I Want My MTV

by Craig Marks

  TIM NEWMAN: Even though ZZ Top look wild, they’re not crazy guys. I was thinking, What the fuck am I going to do with these guys? The song seemed to be about a horny, yearning kid. So I had the idea to base it around a guy who worked at a gas station in the middle of nowhere. I would not be making a huge demand on ZZ Top’s acting ability if I cast them in the role of mythological characters. If you’ve read Joseph Campbell, you know there are classic mythological themes in our culture, and the details change but the story remains the same.

  JEFF AYEROFF: After “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” people said, “Yeah, that video’s great. But we’re not doing another one.” I’d just gotten to Warners, and I said, “Not only are we doing another video, we’re gonna do the same video! And we’re gonna spend more money, and it’s gonna be even better.”

  TIM NEWMAN: When they asked me to do another one, the idea that you would do a sequel in a form that isn’t even a form struck me as funny, in a very insidery way. The intention was to keep everything the same: same three guys, same car, same key chain.

  BILLY GIBBONS: The continuity was steadfast. There were so many lucky moments—at the end of “Sharp Dressed Man,” when the cars are racing into the heat waves, a tiny bunny rabbit came and sat down in the middle of the road, watching the car leave.

  DANIELE ARNAUD: In “Sharp Dressed Man,” we had to show ourselves off to the camera, almost like in those nightclubs where women try to get money from the men.

  TIM NEWMAN: For “Sharp Dressed Man,” Warner Bros. had made a deal for product placement. Not openly, because MTV was against that. Schlitz, I think it was, offered to put up a bunch of money and my job was to figure out how to work Schlitz into the video. When MTV saw it, they said, “You’ve got to take that shot out.” Now the label is mad at me because they’re not going to get money from the brewery. It left a bad taste in my mouth, so I said, “Fuck you, I’m not doing this anymore.”

  The videos made them bigger than life. When we started, they were a hugely successful Midwestern touring band. By the time we were done with those videos, they were international. I was capable of being a loudmouth, and I said, “I would love to have some upside, some form of profit participation—points.” Video directors should have had points in those days. Jeff Ayeroff said, “We’re going to straighten everything out. We won’t give you points”—because that would have been precedent-setting—“but we’re going to give you X dollars for every 250,000 albums sold over a certain amount.” So we did the “Legs” video and it worked out quite well for me, financially. I said, “Why not make the main character a girl?” and that allowed me to do one more Eliminator video. Plus we had the spinning fur guitars. But they’re all the same video.

  BILLY GIBBONS: Kym Herrin was the tall blonde in “Legs.” Kymmy’s this groovy hippie chick from Santa Barbara, and I still talk to her quite frequently.

  TIM NEWMAN: I dated a girl I cast in “Legs,” Wendy Fraser. She’s the one with the glasses who’s kind of mousy and afraid. She wasn’t my girlfriend when I cast her. Look, you spend time with these people. What can I tell you?

  When ZZ Top finished their next album, I came in to talk to Jeff Ayeroff about directing a video for “Sleeping Bag.” Shortly thereafter, Mo Ostin, who ran Warner Bros. Records, stepped in and rescinded the deal. And I refused to work with ZZ Top. I said, “Fuck it, why do I need this?”

  BILLY GIBBONS: I was not part of any decision-making, nor was the band. When we showed up to do “Sleeping Bag,” we said, “Where’s Tim? Where’s Jeana?”

  We used to refer to our audience as our “sea of dudes.” However, videos made us more acceptable to the females. I still sign autographs for girls who say, “I was just thirteen and I couldn’t wait to dress up like the girl in ‘Legs.’”

  Chapter 12

  “GIRLS BELONG IN CAGES”

  METAL TAKES OVER THE AIRWAVES

  IF YOU WATCHED MTV WITH THE SOUND OFF, YOU MIGHT not have been able to tell the difference between Duran Duran and Def Leppard (except that women in Duran Duran videos weren’t in cages). In both cases, a hairdresser and makeup artist were the uncredited video auteurs. MTV didn’t play only new wave bands with outrageous style, they also played hard rock bands with outrageous style. Early videos by Twisted Sister, Def Leppard, Ratt, and Mötley Crüe marked the start of MTV’s uneasy romance with metal, and initiated the careers of Wayne Isham, the video director who most closely emulated a rock star, and Tawny Kitaen, a self-described “serious actress” who a few years later became the first video star who couldn’t sing. “Until then,” Kitaen says, “girls weren’t the focus of videos—the bands were the focus. I came along and changed all that.”

  DAVE HOLMES: Videos were very European at first. Then things started to get less Euro and more big-titted and American.

  DAVID MALLET: It started with a British sensibility and then the American sensibility took over—i.e., money.

  DEE SNIDER, Twisted Sister: MTV needed acts that knew how to present themselves in a visually interesting way. And they noticed metal bands: “Oh my god, these bands are very theatrical.” Anyone who wasn’t theatrical was done. Videos inspired a resurgence of metal—heavy metal has never gone away, but it had a really big moment in the ’80s. Metal owes MTV for that. But MTV owes metal.

  LARS ULRICH: I remember all these strange dudes from England with funny haircuts. But then you’d see a Saxon video. That was what kept me glued to the TV.

  STEVE ISAACS, MTV VJ: I didn’t see MTV until I was fourteen. At that point, they were putting a lot of boobies in the videos. That was the one good thing about shitty metal. For a teenage boy, MTV really yanked you through puberty.

  DAVID MALLET: AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long” is one of the funniest videos ever. I based the singer, Brian Johnson, on Andy Capp, a hugely popular cartoon character who was an English institution and never did any work. He was always in the pub. Brian follows a trail of underwear up the stairs in a little house, and it all opens out into a huge set with girls in rubber, riding stationary bicycles and mechanical bulls.

  ROBIN SLOANE: Culture Club’s “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me” video had a scene with a jury in blackface. At the same time, we had a video from some godawful rock band, and the video was totally degrading to women. I was in a marketing meeting, and somebody said, “I’ll play two videos. One is really offensive and the other is really good.” The one they thought was offensive was Culture Club. As a woman, I was thinking, You have got to be kidding me.

  RIKI RACHTMAN, MTV host: The first video I saw on MTV was Mötley Crüe’s “Live Wire.” They were wearing red leather and Nikki Sixx set his legs on fire.

  NIKKI SIXX, Mötley Crüe: We shot “Live Wire” and two other songs just down and dirty, to give away to fans, inspired by shows like Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert and Midnight Special. When MTV came along, we did “Looks That Kill,” and MTV also played “Live Wire.”

  What I liked and respected was, MTV played all kinds of music, which is what FM radio used to be when I was growing up. You’d wait to see videos by bands you were into, but you sat through other bands and you’d go, “Hmm, that Duran Duran band’s not bad.” MTV broke down those barriers, to the point where I actually bought a Thompson Twins album.

  ROBIN SLOANE: The first video shoot I ever went on was Mötley Crüe’s “Looks That Kill.” Bob Krasnow, who ran Elektra, decided I should go to LA and oversee production of the video. I walked onto the set, went up to Mötley’s guitarist, Mick Mars, and said, “Hello, I’m Robin Sloane from Elektra.” And he goes, “Fuck you, who cares?” Okay, then.

  STEVE SCHNUR: I kept telling Les Garland that MTV should be playing Mötley Crüe’s “Looks That Kill.” “This is where we should be, Les. It’s got to be about rock n’ roll.”

  SEBASTIAN BACH: “Looks That Kill” was all blue and silver, and it looked striking. That was my favorite video back then. I love the outfits: platform boots and makeup.

  NIKKI SIXX: The ’70s were a
bout fashion and music; it was a merging. Fashion designers hung out with rock stars. We said, “Let’s top it. Let’s go even farther.” At times it was ludicrous, but wonderful. To be honest, I can’t remember the concept for “Looks That Kill.” If you strip it down, it’s only about being over the top.

  JOE ELLIOTT: When we were kids growing up in Sheffield, there were only two types of clothing shops—men’s and women’s. And you were never going to find stage wear in a men’s shop. So nearly everything we wore, from the waist up, was female. Blouses and T-shirts with loud patterns, designed for big ladies.

  PHIL COLLEN, Def Leppard: Girls liked us. We were like Duran Duran, if they played hard rock. We were the same age as Duran, from the same era. We were a rock band, but we didn’t want to look like other bands who had greasy hair and greasy jeans. Our girlfriends let us borrow their clothes.

  DAVID MALLET: Def Leppard’s “Photograph” looked different from anything at the time. Different colors, mood, visuals, editing, photography. It’s hard to believe now, because it looks like every heavy metal video ever made. But nothing had ever looked like that before.

  JOE ELLIOTT: When we did “Photograph,” we went mental. Phil wore a polka-dot top. Steve wore all white. The day before the shoot, I had £25 in my pocket, and I went down Kings Road in London to get some clothes. I found a pair of black pleather trousers that were too short by about four inches, so I bought them, and some leg warmers, which I’d seen in the TV show Fame. When I was done buying the pants and the effeminate leggings, I had £8 left. I walked past a punk rock shop and they had a red-white-and-blue Union Jack shirt in the window for £7.99. It was all I could afford, and it was loud. After that video, the shirt became so iconic that we sold almost 100,000 of them on tour that summer. We couldn’t wait to the make videos. The morning we shot “Photograph” is when I frosted my hair for the first time. When “Photograph” came out, I was a blond bombshell.

  David Mallet was hilarious. He called everybody “dear boy.” He was very posh, very theatrical. When we turned up to shoot “Photograph” at Battersea Power Station, he’d built that whole set. There was gridding on the floor with lights underneath. It was fantastic. The girls in the cages have become a little dated, but at the time, it hadn’t been done so much, so it worked fine.

  DAVID MALLET: Why did I put the girls in a cage? Girls belong in cages, come on.

  JANI LANE, Warrant: I was a junior in high school, and when I saw “Photograph,” I was like, Oh my god.

  DAVID MALLET: With David Bowie, we’d been thinking about surrealism. With Def Leppard, we were thinking about comic books. A huge influence on me was Bob Kane, who drew the early Batman comics. On “Rock of Ages,” I was satirizing sword-and-sorcery movies and comic books.

  JOE ELLIOTT: “Rock of Ages” was a laugh. I wield this giant prop sword through fiery hallways and then the sword magically turns into a guitar. It’s very Spinal Tap. When I sang “All-right,” which sounded a bit like “Owl-right,” Mallet put an owl in the video at that moment.

  PETER MENSCH, manager: Def Leppard put me in “Rock of Ages.” I’m the hooded figure playing chess, and I lip-sync the words “Gunter glieben glauchen globen.” That video was set in a quarry or something, where female bodybuilders were knocking buildings down. It made no sense at all.

  JOE ELLIOTT: “Foolin’” was a three-day shoot somewhere on Long Island. David had me running down a tunnel with explosions going off, and my arms caught fire. All the hair burned off and I stank like burning flesh for a week. The smell was fucking rotten. And there’s a fantastic scene when I’m chained to a pyramid and I break out of the shackles. I sit up and look at the camera and sing, “Is anybody out there?” And if you look at the video—which I suggest you do, because it’s quite funny—you can see that underneath my white trousers I have on tighty whities. I wasn’t wearing them on the first take. Mallet watched that scene back through the lens and said, “Dear boy, I can see your wedding tackle. You need to put some underpants on. They’ll never show this on the telly if we don’t clean it up a bit.”

  I spent the entire third day riding a horse on a beach. I’d never been on a horse in my life. My ass was fucking killing me by the time we finished. Turned out, not a second of that footage got used in the video.

  PERRI LISTER: I was in “Foolin’.” I had a mask on my face and was playing a harp. And they set fire to me. I saw my life flash before me: “Girl Burns to Death in Rock Video; Nobody Helped Her.”

  TAWNY KITAEN, actress: My first love was Robbin Crosby, the guitarist from Ratt. We met in high school. He had a dream of being a rock star, and I had a dream of being an actress. I eventually broke up with Robb, and started dating Pete Angelus, Van Halen’s lighting director. It was so goddamn fun. Eddie Van Halen was with Valerie Bertinelli. I remember walking arm in arm with Pete after a concert, behind Eddie and Valerie, and saying to myself, “One day, I am going to be an actress and I am going to be married to the lead singer.”

  David Lee Roth and Pete and I became the Three Musketeers. We would travel everywhere together, and then we’d come home and Dave would sleep on our couch. I was with Pete for three years. But we broke up when I got my first movie. I started dating Tommy Lee, before he met Heather Locklear. That was really weird, because Nikki Sixx was Robb’s roommate, and he wasn’t thrilled that I was dating Tommy.

  PETE ANGELUS: I met Tawny Kitaen when she was seventeen, maybe eighteen, at a Van Halen concert in San Diego. She was very attractive, outgoing, and we started dating. I invited her up to LA, and we were living together. I photographed her and sent her to the Elite modeling agency, so that was her entree into the entertainment business. That was before she started dating O.J. Simpson and before she married David Coverdale.

  When she moved to LA, I think she was dating Robbin Crosby from Ratt. I discovered she was dating a lot of people, but I was on the road, so what could you do?

  ROBERT LOMBARD: I became part of the inner circle of Van Halen. I had carte blanche at their offices on Sunset. I ended up living across the street from Dave. We would go out and chase girls. And do drugs. And drink Jack. I had my own bodyguard. When Dave walked in a club it was—and I don’t like to use religious terms—it was like God parting the waters. One night we went to the Troubadour to look for girls and there were no open tables, and they told people they had to leave so we could sit down. Girls would come to our table, lift their skirts up, pull their panties down, and throw ’em at David. Or undo their tops. No one had the charisma David Lee Roth had. He had midgets all over the place who hung out to drink. At that time, I drove a 924 Porsche with a hatchback, and the midgets used to sit in the trunk.

  MARK GOODMAN: I interviewed David Lee Roth at the U.S. Festival in 1983. He was drunk and coked up, laughing at every joke he made. Dave was the greatest interview.

  ROBERT LOMBARD: Once Van Halen got into the MTV mode, they got into it. Dave was glued to that TV. He threw something through his TV set one night because they’d dropped in rotation on MTV. He cut an artery and ended up in Cedars-Sinai Hospital. Blood’s spurting out of him and he goes, “I’m David Lee Roth. I could buy this place.” The nurse told him, “Just sit down and shut up.” They were obsessed. It was like a new drug.

  MARSHALL BERLE, manager: Those videos Pete Angelus and Dave Roth created were the best I’ve ever seen.

  PETE ANGELUS: When I was in high school in Connecticut, I had a teacher who allowed me to make Super 8 films rather than take tests. That was 1973. I moved to the West Coast to go to UCLA film school, but my parking tickets started to exceed the cost of tuition. So I ended up on the Sunset Strip, and I interviewed with a gentleman named Mario who owned the Roxy and the Rainbow and the Whiskey A-Go-Go. He gave me a job at the Roxy, probably in 1975. Van Halen asked me to travel with them—I’d designed their merchandise and worked on their album packages and logos, then I designed their productions and their lighting—and when MTV reared its ugly head, I thought well, okay, the full circle has come ba
ck to me, so I’ll direct the videos.

  ROBERT LOMBARD: “Jump” is where the drama really started. During the production of “Jump,” we had a high-end DP. Pete Angelus operated one of the cameras, but we never used any of his footage, because he didn’t know how to operate a 16mm camera to save his life. Dave wanted the performance video intercut with him doing crazy shit, like driving his chopped Merc hot rod and hanging out with midgets and girls in maids’ outfits. So we shot hours of footage.