The Scorpions Celebrate 60th Anniversary With Las Vegas Residency

It feels crazy to say, but The Scorpions are about to celebrate 60 years as a band! The residency will take place at Planet Hollywood from February 27 and March 1-11. Tickets go on sale Saturday.

Extreme, 'Save Me' -- New Video

Extreme has released a powerful new video for their track "Save Me" off their album SIX. Of the dark and claustrophobic nature of the video, guitarist (and clip director) Nuno Bettencourt explains:

“This video was shot with a very claustrophobic feel to show the raw emotion of the heavy subject matter of the song. It was important to shoot it this way to create a lack of oxygen in a black void as if 'we' are the voices in your heads… in our own heads, to visually put across the psychological battle of whispers and screams we have all dealt with in coping with life’s challenges.

Gary’s schizophrenic vocals in the verses is the dark narrator in our heads, taunting and pushing us to a dangerous edge… whereas in the refrain, his impassioned plea— 'Save me from myself / Save me from this hell…' —is our voice that is screaming in our heads but often painfully silent on the outside.

The viewer sometimes can’t tell where one face ends and the other begins. Like we are small pieces of a human jigsaw puzzle… with one rule… that we will never see the full finished puzzle. Of our full selves."

'Nothin' But A Good Time: The Uncensored Story of '80s Hair Metal' Part III

"The Final Chapter" is how Nothin' But A Good Time: The Uncensored Story of '80s Hair Metal ends.

There's interviews with Brian Forsythe of KIX (you know I love him), Warren DiMartini, Stevie Rachelle of Tuff and more. This section obviously focuses on the end of the Sunset Strip party, the introduction of grunge to the world and the surprise resurgence of Glam in the early 2000s (this site started in 2006).

Bret Michaels goes over the famous fight he had with C.C. DeVille backstage at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1991 and there's a long look at the drug and alcohol addictions of many bands. Honestly the pre-performance interviews with Bret and C.C. for MTV were cringeworthy because C.C. was so clearly drugged out of his mind. I'm glad the doc included those interviews - the female reporter was frustrated the entire time and getting more so as arguments between the two Poison members raged on.

RATT guitarist DiMartini didn't really want to talk about Robbin Crosby's heroin addiction, but he eventually did and it was pretty heart-wrenching. Fosythe talked about his own addictions, smoking crack ("the worst!"), being arrested and having to get a day job after the party stopped.

My favorite part of this final section of the documentary was Nuno Bettencourt's "Sebastian Bach story." Extreme and Skid Row were on a flight back from playing a gig together. Bach is drunk, the flight attendant cuts him off, he isn't having it and finds more booze... and chaos ensues. There's a fight, a physical interaction with the pilot and an old couple even gets involved. You need to watch just for this story - and the animations - alone, trust me!

Oh and there's a Beavis and Butt-Head Winger section too.

Reflecting on Glam music all these years later - and the rise of grunge - I have pretty much decided that Nirvana didn't kill the scene. The labels killed the scene. Like capitalists often do, they got too greedy and created too many cheap imitations of the real thing, diluted their brand and it all came crashing down.

Hindsight being 20/20, you have to believe big time music execs from that era probably wished they had passed on signing some of the third and fourth tier bands and instead put more energy into the continued creative development of acts like Poison and RATT. The right marketing and songwriting advice could have seen the best bands of the era keep right on plugging with big songs and videos all through the 90s. Instead, the baby was thrown out with the bath water and it was time to chase the latest new trend. Still, remember this: glam had more than a decade and true grunge basically had less than five years. I said what I said.

[RELATED: Part two recap and review]

Metallica To Headline Two Nights Of Sonic Temple Festival

It's all happening! Metallica will headline the Friday and Sunday nights of Sonic Temple Festival in Columbus, Ohio this coming May. It's a no repeat weekend! Their support will be Rob Zombie on Friday night and Alice in Chains on Sunday.

Earlier today, Sonic Temple organizers announced that Killswitch Engage would also appear. Bands will be announced regularly for the next few months. Organizers promise the biggest fest ever.

Tickets go on sale next week. The festival is set for May 8,9,10 and 11 at historic Crew Stadium.

'Nothin' But A Good Time: The Uncensored Story of '80s Hair Metal' Part II

Part two of Nothin’ But A Good Time: The Uncensored Story of '80s Hair Metal picks up right where segment one left off. Called “The Second Wave,” the middle years of the Sunset Strip hey day are covered, including a look at workhorses Poison and the rise of Guns n’ Roses.

[RELATED: Part One recap and review]

Bret Michaels is actually a featured interview in this segment, making him one of the biggest names from the era to appear in the film. There’s also interviews from Don Dokken and Phil Collen of Def Leppard. 

Bret talks about writing “Every Rose Has Its Thorn,” the famous green paper that Poison got a great deal on to flyer the town and explained how Poison would always go back to the Strip at 4 a.m. and cover up ads from other bands.

Warrant’s Steven Sweet talks about power ballads and says he likes more than one on an album. He also admits the video for “Cherry Pie” was (is) misogynistic (no kidding). There’s plenty of “How did we let them [male artists] get away with this?” questioning going on and a recognition that it was nearly impossible for female rockers to get record deals at the time. Vixen is featured in this segment, explaining some of that frustration.

Filmmaker Penelope Spheeris and Riki Rachtman also add commentary, with Rachtman especially talking about the crazy club scene and his own Cathouse (shared with Taime Downe of Faster Pussycat fame). I’ve always wondered where Rachtman and Downe got the money to open Cathouse considering they were roomies at the time and thus splitting living costs. Anyway, there’s an animation of the famous fight between Axl Rose and David Bowie that went down at the Cathouse… with Axl chasing Bowie out the door and down the road.

Surprisingly, this middle section of the documentary features a nice segment on Hanoi Rocks, an interview with singer Michael Monroe and recap of Vince Neil’s car accident that killed Hanoi drummer Razzle. Hanoi Rocks did have an outsized impact on the Glam bands we love – but it seems they are forgotten in a lot of 80s retrospectives. It was good to see them included here.

Another fun 45 minutes. Stream it on Paramount+.

Stream It: 'Nothin’ But A Good Time: The Uncensored Story of ‘80s Hair Metal' Part 1

The three-part documentary, Nothin’ But A Good Time: The Uncensored Story of ‘80s Hair Metal finally premiered on Paramount+ yesterday! I watched part one and I was more entertained than I had expected. The documentary is based on the non-fiction book of the same name and does feature commentary by authors Tom Beaujour and Richard Bienstock. The doc is directed by Jeff Tremaine.

Not surprisingly, most of part 1 hinges on the very early beginnings of Sunset Strip glam. In fact, this section is simply called “The Sunset Strip.” There’s a look back at how rock was struggling in the 70s and how record labels were obsessed with new wave acts. Motley Crue and Quiet Riot get a huge portion of this first section since they were pioneers of the look and lifestyle of the heyday. WASP also gets a nice bit of airplay, even interviewing an individual who helped Blackie Lawless develop his saw-like costume pieces. They really were (are!?!) made of metal and developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory!

The series is smart in using cartoons to illustrate stories that have no video, like Jack Russell’s criminal history and incarceration for robbery and shooting a woman (she didn’t die) to Motley Crue biting all sorts of people like Eddie Van Halen.

There are musician interviews of course but also commentary from insiders like Tom Zutaut, Alan Niven and Doc McGhee – the usual suspects as it were.

Part one is about 45 minutes long. I didn’t check but I will assume the other two parts clock in at around the same. I am looking forward to watching part two, which I believe focuses a lot on Poison and is called “The Second Wave.”

Rikki Rockett Announces New Band

The Rockett Mafia is the new band by Poison's drummer Rikki Rockett. The band also features Brandon Gibbs (Hoekstra/Gibbs), Mick Sweda (BulletBoys) and Bryan Kimes.

No more details are available yet but I assume we'll get new music and some shows out of this. Hopefully soon!