'Nothin' But A Good Time: The Uncensored Story of '80s Hair Metal' Part III
Saturday, September 21, 2024 at 11:00AM "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]