Rock Band The Unforgiven from Inland Empire California 1985-1988. Elektra
Records, All Is Quiet On The Western Front, Hang 'Em High, I Hear The Call,
Roverpack, Cheyenne, The Gauntlet, With My Boots On, The Ghost Dance, The
Loner, The Preacher, Grace, The Unforgiven, John Henry Jones aka Steve, Johnny
Hickman, Todd Ross, Just Jones aka Mike, Mike Finn, Alan Waddington, Jay Lansford,
Larry Lee Lerma, Stepmothers, Dave Stephens. Almacantar Records has re-issued
The Unforgiven onto CD. John Henry Jones aka Steve ( Vocals,Guitar) Johnny
Hickman (Guitar,2nd Vocal) Todd Ross (Guitar) Just Jones aka Mike (Guitar)
Mike Finn (Bass) Alan Waddington (Drums)Late model: Jay Lansford (Guitar)
Larry Lee Lerma (Bass)Names Of Those That Answered the Following Questions:
MH: Michael Hill: former VP of A&R for Warner Brothers, the first label
to try to sign the Unforgiven, at the end of the bidding war there were only
two labels left: Warners and Elektra; Elektra won out and there was bitterness
at Warner Brothers thereafter towards the group.SJ: Steve Jones (AKA John
Henry Jones): Founder and lead singer/guitarist for both The Unforgiven and
the Stepmothers. He also sang lead for the SST pre-speed metal band Overkill,
and Jay Lansford's metal band The Urge. He later helped form Hollywood Records
at The Walt Disney Company with Unforgiven lawyer Peter Paterno, where he
signed Inland Empire bands The Poorboys and Motorpsycho. JL: Jay Lansford:
Guitarist for both Stepmothers and the late model Unforgiven. Jay was a founding
member of the original LA Punk rock scene, playing in lots of seminal bands
like the Simpletones, Ch. 3, Rik L. Rik, and The Urge. He also played on and
produced some of the best L.A. punk records of all time, including Agent Orange,
The Klan and The Crowd. In '87 Jay and Steve went to Germany to co-produce
a punk record by The Smarties. Jay moved there, married a German woman and
has a 7-year-old daughter. He does A&R for the SPV label and still plays
in the Hannover Punk Pop outfit: Gigantor. CM: Curt Marvis, Co-owner of The
Company. KR: Kurt Ross: Little brother to Jeff and Todd Ross, lead singer
& fan club president of Red Brigade, Kent State, The Flamethrowers &
The Honky Tonk Angels Band DS: Dave Stephens, roadie for both Stepmothers
and The Unforgiven. Once took the rap for Steve's illegal billyclub and did
time in the County Jail for it. Now a business owner living in Idaho. Creator
of this website. AW: Alan Waddington: Drummer for The Unforgiven, and numerous
other Inland Empire bands, including longtime Pomona party band Stratus. Alan
is know a teacher at Citrus College, still plays professionally, and often
travels to Seoul, Korea where he is the percussionist for the Seoul Philharmonic.HOW
DID THE UNFORGIVEN COME TO BE?: SJ: I started planning the band on New Years
Eve 1984 with Mike Finn, who I knew from Chaffee College, where we both had
a film history course together, he used to let me copy off his paper. By 3AM
New Years day 1985 we basically had a plan. Mike had just joined his first
band, some new wave thing, can't remember the name, and he was a Stepmothers
fan, so he was pretty excited. We needed some more people in the band obviously,
so we decided to bring Mike Jones in, cause he looked like Clint Eastwood,
who we all thought of as a God (this was before he made shitty movies like
Pale Rider, and long before he ripped off our name for his good movie - The
Unforgiven - which is another story, but here's the short version: we took
our name - The Unforgiven - from an old John Huston movie of the same name...
after we finished the Elektra record, our agency, mega huge CAA, sent Clint
the record and begged him to direct our first video, he passed, but he obviously
kept the record, cause if you look at the poster artwork for The Unforgiven
movie, which came out in like 1990, the font is exactly the one we used for
our logo, so we got ripped off by a God, made me feel good). Anyway, Mike
Jones couldn't really play, but he looked great and he was a friend and it
seemed like fun... so we started "rehearsing" with the Mikes, while
Larry Lerma and I started recording the early Unforgiven demos, using this
relatively new thing called a drum machine. Larry and I played all the other
instruments, and I sang all the vocals, sometimes as many as 6 backing parts.
Then the Mikes and I would rehearse to the tapes of those songs, I think we
had a few different drummers come in and play with us too, but they all sucked
except for Dusty Watson, who we BEGGED to join the band with us, but he was
too busy and dealing with drug issues. Then I saw Alan at Cal Poly Pomona
in the gym, I was studying psychology there (and working the swing shift in
a mental hospital), Alan was just sneaking in to use the gym for free. I had
known Alan, or of him, forever. He was in the hot 70's cover band Stratus
which ruled the Pomona area party scene, I talked him into coming in and jamming
with us, which he did and he ruled, so then for like the next 6 months we
set out to lure him out of the 5 other bands he was playing in, and I don't
think that's an exaggeration. Finally we convinced him and he quit all those
other shitty bands, he knew where the girls were. I'm not sure where Johnny
Hickman came in, I think we were already playing with and courting Alan, but
he might have come before that, not sure. Anyway, Johnny and I knew of each
other, cause his band The Dangers from Redlands, opened for the Stepmothers
a few times. Mike Finn suggested Johnny, saying he was a good guitarist and
singer (something we really needed because basically no one in the band could
sing except for me, and I was pretty crummy at my best) and a "classically
good looking guy," so Johnny came in, jammed with us, he was a hair stylist
and had great hair and offered to cut all our hair for free, and, although
maybe a little pudgy at the time, he was a great looking guy. So we played
together, he loved the songs, we loved him, he played and sang us all under
the table. Soon Johnny became known as "The Emulator," cause he
could mimic anybody's playing style from Willie Nelson to Van halen. So we
started getting him in shape, running and lifting weights, and he joined.
And that was the lineup for the first several months of the band (Johnny later
started Cracker with fellow Inland Empire rock impresario David Lowery [Camper
Van Beethoven]). Then we saw Todd playing in a country cover band at a rowdy
country bar near the Ontario airport -- I've forgotten the name of the place,
the Longhorn or something, it's a Mexican Mariachi disco now -- so we saw
Todd and he shredded on the guitar, like some sort of Native American Jimi
Hendrix, he could make his telecaster, without any effects sound like a whales,
birds, people singing, just amazing, so we invited him to see us play shortly
thereafter at a semi strip club (specializing in wet t shirt contests, etc.)
called Club 66 in Fontana (ugh). Todd loved us, saying he loved our image,
cause we looked "like pirates," I think he had a pirate fetish.
So he came and jammed with the band, it was Johnny's birthday that night,
Larry Lee played with us that night as well, Larry is one of the greatest
bass players of all time, and he played the bass on the record, and of course
he later joined the band after Mike Finn left, so Larry was there for the
Atlantic deal, and since he played on the Elektra record, he was really the
bass player of record for both bands: the Stepmothers and The Unforgiven.
Anyway that night was the most magical night of jamming in my entire career,
Johnny and Todd totally connected musically, it was, I hate to say it but
I have to say it: magic. I was so excited I basically pitched Todd right there
and then to join the band, which I got a ton of flack for later from the Mikes,
they didn't want him in the band at first. But then he started sitting in
on a few gigs with us, just a few songs at first and then eventually the whole
set; we were doing a lot of acoustic gigs at the all girl Scripps college
coffee house - The Motley - which paid shit but gave us access to all those
girls. Soon Todd was a full-fledged member. And then there were 6. That summer,
we did a photo session, Pat Lott shot it, it's that classic shot of us on
the train trestle, which we shot about 2 blocks away from our rehearsal studio/apartment
in Rancho Cucamonga, then the Mikes and I went to Europe for a little vacation,
I had a girlfriend in Berlin -- who I gave to Finn by the way -- and started
sleeping with her sister, they were practically twins, hot. And while we were
in London I made the rounds of the British music rags like NME, Melody Maker,
etc. A lot of those British journalists I knew already from The Stepmothers
who were pretty well known in Europe, anyway, they bit, and by the time we
got back to LA, there was a huge article in NME (I think, coulda been Melody
Maker, but I'm pretty sure it was NME) proclaiming us to be the next big thing,
all on the strength of a picture and my huckstering, they had never heard
a note of music, much less seen the band play, but that's England for you,
all style no substance. So we got back to LA, England is proclaiming us the
shit, and all the A&R guys in LA started calling us and coming to see
us play. Soon we were playing a bunch more shows in LA, and within 2 months
we were the subject of the biggest bidding war of all time (as far as the
number of labels involved), we were signed I think by December, 1985.THE FIRST
TIME I HEARD THE UNFORGIVEN:MH: It was a demo when they were still the Stepmothers.
The songs were great – outrageous, politically incorrect, swaggering,
and so unlike everything else going on – the arena rock or the alt rock.
And it wasn’t just the attitude: the songs had hooks as well as humor,
and they really, really rocked. AW: I got a tape of demos (with only a drum
machine for percussion) from Steve at the weight room at Cal Poly, I was doing
a zillion other things but I thought I'd do the audition, not sure why, other
than I usually say yes, I had been in slicker bands and lots of money making
cover bands, playing wedddings, or jazz or something. When I did the audition
for The Unforgiven, it was just Steve and Finn and Jones at that time, I made
sure to orchestrate the audition to my strengths, I think it was "Hang
Em High" which had been programmed on the drum machine real fast, I didn't
think any other drummer could come in and play that fast, so I rehearsed the
hell out of that, and I felt like that's what worked in the audition. I still
don't know why I worked so hard on it, it wasn't like I was dying to be in
the band, I kinda grew into the idea. It was fun, goofy. When we started putting
our first live show together, with the drums up front, me standing up the
whole show and all that, that kinda won me over. I also remember Johnny's
audition vividly, he was the next guy in and so we had an instant connection
in the regard. He started playing whatever the first song was, again I think
it might have been "Hang 'Em High," and in five seconds of him playing
sixteenth notes, I knew he was in. Our first gig was at the Blue Lagoon Saloon
in Marina Del Rey, Jimmie Wood was the booker and bouncer. I felt successful
that night cause we kinda stunned 'em, all these LA blues purists were like
'what the fuck is this?' We always felt strong on stage, I've been in so many
playing situations, but nothing ever approaching that level of commitment.
CM: Must have been in 1985 at The Whiskey. WHAT I REMEMBER MOST ABOUT THE
UNFORGIVEN BEFORE JOINING: JL: They went "Huh" in their songs. DS:
I started as a Roadie, before ever seeing the band. It was the ZZ Top tour.
Boise, Id. 1986. I had no idea what I was doing. I remember pure overwhelming
PANIC. THE MOMENT I THOUGHT THE UNFORGIVEN WOULD MAKE IT: SJ: I remember a
movie moment after we had opened for The Outlaws, The Outlaws, at The Palace
in LA, probably Spring '85. Firstly I was so honored to be opening for Them
to begin with, I was a big fan, we all were, so I was high on that. Also,
the place was packed with fans and with A&R people from like every label
in LA and New York, managers, agents, publishers, and media, all there to
see us. I think we were kind of at our best in some ways that night, for that
first line-up anyway, still loose and innocent, and we fucking rocked. I walked
backstage and knew that I was going to get a record deal and all my dreams
were coming true. I had to go to a meet and greet and do a couple of interviews,
but I just knew I had to take a minute and regroup and, I guess, acknowledge
what was happening. So literally, corny as it sounds I told Dave Adelsen who
wrote for [Music Trade magazine] HITS and who I was about to do an interview
with, that I needed a minute, he understood, and I went into an empty dressing
room, sat down, stared at the mirror and said to myself, "You did it.
Sounds profoundly stupid and dramatic now, but it was a real moment of acknowledgement,
very important to me somehow. MH: It was at a gig in the Inland Empire when
all these A&R people had driven out to that no man’s land club to
see them. (Editor's Note: Probably The Green Door in Montclair) DS: When I
first saw the "King Tut" bus they used on the ZZ Top tour. I thought
these guys have arrived. AW: We were ushered into this huge conference room
at the WEA building in Burbank, this was after we'd made the record, just
before it's release. And sitting in this star chamber was this crescent circle
of a bunch of older, probably legendary, record guys. It felt like getting
made into the Mafia, these old guys told us that unlike thousands of other
records released every year, our record was getting 'the signal,' I didn't
know what the signal meant, I really thought it was some sort of Mafia buzzword.
But they assured us that meant that the record would succede. CM: When they
were managed by McGhee Entertainment. JL: Farm Aid III. KR: My mother and
father flew down to Texas to see the band perform at Willie Nelson's annual
4th of July picnic in '85, where The Unforgiven was playing. I stopped by
the house one afternoon after they had returned to Ontario, and my mom, My
Mother, was telling about sitting at a table having dinner w/ Vince Neil and
Rick James. I thought, "this Unforgiven shit is for fucking real"
and to hear my mother tell the tale, it was pretty damned rockin' down in
Austin! THE BEST UNFORGIVEN GIG: KR: The Best Gig I ever saw was at the Green
Door record release party. I stood with my parents and during "Amazing
Grace," when Todd took his solo, I looked over at my parents, who were
wrapped up in each other's arms, and my father was so fucking proud his cheeks
were stained with tears. There wasn't a better band in the entire universe
that night. MH: The Music Machine maybe? One of those L.A. West side clubs,
when they were on top of the world, digging that wonderful moment before they
got signed, when everyone wanted them and loved them and no one felt hurt,
disappointed, or betrayed. AW: Probably the Motley shows, but I remember when
we were opening for The Hooters that I particularly liked. They took a long
time in their sound check so we didn't get one, and then they gave us no stage,
typical opening band abuse, so Steve was not happy and he took his wireless…
SJ: …my wireless was the same frequency as one of the guitarists, the
one with the big hair. AW: …he went out in the audience while the hooters
were playing and would every now and then click his switch and the Hooters
guitarist's guitar would cut out and make this awful squawking sound and he
would look back at his amp with a panicked look, and Steve would keep wandering
to various locations and pestering the guitarist by repeating this process.
Classic Steve. SJ: LOL. JL: Disneyland. SJ: There were so many differences
between the various lineups and stages of the band; they were really different
bands. I think for the first lineup there were some excellent shows on a college
tour opening for Springsteen-wannabe John Cafferty who had some big hits at
that time. The sexiest gig was opening for Joe King Corasco in the middle
of East Texas, beautiful Texan coeds drunk and ready to fuck, and they didn't
want to wait until we got offstage, so you gotta love that. A couple of the
ZZ Top dates were majestic. For the later, hard rock, "Lansford Era"
band I would say FARM AID III; we rocked that place and sounded like a precision
tank, plus we all dropped acid all through that road trip and had a lot of
fun. DS: Farm Aid III at Cornhuskers Stadium. Or maybe it was just the acid.
THE BEST UNFORGIVEN SONG :MH: "Thinking That Too" – from the
Stepmothers demo (Editor: The band was actually called "The Choirboys"
at that time). CM: With so many classics how could I choose? DS: "The
Preacher" KR: "The Preacher". When I want to prove to people
the undoubted badassedness of The Unforgiven, I play "The Preacher".
It only takes three or four seconds before they're laying on the floor genuflecting
at the stereo. SJ: "They Shoot Horses Don’t They" without
a doubt, could have been a smash hit had it come out a year after we wrote
it, just a little ahead of it's time. But I had my first hit with "Days
Like These" which ASIA took to number one in '90 after I'd gone to Hollywood
records, so I guess that should be my favorite song. On the Unforgiven record
I'd say "The Gauntlet," those bagpipe guitars still ring nicely.
AW: "The Call" probably, as far as what the band was trying to do,
also "I Want Someone to Love Me." JL: "Days Like These."
THE WORST UNFORGIVEN SONG: CM: John Henry Jones (AKA Steve Jones) could never
write a BAD song! JL: "With My Boots On," I only performed the song
once, at one of Willie Nelson's picnics. I didn't even bother to try to fake
it, so I only sang background, but I can't sing either, so I was kind of just
standing there looking silly. SJ: Probably "The Ghost Dance," trite
and sophomoric. DS: "Do You Believe," sorry Steve I hated it. SJ:
You're crazy, that was a great song. AW: They were all good. THE UNFORGIVEN
BIDDING WAR: CM: Better than the Knack! KR: My brother was eating at Spago
and I had a sack lunch!!!!! JL: I was green with envy. SJ: At first it was
the best feeling in the world: everybody wants us! Everybody loves us! We're
going to be rich! And famous! But at the end of a bidding war, when you start
telling everybody (but one) 'no,' it's the worst feeling in the world, cause
guess what, they all stop loving you when you tell 'em 'no.' Later, once I
came to understand that being in a bidding war is the worst thing that could
happen to your band, I was really, really bummed. When you're in a bidding
war everybody starts thinking and talking about the deal and not the music.
It also sets up unrealistic expectations in the music community, and within
yourselves, and you usually can't help but fail in that situation. MH: from
the Warners side was it was thrilling for the most part. There’s nothing
like feeling you’re onto something that could be REALLY BIG, something
that could surprise the world, something that was both goofy and cool, dangerous
and silly….and more than just the promise of stardom, record sales,
accolades, job promotions, I for one felt this real kinship with Steve and
the guys. They seemed so different than me yet I instantly got on with them
and found them incredibly smart – they could have been New Yorkers were
it not for the outfits. (No offense, LA.) The camaraderie was perhaps the
most important thing for me – with that feeling, you thought you could
rule the world – or at least the charts. And at the time the bond among
myself, Karin Berg, and Steven Baker was really strong and that was an important
element too: I felt we were this vanguard trying to push this odd and controversial
project through. The ups and downs brought us all closer together…though
in the final hours, Steven disappeared to England, as if he had enough of
the drama and wanted to watch from the sidelines. There were other people
too who were involved with the mix, equally fascinating, like Mike Minky and
Anna Statman, one of the wildest and most wonderful A&R persons who had
a family connection, ‘cause her brother was pals with Mike. I felt like
I had tapped into this weird, interconnected posse of eccentric Californians.
The feeling wasn’t about L.A.; it was about California and places like
the Inland Empire, places I had never known. I wanted to hang out with these
people more, I wanted to explore this uncharted territory, it was as mysterious
and alluring as the winds that changed the temperature and the sky and the
moods of everyone. AW: After one night early on, we were playing Madame Wong's,
opening for someone hot, I forget who, but after our set, we got mobbed by
a ton of music business people, not only all the A&R guys: Peter Philbin,
Steve Baker, Aaron Jacoves, Patrick Clifford, but also legendary Janis Joplin
and Doors producer: Paul Rothchild, who told us he wanted to start working
with us right away on his dime. One of the Psychedelic Furs was there, one
of the Go Gos, a bunch of music press. But all of them were there to see the
opening band, and apparently we just killed them. So we get backstage and
I remember thinking that this was wild, so much excitement and energy, you
could work a long time and never get a shot like that. Steve and I really
dealt with the bidding war from that point on. I remember it was a full time
job just keeping up with the meetings, lunches, dinners, drinks, and still
making practice every night. Soon we were flying back and forth between LA
and New York, starlets were starting to hover around us, the world knew about
us, on an industry level anyway. It reminded me of how inside Pro Sports people
know who the next star athletes are. We were being treated like stars, without
a fan base, without money, and before we'd really done anything. Strangely,
I liked pretty much everybody we met, from every label. The bidding war ended
one night, I got to rehearsal and I thought it had been decided that we were
going with Warners, but I came in and Steve said we were going with Elektra,
I felt a little weird that we didn't go with Warners, but we definitely felt
that Elektra wanted us more. It's clear now that Warners would have been a
better choice, but that's how you learn. Our manager at the time, Mike Minky
really wanted to be with Warners, he was right there. SJ: Not signing with
Steve Baker, Michael Hill, and Karin Berg the powerhouse A&R team at Warner
Brothers at the time, was the most crucial mistake we made, a doozy atop a
pile of doozies. Not only were they the better label, if only in terms of
artist loyalty, but Steve Baker started grooming me as a songwriter in '83,
while I was in the Stepmothers and Overkill, and he gave me my first major
label demo deal, which was a big deal for me, and those tunes eventually became
the first Unforgiven tunes. Steve was there first. We shoulda signed with
Warners because it was the right thing to do. I think it would have improved
our kharma greatly. THE BEST UNFORGIVEN GROUPIE STORY: CM: I think she wore
chaps. SJ: I can only respond in a code that those who were also there will
understand: ZZ Top, 23. AW: After Farm Aid II, I don’t know how many
people watched it on TV, millions, and there were 50,000 people at the show,
our manager Doc McGhee made damned sure we went on on time. Afterwards I was
walking down 6th street in Austin, and a bunch of girls approached me and
said "I saw you on TV," I said, "Probably," and one of
them, the hottest asked me what the guitarist's name was, there were four
guitarists, but she meant Jones. She said, "He looks like he'd beat the
shit out of a girl… I like that." So I told her what hotel and
what room was he was in, and she took off running. Later I was drinking with
this model girl, and before I knew it we were in a car headed for Waco, this
was back when you could legally drink and drive in Texas, we were doing both.
But we had an early flight out to Tulsa the next morning to start our first
big tour opening for ZZ Top and I was worried that I'd fucked up and wouldn't
make the flight, that and I was sort of a role model for being on time, so
somehow I got them to take me back to Austin. The sun was coming up when I
got back to the room, which I was sharing with Steve, and it was totally trashed.
I asked him what had happened and he just laughed and said he'd tell me tomorrow.
I heard later that it was a full on orgy with half the band and several girls
tripping on acid. Jones was jumping from girl to girl, humping them for awhile
before telling him he loved them and then jumping off again. DS: Northern
Idaho, The chick who did all of us, all of ZZ Top’s crew, and several
innocent bystanders. JL: "No Groupies for me that I can remember."
SJ: "Jay is such a liar." THE WORST UNFORGIVEN GROUPIE STORY: CM:
I think HE wore chaps. DS: Oh God! That would be that huge chick in Olympia,
Washington. It was for the Tonnage Chart. SJ: Oh the "tonnage tour"
to be sure, that was just one long bad deposit in the kharma bank, I think
we were actually psychotic, as a group, like Nazis. DS: Let me explain the
Tonnage Chart. We had a contest, who could nail the most chicks, as measured
in pounds. We kept score by the weight of the girl. I decided to go for the
win by jumping fat chicks. A truly disgusting strategy. I think I only placed
second or third. SJ: I won, I'm quite sure. The trick was to go for multiples.
AW: A girl bit me on the nipple in Vancouver saying that she could tell I
liked pain. I don't. JL: "No Groupies for me that I can remember."
SJ: "Jay is such a liar." THE MOST OUTRAGEOUS BUT TRUE UNFORGIVEN
STORY: DS: Yes, Mike Jones did piss on band members of Faster Pussycat at
the Roxy. MH: I dunno…that Demi Moore was dating Steve Jones. SJ: What
was so outrageous about that? AW: Melanie Griffith asking me if she could
borrow the bass player for the night, that was in Tonopah, Nevada on the set
of the terrible sci-fi flick "Cherry 2000," which we were all in.
We were cast as post-apocalyptic thugs. JL: The Unforgiven got the biggest
record deal of the '80s. SJ: I wish that were true. KR: We can dedicate an
entire website to this subject alone, but my all time fave is this: Johnny
Hickman always looked really familiar to me and I couldn't figure out why.
Then, one night at Unforgiven HQ, we were all a bit drunk, and Johnny walks
me over to his amp and shows me this brownish-green, dried-snot looking stuff
all over his amp. He looks at me and says "do you remember a band called
"The Dangers"? I feigned drunkenness (HAHAHA!) since it all came
rushing back to me - The Dangers, who were an awful lot like The Romantics
& The early Beatles, had the unique displeasure of opening for Red Brigade
up at The Baldy Notch. The Notch management had neglected to clear away all
of the hotdog fixins, and our ultra-polite punk rock audience rained pickle
relish, ketchup and mustard down upon the power-popsters. Johnny still had
the crap all over his amp! THE MOST OUTRAGEOUS UNTRUE UNFORGIVEN STORY: MH:
As Hemingway once wrote, "It’s all true." CM: That Steve was
considered the gay lover of Clint Eastwood. SJ: I wish. DS: Everything that
was said to the media types. KR: That Steve and I were gay lovers...wait,
that was true!! SJ: Kurt and me?! C'mon. Well at least we'd know who was pitching.
AW: They were all true. THE BEST MEETING MY HERO MOMENT: DS: In Seattle, stepping
on the bus and seeing Norm (George Wendt) sitting there drinking a beer. AW:
He wasn't my hero, but meeting Jim Ladd when he interviewed us for his great
"Inner View" show. I was the only guy in the band who liked him,
everybody else hated him. I only knew him by his voice, meeting him was cool.
SJ: Meeting Stan Lynch, my favorite drummer in one of my favorite bands, Tom
Petty and the Heartbreakers, who epitomized the word 'rockstar,' in the best
sense. We remain good friends to this day. That was the best experience you
could hope for when meeting a hero. Singing "Amazing Grace" on the
same mic with Willie Nelson was also pretty amazing, also the real deal, that
Willie. JL: Lou Reed, my first album was "Transformer." THE WORST
MEETING YOUR HERO MOMENT: JL: Lou Reed, he is so small. SJ: As a kid I was
the world's biggest Kiss fan, meeting them killed all that for me. AW: None
of those guys were my heroes. DS: Meeting Billy Gibbons was a bit of a let
down, only because he didn’t stay longer. THE WORST UNFORGIVEN GIG:
MH: They were all good. I never saw the last, maybe bitter, days. JL: My first
show, I was nervous, didn't know the songs or even the guys in the band, besides
Steve. I had the runs and I drank too much beer. I can also imagine that my
first gig with the Stepmothers was pretty bad too, but I have no memory of
that show. SJ: Seattle, opening up for ZZ Top at the Tacoma Dome. We had two
nights there, we wrote a new opening song for the set and rehearsed all the
next day, we came out like dogs of war…we killed 'em that second night.
DS: Redlands college gig, where we all left the stage to fight with the crowd.
Or was that the best one? AW: We opened for Kix at Hammerjacks in Baltimore
and some of the guys accidentally smoked PCP, big fight, the band was going
home, I was going to fly, but in Spinal Tap style everything was back to "normal"
the next day. SJ: Unlike most things Alan says, that's true, I'm not proud
of it, cause it was me who got dosed and picked a fight with Mike Finn (he
chews his food with his mouth open and after however long we'd been on the
road together it was just making me lose my mind), but for the record, I didn't
knowingly smoke PCP, and I didn't even hit him, I just threatened him and
ran at him and everybody grabbed us before punches were thrown. Then I had
a total Prima Donna moment and said that we were quitting the tour and going
home. Alan was the one who set me straight, assuring me that I was acting
weird. So I apologized to Finn and we continued on. He never forgave me for
that I don’t think, among other things (but we all know who woulda won
that little conflagration, don't we Mikey?).. KR: The Worst Gig I ever saw
was at Bogarts, in Long Beach, at the bitter end, no one there, the fire was
gone… broke my heart, and that is hard to do THE MOMENT I THOUGHT IT
WAS REALLY OVER FOR THE UNFORGIVEN: MH: When they kept wearing those cowboy
duster coats. CM: When they bailed out on a big video. SJ: When I became more
interested in racing bikes, but that wasn't until '87, we slugged it out with
everything we had until then I'm happy to say. JL: Playing The Green Door
in Montclair, the final show. AW: I still had faith after Todd got fired,
Johnny left, then Finn and Jones left, everybody left but Steve and me, Jay
and Larry were in the band, but then after we lost our label deal, management,
publishing deal, after everybody bailed I started to have some doubts. But
frankly I honestly never remember thinking it was over over, and to some extent,
everything I do now is some extension of that. I still have relationships
with most of the guys. Steve and I are still working together, now in movies
or whatever, so in a way, it's still not over. KR: When the Honky Tonk Angels
played the last Unforgiven Show at The Green Door, and I came out to do the
final song w/ Steve and he grabbed my shoulder and whispered in my ear "it's
all up to you, now - all these people are counting on you." DS: I never
think like that. Why? Is it over? THE MOMENT I KNEW I WAS LEAVING THE UNFORGIVEN:
SJ: I don’t know for sure, I may have repressed it. I think it was probably
when we got dropped by Atlantic before we even made a record, and the problem
was… I didn't care. JL: I kept considering leaving for Germany for about
six months, I even bought a plane ticket for $250, but I wasn't really sure
until I got on the plane on May 17, 1989. DS: When I left California and headed
home to Idaho. Broke my heart. KR: Well not me, my brother Todd, I was never
in the band. He and I were out at Unforgiven CentralbHQ one hot, IE week-end
together..errr.. "studying" with a couple of, ummm, "women",
and Todd went into the front office to answer the phone, and the next thing
I know we're loading up all of his stuff, and the..aahhh... "women"
are goin' "whattya guyz doin'?? lezz party!!!!!!!! I had no idea what
happened until we got home and he spilled the news. I don't know who was more
affected, Todd or myself... SJ: Who fired Todd? Does anyone remember? Musta
been me I guess. THE BEST THING I REMEMBER ABOUT THE UNFORGIVEN: CM: Their
sense of humor about what they were doing. MH: Those Stepmothers songs and
the way I felt when I first heard them. The thrill of discovery. DS: It was
all good. The excitement that followed us everywhere we went, the free beer
and chicks. It was a once in a lifetime gig. The days we spent in Austin were
incredible, hanging at Willie Nelson’s place, I’ll never forget
it. KR: From The Stepmothers I met my musical soul mates Eddie Neville and
Eric Shipley, and together we scratched, kicked, pounded and rocked our way
into the Hollywood punk rock elite. We were brutally proud to say where we
came from, and even if we got pretty uppity, we never forgot what the Stepmothers
did for us. From The Unforgiven I learned the most valuable lesson of all
-- we in the Inland Empire don't walk the mother fucking line. Maybe it's
something in the water, but there is no compromise. AW: The way the band hit
the stage. We always came to play, consistently putting a lot of energy into
our performance. I play with top studio guys, and I never see that vibe with
any of those guys. I mean that's what rock bands should do, but the reality
is they rarely do. Our confidence on stage was amazing. I knew what my job
was when I got on stage. It was easy to focus and therefore very relaxing.
Also when the band was getting along and had a knack for getting in trouble,
it was a lot of fun. SJ: The acoustic gigs at The Motley when we were all
learning how to entertain people without volume, all those college kids sitting
on the floor focused entirely on us, like we were Bob Dylan or something.
I don’t even think we got paid for those gigs, but they were the best.
JL: I loved being in the band with Steve and Alan as we developed our style
from the ashes of the original line up. That band: the metal Unforgiven really
hit it's stride about a year before the band brokeup, and at that time there
wasn't another band that could touch us. THE WORST THING I REMEMBER ABOUT
THE UNFORGIVEN: MH: When it all became too Clint Eastwood, and not enough
Joseph Wambaugh – who seemed the inspiration for the Stepmothers. DS:
Lack of cash. CM: That they never really hit the big time… even for
an hour. JL: I had the feeling that we would never get to record our songs
for an 2nd album (we didn't). SJ: How mad at each other we got. Even to this
day, more than 15 years later, some of us won't speak to others of us, even
though we were all veterans of the same battles. It's a shame. AW: The fighting
within ourselves. I think the worst moment for me was after our first triumphant
New York show at Irving Plaza. This was just after we'd signed to Elektra
and the whole label was there. We kicked ass, and after the show the hottest
label girls took us out to the Limelight, we got the VIP treatment, and it
all seemed to be happening for us. Later at the hotel Finn, who was known
for this sort of thing, started throwing water balloons out the window, God
knows how many stories down, he probably could have killed somebody. Then
I started pissing into balloons and then finally Finn shit in one and nailed
somebody with it, I remember him yelling down at the poor guy: "that's
right that's shit motherfucker!" Then there's this knock on the door
and it's Pat, our road manager telling us that the van had been broken into,
everything's gone. Then I remember that Steve had explicitly asked us to take
his stuff out of the van and we had forgotten, the drive the next day to Washington,
D.C. was the worst. When Steve was angry he didn't have to say anything, in
fact he would say nothing, he just emitted this pure, silent, rage and it
would seep into the air. That band was like that, extreme highs and extreme
lows. NEARLY TWO DECADES LATER, THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN MY LIFE NOW IS:
DS: Life itself. I’m grateful to be alive, healthy, and not in prison.
SJ: My family is the only thing that matters. JL: Family AW: Just living.
Stepmothers 1977 - 1
The Stepmothers formed in Claremont , CA. around 1977. Steve Jones was the
only original member of a band that saw at least a half dozen different lineups,
but the definitive Stepmothers lineup was Steve Jones on guitar and vocals,
Jay Lansford on Guitar, and Larry Lee Lerma on Bass. They had a revolving
door of drummers, including Pat Mullis, Dusty Watson, and Eric West. They
released singles on Bomp, Slash and Posh Boy records, another EP and an LP
-- "You Were Never My Age" on Posh Boy, and they were featured on
"Rodney on the Roq, Vol. 2," as well as several other punk rock
compilations. Most of the songwriting was handled by Steve, although Jay co-wrote
some tunes while he was in the band. They played the Hollywood club scene,
and local Inland Empire gigs. A speed metal band years before the term would
be coined, they had the unique ability to play with a Punk band one night
and a Metal band the next. If you weren't there, too damn bad. It was an amazing
time. It all ended in 1983 Glen Dody (Guitar, Vocals), Lita Ford (Guitar,
Vocals), Steve Jones (Guitar, Vocals) John Heshun (Drums), Jay Lansford (Guitar,
Vocals), Larry Lee Lerma (Bass), Chuck Light (Guitar, Vocals), Pat Mullis
(Drums), John Rush (Bass), Eric Fahrner (Guitar), Jerry Soffer (Guitar, Vocals),
Dusty Watson (Drums), Eric West (Drums), Eric Wiggler (Drums). Names Of Those
That Answered the Following Questions:RB: Robbie Fields, owner of Posh Boy
records. DW: Dusty Watson, Drummer for Stepmothers, Press, Agent Orange, Lita
Ford, Dick Dale, Jon and the Nightriders, Legs Diamond, and the list goes
on......one of the great rock drummers. SJ: Steve Jones (AKA John Henry Jones):
Founder and lead singer/guitarist for both The Unforgiven and the Stepmothers.
He also sang lead for the SST pre-speed metal band Overkill, and Jay Lansford's
metal band The Urge. He later helped form Hollywood Records at The Walt Disney
Company with Unforgiven lawyer Peter Paterno, where he signed Inland Empire
bands The Poorboys and Motorpsycho. jL: Jay Lansford: Guitarist for both Stepmothers
and the late model Unforgiven. Jay was a founding member of the original LA
Punk rock scene, playing in lots of seminal bands like the Simpletones, Ch.
3, Rik L. Rik, and The Urge. He also played on and produced some of the best
L.A. punk records of all time, including Agent Orange, The Klan and The Crowd.
In '87 Jay and Steve went to Germany to co-produce a punk record by The Smarties.
Jay moved there, married a German woman and has a 7-year-old daughter. He
does A&R for the SPV label and still plays in the Hannover Punk Pop outfit:
Gigantor.
CM: Curt Marvis, Co-owner of The Company.KR: Kurt Ross: Little brother to
Jeff and Todd Ross, lead singer & fan club president of Red Brigade, Kent
State, The Flamethrowers & The Honky Tonk Angels Band. DS: Dave Stephens,
roadie for both Stepmothers and The Unforgiven. Once took the rap for Steve's
illegal billyclub and did time in the County Jail for it. Now a business owner
living in Idaho. Creator of this website. AW: Alan Waddington: Drummer for
The Unforgiven, and numerous other Inland Empire bands, including longtime
Pomona party band Stratus. Alan is know a teacher at Citrus College, still
plays professionally, and often travels to Seoul, Korea where he is the percussionist
for the Seoul Philharmonic. THE FIRST TIME I HEARD / SAW THE STEPMOTHERS:
DW: Maybe '78, Steve approached me at a club in Riverside called The Squeeze
when I was playing there with my band: The Press. His band played that night
but I think they were called something else, I can’t remember. I don’t
even remember if I saw them play now that I think about it. RF: The Masque
probably. But the first time I liked them was at Bates Hall, on North Vermont,
in East Hollywood. JL:: At the Hong Kong Café, late 70s, they were
opening for my band The Simpletones, they were unlike any other band in that
early LA punk rock scene, which was saying a lot cause it was a very diverse
scene. The Stepmothers, Simpletones, Klan, Crowd and Rik. L. Rik, all of whom
I played with (or produced records by) were part of a scene that included
X, the Go Gos, Fear, The Alleycats, The Weirdos… all very different
musically and stylistically. It was a great time, and that early Stepmothers
was one of the tightest bands I'd seen in LA, probably cause they weren't
from LA. AW: Steve talked me into driving out to see them play at Madam Wongs
in Chinatown, must be '79 or '80, not their best show, Steve was trying real
hard, but I don’t know if everyone else was connected. DS: At The Whiskey,
Lita Ford joined them onstage for " American Nights".Also the LA
Guardian Angels were there, cause of the song " Guardian Angels",
and a shitload of media types. What a circus that was. THE MOMENT I KNEW I
WAS JOINING THE STEPMOTHERS: DW: Steve said to me, "Hey, will you come
down and record some songs with us?" and I said sure. By the end of the
first session (Cro Magnum Studios, Chino) he asked me if I could play a couple
of shows they had coming up; King’s Palace, Hong Kong Cafe I think.
Two days later he handed me a flyer with like 10 fucking gigs on it. I had
that funny feeling that I had just committed to something without knowing
it, but I was cool with that cuz his songs were good and I liked him alright
and his bass player, Larry Lerma totally kicked ass. THE MOMENT I KNEW I WAS
LEAVING THE STEPMOTHERS: DW: It was after I had started playing with Lita
Ford, probably 80/81. I was still playing with Jon and the Nightriders too.
The Stepmothers were getting a lot of attention and I was busy as shit with
other bands so I think it was a mutual agreement, though I really don’t
remember actually leaving the band. I probably told Steve I was too busy to
do a show or something and he told me to fuck off or something. JL: I simply
left the Stepmothers without even an argument, just walked out of the rehearsal
room. Larry Lerma later told me it became a running SM gag. SJ: (Laughing)
I said, "What are you saying, Jay?" and he just threw up his hands
and said, "I'm saying, I'm leaving the band." The rest of us looked
at each other and it was like "cool." THE BEST STEPMOTHERS SONG:
DW: "All Systems Go." (Editor's Note: "All Systems Go"
was a 30-second speed metal blast, years before anyone would ever think of
doing anything so ridiculous) SJ: I loved "Guardian Angels," and
the ballad, "Go Tell It On the Wall." The best cover we did was
the Bobby Fuller 4 song "Let Her Dance," and "To Sir With Love"
was wonderfully perverse and uncool. JL: "Middle Class Girl" DS:
"Inland Empire," because the crowd would go wild. Also "Only
The Good Die Young". KR: "Eddie" for obvious reasons( "Eddie
don't get hot - The Ducky Boys are all you got" - "The Ducky Boys"
was what Red Brigade was called for a couple of weeks) RF: Their entire set.
They were probably the only group from that early LA Punk scene to play their
songs in a rapid-fire manner as though sequenced for an album. THE WORST STEPMOTHERS
SONG: DW: "All Systems Go." JL: "Blood on the Moon," we
were working on this when I left the band, so I never got to play it live.
RF: "To Sir With Love" ... how to let the energy drain away from
a 30 minute set. DS: " To Sir With Love" it speaks for itself. KR:
"Rub it In," sorry. SJ: They were all fun, it was all so silly.
THE BEST STEPMOTHERS GIG: DW: Chino Men's Prison in 1979, with The Plugs and
the Textones, fuck I don’t remember who else. The cool part of this
gig was jamming with Buddy Miles who was incarcerated at the time, he got
onstage with us, borrowed someone's guitar, turned it upside down and played
it left handed. He was in for grand theft auto. Rumor has it that there was
a pound of coke in the trunk. Whatever. So I asked Buddy what his duties were
inside and he told me that he was working in the Rec Dept. I asked, like what,
you have to sweep up and shit? and he said, 'hell no, man, we got Studio Instrument
Rentals coming in here tomorrow with a whole rig, we’re recording a
live album.' Man, I thought that was cool! Steve thought he was smart cuz
he booked these chick bands to play and the fellas were calling out for the
ladies and we went on and they started giving us sooo much shit. They were
telling us to fuck off and bring back the girls and all. I think we played
about 5 songs and slinked off the stage. Damn, that was fun. Who else was
on that bill….Steve? SJ: I'm struggling to remember, I think I was too
traumatized to remember. The Textones definitely stole the show with those
two women fronting the band (Karla and Kathy; Kathy went on to become a rock
star in the Go Gos, by the way). But I think that Buddy Miles was actually
in for check forgery. Also I remember that Mikal Gilmore covered that show
-- called "Prison Punk '79" -- for Rolling Stone. I remember him
coming up to me as we all waited to be escorted into the prison, telling me
how cool it was that I had arranged entertainment for prisoners (we did a
whole series of those prison punk shows from '79 - '82). I didn't learn until
years later that his brother was the infamous Gary Gilmore who was executed
by firing squad in Utah a couple of years earlier, and then it all made sense.
SJ: Chaffee High School auditorium, Ontario, 1979. We were rock stars. I also
remember a KROQ teen skatepark festival in the valley that was the wildest
and most fun, that was like 1980, there was also a great gig we did at a Catholic
Junior High School for Girls in Buena Park, now they were wild, we played
every wicked song we knew to try to piss the nuns off, "Homicide,"
"Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap," stuff like that. But the best that
band ever played was when Dusty Watson was drumming, what a powerhouse. RF:
The Stepmothers opening many times for Motley Crue and always sounding better.
DS: Too hard to pick one. What I loved about Stepmothers shows, was how they
always blew away any other acts on the bill. THE WORST STEPMOTHERS GIG: DW:
They were all pretty shitty when I was in the band. Hmmm. I don’t remember
where it was but we were playing some shit hole in LA and Steve had that super
whiney voice back then (before he became a man) and these guys were cat-calling
him, mocking his every word and just plain fucking with us all night. So in
the middle of one of our songs, I came around from behind the drums and pulled
my pants off and started wrestling with Steve on the stage and everyone seemed
to like that cuz they quit yelling at us after that.SJ: I don't remember or
believe a word of it! DS: The one that never happened because Rancho Cucamonga
P.D. shot it down before it started. Would have been huge.RF: The very first
time I saw them. SJ: I dunno, the violent ones in the punk days, but usually
those were great too. I remember a broken mirror being frisbeed at my face
by some psychotic punk at a gig in Ontario with Red Brigade, Bad Religion
and Rik L. Rik. That scared me. THE BEST STEPMOTHERS GROUPIE STORY: DW: Who
are you shitting? The Stepmothers had groupies? All I remember was sitting
at Steve’s parent’s watching George C. Scott do the beginning
speech in Patton before the gig. Where the hell were the groupies? RF: Steve's
focus was always on the music. SJ: Can't remember a specific story, but The
Pookies days when we were a Pasadena band and playing with a just-starting-out
Motley Crue were killer. Jay and I had numerous
concubines, sharing girlfriends right and left, girls who were also with the
Crue and the Sharks and Van Halen and… THE WORST STEPMOTHERS GROUPIE
STORY: DW: This isn’t fair RF: Something about a girl and a famous L.A.
DJ, and what did not happen between them. SJ: And what did not happen with
that girl and certain members of the band. THE MOST OUTRAGEOUS BUT TRUE STEPMOTHERS
STORY: DW: It only seemed outrageous to me I am sure, but I had convinced
Steve I knew how to play racquetball and we went and played one day and I
went for a backhand and popped myself in the mouth and broke my front tooth
right in half. I was out of my mind in pain. I needed drugs bad and Steve
never had any back then the bastard, so he sets me up with a ride back to
Hollywood with some cracker roadie guy. I hop in this car and he starts telling
me about how he just got this car on the road and it’s hot as fuck and
fully chopped shopped together and he keeps it in some garage some fucking
place and we are driving like a hundred all the way to my apartment and I
just want to eat a bunch of Quaaludes and go to sleep and forget my tooth
hurts and all I can think about is going to jail with someone I don’t
even know.SJ:LOL! JL: The Stepmothers influenced a whole generation of rockers.
KR: 1980: we were in San Bernardino at some shite dive bar, and after the
gig Roberto Tarin had all of the band's gear in his truck, and we were taking
too long to come out of the club (I remember Mick Mars had something to do
with this place, and it might have been Jay's first gig as a Stepmom) Anyway,
Roberto leaves his truck running and comes into the venue to see what was
going on, and as we come out to the parking lot, his truck was pulling out
of the parking lot and headin' towards the freeway!!!! Roberto HATES that
story!!! SJ: Dunno, probably just that we were "speed metal" and
"metal pop" before there were such things. THE MOMENT I THOUGHT
IT WAS OVER FOR THE STEPMOTHERS: DW: After the Whiskey gig with the Guardian
Angels I thought the SM’s were gonna be big as shit. I don’t even
know what happened. No one invited me to the going away party. SJ: We played
a strip club in Fontana and our manager stole the measly fifty dollars we
got paid. I was broke and pissed off and I went to Las Vegas with my girlfriend,
and fought with her for the next 48 hours. There was no announcement or drama
with the Stepmothers, I just never called anybody up anymore. I was going
to school and working in a mental hospital, so I just did that for awhile.
End of story. In retrospect I think it was really over when I started singing
for Overkill on the side, that signaled to the rest of the band that I was
probably getting bored with the Stepmothers, and maybe I was. With The Unforgiven
there was a farewell gig and all that, which was nice actually, it gave everybody
the proverbial closure.