The Debauchery and Depravity of the ’80s Hair Metal Scene, Revealed!

[Seshmeister]

The new docuseries “N?thin' But a Good Time” unfurls tales of sex, drugs, and rock and roll from Poison, Motley Crue, Guns N’ Roses, and more.
Nick Schager
Entertainment Critic

Published Sep. 17, 2024 1:25PM EDT
Ross Marino/Getty Images


The 1980s hair metal scene has already received a definitive documentary account courtesy of Penelope Spheeris’ The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years, and N?thin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored Story of '80s Hair Metal doesn’t outdo it.

Paramount+’s three-part docuseries, which premieres Sept. 17, is a non-fiction power ballad for the era of big hair, tight spandex, and rampant debauchery and depravity, reminiscing with an affection that isn’t, alas, matched by its incisiveness. Light on the decade’s biggest luminaries and even lighter on insight, it merely opts for sketchy nostalgia.

Hair metal was all about excess, so N?thin' But a Good Time (based on the book by journalists Tom Beaujour and Richard Bienstock, who appear) is invariably most entertaining when its talking heads recount anecdotes about their over-the-top heyday.

Manager Doc McGhee discusses Motley Cr?e bassist Nikki Sixx and drummer Tommy Lee’s habit of being “dark angels” who ran around biting people—hard enough to leave lasting marks—or devious kicks. Great White singer Jack Russell (who just passed away) details a narcotics habit that drove him to repeatedly rob his dealer, which led to an incident where he was so high during a stick-up that he got into a fight with the guy’s maid, ultimately shooting her through a bathroom door.

Similar tales of sex, drugs, and mayhem abound, from David Lee Roth hogging the bathroom at L.A.’s Rainbow Room to receive blowjobs, to manager Alan Niven being introduced to Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash’s enormous pet snake—stories that highlight how these rock gods’ lifestyles were as loud and brash as their music.


Other than these occasional eye-openers, however, N?thin' But a Good Time is a formulaic and shallow affair.

Director Jeff Tremaine (co-creator of Jackass) briefly contextualizes hair metal as a rejection of the New Wave that was all the rage in the late ’70s, and a throwback to the long-haired rock that had preceded it—except this time with more extreme style and showmanship.

More at https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsess...80s-hair-metal

[Kristy]

I don't fucking care. Matter of fact-O no one gives a flying shit about junkie fuck-up hair bands and their shit sandwich albums which consist of two simple subject matters:

1. Their small dicks
2. Satan

These MTV bought-and-paid-for fucktards had little talent, were pawns of major labels, and perpetual losers who more or less drank themselves to oblivion. No wonder with these even more shittier streaming services failing would they produce something as dismal and uncalled for as this. Who asked for this? Maybe deadbeats like slave FORD and his whole Boomer generation of hypocritical fuckwits so they can hate fuck the "youth' with their whole retarded "music was so much better back in my day" mumbo-jumbo. Spandex hair bands were a gimmick to hide the real truth that this "music" was gay as in literally gay. Don't believe me?

Exhibit A:



Even Liberace looked at this and said, "What in the fuck!?"

[Nitro Express]

Poorly researched. The Rainbow Room is a restaurant at Rockefeller Center in New York. Where Dave supposedly was getting sucked off was at the Rainbow Bar and Grill on Sunset Blvd.

[Nitro Express]

I don't fucking care. Matter of fact-O no one gives a flying shit about junkie fuck-up hair bands and their shit sandwich albums which consist of two simple subject matters:

1. Their small dicks
2. Satan

These MTV bought-and-paid-for fucktards had little talent, were pawns of major labels, and perpetual losers who more or less drank themselves to oblivion. No wonder with these even more shittier streaming services failing would they produce something as dismal and uncalled for as this. Who asked for this? Maybe deadbeats like slave FORD and his whole Boomer generation of hypocritical fuckwits so they can hate fuck the "youth' with their whole retarded "music was so much better back in my day" mumbo-jumbo. Spandex hair bands were a gimmick to hide the real truth that this "music" was gay as in literally gay. Don't believe me?

Exhibit A:



Even Liberace looked at this and said, "What in the fuck!?"

I just saw them as bad VH copy cats and never really paid much attention to them. There were more interesting things happening in the 80’s than these Aquanet bands.

[Terry]

I don't fucking care. Matter of fact-O no one gives a flying shit about junkie fuck-up hair bands and their shit sandwich albums which consist of two simple subject matters:

1. Their small dicks
2. Satan

These MTV bought-and-paid-for fucktards had little talent, were pawns of major labels, and perpetual losers who more or less drank themselves to oblivion. No wonder with these even more shittier streaming services failing would they produce something as dismal and uncalled for as this. Who asked for this? Maybe deadbeats like slave FORD and his whole Boomer generation of hypocritical fuckwits so they can hate fuck the "youth' with their whole retarded "music was so much better back in my day" mumbo-jumbo. Spandex hair bands were a gimmick to hide the real truth that this "music" was gay as in literally gay. Don't believe me?

Exhibit A:



Even Liberace looked at this and said, "What in the fuck!?"

I remember seeing Britny Fox on the MTV back in the day and just laughing at them.

That pretty much went for the slew of MTV-friendly hair bands that broke big after 1985. Same went for Poison. Winger. Warrant.

I liked the stuff earlier in the 1980's... Dokken, Ratt, Motley Crue's first two albums. Course, back in those years I was in my early teens, learning to play guitar. MTV was new. The hair metal image and all of that was new.

Within a couple years of those early 80's MTV-friendly rock bands breaking, the floodgates opened and seemingly every rock band was jumping on that bandwagon. Within short order, it all became too much. White Lion and Cinderella I liked far as later 80's MTV rock bands went. For every one of those I liked, it seemed there were a couple dozen bands along the lines of Trixter or some such shit that I had no use for. By the time the 1980's closed out, I was either looking farther back for rock music I hadn't heard, chronologically speaking, or listening to other genres.

As for the documentary, I think the members of Motley Crue along with plenty of the other hair metal bands have told their "wild and crazy days" tales for too often over the last thirty years for me to be particularly interested anymore. It's like, hey man, remember the 80's? When we were all fucked up on coke and screwed every groupie in sight? I had a blast as a teen in the 1980's, too. Got some friends I knew back then that from what I can gather via social media STILL party, party, party like they were in high school. Some people just peak early in life.

[Nitro Express]

The 80’s were my high school and college years. I was busy with school, sports and work but the entertainment was far better than what we get now. There was a more positive vibe and people worked hard and played hard.

[Seshmeister]

These MTV bought-and-paid-for fucktards had little talent, were pawns of major labels, and perpetual losers who more or less drank themselves to oblivion. No wonder with these even more shittier streaming services failing would they produce something as dismal and uncalled for as this. Who asked for this? Maybe deadbeats like slave FORD and his whole Boomer generation of hypocritical fuckwits so they can hate fuck the "youth' with their whole retarded "music was so much better back in my day" mumbo-jumbo.

[twonabomber]

Within a couple years of those early 80's MTV-friendly rock bands breaking, the floodgates opened and seemingly every rock band was jumping on that bandwagon. Within short order, it all became too much. White Lion and Cinderella I liked far as later 80's MTV rock bands went. For every one of those I liked, it seemed there were a couple dozen bands along the lines of Trixter or some such shit that I had no use for. By the time the 1980's closed out, I was either looking farther back for rock music I hadn't heard, chronologically speaking, or listening to other genres.

I've said it before...the labels saw what bands were hot, and told their A&R guys "go find me the next (whoever)." By the time the third or fourth wave of signings came around, the genre became watered down and we got stuck with Trixter, and Firehouse, and all these other shit bands that should have been left in the clubs.

And don't think that just happened in hair metal...same shit happened to grunge.

[Mushroom]

Oink. Talk about putting lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig…, Britny Fox is one of those pigs.

On the other hand, the Vixen babes were foxes..

Even Pantera started out a glam hair metal band.

I am going to get fried and watch this documentary, and love it.

I’ll be looking for another related docuseries
‘I Wanna Rock’ which Tracks ’80s Metal Trials and Tribulations

[twonabomber]

I have no plans to watch this. I don't have Paramount+ anyways.

[Seshmeister]

I'll give it 30 minutes but I suspect that's all.

"Other than these occasional eye-openers, however, N?thin' But a Good Time is a formulaic and shallow affair."

Like that shitty Motley Crue movie,, Chris Holmes pouring vodka on his head lying on in a pool while his mother watches is film making. Vince Neil killing Razzle and maybe even worse permanently disabling people in the car he hit who had no agency at all is not just a fucking 'hah we were crazy kids' drinking story like it was portrayed in 'The Dirt'.

[Nitro Express]

I've said it before...the labels saw what bands were hot, and told their A&R guys "go find me the next (whoever)." By the time the third or fourth wave of signings came around, the genre became watered down and we got stuck with Trixter, and Firehouse, and all these other shit bands that should have been left in the clubs.

And don't think that just happened in hair metal...same shit happened to grunge.

Milk it until it dies. Nirvana gets credit for ending the Aquanet and spandex but Guns and Roses really was the begining. Then you had Metallica as the black sheep. The anti-LA band.

[Nitro Express]

I'll give it 30 minutes but I suspect that's all.

"Other than these occasional eye-openers, however, N?thin' But a Good Time is a formulaic and shallow affair."

Like that shitty Motley Crue movie,, Chris Holmes pouring vodka on his head lying on in a pool while his mother watches is film making. Vince Neil killing Razzle and maybe even worse permanently disabling people in the car he hit who had no agency at all is not just a fucking 'hah we were crazy kids' drinking story like it was portrayed in 'The Dirt'.

Chris Holmes grew up in a Mormon family. He was the rebel kid. That scene was filmed in Miles Copeland’s pool. He produced the film.

[Seshmeister]

Penelope Spheeris who directed 'The Decline of Western Civilisation Part 2" and went on to do Waynes World, later admitted that the scene with Ozzy's hand shaking was faked. Once you know that it seems super obvious. Made me laugh at the time and probably reflects what happened.

It does make you wonder how manufactured the rest of the 'documentary' was though...

[Seshmeister]

There we go

"What I liked about the scene is you had all these younger kids talking about how they were gonna make it, but Chris was sort of an example of, 'OK, I made it. Are you sure you want this?' That's why I liked it just from a filmmaker's standpoint. It counterbalanced all those crazy dreams that those kids had that were not gonna happen. It was a reality check.

"By the way, the first half of the bottle of vodka was real, and after that he was filling it up with pool water."

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/inside-10-iconic-decline-of-western-civilization-scenes-78426/decline-ii-w-a-s-p-guitarist-chris-holmes-throws-a-pool-party-37788/