steel panther
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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 Zadinia 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’ 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***ing 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.
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 twenty 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.”
Biography copied from official website - because lets face it, we weren't going to be able to write a better one!
members
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reviews
Steel Panther have made it. I know this because my 75 year old mother says so. She saw them in The Sun, with the headline 'Living on a Parody'. When The Sun uses Bon Jovi song titles to make piss-poor comical headlines up about you, you're in the big league. Even the Daily Mirror had a competition to win tickets to meet them and said "we've never met true rock Gods as mighty as Steel Panther."
As with previous Panther shows this year, there's a fair smattering of spandex clad guys wearing big 80s hair metal wigs along for some fun in the crowd, and plenty of scantily dressed girls. The show is littered with similar rock clichés... the looks, the sounds, the words. It's big hair, spandex, sex and drugs, and catchy sing-along riffs galore in Rock City tonight and the crowd lap it up. For once the Nottingham audience is animated and up for it, a nice change from their usual apathy, and they punch the air and roar along to all the catchy songs on the band's debut album, Feel the Steel, such as Asian Hooker, Fat Girl, Party All Day and Turn Out the Lights. It's no wonder the album has gone to #1 album in Guam and sold twelve copies. Classics, one and all.
None of the crowd can help but admire Michael Starr with his effortless vocal range and clichéd rock star poses. Hell, can this man sing and play the role of rock frontman. Promoter Andy Copping must have floated on air as Starr crooned a little made up ditty for him. Airhead bass player Foxxx was as careful as ever to ensure his hair and lip gloss was perfect all night, touching both up regulary in his hand held mirror, and his hair solo was one of the best of the tour. For those in the crowd watching carefully, an ongoing ridiculous battle between Satchel and Foxxx ensued throughout the night, with each changing the height of each other's microphone when they swapped sides of the stage. The arguments between Starr and Satchel get more intense and lengthier every show with Satchel berating his singer for being a fat version of David Lee Roth. Starr retaliated with "No dude, I like to think of myself as a thin version of Vince Neil!"
The band turn any mishap into an opportunity for humour. Feedback during one song saw them lambasting their onstage sound guy, and Starr's forgetting of his denim jacket saw him demanding his roadie go get it from the dressing room diva style so that he could introduce the final song, its title emblazened on the cut-off denim... Death to All But Metal. Rock City went ballistic to the anthemic hit single and the band went off to a standing ovation, and a throbbing Rock City was left begging for more.
Guns'n'Roses Mr Brownstone and then Whitesnake's Here I Go Again.
Steel Panther have brought heavy metal 80's style back with a vengeance. Not only is it musical nectar to my ears, they also give everyone a bloody good laugh as always. 110% pure professional entertainment. Absolutely not for the easily offended overly politically correct prudes in society. Which is why I love them so very stupidly much. Gig of the year!
by Lynn Wyeth
This gig sold out so fast, the tickets all went before they were on sale, seriously. The air was blue as I spoke to Ticketmaster when the entire Steel Panther UK tour sold out in under three minutes and I needed block bookings for my birthday bash in Birmingham. Thankfully we managed to secure tickets to the London show too and watched as it was upgraded twice to a sold out Shepherds Bush Empire. Everyone and their dog wanted to be at this gig; the entire London rock scene were out in force. Journos, DJs, Promoters, Labels and a lot of grown men dressed in bad hair metal wigs and spandex pants making the whole thing very funny right from the start. Having seen them a few days earlier I was still in pain from the muscles I pulled laughing. Would it be as funny this time? Answer: Yes. Shooting down all the doubters that think they’re a parody band that will soon wear thin.
Girl from Oklahoma showed they’d done their homework as Starr explains girls from Oklahoma are like girls from Essex, and proceeds to sing about groupies; “What did you have to do for that backstage pass ‘cause I found a Poison laminate inside of your ass.”
They finished off the main set with the hit single, Death to All But Metal, with the whole venue singing along, and then the classic Turn Out the Lights, which is always my favourite. The line “Turn out the lights, before you suck my dick, someone beat you with an ugly stick“ is just never not funny.
As featured on www.steelpantherrocks.com
The story goes that Steel Panther were a legendary hair-metal band from the 80s, hanging on Sunset Strip; Feel the Steel being their long lost debut album. They were far too busy partying and laying girls to ever get round to making the album. Now they have finally finished the album, and The Panther have descended on the rock world in a flurry of groin-hugging spandex, big hair and leopard print, the likes of which even Poison have never seen before.
by Lynn Wyeth
interviews
None at present
discography
merchandise
You can purchase merchandse via the band's official website.
CDs can also be purchased at the usual outlets.
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How do you write about one of the greatest bands some of the world is yet to hear!? What do you say in the biography that they haven't said before? Without further ado, we give you Steel Panther... in their own words ;)
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. 
