The Aqua Net factory flag flies at half-mast this week as hair metal lost one if its true pioneers. Kevin DuBrow (second from left), lead singer of Quiet Riot, was found dead in Las Vegas at age 52. The cause of death is still under investigation.If you are around 40, you have fond memories of driving around in your friend’s Vista Cruiser or Plymouth Valiant, chugging Busch beer, sucking down Parliaments and cranking the Riot’s irresitably buffoonish 1983 hit “Cum On Feel The Noize.” You don’t? Well, I do.
Their cover of Slade's post-glam hit from the 70s was the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” of 80s metal, unleashing a gaggle of guitar-wielding drag queens, including Twisted Sister, Poison, Motley Crue, Warrant, Ratt, Dokken, Whitesnake, Winger (my personal favorite), Cinderella, Skid Row, Night Ranger and Bon Jovi. The album from whence it sprung, Metal Health, sold a whopping four million copies in the US. (DuBrow is the man in the iron mask.)
Kev lived the rock & roll good life but never let the lifestyle get the better of him. According to a New York Times obituary, “he eschewed alcohol, liked doing housework and exercised regularly.”
Dearly departed DuBrow didn’t hang out at CBGB with Patti Smith, find inspiration from the Anthology of American Folk Music, campaign for Ralph Nader or any of the other things legitimate rock musicians are supposed to do. But for a few cold months in 1983-84, he rocked suburbia out of its preppy doldrums, and for that we are most grateful.
So dig out your jean jacket, throw on a rugby shirt and some Pumas, call your buds, get a suitcase of Busch, a carton of Cowboy Killers and crank it up. We’re gonna get wild, wild, wild! RIP & TCB.
YouTube: Quiet Riot, “Cum On Feel the Noize”
(Thanks to Rock Turtleneck hair-metal scholar/monster ballad lover Jeff Bazyk for the suggestion.)
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