So I finally watched The Decline of Western Civilisation Part II

[Bono Nettencourt]

The movie didn't "kill" hair metal, it was just a window into how big a fad it had become. The glut of C and D bands that got signed in 89-90 killed it. It ran its course before middle America even knew who blowbrains was.

I’ve read that for years. But compared to the miserable, suicidal, heroin addicts we got a half a dozen years later, were the C and D level hairbands really that bad? I don’t remember hearing about Phil Lewis, Kip Winger, Stephen Shareaux, Davy Vain or Danny Vaughan coming on three hours late (if Axl came on at all) or jumping into the crowd and beating photographers or fans up even when they did deserve it.

The Grunge movement became just as big of a fad in a shorter amount of time. The irony of it is, their were bummed out about the death of their good friend who was a glam guy.

The same issues, substance abuse, personal challenges appeared among the hairbands...as they appear with genre of music, art and in life in general in any age and time. It is not that "being miserable", self destructive addict is tied to a certain genre of popular music.

Yeah there were plenty of alkies and junkies in hair metal too, too many to list here.

[Ozzy Stradlin]

Majority will remember Nadir D’Priest and Randy O more than any of the bands that had one album major deals.

Randy O. did get a record deal, and put out an album on Atlantic (which Jeff Duncan also played on):

https://youtu.be/87onZHrZH94?si=4sSrhpjd37d4a7NX

[Tommy2Tone84]

The movie didn't "kill" hair metal, it was just a window into how big a fad it had become. The glut of C and D bands that got signed in 89-90 killed it. It ran its course before middle America even knew who blowbrains was.

I’ve read that for years. But compared to the miserable, suicidal, heroin addicts we got a half a dozen years later, were the C and D level hairbands really that bad? I don’t remember hearing about Phil Lewis, Kip Winger, Stephen Shareaux, Davy Vain or Danny Vaughan coming on three hours late (if Axl came on at all) or jumping into the crowd and beating photographers or fans up even when they did deserve it.

The Grunge movement became just as big of a fad in a shorter amount of time. The irony of it is, their were bummed out about the death of their good friend who was a glam guy.

The same issues, substance abuse, personal challenges appeared among the hairbands...as they appear with genre of music, art and in life in general in any age and time. It is not that "being miserable", self destructive addict is tied to a certain genre of popular music.

Comparatively, there were not suicidal heroin addicts in the hairband genre who complained about their jobs and then shot themselves in the face over it. That was all grunge and it was absurdly pathetic. Then you had guys like Layne and Scott who just shot up drugs until they finally hit their intended destination, death’s door. They were bigger attention whores than the guys in Poison just in a different way.


Compare that behavior to Izzy Stradlin who was an admitted heroin addict and walked away from everything in order to live.

Izzy > Seattle

There was ego, personality problems, grandstanding, and self aggrandizement in the hairband genre but not like the Seattle scene.
The hairbands celebrated life the grunge guys complained about it to be edgy.

[Bono Nettencourt]

The grunge guys made more $ so they could afford the good drugs! You can't afford the good drugs if you're sleeping in a Ryder truck.

BOOM!