Thoughts On Kevin DuBrow.......

It's unfortunate that I finally find some inspiration to do some writing here only in the wake of the death of Kevin DuBrow, singer of Quiet Riot......

I was working this morning (11/26/2007) and took a 5 minute eye break to check up on my metal news at Blabbermouth.net. It is my morning ritual and usually it is pretty bland with bands tour dates that I will never see, or news on other bands that I will never check out, but every once and while there will be a story on Motorhead, Celtic Frost, or Obituary that I will read. This morning was obviously different though.....

It jumped right out of the page: "Confirmed: QUIET RIOT Singer KEVIN DUBROW Dead At 52 - Nov. 26, 2007". What the fuck man??? No way??? I read the story and my heart just sunk......

I remember being in 4th grade and coming home one day for lunch in the middle of a school day. Mom L. made me a sandwich and I ran to the TV to rot my brain a little before I had to head back to school. Flicking around I hit "MTV", or "Empty-V" as I like to call it nowadays, you have to remember, they actually played music on the station back then. I hit MTV and was grabbed by some unseen force as this bunch of maniacs were playing their asses off on the screen. The balding lead singer was hopping all over the place and screaming his head off, his white and black striped pants that clung to his skinny frame matched his mic stand, that always stuck out for some reason to me. I had never seen anything like this before it was the wildest thing I had ever been witnessed to. The power of the music, the feeling it had just moved me more than anything I had heard previous to that (Black Sabbath, Def Leppard). It was an awakening!!

I remember my chunky ass running back to school singing "CUM ON FEEL THE NOISE, GIRLS ROCK YOUR BOYS, WE"LL GET WILD, WILD, WILD!!!!!" All the kids on the playground were like "What is that??", "QUIET RIOT YOU WIMPY LITTLE SHITS LISTENING TO YOUR THRILLER ALBUMS!!!!" Yeah, I was just learning how to swear back then....I have since mastered the art much like chemists have discovered new elements. I managed to con my parents into buying me Metal Health and the journey began. I spent countless hours in my basement with that record cranking it on full volume on my parents mammoth Zenith stereo system....You know those ones that you would mistake for a dresser? It had a killer sound though, really full and dense. I would sit there with my ears bleeding reading the lyrics and staring at the mysterious masked man on the cover of the record (yes, record you bunch of iPod carrying sissies). The sessions would usually end with Dad L. coming down the stairs and overpowering the stereo with his voice yelling for me to turn it down. Memories.....

I remember carrying that record with me all over the place and scaring my friends parents with it, I was actually asked to leave one friends house!! I used to play it for show and tell at school, HA!! Used to piss everyone off!! I can remember sitting in my room playing with my matchboxes with Quiet Riot blaring in the background. I remember the first Quiet Riot t-shirt I ever got, I never wanted to take it off! Quiet Riot was always with me in those early years, I truly would escape in that music in the basement of my house in Madison Heights, MI.

Quiet Riot exposed me to a lot of things back then like women (Love's a Bitch), cool cars (Slick Black Cadillac), and the brotherhood of rubbernecks that I am a card carrying member of (Metal Health). Metal Health was just one of those rare perfect albums that stays with you your whole life.....it has. That album made me think about my future while I sat on that couch in my basement staring at my parent’s old lava lamp that was prolly owned by my Aunt from her stoner days. Maybe it was the music, maybe it was the setting, maybe I was just fucked up at that age....but that Rock N' Roll band gave me a soul. So, to anyone out there who has read this and feels what I feel and felt back then.....break out your old records and give them a spin because Kevin's soul is there screaming at you with everything he has, telling you to get off your ass and go crazy, that is the real spirit of Rock N' Roll, and Brother Kevin DuBrow dedicated his life to it.....R.I.P. Kevin DuBrow 10/29/1955 – 11/25/2007