In the 1980s, classic rock groups like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and The Who were seen as dinosaurs, and a new sound was spilling out of clubs along LA’s Sunset Strip. It’s known as hair metal — a mix of heavy metal with pop hooks, guitar riffs, and the occasional ambitious power ballad. The young performers dominating the scene teased their hair, wore makeup, and squeezed into tight, flashy costumes. They also partied hard. It was also a time of betrayal, ego, and loss. The era is the subject of a new documentary series from Jeff Tremaine called Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored Story of ‘80s Hair Metal.
Tremaine traces the origins of hair metal to Van Halen, a band that launched off the Sunset Strip. Other bands quickly followed, including Quiet Riot, W.A.S.P., and Great White.
Core to these bands’ presence — beyond the music — was their look, which emulated classic rock legends. Trouble was, they didn’t have the same swagger and admittedly looked a bit tacky, says Tracii Guns, guitarist for the L.A. Guns and an original member of Guns N’ Roses.
So the rockers took a different aesthetic approach: “The more we looked like good looking girls, well, the more good looking girls liked us,” Guns tells KCRW. And while they might have looked feminine, they were very misogynistic, Guns says.
Eventually, the band that brought everything together was Mötley Crüe, Guns posits: “You had this punk attitude, very loud heavy metal music. But also the songs were palatable. They were really good songs that you could sing along to and they were sexy. And [in] 1981-82, cocaine was popular, man. … We went out of the dark ages of punk rock and heroin into this cocaine-fueled community of really horny people, and Mötley Crüe was the spearhead of that.”
The Rainbow Bar and Grill was a popular spot after gigs, Guns says, and that would lead to after-hours house parties filled with drugs and other vices.
“The main attraction was cocaine, and men making fools of themselves and women making fools of themselves, but ultimately having a great time.”
He continues, “The thing about it was that cocaine was so illegal. It wasn't this casual thing, there was a certain danger in these people carrying around 8 balls of cocaine all the time. They could go to jail for 10, 20, years at the drop of a dime. So I think half of the game was getting away with it.”
The drug scene was part of what pushed Guns to quit Guns N’ Roses: “I saw cocaine and I was like, ‘I’m out of here!’”
Guns continues, “The first one to go was Todd Crew. He was the bass player from Jetboy, and he was with Slash in New York. And they were getting high and he OD’d. It just sent shockwaves through LA. ... The crazy thing is, you could still go to the Rainbow and see my guys and older still hanging out there, all dressed up like it's 1983-84, holding on to that fantasy.”
Today, the guitarist has no regrets. Guns recalls the moment “Sweet Child O’ Mine” became a smash hit.
“I was so excited about it because I knew that not only is my name attached to it, but it's going to be good for the whole environment that a newer band that wasn't Mötley Crüe had busted through big time, which just added years onto everybody else's careers, including Mötley Crüe, including RATT. The success of Guns N’ Roses definitely was beneficial to everybody.”
But almost overnight, the fervor for hair metal disappeared, and fans quickly pivoted towards grunge.
Tremaine refers to one concert by New Jersey band Trixter that drew enough attendees to fill the Arco Arena in Sacramento in 1991: “They're there exactly one year later with KISS and there's 1,500 people in a 20,000 seat arena. … You're like, ‘Holy crap. It looks completely empty.’”
That shift, however, represents what’s great about rock and roll, Guns says.
“It's the same story. It's just a different costume. … The way that I looked at it was: It cleaned out a lot of that pop trap that was passing as heavy rock, right? The real guys, Guns N’ Roses, AC/DC, they were affected for a minute, and then, bam, they're right back on top.”
Guns adds, “If Layne Staley [of Alice in Chains] didn't die, if Kurt Cobain didn’t die, those guys would be huge. They're the originators of a sound, let's just say. … Rock and roll is always the same. Stories are the same. It's just different people, different costumes, different areas. I love it all.”