June 1985

QUIET RIOT

CREEM CLOSE-UP

DEE SNIDER OF TWISTED SISTER

CHAINMAIL

BUT ED. LIKES PEOPLE WITH HIS NAME I’m sick of you people praising Edward Van Halen. I think he plays guitar like an amateur. If you want to write about excellent guitarists, write about Ritchie Blackmore, not Edward Van Halen!! Kerri Price Purple City, IL

SAMMY HAGAR

REFLECTIONS OF METALLICA

David Keeps

“Hey,” drummer and band spokesman Lars Ulrich hollers, “where the fuck are we?”

Bullets

Anne Leighton

By talking to METAL, Madam X’s lead singer Bret Kaiser is avoiding soundcheck. “Soundchecks are a bitch. You have to get up there and sing early. My voice doesn’t wake up till 11 at night.” That’s when this coed band is scheduled to perform their 90-minute set—which includes some literal headbanging from bassist Chris Doliber.

METAL Q & A W.A.S.T.E. NOT, W.A.S.P. NOT

J. Kordosh

This month we talked to Blackie Lawless of W.A.S.P. instead. Blackie takes us from his stint with the re-formed New York Dolls to his eventual welldeserved fame with W.A.S.P. with the outspoken candor we’ve come to expect from him.

DIO ON DIO

Gary Graff

Holy Spinal Tap, Batman! Here we are at the Dio concert in Fort Wayne, or is it Cincinnati? Anyhoo, it’s somewhere in the vast Midwest, and these guys have been on the road too long for us to keep track anyway. But there’s something definitely wrong up on that stage.

BOY HOWDY'S HEAVY 101 NOW MAKE WAY FOR EL KABUS! OR 87...59...9...WHATEVER!

Rick Johnson

A couple of years ago, CREEM put out an entire magazine call-ed Heavy 100. "A guide to who's hot!" cried the ever-imaginative cover headline. It was a wonder-ful idea—right up there with Eureka Vacuum's new four-way Dial-A-Nap—and it sold more than 14 copies nationwide.

METALSHOP: THE ONE-SENSE SALE IS HERE!

John Neilson

This may come as a surprise to a lot of CREEM readers in Detroit and elsewhere, but there are places in this country where there is very little metal on the radio! Now some of you may be shocked by this, some may not have heard me through the cotton in your ears, and some of you may be on your way to the bus station already, but if you’ve just started packing—stop! For even in the most (or least) civilized parts of this country, there is really no escape from the fangs of metal.

PEARCYING INSIGHTS

David Keeps

Stephen Pearcy ambles into the room and sprawls across a less-than-comfy record company chair. Gently stroking the can of his best friend and most frequent conversational reference point, Mr. Bud M. Weiser, he peers out from beneath a pair of Mom-bought-’em-for-me sunglasses and that trademark hair thang, ready for anything.

RATT

GREAT MOMENTS IN METAL

Anastasia Finn

JULY 14, 1945 Tiny Ian Kilminster—later to be renamed Lemmy and to play bass in the group Motorhead—emerges wailing from the womb somewhere in Wales. A crack team of obstetricians works around the clock to push him back in, but to no avail. AUGUST 14, 1948

MR. BLACKMAIL'S GUIDE TO HEAVY METAL STYLE

Toby Goldstein

Congratulations, metalhead! So you’ve finally mastered those three tricky guitar chords, adjusted the master volume on the Marshall to 11, and memorized 72 words that rhyme with “blood beast.” The moon-baying is coming along nicely, an entire three-block radius surrounding your house has invested in several cartons of ear plugs, and you’ve been offered a choice selection of nearby fallout shelters in which to—excuse the expression—practice.

RECORDS

Joe Fernbacher

DAVID LEE ROTH Crazy From The Heat (Warner Bros.) Cookouts in the Year of the Weenie were always fun and this one was proving no exception: Gene Rayburn was there; Art James too, Richard Dawson was smooching everyone in sight and having it all videotaped, seems he had some big deal going with a vid-bootlegger in Iran; Charles Nelson Reilly, eyes all atwinkle, was brandishing braided whips composed entirely of blonde human hair in each slug-like hand as he nervously extolled the eco-biologic impact of Paul Newman's latest culinary incursion—designer beets—other celebs and cherubs were huddled about in a great anticipatory puddle anxiously awaiting the arrival of the great god Monty, whose Lear Jet was presently screaming through the skies over the Midwest with the great god himself safely tucked away inside grinning and nudging a herd of doom-nymphs as he titillated them with sexridden sin tales of what just EXACTLY went on behind Door No. 4, all the while in the back of his mind trying to deal with the idea of this cookout he was being whisked away to.

BRITMETAL:Noose& Gossip

Sylvie Simmons

ELP’s life made EL drama! The Deep Purple reunion has, as you know, inspired each one of us in our own, personal way; so no great surprise when Emerson, Lake & Palmer, last heard of over five years ago, decided to make a comeback. But the fly in the ointment, smoke on the water, etc., was drummer Carl Palmer, quite cozy thank you in Asia (of course the same can’t be said for Steve Howe, who's upped and left and formed a band with Steve Hackett—but I digress).

INTO THE VIDEO VOID

Richard Riegel

I can’t believe it. I can’t believe how much lower the state of MTV’s programming has fallen since I did my last video column just three months ago. I had always feared that MTV would follow FM rock radio’s overnight decline from underground sensation to hidebound establishment, but like an acne chain run amok, MTV has squeezed out wholly new globs of conservative pus in recent weeks.

IRON MAIDEN ALL QUESTIONS ANSWERED!

Did you know that Iron Maiden is probably the best group in the world? Of course you did. But did you also know that Iron Maiden know everything in the world? “How could that be?” you might ask and—of course—we don’t know. But Iron Maiden sure does.

MAGNETS

Coming up next month in METAL ROCK 'N' ROLL: all the stories you've asked for! A complete musical and sociological history of TWISTED SISTER, from New York dirtbags to metal superstars, in the band's own words!! An update on MOTLEY CRUE. featuring an interview with the ever-handsome MICK MARS!