Metal Sludge
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Metal Sludge is a glam metal, hard rock and heavy metal website first founded in 1998. It is one of the most popular in its field for aging musicians and has spawned various tours (known as Metal Sludge Extravaganzas) as well as an album. Male fans of the website are referred to as Sludgeaholics, while female equivalents are known as Sludgettes.
The website has featured on VH1 and various rock music magazines in the past due to the groupie section of website and "Penis Chart" where groupies share their sexual experiences with rockstars.
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[edit] History
Metal Sludge was founded in 1998 by Stevie Rachelle front man of glam metal band Tuff and his friend Shawn Card. For much of its early years (and the years which it gained most attention), the two of them were anonymously writing on the website via pseudonyms made up of parts of 1980s glam metal and hard rock acts.
The "characters" used most prominently were Jani Bon Neil (made up of the names Jani Lane, Bon Jovi and Vince Neil), Bastard Boy Floyd (a play on the band Pretty Boy Floyd's name), Donna Anderson (made up of the names Donna D'Errico and Pamela Anderson) and Ozzy Stillbourne (a play on the name Ozzy Osbourne).
Metal Sludge's approach was antagonistic, utilizing humour, but at the same time it was in a tongue-in-cheek manner as the website did support in some way, the bands which it covered. Their first large rivalry was with Gerri Miller of Metal Edge magazine; a magazine which once covered glam metal, heavy metal music and hard rock but had since moved on to nu metal.
In 2004, Stevie Rachelle came forward as running the site, along with Shawn Card, the two had a bitter falling out and Card left; since then the updates have been far less frequent. During early 2007, it was rumoured that the site might close after several hacks[1] although to date it remains up and running.
[edit] Standout Personalities
In addition to the various anonymous pseudonyms, a few real live individuals emerged as Metal Sludge personalities. The first was someone dubbed Jim Bob Dwarf (somehow related to the legendary Toronto metal band The Killer Dwarfs), who first came to the attention of Metal Sludge by his participation in such events as their eBay auction and scavenger hunt. Jim Bob went on to become one of the first Sludgeaholics of the Month (later Sludgeaholic of the Year), as well as conducting a number of interviews and appearing at their live events.
Another personality to emerge from Metal Sludge is C.C. Banana. Inspired by a 2001 Metal Sludge article about Poison guitarist C. C. DeVille, the Banana has since gone on to become a comedic entertainer in his own right. C.C. Banana first came to the attention of Sludgeaholics when he stalked (and mocked) C. C. DeVille while wearing a large banana costume. Later that year, the newly-dubbed C.C. Banana again made Metal Sludge headlines when he engaged in a nightclub confrontation with longtime Sludge nemesis Sebastian Bach. Since then, C.C. Banana has gone on to conduct dozens of comedic rock star interviews, host a string of live concerts and even make a handful of TV guest appearances (including Who Wants to Be a Superhero? on the Sci Fi Channel and Talking Metal On Fuse).
[edit] The Original Gossip Board
The website features is reputed to be one of the most visited and well-known music forums on the internet. The forum has several sub-forums, the most famous being The Original Gossip Board. In the past Tracii Guns guitarist of L.A. Guns, Skid Row guitarist Dave Sabo and Steve Summers lead singer of Pretty Boy Floyd have posted on the forum as well as Stevie Rachelle.
Though the Metal Sludge Boards theoretically remain a popular destination for music-related posts and discussions, recent periods of inactivity have increased in both frequency and in the length of the down time. This difficulty has caused board popularity through these long spells to wane considerably.
[edit] Interviews: 20 Questions, Rewind, 3-Wind, Back 4 More
The website has conducted many interviews over the years, with various artists from Alice Cooper, Lemmy, Nikki Sixx, Tracii Guns to King Diamond. Unlike many interviewers, Metal Sludge conducted interviews in the manner which "broke the balls" of the participating stars.
Here is an example of a Metal Sludge style question, to Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe[2];
"24. Does it look like Brandon and Dylan have inherited any of your extraordinary talent? (Such as drumming, musicianship, large penises, wife beating, etc.)
Tommy: YOUR A DICK!!!"
As well as rock and metal musicians, sometimes interviews are conducted with pornstars (Jenna Jameson), wrestlers (Chris Jericho) or girlfriends/former-girlfriends of rockstars (Bobbie Brown). The first interview is called a "20 Questions" interview, if the person interviewed returns for further ones in the future (usually spaced a couple of years a part), they are referred to as a "Rewind", "3-Wind" and "Back-4-More" respectively.
Metal Sludge also names and shames people who have agreed to do an interview but later backed out due to the nature of the questions or some other such event, these people are placed on the "Pussy List"; which includes Sebastian Bach, Marilyn Manson and Joey Belladonna.[3] If a person has been placed on the Pussy List, but has later agreed to the interview, they are removed from the list; Phil Lewis is an example of this.
[edit] Metal Sludge Extravaganza
The Metal Sludge Extravaganza's sometimes referred to in short as MSE or MSX, are a series of tours organised by the website over the years. Below is a list of bands and musicians who have performed at the events;
- MSE: Hair of the Dog, The Phil Lewis Band, Head-Set, Saturday Marketm Ground and Rover's Pinky.
Hosted by: Kendra Jade
- MSE3: Metal Skool, Hollywood Roses, Whole Lotta Rosies and Storyteller.
Hosted by: Ralph Saenz and Josie Pearl.
- MSE4: Metal Skool, Jeff Pilson's Underground Moon, Halfcocked, Psychic Mafia and Belly Love.
Hosted by: Jasmin St. Claire and The Blue Meanie
- MSE5: Faster Pussycat, Every Mother's Nightmare, Aqua Net, Lynam and Medicine Mann.
Hosted by: Kendra Jade
- MSE 2003: Faster Pussycat, Enuff Z'nuff, Pretty Boy Floyd and Crash Kelly.
Hosted by: C.C. Banana and others at each stop
- MSE7:Donnie Vie (of Enuff Z'nuff), Billy Morris Band, London Calling, Chad Stewart, Dave Brooks, The Erotics, Cheap Vinyl and State of Being.
- MSE9: Metal Skool, WWIII, Killingbird, National Dust and Madison Paige.
Hosted by: Jasmin St. Claire and The Blue Meanie
- MSE10 (MSEX): Donnie Vie (of Enuff Z'nuff), American Dog, Ground Zero, Billy Morris Band, All Star New Years Sludge Jam (featuring; Stevie Rachelle, Donnie Vie and Drew Hannah from the band Wildside), Bombshell Crush, Motortramp, The Cherry Pops, Mad Margritt, Amps 2 Eleven and Subtones.
Hosted by: Nate S. Axel
[edit] Celebrity columns
Famous musicians have wrote columns for the website; Rikki Rockett of Poison wrote for the "Dear Dr. Rockett" section.
[edit] In pop culture
- At the beginning of the Murderdolls video for "White Wedding", the Metal Sludge character Jani Bon Neil is mentioned.
- EvelDick from Big Brother 8 is a former Sludgeholic of the Month and a long-term supporter of the site.
