A Look Back At The Glory Days Of 1980s Metal Magazines
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Kiss was actually always the easiest act to interview, although there was always the danger of being hit on by The Tongue, Gene Simmons. And they were part of one of my best-ever afternoons of all time: backstage in the press lounge at the 1988 Monsters Of Rock show at Giants Stadium with the late Eric Carr, who drew a lot of cute caricatures of his rock star friends for myself and my colleagues from Rock Scene. It made up for the fact that we could not find our car in the giant parking lot for six hours after the show ended.<br/>Kiss also knew how to throw a good party, and they were one of the last bands to have one at the Playboy Club in Manhattan right before it closed. It was that night that Gene Simmons twirled me around like a ballerina... which led to me falling on my face on the dance floor in my four-inch heels. This was a time when record labels had money to spend, and the parties they fronted for metal bands were pretty opulent. <br>(Courtesy of Anne Raso)
On occasion, metal stars tried to make their foray into films. Back in the summer of 1985, I went on the set of <em>Trick Or Treat</em> at the Dino DeLaurentiis Studios in North Carolina where Gene Simmons kept journalists waiting for hours as we drained bottles of cheap wine. This junket of more than a dozen rock writers from NYC and L.A. came down to party in a big way, but there seemed to be a lack of food.<br/>The cheesy mystery flick co-starred former Solid Gold dancer Tony Fields as a satanic rock star, as well as John Stamos and Ozzy Osbourne. Due to inebriation or Simmons hating Creem Magazine for never taking Kiss seriously, a fight broke out between him and Creem journo Roy Trakin, who was then asked to leave the room. <br>(Courtesy of Anne Raso)
The metal scene kept going strong all the way up to the advent of grunge circa 1993. I remember going to the opening of Alice Cooper's spook house Madison Scare Garden and getting the secrets of how each creepy attraction worked from the man himself. <br>(Courtesy of Anne Raso)
More from Alice Cooper's Madison Scare Garden.<br>(Courtesy of Anne Raso)
Many years after our first meeting, I got to hold Alice Cooper's albino snake named Cucina Clutter at the 2011 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Awards at the Waldorf while he made the press rounds backstage. <br>(Courtesy of Anne Raso)
With guitarist Michael Powers.<br>(Courtesy of Anne Raso)
I got to interview Ozzy Osbourne every few months and he was always one of my favorite people to talk to. Long before he was America's Favorite Dad courtesy of an MTV reality series, he was just a hysterical and somewhat wacky Godfather Of Metal; posing for photos in drag and peeing on the Alamo. But during one interview, held in his elegant Peninsula Hotel suite, the conversation turned dark. The rock legend, clad in a burgundy silk robe, ascot and embroidered velvet slippers, told me in the middle of a talk about future career plans that he was going to climb out on the ledge and jump with me as the witness. It was unclear if he was serious, though he obviously did not do it, but that week he had apparently broken his sobriety. Sharon had disappeared, and there were about eight empty bottles of fancy French wine on a tray outside his suite for room service to pick up as I walked in. I was not sure he was being real with me but he told me why he wanted to end his life for about ten minutes and I was at a loss for words. When I saw him next (I think on the set of Crazy Train video where freaks were hired as extras) none of the Peninsula Hotel press day episode came up, and Sharon had returned.<br/>
I loved covering the late 80s/early 90s metal scene even though I was a diehard punk and classic rock fan (and still am). There are people from my metal journalism days that I still love to cover whenever I can, and Rob Halford is one of them. He is a real pleasure to interview and is unapologetically heavy metal in a time when other people like to tag their music in more contemporary terms. I got to have tea with him at the Crosby Street Hotel, now The Standard, a few years ago when he launched his Metal God T-shirt line; being with him reminded me that the more things change the more they stay the same (at least when it comes to pop culture).<br/>