It's funny, isn't it? One of the most popular genres of music in the 80s, "hair metal", is now one for the most maligned and lampooned. But there was a type of musician in those bands, every one of them, that was mostly beyond reproach, even in retrospect.

We laugh at the keening squeals and transvestite-like antics of the lead vocalists.

We hold our noses at the anemic guitar tones and wheedly-wheedly solos.

We shake our heads at the both misogynistic and naive lyrics.

We search liner notes to actually convince ourselves that there was a bassist on these albums.

But the drummers? No one really disses the drummers. To me, that's amazing for several reasons:

1) "Hair metal" or "Butt rock" casts a surprisingly wide stylistic net. Lumping Whitesnake, Poison, and Motley Crue together into a genre is a stretch at best. So it's weird that none of them had a glaringly incompetent percussionist.

2) Bad drums would REALLY stand out on a record, much more than a dead bassline or a clammed vocal.

3) There are not just competent drummers that came from hair metal...some are really, really good. Again, I think that's because of the all-inclusive nature of the term. Cozy Powell, Tommy Lee, Rod Morgenstein (!), etc. But even the less famous ones were decent. Yes, even Tico Torres.

So hats off to the drummers from the 80s...you guys held your own against drum machines, click tracks, and some of the worst songwriting since "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)".

My hair is now short, but about once every other month I put on one of the first two Extreme albums. Does that count as 80's metal?

Not bad, for a pasty-faced white boy.

Peace
Paul K

Great post! I was playing drums back in the 70 and 80's, and on into the 90's, so this post is near and dear to my heart.

Rod Morganstein = hair metal? You must be refering to his stint with Kip Winger rather than his time with The Dixie Dregs. He is one phenomenal drummer, and probably my 2nd biggest drumming influence (behind Neal Peart). But even with his time with Winger, he still did some great drumming...IIRC it was (at least for Winger's more popular songs) much more groove-oriented versus his more fusion-oriented drumming with DD.

Tommy Lee was and still is a great drummer. (That's about the only thing that I like about him though.) I think he was unquestionably the most talented member of Motley Crue.

Does KISS count as hair metal (why, I think so!). KISS had a whole string of great drummers...almost as many as Spinal Tap.

Another great drummer from that era IMO...the fellow from Quiet Riot (Can't recall his name at the moment...Rudy Szarzo? Or was that the vocalist?). There wasn't much impressive drum-wise on their few popular songs, but if you listened to any of the less popular tunes...man, the guy could play that style of music with some fire and passion!

Dave

Of course I was referring to to Rod's tenure in Winger.

Rudy Sarzo was the bassist for Ozzy, Quiet Riot and Whitesnake. The drummer you are referring to is Frankie Banali...quite a stand up guy. His "Behind the Music" story was pretty tragic.

All I can remember of hairband drummers was lots of double bass drum and very little syncopation.

I saw Rod Morgenstein with Jordan Rudess live when they did their Duo project and thought the same thing; Fantastic drummer playing with Winger?!? But if you think about it those are smart business and exposure moves IMO.
Steve Vai did his stint with Whitesnake saying (at the time) "It is what it is."
Everyone that remembers that era (Hair Bands) remembers the "fun" music tongue in cheek as it might have been I like/liked that mix and it will always be a part of my 'music upbringing'.
Quick note though... During Rush's Vapor Trail tour I did see a guy walking around with a POISON hockey jersey on at that concert. A quiet hush fell over that crowd whenever he would walk by...scary, very scary.

Brocko

Two words: Tommy Aldridge.

He was Ozzy and Whitesnake's touring and video drummer. He also worked with Black Oak Arkansas, Pat Travers, and several others whose name escapes me. Last time I saw him he was touring with Ted Nugent.

Other than Morgenstein, Tommy's my fav.

Yes, Frankie Banali was it! Thx, 09. A great drummer that Ozzy had for a short while was Carmine Appice [wait, was it Vinny Appice? I get those two guys mixed up...both were awesome though], and Ozzy did not get along him. As I understand Ozzy said "Carmine left for health reasons...he made me sick!".

Wow, I had no idea so many folks even knew who Rod Morganstein is! He was a big influence on some of the two-handed rides I used to do (and still occasionally do).

One of my nephews is a budding young drummer...I need to turn him onto Rod Morganstein. He's into marching percussion moreso than drumkit at the moment, which is of course not a bad thing. However, unless he actually does music education for a living when he joins the adult world, I have to believe building skills on the drum kit will be more useful to him in the long term than marching quintuplets (his current passion). But we'll see...I encourage him as much as I can regardless...I keep telling his dad to bring him down for a weekend so we can jam!

Dave

I kind of put 80s hair metal in the same category as comic books -- some of it is fun, but don't take it too seriously.

I mean, good grief, Tommy Aldridge used to wear a diaper onstage.

Funny someone mentioned Extreme -- was just listening Three Sides To Every Story in the car last week. Nuno is a totally off-the-hook guitar nutjob. Still sounds good. My seven-year-old (an aspiring guitarist) was really digging it.

Heh...yeah, Nuno Bettencourt (sp?) is a very talented guitarist. I particularly like Extreme's tune "He-Man Woman-Hater"...great groove, a smokin' guitar riff, and fun lyrics with that reference to "The Little Rascals".

Dave

I'm an old time 80's metal head.. But I listened to heavy/thrash/speed metal and not that glam crap that was spewed out by the likes of Poison.. I listened to Maiden, Cliff Burton era Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, King Diamond, etc. Some of those acts were hilarious (King Diamond, where is he hiding the vice grips?) but the music behind them all was outstanding..

I hated glam metal with a passion, though I do respect the common ancestry (sabbath, motor head, old judas priest, etc. even kiss to an extent though they are really the beginning of glam metal) from which both good metal and that horrifying genre of shame known as glam/hair metal.

My hair currently reaches over halfway down my back when pulled straight (naturally curly). Since I was a teenager it's been short only between jobs, long enough to get a job, then it grows back out. I never teased it, sprayed it, or did anything but let it hang like long hair is supposed to.





Oh, and Dave Lombardo for the win!

Cozy Powell kicked drum-butt with Jeff Beck way before the '80s. He sounds really good on the album "Jeff Beck Group" (what I call 'the Orange album') from 1972.

Mmmmmm....drum-butt.

They're not all from the 80's, but:

John "Stumpy" Pepys
Eric Childs
Peter "James" Bond
Mick Shrimpton

I was not big into this genre, but there was a large "mainstream crossover" with lots of these bands appearing on rock radio. In a sense, many rock acts bordered on this (I'm thinking Aerosmith, Billy Squire, etc.).

I confess I have a weak spot for a few Def Leppard songs, and that's partially as a tribute to their drummer Rick Allen, who lost an arm in an accident, but kept playing.

It was Carmine with Ozzy.

While I have nothing against the drummers of that period, I didn't see any of them live (where I'm betting they put on a much better show than what was on the record). Because of this, I was more impressed by the minimalistic alternative-style drummers who would throw the odd snare shot in an out-of-place but very cool spot.

Tom

You have to admire Rick Allen for his persistence and motivation, even if you don't like his playing or the group's music (I actually did). I can only imagine how horrible the guy must have felt after that accident...he drums for a living, and now he's lost an arm. How many of us would just give up under a similar circumstance? Not him, he re-learned how to play drums, using his feet to cover parts that would have been done by his missing hand. His fortitude should be an example to all of us.

Dave

HEY! Wait a minute! I happen to like pina coladas and getting caught in the rain!

Rod Morgenstein also has been playing with Ty Tabor, John Myung, and Derek Sherinian as "Platypus"; and with just Ty and Myung as "The Jelly Jam". The first Jelly Jam album destroys worlds and Morgenstein's completely amazing drumming has a lot to do with that.

Rick Allen was and still is a great drummer in a great band. For as cheesy as some of Def Leppard's music is they did write some ridiculously good music; "Photograph" is one of the best songs ever written. Period.



I don't know anyone who would ever call Slayer or Fantomas "hair metal".

They had hair and played metal!

It must be Hair Metal Month

Did y'all see this thread?

How good are you at recognising Hair Metal bsnds?

I took that hair metal band quiz thing a few weeks ago. I got 100% and that's sad.

LOL! I can't believe I got a 100% - I don't know anything about hair metal. That is just wrong! Cinderella and Whitesnake were pure luck - I have no idea who they are.

I don't think I've ever heard an entire Def Leppard song.

What a bunch of hideous-looking dudes. Men wearing makeup is just wrong. It looks like the singer from Twisted Sister shaves his hands.

I wasn't meaning to indicate he played in any glam bands, but to just indicate he's an often underrated drummer who came up in the 80's metal scene.

I don't think Dave Lombardo has ever been under rated in any discussion regarding drums, that would just be silly.

All rock in the 80's I think was big hair except for the Thrash scene which was big basketball boots and skin tight jeans. I was an 80's Thrasher, I liked what we now refer to as Hair metal but I could not relate to the look at all. I had the Lars Ulrich/Joe Elliot mullet, business up front party at the back!! When Nirvana first popped up, whom at the time I considered a pop band, I shaved my head so as not to be trendy.

I still do like this music, I will be a Metalhead for life I have always found it to be good fun!!

LOL...I too was "mullet boy" in the late 80's/early 90's...here's an old pic from one of the bands, I'm the goof-ball on the left (wish I could still grow my hair that long...it may have been a mullet, but it was halfway down my back...ah, the splendor of youth... :P)

Allow me to take a moment to say, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA [breathe] HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Forget the mullet. Who glued that beaver to your chest!?

Old band photos deserve their own thread. Seriously.

Thats brillant Dave!!!

Just call me "carpet man"...I can clog a shower like no one else...

Love the pic, Dave. Nice pants, too.

Fortunately in my case, very little photographic evidence remains.

To go back up a bit...KISS has only had 3 drummers. Peter Criss, Eric Carr, and Eric Singer.

Personally, I loved the stuff. Loud, but easy to score chicks with. It would be easy to go off and bash the various bands, but I think it's more fair to say they fell under the "Entertainer" banner than the "Serious Musician" banner. Neither one's better than the other, just different.

Hair metal bands always had to have decent drummers--much of the music wound up as pole-swinging fodder for strip clubs.

Not for nothing, people, but, as a band, you could do a lot worse than being the composer of music that women choose to use while taking off their clothes for money.

So, I'm not hating on Motley Crue for "Girls, Girls, Girls" or Poison for "Talk Dirty to Me" or Warrant for "Cherry Pie" or Skid Row for "Youth Gone Wild" or... hell, anyone.

But, having said this... I am quite pleased to say that I never went through a "glam" phase, and there are no compromising pics of me wearing spandex, make-up or a mullet. But I always have been dead sexxxxay, nonetheless.