A LIFETIME OF HOLLYWOOD ROCK MEMORIES, NONE JADED

Mandy Lion of WWIII - not a Hollywood gimmick he rolls like this 24/7

The G-Spot Column

A LIFETIME OF HOLLYWOOD ROCK MEMORIES, NONE JADED
By Gerry Gittelson
Metal Sludge

I’ve been reporting on Rock for 25 years, and here are some of my strange memories:

-- At a Bon Jovi concert back in the day at the Forum, Tommy Lee was sitting right in front of me and spent most of the night seductively rubbing on Heather Locklear.

-- A friend from Canada named Donna Henry was hanging out with me at a small party at C.C. DeVille’s house one night – early morning, actually – and after C.C. destroyed some stereo equipment, he kicked Henry out of the house because he didn’t like the way she reacted.

-- A young girl once called one morning in 1991 and asked if I could trust Mickie Jones, the former Angel bass player who had a terrible reputation.

-- Big Bang Babies singer Kit Ashley and I administered first aid to a girl who accidentally poked herself in the eye on Ashley’s car antenna one day in front of my old apartment building on Kentucky Drive in Studio City.

Keri Kelli once used hair conditioner with human parts in it?

-- Keri Kelli and I once spent a good portion of the day in Hollywood driving around looking for a particular brand of hair conditioner that Kelli heard contained human parts.

-- Punky Jean, the singer from Queeny Blast Pop, offered to put his hands behind his back and allow a free punch from Michael Michelle, the singer of Alley Cat Scratch, during a dispute in the street near the corner of Franklin and La Brea. It was dusk, and they weren’t even drunk.

-- The Zeros used to wear custom converse sneakers that laced up all the way to the thigh like boots.

-- During a Miss Gazzarri’s dance contest one late Sunday, one of the contestants didn’t realize she was menstruating as she continued to spread her legs and grind to the sounds of “Smooth Up in Ya.”

-- A young man in a leather jacket pulled a switch blade on me after a show at the Hollywood Palace, but he was just kidding around.

-- After a Bad English concert one night, a wannabe musician from Boston who had a massive stack of $100 bills asked if I could hop in his limo and help find him a party. We ended up spending three days and nights together with a whacked-out porn star named Heather Torrance and a few of her girlfriends.

-- I had to convince a member of Mad Moxie to go on stage at a Monday night jam at the Whisky back in the day because he was furious about having to pay $3 to be in the club even though his band was playing.

-- Mandy Lion of World War III and a hot fan named Lita Alpenia, a Miss Gazzarri’s dancer,  hooked up at a rehearsal studio in the North Hollywood one afternoon after Lion’s offered the following pickup line: “Wow, I can’t believe you’re here – I’ve been jerking off to you in the shower.”

-- A member of Hardly Dangerous got furiously mad at me one night at the Rainbow because I wouldn’t take her side in a money dispute with the band manager.

-- Axl Rose gave my friend $300 for finding his wallet filled with hundreds at a club on Hollywood Boulevard one Tuesday night.

Happenin' Harry jammin' with CC DeVille

-- After one of his jam shows in 1992, Happenin’ Harry found a bug in his food at Dennys on Sunset and began rolling around on the floor for dramatic effect and to make sure he got a free meal.

-- Kim Fowley, an eccentric producer who has sold millions of records, shorted a cab driver on his fare upon arriving at Rock N Roll Ralphs on Sunset Boulevard because Fowley was counting nickels and pennies, and the frustrated driver said to just forget it.

-- Hot Rod Long was once throwing up on the side of the Whisky during one of his concert promotions, blaming a batch of bad clams at the Rainbow.

Donnie Vie of Enuff Z'nuff partied all night in Hollywood in the 80s? Say it isn't so.

-- Against my better judgment, I loaned Enuff Z'Nuff singer Donnie Vie $100 at a hotel one morning after he had been partying all night after a concert. Vie paid me back two days later through his manager, who told me not to do it again.

-- A friend named Artie Fuentes nearly got into a fistfight one night with the late Sam Kinison backstage at the Roxy. Fuentes was a tough S.O.B., but Kinison was the aggressor.

-- After a few cocktails, Queeny Blast Pop/Pretty Boy Floyd bassist Lesli Sanders was so smooth with women at the Rainbow that he could snap his fingers like Fonzie and a couple of them would roll into his arms.

-- At the height of Warrant’s popularity, the band played a secret show at Gazzarri’s under the name Wadd Squad, and I can’t tell you how many cases of Budweiser we consumed backstage that night.

-- I used to hang out with a Tuff groupie who brought me to the band house one day, and there was a big room divided by sheets where everyone slept.

-- Ratt singer Stephen Pearcy had a stage-front fan kicked out of the concert at Long Beach Arena for flicking him off. “No one rains on my parade,” Pearcy said.

-- I can remember on the eve of their MCA album being released, some of the Pretty Boy Floyd guys were deciding which color Lamborghini they were eventually going to buy.

-- A crazed girl lost an earring when she attacked Juicy Miss Lucy singer Jazzy at a house party in South Pasadena at the home of Geina Stonehill. The fight was over a bottle of liquor.

-- A woman I met at a Styx concert at the Sports Arena told me she was a witch. And she meant it.

-- And finally, Brooke Shields and I once took a picture together for an old G-Spot Column when we met at the Rainbow. At first, one of her handlers said no way, but Shields wanted to do it.

Gerry Gittelson can be reached at gspot@metalsludge.tv