Steel Panther Biography/History
 Panthers
are territorial animals, fiercely patrolling their stalking lands. The
Sunset Strip, circa 1988, was ruled by one: a legendary band called
Steel Panther. The Strip was the plangent heart of the nascent heavy
metal scene, one that would soon conquer the music world, and rockers
came from as far as New Jersey and the San Fernando Valley to see this
band with a killer sound and habits to match.
Now, these once and future kings of heavy metal have emerged out of the
mists of history and a cloud of hairspray to reclaim their rightful
throne. Look out, because Steel Panther is again marking its territory.
Steel Panther’s fabled live shows were like a GED class from the school
of rock. And other bands took note: Their raucous stage shows,
outrageous style, seismic guitar riffs, catchy melodies, catchier
afflictions and indiscriminate taste in trollops and intoxicants – what
frontman Michael Starr, lead guitarist Satchel, bassist Lexxi Foxxx and
drummer Stix Zindinia laid down would all be copied, as sure as if the
original had been left at a Kinko’s where so many apprentice rockers
dream of quitting their day jobs.
“Most of the other bands were very jealous about all the chicks we were
nailing,” says frontman Michael Starr, “and they were wondering how we
were getting these great gigs. The bottom line is: We’re pioneers in
what we’re doing. Poison totally ripped me off: I was the first guy to
come out with blonde hair and tight pants and the bandannas and they got
Vince Neil popping out with the bandannas – you know who we’re talking
about.”
But before we get caught up in the heady excitement of those times,
let’s look to when rock’s glory was yet to be fully reclaimed from the
New Wave British bands sporting synthesizers, asymmetrical haircuts,
sweaters and worse. It was in the thick of that noxious early-‘80s
atmosphere that Steel Panther defiantly came to be.
They were high school pals, hanging out and getting high to stick it to
the man. When in the course of being rebellious young men, Satchel,
Michael Starr and Stix discovered Lexxi’s penchant for wearing his
mother’s make up. To shock him out of his nascent transvestitism, the
three school chum decided to burst out of his closet in full make up, a
graphic depiction of the error of his ways. Then in a twist of fate,
Michael Starr caught sight of the foursome in the mirror, recognizing at
once that this look belonged on stage. A quick trip to the guitar store
later, the band that would become Steel Panther was born.
But the band needed a name.
“I was with this chick watching Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom,” Michael
Starr says, “and I saw this show on black panthers, and I thought
wouldn’t that be a cool name for a band, so I went over to Satchel, and
I said, ‘Satchel, how about we name our band Black Panther?’”
“And I said, how about Steel Black Panther,” Satchel replies, “only we
take out the ‘Black.’”
Small early gigs led to big ones. Big chicks led to hotter ones. And
before long the gigs got bigger and the chicks even hotter. Entire
communities of hot chicks moved to LA. Steel Panther shows were like
their Mecca. It was in this era, in which the dream that led to the 1959
invention of spandex was finally realized, that many of the band’s once
and future classic songs developed, like the mission statement “Eye of a
Panther” and the burning “Asian Hooker.”
By 1987, not even the record business’s most revered tastemakers could
ignore the band that put the “strip” in Sunset Strip, and a fierce
bidding was about to erupt. Every major label was involved. Competition
to get into their big showcase gig so intense that entire A&R staffs
were left in tatters; many label reps were reduced to returning to their
college studies in hopes of eventually taking teaching positions in
their hometowns.
But this is where the mystery of Steel Panther becomes mysterious: The
band never showed for that big showcase. Rumors abounded as heavy
metal’s finest minds pondered the whereabouts of the Steel Panther and
the great “lost” album they were rumored to have recorded.
But what really happened is that when you rock hard and live hard, you
can tear something else – the fabric of time.
“It’s so f*cking awesome,” Michael says, “we didn’t pay attention to the
clock or anything. When you can have all the blow and the strippers you
want, why would you want to stop that?”
“It was never easy to get the band together to get together to talk
about songs and rehearse,” Satchel admits, “Because they were all mostly
high in the ‘80s. And the ‘90s.” Band rivalries and tensions heightened,
especially between Satchel and Michael Starr, ultimately resulting in a
tighter bond between the two, and for Satchel, a criminal record.
Then, one day, Universal-Republic President Monte Lipman found a Steel
Panther package on his desk. Only this time, it was a box with an album
inside. Could it be? Had the legendary metal band actually recorded
those songs that shook the LA Basin to its core? One play confirmed it
was true: The Panther roars again.
Always innovators, they set upon making Mondays the night to rock in
Hollywood. Mission accomplished: Their weekly show at the Key Club is
considered the longest-running Monday night heavy metal show in the
world, a record the band hopes the Guinness people will soon certify.
The club is packed to the rafters every week, drawing the Hollywood
in-the-know and celebrities alike to bask in the band’s sui generis
covers and stirring originals. On any given night, you can see the likes
of Pink,
Jessica Simpson
or Vince Vaughn
onstage rocking with The Panther.
But the question remains, with the album at last ready, is the world
ready for songs that herald the return of heavy metal’s hegemony over
the rock scene, tracks like “Stripper Girl,” and “Community Property?”
It would appear to be so. After all, what this band does, give or take
20 years, is timeless.
“The music, the art form, for me hasn’t really changed,” Satchel says
resolutely, “Heavy metal is all about looking killer, wearing bitching
clothes and sex with really hot girls – not just really, really hot like
she’s hot for the bus stop, or I’d-put-her-in-a-video hot, but the
hottest girls you can have sex with. We live in Los Angeles, there are a
lot of hot girls here, and we have sex with some of the hottest.”
The same bravado that created the legend of Steel Panther, that forged
the template from which so many other heavy metal bands were stamped,
still courses unalloyed through the veins of the band. From Michael
Starrs’s golden vocal chords to Lexxi’s frosted tips, rocking out is
simply in their DNA, samples of which are so often available to fans
after the show.
Get ready. As Michael Starr says, “Now it’s time to let the cat out of
the cage.”
Bio courtesy
TotalAssault.com
Steel Panthers Videos
Death To All But Metal
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Community Property
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