This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Badlands | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Origin | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Genres | |
Years active | 1988–1993 |
Labels | Atlantic |
Past members | Jake E. Lee Greg Chaisson Ray Gillen Eric Singer Jeff Martin |
Badlands was an American heavy metal band founded by former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Jake E. Lee, former Black Sabbath members Ray Gillen (vocals) and Eric Singer (drums), as well as former Surgical Steel bass player Greg Chaisson. [6] After the first Badlands album, Singer was replaced by Jeff Martin. Compared to the sound of the members' former bands, the sound of Badlands was more in a Led Zeppelin-influenced blues/hard rock vein. The group lasted from 1988 to 1993 and released three albums. Badlands (1989) and Voodoo Highway (1991) were released before Gillen left and was briefly replaced by singer John West. Gillen's death in 1993 effectively ended any hopes of reuniting the project. The album Dusk (a demo recorded in 1992–1993) was released in 1998 with then-recently deceased Gillen on vocals.
After touring with Ozzy Osbourne in support of the Ultimate Sin album, Jake E. Lee was fired by Sharon Osbourne. [7] Lee set about looking for a charismatic front man with whom to launch a new band. He met Ray Gillen, a vocalist who had recently worked briefly with Black Sabbath. Within weeks, the duo had enlisted bassist Greg Chaisson, whom Lee had met during an audition for Osbourne's backing band. Gillen recruited his former Black Sabbath bandmate Eric Singer to be the band's drummer.
The band released Badlands in May 1989 to good reviews. [8] The band released videos for the songs "Dreams in the Dark" and the Zeppelin-like "Winter's Call", both of which received airplay on MTV. This boosted the album to its peak of no. 57 on Billboard's album charts. [9] The band opened a 3-month tour opening for Great White and Tesla, while finishing the year in clubs with D.A.D. opening.
Eric Singer was soon fired from Badlands; he later joined Paul Stanley's solo club band and played with KISS following the death of drummer Eric Carr. Badlands picked up Jeff Martin, former vocalist for Racer X and Chaisson's bandmate in Phoenix-based bands Surgical Steel and St. Michael, to take over on drums. Disagreements arose between the band and Atlantic Records about musical direction, and also between Gillen and his bandmates about the inclusion on the planned album of songs he had written. Lee has recalled that, shortly after the first album's tour in 1990, Gillen was first diagnosed with AIDS, and was starting to get "really thin and didn't look quite as healthy." [10] After the band released Voodoo Highway in 1991, Gillen left the band as friction increased during the UK tour in 1992. Lee at the time announced he had hired Los Angeles native Debby Holiday, from the band Stilletto, to replace Gillen on their UK tour; however, before this occurred, the band quickly drafted Gillen back to complete the tour before he officially left the band. [11]
Atlantic had wanted Katt Mars, an 18 year old singer from Hollywood. Mars declined for reasons unknown. After Gillen left the band and announced Holiday as his replacement, Lee was interviewed about her by Kerrang! magazine. A black woman, Holiday was the daughter of songwriter Jimmy Holiday (best known for penning the Dolly Parton hit "Put a Little Love in Your Heart"). She was raised in Beverly Hills, and had performed in many of the Sunset Strip's major clubs. Few of Badlands' fans were familiar with her prior musical activities. The interview with Lee was published in issue No. 399; he talked only briefly about Gillen's replacement and described his erratic behavior.
On July 2, 1992, the band played at the London Astoria. Just a few songs in, Gillen pulled out a copy of the Kerrang! magazine that had been released with Lee's story in it and shouted to the crowd "there's two sides to every story" while Lee mouthed "It's all true." Still, the band played the rest of its set. In Kerrang! issue No. 400, Neil Jeffries reviewed the gig and claimed that he had never seen a band with so much tension play so superbly. He praised Lee's guitar work and claimed the band was absolutely superb despite their obvious feuds. [11] [12]
After the UK tour was complete, Gillen was officially fired from the band. Lee insisted to the press that the band would continue with singer John West. The band wrote and recorded some new songs; however, the combination of band discord and the general decline in the popularity of heavy metal music ultimately led Atlantic Records to drop the band from its label. Gillen then appeared with George Lynch's solo band on the album Sacred Groove. Following that, he formed Sun Red Sun with guitarist Al Romano, former Alice in Chains bassist Mike Starr, and drummer Bobby Rondinelli. On December 1, 1993, about three years after his initial diagnosis, he died at his New Jersey home as a result of AIDS-related complications, caused by previous drug use. [10] John West, Gillen's onetime Badlands replacement, was brought in to finish the Sun Red Sun recordings, and in 1998 toured with George Lynch. Five years later, the unreleased Badlands album Dusk (1998) was released in Japan.
Release date | Title | Label | US Billboard peak | UK Chart peak | US sales |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
June 1989 | Badlands | Atlantic Records | 57 | 39 | 400,000 |
June 1991 | Voodoo Highway | 140 | 74 | 100,000 | |
December 1998 | Dusk | Pony Canyon | Did not chart |
Year | Single | Chart positions | |
---|---|---|---|
US Hot 100 | US Main Rock | ||
1989 | "Dreams in the Dark" | - | 38 |
"Winter's Call" | - | - | |
1991 | "The Last Time" | - | - |
"Whiskey Dust" | - | - | |
"Soul Stealer" | - | - | |
"3 Day Funk" | - | - | |
Black Sabbath were an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler, and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy metal music. The band helped define the genre with their first three albums Black Sabbath, Paranoid, and Master of Reality (1971). Following Osbourne's departure in 1979, the band underwent multiple lineup changes, with Iommi being the only constant member throughout its history.
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne is an English musician and media personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead singer of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which period he adopted the nickname "Prince of Darkness".
The Ultimate Sin is the fourth studio album by English heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne. It was released on 24 January 1986, and was remastered and re-issued on CD on 22 August 1995. It is the second and last of Osbourne's albums to feature lead guitarist Jake E. Lee, the first to feature drummer Randy Castillo, and the only album to feature bassist Phil Soussan, who co-wrote the album's hit single "Shot in the Dark".
Jake E. Lee is an American musician best known as lead guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne between 1982 and 1987 and later as a member of the heavy metal band Badlands with Ray Gillen. He formed the band Red Dragon Cartel in 2013, and their debut album released in January 2014 entered the Billboard Album Chart at number 69. He has also recorded solo works under his own name—examples being the instrumental album A Fine Pink Mist (1996) and cover album Retraced (2005).
Raymond Arthur Gillen was an American rock singer. He is best known for his work with Badlands, in addition to his stint with Black Sabbath in the mid-1980s and recording most of the vocals on Phenomena's Dream Runner album.
William Thomas Ward is an English musician. He was a co-founder and the original drummer for the heavy metal band Black Sabbath. Ward helped found Black Sabbath in 1968 alongside bandmates Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi (guitarist), and Geezer Butler (bass).
Eric Singer is an American drummer. Associated with the hard rock band Kiss on and off from 1991 until the band's retirement in 2023, he has also performed with artists such as Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, Lita Ford, Badlands, Brian May and Gary Moore as well as his own band ESP. In his career, Singer has appeared on over 75 albums and 11 EPs.
Michael Andrew Bordin is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the rock band Faith No More. He has amicably been known as "Puffy", "Puffster" or "The Puff", in reference to the afro hair style he wore in the early 1980s. The nicknames were coined by Faith No More guitarist Jim Martin, and they stuck around even after he grew out his hair and tied it in dreadlocks, a trademark look he has worn for most of his career.
Bark at the Moon is the third studio album by English heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne, released on 18 November 1983 in the US and on 2 December 1983 in the UK. The album marks Ozzy's change to a synth infused pop-metal sound, with both its "sonic production, and in Ozzy's imaging".
Badlands is the debut studio album by the band of the same name. This album features Ray Gillen and Eric Singer, who previously played together in Black Sabbath. This album also features guitarist Jake E. Lee and bassist Greg Chaisson. Singer later played on Chaisson's solo album It's About Time. The album had sold 400,000 copies by 1990, according to Chaisson, in a Hit Parader interview from that year. It was also ranked No. 35 in Rolling Stone's list of 50 Greatest Hair Metal Albums of All Time.
Voodoo Highway is the second studio album by the American hard rock band Badlands. After their first album, drummer Eric Singer left the band to join KISS, and was replaced by drummer Jeff Martin, who had previously sung lead vocals in the bands Surgical Steel and Racer X. Bassist Greg Chaisson was instrumental in getting his friend Jeff Martin the gig with Badlands. They had earlier played in the Phoenix, AZ bands Surgical Steel and St. Michael together and teamed up again in the Blindside Blues Band and RedSea following the demise of Badlands.
The Eternal Idol is the thirteenth studio album by English rock band Black Sabbath, released in November 1987 in the UK and on 8 December 1987 in the US. It is the first Black Sabbath album to feature vocalist Tony Martin. It spent six weeks on the Billboard 200 chart, peaking at 168. It was also the last full album of new material by Black Sabbath to be released by Warner Bros. Records, and the final album through their original label Vertigo Records until the release of 13 in 2013.
Joe Holmes is an American heavy metal guitarist best known for his stint with Ozzy Osbourne between 1995 and 2001. He has also played with Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth and the L.A. band Lizzy Borden in addition to leading his own bands, Terriff, and currently, Farmikos.
Steeler was an early 1980s American heavy metal band formed in 1981 in Nashville, Tennessee by vocalist Ron Keel. The band released its self-titled sole album on Shrapnel Records in 1983 before morphing into Keel. Steeler is also notable for featuring then-emerging guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen, who left to form Alcatrazz shortly after the self-titled album and launch a solo career.
Greg Chaisson is a Canadian bass guitarist, singer, songwriter, and producer who has played in various bands, most notably Badlands, which featured former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Jake E. Lee, vocalist Ray Gillen, and drummers Eric Singer and Jeff Martin, respectively.
Dusk is the third and final studio album by the band Badlands. The album was originally a collection of demos recorded in 1992–1993 to be submitted to their label, Atlantic Records. The demo tracks were released posthumously on December 15, 1998 in Japan on Pony Canyon. A European release on UK-based Z Records, with different artwork, followed in 2000.
The Blizzard of Ozz Tour was the debut concert tour as a solo artist by English heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne, who had been fired from the English group Black Sabbath a year prior. The tour started on 12 September 1980 and concluded on 13 September 1981.
The Speak of the Devil Tour was the third solo tour by English heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne, in support of his first live album, Speak of the Devil, taking place from December 1982 to May 1983. The tour included two European legs, one North American leg, and a final show at the 1983 US Festival. The personnel in Osbourne's band changed several times during the tour.