Kevin DuBrow - A Memorium

Dive Bar. 1am. In northern New Jersey I’m sipping a $2 Yuengling over an oak-colored bar with the week's sports bloopers on TV out of the corner of my eye when “Cum on Feel the Noize” comes blaring out of the jukebox. How fitting. Multiple “Did you hear about this guy?” and “Oh man, Quiet Riot” are slurring their way around the bar as the news is slowly breaking that a pioneer of 80s glam metal has sadly passed away.

I would like to make one thing clear: I never considered myself anything more than mildly entertained by the hair band phenomenon that swept the 80s. I’ll willingly admit I prefer the likes of A Flock Of Seagulls or Devo, but there is a part of me that can’t help but respect a male performer that could pull off spandex painted on with the same finesse of an Olympic gymnast better than I ever could. That performer was Kevin DuBrow, lead singer of Quiet Riot, who was found dead at his home in Las Vegas on Sunday at the age of 52.

With enough hairspray to put any Jersey housewife to shame, the band undeniably moved crowds with rock heavy riffs and DuBrow’s eccentric stage presence, which sometimes included him donning a straight jacket and metal mask much like the cover of their most successful album. Look, I’m no self-proclaimed fan of Quiet Riot, but I do know there is more to this guy than his fashion statements. His voice – for one – bellowing out of the microphone like a thunder you don’t expect coming was largely responsible for moving crowds, big and small, chanting and screaming for more.

Believe it or not, Quiet Riot is credited as being the first metal band to top the charts with their album Mental Health in 1983. Their success was soon eclipsed by other hair bands of the time, but not before they skyrocketed to fame with “Cum on Feel the Noize” thanks largely to MTV airplay. The band failed to find success with albums afterwards and even disbanded in 1989 after members fired DuBrow, leaving him behind in Hawaii as the rest of the band took off on an earlier flight home.

Ok, so maybe I’m not youtube-ing Quiet Riot videos to refresh my taste of their unforgettable stardom (I won’t even go near eBay right now) but one thing I can absolutely respect is that when the band reunited in the mid 90s touring the club circuit, they were proud of their 80s status instead of most who would rebuke it, with DuBrown himself saying, , “I’ve read interviews where certain guys are trying to escape their past. I am my past.”

It’s true that DuBrow left behind fond friends and fans and like most artists who drop off the radar after major success, is already getting more attention in the last two days alone than he has the last ten years. It’s just enough, however, for some last lingering bar patrons to semi-drunkenly come together for a cohesive “Wild Wild Wild” right before last call.


RELATED: 80s, quiet riot, hair metal

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