When you think of rock music from the 1980s, what comes to mind? Is it the furious guitar solos, thunderous power chords, power ballads, or perhaps the spandex, pyrotechnics, and, of course, the hair? KISS may have been pioneers in bringing the “hair” into hair metal, known for their firework-shooting guitars and kabuki-painted faces dripping with blood. But soon, every rock band was pushing the limits, making their performances louder, faster, more theatrical, and their hair even bigger.
Mötley Crüe, Ratt, Bon Jovi, Whitesnake, Poison, and Van Halen became larger-than-life icons, eager to top each other in sound and spectacle. They’d crank their guitars up to eleven, smash their drums with reckless abandon, and stand in front of pyrotechnic machines, all while ensuring their hairspray held firm.
But not everyone shared the same enthusiasm for the excess of hair metal. The 1984 mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap famously lampooned the genre, exaggerating its most absurd excesses. The film’s lines, such as “These go to eleven,” “How much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black,” and “There’s too much fucking perspective,” became cultural touchstones, often quoted more than the lyrics of the genre’s biggest hits like Jump or Rock You Like a Hurricane.
The rise of grunge in the 1990s was, in part, a direct response to the excesses of the 1980s rock scene. It’s no surprise then that Eddie Vedder, the frontman of Pearl Jam, wasn’t a fan of hair metal. In a 2022 interview with The New York Times, Vedder recalled, “I used to work in San Diego loading gear at a club. I’d end up being at shows that I wouldn’t have chosen to go to from bands that monopolised late-1980s MTV. The metal bands that, I’m trying to be nice, I despised.”
He added, “I hated it. I hated how it made the fellas look. I hated how it made the women look. It felt so vacuous.” However, he made one exception: “Guns N’ Roses came out and, thank God, at least had some teeth.”
While many may consider Guns N’ Roses part of the hair metal scene, their raw energy and Axl Rose’s signature top hat and headband occasionally offered a welcome distraction from the long locks and hairspray associated with the genre.
In 1993, Axl Rose reportedly suggested to his band’s manager, Doug Goldstein, that they tour with U2 and Pearl Jam, forming a supergroup of the three biggest bands of the time. U2 was reportedly on board with the idea, but Pearl Jam turned it down. The band would later open for U2 in Italy that summer, but Guns N’ Roses was nowhere to be found.
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