so the crew would recheck the technical set-up or even cancel the show.

Which Michael Jackson hit features a guitar solo that Eddie Van Halen recorded free of charge in two takes?

Beat It got its solo after producer Quincy Jones phoned the guitarist, who at first thought he was receiving a prank call.

In Whitesnake's 1987 'Here I Go Again' video, a model cartwheels across the hoods of two cars of which make?

Jaguar XJs, one white and one black, belonged to singer David Coverdale and director Marty Callner, and the model's moves on them were unchoreographed.

Which actor played fading rock god Stacee Jaxx when the hair-metal musical Rock of Ages reached cinemas in 2012?

Tom Cruise sang five hours a day to prepare and did his own vocals in the film, including 'Pour Some Sugar on Me' and 'Wanted Dead or Alive'.

Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach played Gil, guitarist in Lane Kim's band Hep Alien, on which TV series?

Gilmore Girls kept him as a recurring guest from 2003 to 2007; in 2003 he had auditioned for the supergroup Velvet Revolver and been turned down.

Which tech pioneer bankrolled the 1983 US Festival, where Van Halen was reportedly paid $1.5 million?

Steve Wozniak, creator of the Apple I and II, paid for a new open-air venue and an enormous temporary stage in a California regional park.

Which hairspray brand, a 1960s beehive staple, became synonymous with the teased hair of 1980s glam metal?

Aqua Net, known for its strong hold and distinctive smell, got a second life from big hair and bands like Mötley Crüe and Cinderella.

David Coverdale began Whitesnake's ballad 'Is This Love' after being asked for song ideas for which singer?

Tina Turner never got it: label boss David Geffen heard the demo and told him to keep the song, which then climbed to No. 2 in the US.

David Lee Roth's 1985 solo EP Crazy from the Heat featured a hit cover of which band's 'California Girls'?

The Beach Boys' own Carl Wilson sang backing vocals on the cover, which matched the 1965 original by peaking at No. 3.

Which rock star produced an early Van Halen demo in 1976 and suggested the band rename itself Daddy Longlegs?

Gene Simmons had been urged to see the unsigned band by Rodney Bingenheimer, but Kiss's management decided the group had no chance of making it.

The umlauts in Mötley Crüe's name were reportedly inspired by which beer the band was drinking at the time?

Löwenbräu was what the members were drinking when singer Vince Neil suggested adding the two sets of dots, a purely stylistic touch.

Which Mötley Crüe group memoir, written with journalist Neil Strauss, became a Netflix biopic in 2019?

The Dirt, first published in 2001, lets all four members tell their own versions of the band's formation, rise to fame and lowest points.

Which senator's wife co-founded the PMRC in 1985 after hearing her daughter play a Prince song?

Tipper Gore heard her 11-year-old playing 'Darling Nikki', and the warning label her group campaigned for came to be nicknamed the 'Tipper sticker'.

Poison singer Bret Michaels had 25 women compete to be his girlfriend on which VH1 reality show?

Rock of Love closely resembled Flavor of Love, the dating show it followed onto the channel, and it ran for three seasons.

Lita Ford played lead guitar beside Joan Jett in which all-female band assembled by producer Kim Fowley in 1975?

The Runaways never broke big in America but became a sensation in Japan on the strength of the single 'Cherry Bomb'.

Twisted Sister appears as itself, filming a video on the Warner Bros. backlot, in which 1985 comedy?

Pee-wee's Big Adventure has Pee-wee Herman barge through the shoot, interrupting a fictional video for the band's song 'Burn in Hell'.

Bon Jovi's 'Livin' on a Prayer' riff is played through which guitar effect, a Peter Frampton trademark?

Talk box gave the riff its distinctive sound after guitarist Richie Sambora convinced his doubtful singer that the song was worth reworking.

Which songwriter co-wrote Bon Jovi's 'You Give Love a Bad Name' and Aerosmith's 'Dude (Looks Like a Lady)'?

Desmond Child had already given Kiss the hit 'I Was Made for Lovin' You', and later co-wrote Ricky Martin's 'Livin' la Vida Loca'.

Emilio Estevez reportedly wanted Bon Jovi's 'Wanted Dead or Alive' for which film, but got 'Blaze of Glory' instead?

Young Guns II got a brand-new song because the singer felt the older hit's words, about a band forever on tour, did not suit a Western.

Which 1986 debut album on the independent label Enigma won Poison tours with Ratt and Cinderella?

Look What the Cat Dragged In turned heavy MTV rotation into those tours and a coveted slot at the Texxas Jam in Dallas.

Poison's 1989 Top 10 hit 'Your Mama Don't Dance' was a cover of a 1972 song by which soft-rock duo?

Loggins and Messina took the original to No. 4 in early 1973, six places higher than the glam remake managed.

Which Mötley Crüe ballad topped MTV's daily request chart for so long that the channel changed its rules?

Home Sweet Home led the request line for over three months, until MTV began retiring videos 30 days after their premiere, a policy dubbed the 'Crüe Rule'.

Which producer of Def Leppard's Pyromania and Hysteria later married country star Shania Twain?

Mutt Lange also co-wrote every song on both albums, and had already produced AC/DC's Back in Black.

Which thrash band played its largest show yet at the 1985 Monsters of Rock festival, alongside Bon Jovi and Ratt?

Metallica faced 70,000 people that day in England, months before releasing the album Master of Puppets.

Which Boston band topped the Hot 100 in 1991 with the acoustic ballad 'More Than Words'?

Extreme usually played funk metal, so a ballad built on just two voices and a single acoustic guitar was a sharp departure.

Which Sacramento band, known as City Kidd until its manager objected, made the debut album Mechanical Resonance?

Tesla took the name of inventor Nikola Tesla, whose life also supplied several of the band's album and song titles.

Which Hanover band went double platinum in America with Love at First Sting and 'Rock You Like a Hurricane'?

Scorpions had been together since 1965, nearly two decades before heavy MTV airplay for the album's videos made them American stars.

Hanoi Rocks, the glam band whose look and sound shaped Guns N' Roses and Poison, was formed in which country?

Finland was home: the band formed in Helsinki in 1979 and became the first group from the country to chart in the UK.

Christian metal band Stryper painted its outfits, sets and instruments in stripes of which two colours?

Yellow and black even named the band's first release: the 1984 debut EP was titled The Yellow and Black Attack.

Which former Frank Zappa guitarist joined David Lee Roth's solo band for the 1986 album Eat 'Em and Smile?

Steve Vai had started with Zappa at eighteen as a transcriptionist, writing out his most complex music, before the Roth album went platinum.

Which Ratt frontman started the band in San Diego in the 1970s under the name Mickey Ratt?

Stephen Pearcy wrote most of the early material himself and moved the group north to Los Angeles and Hollywood in 1980.

Which Cinderella frontman lost his voice to a paralysed vocal cord after the Heartbreak Station tour?

Tom Keifer was forced to learn how to sing all over again after repeated surgeries, and eventually began work on a solo album.

Which soft-rock star co-wrote Vixen's 'Edge of a Broken Heart', played keyboards on it and cameoed in the video?

Richard Marx wrote the song with Fee Waybill, frontman of the Tubes, and also co-produced the recording.

Faster Pussycat, formed in Hollywood by singer Taime Downe, took its name from a 1965 film by which director?

Russ Meyer's cult film Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! follows three go-go dancers on a spree of kidnapping and murder in the California desert.

Which director of the 1988 hair-metal documentary The Decline of Western Civilization Part II later made Wayne's World?

Penelope Spheeris scored the highest-grossing film of her career with the Mike Myers comedy, four years after filming the Sunset Strip scene.

Which comedy band, once known as Metal Skool, built a career parodying the 1980s glam metal lifestyle?

Steel Panther formed in 1997 and won its following on the Sunset Strip in the early 2000s, fronted by a singer who goes by Michael Starr.

A lookalike of which film star appears throughout the video for Def Leppard's 1983 hit 'Photograph'?

Marilyn Monroe is often called the song's subject, though singer Joe Elliott says it is broadly about something you can never get your hands on.

W.A.S.P. frontman Blackie Lawless, who tied models to a torture rack on stage, also hurled what into the crowd?

Raw meat was part of a shock-rock act that made the band a very prominent target of the PMRC in the mid-1980s.

Hear 'n Aid's all-star metal single 'Stars', with members of Dokken and Twisted Sister, raised money for which cause?

African famine relief was the aim of the project, born when two members of Dio saw how few metal stars had joined a charity radiothon.

Which supergroup of Ted Nugent, Styx's Tommy Shaw and Night Ranger's Jack Blades hit big with 'High Enough'?

Damn Yankees took the song to No. 3, giving Ted Nugent the first mainstream top ten single of his long career.

Dokken split in 1989 over creative and personal differences between singer Don Dokken and which lead guitarist?

George Lynch answered the break-up by forming his own band, Lynch Mob, with more complex guitar parts and a different tuning.

Which former Whitesnake guitarist joined Def Leppard in 1992, taking the place of the late Steve Clark?

Vivian Campbell made his debut with the band at a Dublin club show, then played the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert a week later.

Which Skid Row guitarist was Bon Jovi's original lead guitarist in 1983, before Richie Sambora replaced him?

Dave Sabo grew up in the same neighbourhood as Bon Jovi's singer, who later helped Skid Row land its record deal with Atlantic.

Mark Slaughter and Dana Strum formed Slaughter after leaving the band of which former Kiss guitarist?

Vinnie Vincent fired the bassist amid complaints that he dominated the project, the singer left with him, and their new band went on to success.

Mötley Crüe's first Top 40 hit, 'Smokin' in the Boys Room', was a cover of a 1973 single by which band?

Brownsville Station took the original to No. 3 in the US, thirteen places higher than the glam remake's peak of No. 16.

Which writer's 2001 book Fargo Rock City recalls growing up as a glam metal fan in rural North Dakota?

Chuck Klosterman even put metal umlauts over the o's of his home state in the subtitle, A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural Nörth Daköta.

Eddie Van Halen married which actress, the teenage star of the sitcom One Day at a Time, in 1981?

Valerie Bertinelli had joined the sitcom at 15 and won two Golden Globes for playing dutiful daughter Barbara Cooper.

Twins Matthew and Gunnar, whose glam-era band's first single topped the Hot 100, are the sons of which teen idol?

Ricky Nelson's sons put the family in Guinness World Records for No. 1 hits in three successive generations, starting with grandparents Ozzie and Harriet.

White Lion singer Mike Tramp, a teen idol at home before moving to New York, was born and raised in which country?

Denmark even sent him to the 1978 Eurovision Song Contest with his first band, Mabel, years before White Lion existed.