Alice N’ Chains was an American glam metal band from Seattle, Washington, formed in 1986 by former members of Sleze. Toward the end of their run as Sleze, discussions arose about changing their name to Alice in Chains.^[2] However, due to concerns over the reference to female bondage, the group ultimately chose to spell it as Alice N’ Chains.^[2] They performed under this moniker over about a 12-month period and recorded two demos before breaking up on friendly terms in 1987.^[3] One of its members, Layne Staley, ultimately took the name that he and his former bandmates had initially flirted with when he joined a different group a few months later that became known as Alice in Chains.

History[edit]

(Clockwise from top left)
Nick Pollock, Johnny Bacolas,
Layne Staley, James Bergstrom

Vocalist Layne Staley, guitarist Nick Pollock, bassist Johnny Bacolas, and drummer James Bergstrom began performing in what would become the last lineup of Sleze in 1986, when founding member Bacolas rejoined after a brief stint in another band called Ascendant and took up the bass slot for the first time; originally he played guitar. After his return, Bacolas says the band began to discuss changing their name to Alice in Chains due to a conversation he had with Russ Klatt, singer from Slaughterhouse Five:

[W]e were talking about different concepts for backstage passes. It would say, like, ‘Sleze: The Welcome to Wonderland Tour.’ That ended up turning into a discussion – we were talking about changing the band name. And we were saying, ‘Alice in Wonderland? How about this, how about that? Maybe…Alice in Chains? We could put her in bondage stuff!’ I liked the ring [of] ‘Alice in Chains’ – I remember I came back to the next band rehearsal and I told the guys. The issue was the reference to bondage, which our parents would not go for. Layne’s mom was very hardcore Christian. So we ended up changing it to Alice ‘N Chains, which made it more like Alice and Chains.^[2]

However, Staley’s mother Nancy McCallum has said she still did not approve of this at first:

I had a sense of humor about the name Sleze. But when [Layne] came home and said they were changing the name to Alice ‘N Chains, I was not happy. I said, ‘Honey, that is female bondage. You don’t want to choose a name like that – it’s going to push your female audience away. I really feel strong about this.’ He was adamant and I was adamant. For the first time in my life, I didn’t have much of a conversation with him for about two weeks, because I was concerned, and also offended. How could my child possibly choose a name like ‘Alice N’ Chains?^[2]

Johnny Bacolas stated that the decision to use the apostrophe-N combination in their name had nothing to do with the Los Angeles band Guns N’ Roses. The name change happened in 1986, a year before Guns N’ Roses became a household name with their first album Appetite for Destruction, which was released in July 1987.^[4]

According to Staley, the reason they chose this name was because they wanted to dress in drag and play heavy metal as a joke.^[5][6][7]

The band performed around the Seattle area playing Slayer and Armored Saint covers.^{[citation needed]}

Discography[edit]

Alice N’ Chains recorded two demos known primarily as “Demo No. 1” and “Demo No. 2”; both from 1987. Physical copies of the cassettes are extremely rare as only 100 of “Demo No. 1” were made, although bootleg copies can be found online on filesharing programs and YouTube.^[8][9]

Pre-production for “Demo No. 1” began whilst the band were still calling themselves Sleze and with a different bass player named Mike Mitchell, who appears on the tracks “Fat Girls” and “Over the Edge” according to producer Tim Branom.^[10] Recording for these two tracks took place at London Bridge Studio with the help of its founding engineer brother Rick and Raj Parashar.^[10] A few months later, Mitchell left the band and Bacolas rejoined as their bass player. They added one more song called “Lip Lock Rock” to the demo before changing their name to Alice N’ Chains.^{[citation needed]}

Pantera (/pænˈtɛrə/) is an American heavy metal band from Arlington, Texas, formed in 1981, and currently composed of vocalist Phil Anselmo, bassist Rex Brown, and touring musicians Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante. The group’s best-known lineup consisted of the Abbott brothers (drummer Vinnie Paul and guitarist Dimebag Darrell), along with Brown and Anselmo, who joined in 1982 and 1986 respectively. In addition to their development and popularization of the groove metal subgenre, Pantera is credited (along with others, such as Testament, Sepultura, and Machine Head) for being part of the second wave of thrash metal scene from the late 1980s to early-to-mid 1990s.^[2][3] Pantera is regarded as one of the most successful and influential bands in heavy metal history, having sold around 20 million records worldwide^[4] and having received four Grammy nominations.^[5]

Having started as a glam metal band, Pantera released three albums in the mid-1980s with lead vocalist Terry Glaze (Metal Magic, Projects in the Jungle, and I Am the Night), with little success. Looking for a new and heavier sound, Pantera recruited Anselmo in 1986 and released Power Metal in 1988. They secured a record deal with major label Atco the following year. Their fifth album (which the band has since declared to be their official debut album),^[6] 1990’s Cowboys from Hell, popularized the groove metal genre, while its 1992 follow-up Vulgar Display of Power achieved an even heavier sound and increased their popularity. The subsequent seventh studio album Far Beyond Driven (1994) debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.^[7]

Tensions began to surface among the band members when Anselmo, reeling from severe back problems brought on by years of intense on-stage performances, began growing distant from his bandmates in 1995, eventually becoming addicted to heroin as a result of his pain issues (he almost died from an overdose in July 1996). These tensions resulted in the recording sessions for The Great Southern Trendkill (1996) being held separately. The ongoing tension lasted for another seven years, during which only one studio album, Reinventing the Steel (2000), was recorded. Pantera went on hiatus in 2001 but lingering disputes led to the band breaking up in 2003. The Abbott brothers went on to form Damageplan while Anselmo continued to work on several side projects, including Down, which Brown joined as well.

On December 8, 2004, Dimebag Darrell was shot and killed on stage by a mentally unstable fan during a Damageplan concert in Columbus, Ohio. Vinnie Paul went on to form Hellyeah after his brother’s death, and died of heart failure in 2018,^[8] leaving Brown and Anselmo as the only surviving members of the band’s best-known lineup. In July 2022, it was announced that Brown and Anselmo were reuniting in 2023 for Pantera’s first tour in 22 years,^[9] with Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante filling in for the Abbott brothers on guitar and drums, respectively.^[10] The new lineup played its first show in 21 years at the Hell and Heaven festival in Mexico on December 2, 2022,^[11] and the band’s reunion tour will continue into 2024.^[12][13]

• Metal Magic (1983)
• Projects in the Jungle (1984)
• I Am the Night (1985)
• Power Metal (1988)
• Cowboys from Hell (1990)
• Vulgar Display of Power (1992)
• Far Beyond Driven (1994)
• The Great Southern Trendkill (1996)
• Reinventing the Steel (2000)

38 Special (often stylized as .38 Special or spelled out as Thirty-eight Special) is an American rock band formed by singer-guitarists Donnie Van Zant and Don Barnes in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1974.^[2][3]

They are best known for their early 1980s hit songs, including “Hold On Loosely” and “Caught Up in You“, along with various other Top 40 hits on the US Billboard Hot 100 in the 1980s and early 1990s, including “Rockin’ into the Night“, “You Keep Runnin’ Away”, “If I’d Been the One”, “Back Where You Belong”, “Teacher, Teacher“, “Like No Other Night”, “Second Chance“, and “The Sound of Your Voice”.^[4]

History[edit]

38 Special performing

1970s[edit]

Donnie Van Zant, the younger brother of Lynyrd Skynyrd founder Ronnie Van Zant, began playing music during his teen years, forming the band Standard Production in 1968, which paved the way for Sweet Rooster, Donnie’s first professional group that he formed in 1969 with guitarist Jeff Carlisi and bassist Ken Lyons, soon joined by drummer Steve Brookins. Carlisi left Sweet Rooster after graduating high school to study architecture at Georgia Tech and was replaced by Don Barnes in 1970. Brookins also left to work as a truck driver and Sweet Rooster was defunct by 1973.^{[citation needed]}

Nevertheless, Van Zant, Barnes, and Lyons, while continuing their day jobs and working in other bands, began composing original songs in their spare time. By 1974, they decided to form “the ultimate band” that would be their “one last shot” at success. Briefly, Van Zant was considering a higher-paying position for the railroad at which he worked, but was finally convinced by brother Ronnie to stick with music since it was “in his blood”.^{[citation needed]}

The new group comprised Van Zant, Barnes, Lyons, Brookins, second drummer Jack Grondin, and a returning Carlisi.^[5] The band’s name was thought up after an incident which found the boys practicing in a warehouse out in the middle of nowhere. When police arrived after being notified by locals of the noise, the band members were unable to come out because of a padlock on the door. One of the cops said, “That’s all right. We’ll let this .38 special do the talking”, and shot off the lock.^[6]

Now that they had their name, the group spent most of 1975 and 1976 playing a steady grind of one-nighters, mostly in the South and the Midwest. Eventually, big brother Ronnie figured Donnie and the gang had paid enough dues and set them up with Skynryd’s manager Peter Rudge, who also handled the Who and was tour manager for the Rolling Stones. Rudge quickly set the group up to open shows for red-hot acts, like Peter Frampton, Foghat, and Kiss, and got them signed to A&M Records, who assigned Dan Hartman (of Edgar Winter Group fame) to produce their first album, .38 Special, which was released in May 1977.^[5]

Just before the record’s release, bassist Ken Lyons decided to leave the band. He was replaced by their friend and original Lynyrd Skynyrd member Larry Junstrom.

Also in 1977, the band added two female backup singers, Carol Bristow and Dale Krantz. Krantz was replaced by Nancy Henderson (1979–1981), Lu Moss (1981–1984), and Lynn Hineman (1986–1987), before backup singers were dispensed with in 1987.^{[citation needed]}

In October 1977, Ronnie Van Zant was killed when Skynyrd’s plane crashed. Donnie wrote “Take Me Back” as a tribute to his brother, which appeared on the band’s second album, Special Delivery (March 1978), also produced by Hartman.^[5]

Devo (/ˈdiːvoʊ/, originally /diːˈvoʊ/)^[9] is an American new wave band from Akron, Ohio, formed in 1973. Their classic line-up consisted of two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs (Mark and Bob) and the Casales (Gerald and Bob), along with Alan Myers. The band had a No. 14 Billboard chart hit in 1980 with the single “Whip It“, the song that gave the band mainstream popularity.

Devo’s music and visual presentation (including stage shows and costumes) mingle kitsch science fiction themes, deadpan surrealist humor and mordantly satirical social commentary. The band’s namesake, the tongue-in-cheek social theory of “de-evolution”, was an integral concept in their early work, which was marked by experimental and dissonant art punk that merged rock music with electronics. Their output in the 1980s embraced synth-pop and a more mainstream, less conceptual style, though the band’s satirical and quirky humor remained intact. Their music has proven influential on subsequent movements, particularly on new wave, industrial, and alternative rock artists. Devo (most enthusiastically Gerald Casale) was also a pioneer of the music video format.

Twisted Sister was an American heavy metal band formed in 1972, originally from Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey, and later based on Long Island, New York.^[1][2] Their best-known songs include “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and “I Wanna Rock“, both of which were associated with music videos noted for their sense of slapstick humor.

Twisted Sister evolved from a band named Silver Star, and experienced several membership changes before settling on the classic lineup of Jay Jay French (guitars), Eddie “Fingers” Ojeda (guitars), Dee Snider (lead vocals), Mark “The Animal” Mendoza (bass), and A. J. Pero (drums) in 1982. It was this lineup which recorded the band’s first four albums. Twisted Sister’s first two albums, Under the Blade (1982) and You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n’ Roll (1983), were critically well received and earned the band underground popularity. The band achieved mainstream success with their third album, Stay Hungry (1984), and its single “We’re Not Gonna Take It”, which was their only Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. Their next two albums, Come Out and Play (1985) and Love Is for Suckers (1987), did not match the success of Stay Hungry, and Twisted Sister disbanded in 1988.

The band briefly reunited in the late 1990s before more permanently reforming in 2003. The band released two more albums: Still Hungry (2004), a rerecording of their third album, and the Christmas album, A Twisted Christmas (2006). Following Pero’s death in 2015, the band embarked on a farewell tour and broke up again after completing the tour in 2016.

Although Twisted Sister is often regarded as glam metal due to its use of makeup,^[3] Snider considers the term to be inappropriate.^[4] Twisted Sister is also ranked No. 73 among VH1‘s 100 greatest artists of hard rock.^[5]