You can tell they’re on a tour bus, because you can hear the rumble of the road.
David talks about perspective, and also takes a rare shot at the “ever popular, ever famous” Deep Purples….
I like to tell this story a lot; you may have heard it before. When Whitesnake played Toronto on the 1987 tour, my buddy Rob Vuckovich held up a sign that said “PLAY PURPLE”. David reportedly acknowledged the sign by saying, “We’ll be playing none of that!”
Back in 1990, before Motley Crue released their own Decade of Decadence video, MuchMusic made one themselves. And it’s pretty good. They were already gearing up for the ill-fated Motley ’94 album. “No ballads,” says Nikki Sixx. It was a good time to be a Crue-head.
Youtube would not allow the music videos that were a part of this documentary. They have been edited out.
Ozzy Osbourne never did live interviews with MuchMusic in my time of recording the show, except for this one telephone interview. Teresa Roncon was helming the Power 30 with Ozzy on the line. Ozzy is as mumbly and entertaining as ever!
Listen as Ozzy announces a Black Sabbath reunion tour that didn’t happen. Date: June 28 1993
I have a surprising amount of Poison interviews on my VHS tapes. They must have been an extremely media friendly band. From the Native Tongue period alone, I have three separate interviews on my tapes. The first was the best Bret Michaels interview I’ve seen, on Kitchener’s Metal Mike show in 1993. The next will be a sit down with Bret and Richie Kotzen in the MuchMusic studios. This one, however, is a rare live interview with drummer Rikki Rockett.
There are awkward moments, like when he lies about the album selling “really good”. Hear all about the “party cage” and other tour goings-on. He also talks about growing up in a musical family, which is probably the most illuminating part.
“You read interviews, and Gene’s giving me digs, and I’m giving him digs, and stuff like that…one day it’ll just be Kiss in makeup again.” — Ace Frehley
I don’t know about you, but I remember being disappointed to hear that Ace Frehley was touring, but without any new music behind him. The quote about a Kiss reunion proved to be rather prophetic. No wonder Ace was laughing! Check out this Ace interview with Teresa Roncon on MuchMusic. The news anchor was Lance Chilton.
“Richie takes a little getting used to. He’s a strange cat.” — Bret Michaels
In 1991, a new cable access show catering to metalheads hit the local airwaves: The Metal Mike show, with host Mike Coughlin. Since MuchMusic’s Power 30 was declining in quality, there was a vacuum for another good metal show.
Check out this terrific interview with Poison frontman Bret Michaels in 1993. The band had parted with C.C. Deville and were re-emerging the middle of the grunge era with Native Tongue. Today it’s considered to be their best album, but nobody cared in ’93.
Metal Mike eases Bret in comfortably but then hits him up with a tough question: what really happened with C.C. Deville? And Bret doesn’t hold back. Fist fights, drugs and alcohol all came into play, and the trainwreck MTV Awards appearance all contributed.
They move on to finding Richie Kotzen. Pay attention and notice that the fit seems awkward. The clues were there. “He sometimes can be kinda weird,” says Bret of his new bandmate. There was no question of the man’s chops, however, nor his stage presence. Check it out.
“You know what time it is? It’s thrash time!” – Nick Walsh
1992 was all about a resurgence of Canadian Rock. Slik Toxik, Sven Gali, and Big House were all making waves. Lee Aaron and Killer Dwarfs had new music. But it was Slik Toxik who won Best Metal Video for “Helluvatime” (directed by Don Allan).
The award was presented by Brian Vollmer (Helix), Phil X (Triumph, now Bon Jovi) and Mike Levine (Triumph). Slik Toxik then performed…but my tape ran out! This is what I captured. Neal Busby is one helluva of a drummer!
I also have this cool CBC recording about Slik Toxik, featuring a fan from Thunder Bay, talking about Slik’s rise to fame. Broadcast March 15 2019.
I am pleased to present the best quality copy of this video available. It’s complete and in stereo!
You can read a review of the first Deadline mini-album (from which “Donna (Do You Wanna)” was the single) right here. From Sarnia Ontario, this quartet was primed for the big time but failed to launch. You can tell from this video that they spared no expense in looking and sounding like pros.
This video was recorded from MuchMusic’s Start Me Up program, in early 1993.