Little Caesar (band)

Little Caesar is an American hard rock band.

History

The band was founded late in the 1980s by Ron Young, who had previously worked as a nightclub bouncer.^[1] The group independently released an EP and were featured on the 1989 Metal Blade compilation Street Survivors with one song "Down to the Wire", which led to their signing with DGC Records, a subsidiary of Geffen Records, in 1989. John Kalodner did A&R work for the group, and Bob Rock produced their debut self-titled album, which was released in 1990 to positive reviews.^[1] On the strength of the singles "Chain of Fools" and "In Your Arms", Little Caesar hit number 139 on the US Billboard 200 in 1990.^[2] Lead vocalist Ron Young made a brief cameo in James Cameron's 'TERMINATOR 2' as the biker thrown through the window of the bar by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Despite the group's chart success, they had problems maintaining a popular image, due in part to their heavily tattooed membership.^[1] They remained with DGC/Geffen for a sophomore release, Influence in 1992, but neither Rock nor Kalodner continued working with them. By this time, guitarist Apache had left and was replaced with Earl Slick. After Influence failed to sell well (which was not surprising as many metal albums did not sell well in this period due to the rise of alternative rock, which DGC - initially a metal/progressive rock label - began to embrace) the group disbanded. Ron Young later went on to sing in The Four Horsemen, Manic Eden, and Dirt.

The band reformed for some live shows in 2001, and released a new album, 'Redemption', in 2009. They also introduced new guitar player Joey Brasler (who had played with Etta James, Bob Welch, Cherie Currie) replacing original member Apache. After touring in the US, Europe and the UK during 2010/2011, Little Caesar released their fourth longplayer entitled "American Dream" on the Unison Music Group label in May, 2012. It was produced by Bruce Witkin. They embark on a tour of Spain, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium mid June and will be performing at the Hard Rock Hell festival in Wales in Dec 2012.

On 25 March 2013, it was announced that band will perform at the Download Festival on the 16th June 2013. The band will perform on the Pepsi Max Stage. Frontman Ron Young explains: “20 years ago we were offered to play the festival when it was called Monsters Of Rock. We had to turn it down because our label would not give us the funds to get there.

“Today, with no label, manager or big-money supporters, we finally made it. We got there because we have some amazing people that prop us up, inspire us, and bless us with their talent, energies – and most priceless, their friendship. They’ve helped us accomplish what we couldn’t do with a lot of powerful people behind us.”

Members

Current members

• Ron Young - vocals (1987-1992; 2001–present)
• Tom Morris - drums (1987-1992; 2001–present)
• Fidel Paniagua - bass (1987-1992; 2001–present)
• Loren Molinare - guitar (1987-1992; 2001–present)
• Joey Malone - guitar (2014–present)

Past members

• Jimmy Hayne (Apache) - guitar (1987–1991, 2008)
• Earl Slick - guitar (1991–1992)
• Marc Danzeisen - drums (1992 touring only)
• Joey Brasler - guitar (2009–2013)

Discography

• Name Your Poison (EP) (Restless Records, 1989)
• Little Caesar (Geffen Records, 1990) (US No. 139)
• Influence (Geffen Records, 1992)
• This Time It's Different (Slick Music, 1998)
• Redemption (Dirty Deeds, 2009)
• American Dream (Unison Music Group, 2012)

Singles

Sources

• Official band page
• Official Band MySpace
• Sleazeroxx.com writeup

James Cameron, TERMINATOR 2 audio commentary.

References