There’s a period of my life that rarely comes up any more. I’ve been a music lover, no, music adorer since I was a young kid, spinning record after record on my old portable record player. As a youth I’ve gone through phases of liking all kids of music – from Sesame Street tunes to Barry Manilow to KISS to the Beatles and on and on. These days my music palette is tremendously huge, and I’ve even let in certain rap and country artists (just CERTAIN ones), and my enjoyment of music has never been greater or broader. But there was a period – let’s just call it 1987 – when the only thing on my mind was heavy metal.
Although I dabbled into some of the thrash scene, I’d say my heart actually lied with pop heavy metal. Big hair, wild outfits, and a touch of makeup. Europe, RATT, Poison (not ‘rat poison’), Cinderella, Motley Crue, Quiet Riot, all that jazz, I mean metal. And not only listen to it, but watch Headbangers Ball on MTV, read about it in magazine after magazine, and attend as many concerts as I possibly could. Incidentally my love of metal certainly started before 1987 and extended well past (I can occasionally even indulge today), but this time period around 1987 I just refused to venture outside of the genre at all.
My whole point to this – if there was one – was that metal music and the artists who made it evoke a certain sense of nostalgia these days, much like the professional wrestlers do. They were both a bit ridiculous, but I can’t help but being drawn back to the era. So like the wrestlers, whenever I see a metal-head, particularly one who was in a band I like, or even showed up frequently in my metal mags, then I gravitate to them just like I would the wrestlers. Herewith are a few examples from a few Chiller Theatre shows where they seem most likely to show up now and then.
Lizzy Borden was one of those over-the-top bands whose power metal was a little too potent for me, even at the time. But their name was certainly very familiar, and not just because they were named after an axe murder. They – lead by their frontman also-named Lizzy Borden – showed up quite a bit in Metal Edge and Hit Parader and Cream and all those rags. And I’d see their wild album covers nearly every time I walked into Renaissance records in Dayton. Never in my wildest dreams did I figure I’d have the chance to greet the man himself, Lizzy Borden.
But on October 25, 2014, there he was in all his metal glory. For $20 I walked away with a signed photo and got a picture of me with him, and of Carolyn with him.
Another example is a guy I’d see quite often in the metal magazines, looking like my worst high school nightmare. His name was Chris Holmes and he both played lead guitar for the band W.A.S.P. … and looked meaner than a wasp, the kind of loose cannon that I desperately tried to avoid in school. I gave W.A.S.P. a chance one time in high school by purchasing the cassette tape Inside the Electric Circus, and although I can still recall the title track somewhat, tried as I did, the album was just too hard and not melodic enough for my W.A.S.P. – meaning white Anglo-Saxon Protestant – tastes.
And yet it was still awfully cool to face my high school bully fears, and greet Chris Holmes when he appeared at Chiller on April 27, 2013. But still I didn’t balk at the $25 fee when he seemed more like a $20 guy. It got me a photo with him as well as the autograph.
Kane Roberts was unique in the metal magazines, because he was the only lead guitarist that I can recall who seemed to double as a guitarist and a body builder. He played lead for Alice Cooper and I was always astounded to see someone so healthy and robust, instead of the scraggly, lanky types that guitarists often were. I found Alice Cooper in the 1980’s to be quite listenable and enjoyed his albums Constrictor and Raise Your Fist and Yell, both on which Kane Roberts played.
This made it pretty cool to get his autograph and a photo op for $20 when he appeared near Chris Holmes (and could possibly protect me?) at the Chiller on April 27, 2013.
Our final metal guy was the most recent, and one whom I had hoped to meet at a previous show that he had cancelled at: Carmine Appice, a veteran metal rocker who dated back to the era of classic psychedelic metal gurus Vanilla Fudge. Over the years Carmine Appice showed up on a variety of albums, playing with such artists as Pink Floyd, Ted Nugent, Sly Stone, Micahel Schenker, and even playing in his own 80’s bands King Kobra and Blue Murder. But most notable was that he played on the KISS solo album Paul Stanley on the song Take Me Away (Together as One).
I wasn’t a big enough fan of Appice to demand an autograph when he appeared at Chiller Theatre on October 29, 2016. But I was certainly interested enough to drop $10 for a photo with him. He did a free one for Carolyn too.
The Metal years were certainly part of my teenage years, and it is always really cool to get a chance to meet some of the names of which I was so familiar even though for the most part, none of them came from the bands that I actually followed.
Celebs of the Fall 2014 Chiller will continue…
Celebs of the Spring 2013 Chiller will continue…
Celebs of the Fall 2016 Chiller will continue…
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