The article made it sound like it was mostly stuff for dogs.  Too bad, because I’m not really a dog person.  But if they had collars and stuff for cats, that I might get.

I guess, though, a small dog bed would work just fine for the cats.  And hopefully, with Bret involved, the design of the dog beds might work better with my interior decor than the one that I have now.  (Fleecy pawprints just don’t mesh well with the rest of the decor when you’re trying to aim for a rock and roll style.)

So I’m at least interested in checking out some of the accessories.  It’ll be interesting to see how much style these items actually have.

Related posts:

1. Bret Michaels Behind the Music Coming
2. Bret Michaels on the Tonight Show
3. Bret Michaels is out of the hospital

So, presented here in chronological order, are the songs that led me to discover that rock and roll really can be awesome.

1. The Sound of Silence
   Artist: Simon and Garfunkel
   Album: Sounds of Silence
   I swiped my mother’s cassette of Simon and Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits when I was a kid.  For some reason, this song stood out in my memory–and had a tendency to get stuck in my head for days at a time.  I didn’t think much of it at the time, but it was the first step to my eventual love of rock and roll.
2. Bat Out of Hell
   Artist: Meat Loaf
   Album: Bat Out of Hell
   This was my first baby step into the world of rock and roll on my own.  My original copy of this song was on a cassette copy of Meat Loaf’s Greatest Hits that I got as a birthday present after mentioning that I liked the song.  In many ways, Meat Loaf’s work was what bridged the gap between the Broadway soundtracks that I had been listening to, and rock music.
3. Stairway to Heaven
   Artist: Led Zeppelin
   Album: Led Zeppelin IV
   This was one of the first rock songs that I discovered that really spoke to me.  As you can tell, I really went through a phase where I was into songs of utterly epic length…
4. Refugee
   Artist: Tom Petty
   Album: Damn the Torpedoes
   I got my first Tom Petty CD because I had this song stuck in my head from hearing it on the local classic rock station, and it fit in with the story of a comic book that I was drawing at the time.  Petty was one of the first artists that I really found to be accessible–his songs were things that I could understand, but at the same time, they were awesome pieces of music.
5. Wanted Dead or Alive
   Artist: Bon Jovi
   Album: Slippery When Wet
   That one copy of Cross Road  that I bought purely to get this song was pretty much the turning point in my discovery of music.  I think I must have played that CD about ten time the first day alone.  This was finally a band that really spoke to me–and the fact that their lead singer happened to be completely gorgeous was a lovely bonus.
6. Paint it Black
   Artist: The Rolling Stones
   Album: Flashpoint
   Flashpoint was the first live album that I ever bought.  But the song itself intrigued me long before I ever bought this album.  As a matter of fact, it was one of the critical decision-making factors in buying this album–it had to have ‘Paint it Black’ on it.  The end result was that I fell in love with live albums and what they could capture.
7. I’m Eighteen
   Artist: Alice Cooper
   Album: Love It to Death
   After I’d discovered that I really liked hard rock, I went digging around in my parents’ basement through their old records in search of new stuff to discover.  As it happened, I discovered Alice Cooper that day, and never looked back.  One more step harder and darker… and I liked it.
8. One Light Burning
   Artist: Richie Sambora
   Album: Stranger in this Town
   Sure, I owned several other CDs from heavily blues-influenced bands (like Led Zeppelin) when I bought Richie’s first solo album.  But it was Richie who really made me realize how much I liked that sound.  I went through a phase where I listened to this album–and especially this song–almost all the time.
9. Rainbow in the Dark
   Artist: Dio
   Album: Holy Diver
   I first encountered this song because it had been mentioned on Deadliest Catch.  Hey, I bought Cross Road because it had the theme song to that show on it; I figured this song was worth a listen.  As it turned out, it was well worth listening to, and here I started to become a metalhead.
10. Welcome to the Jungle
    Artist: Guns N’ Roses
    Album: Appetite for Destruction
    Back when I had a longer commute, I used to drive past a used record store every time that I drove through town instead of taking the highway.  One day, I gave in and stopped there on my way home, and wound up buying a copy of this album.  I stuck it in my CD player to listen to on the rest of the drive home.  This being summertime, I had the windows down when I got stuck in traffic.  I wound up getting funny looks from people in the cars next to me.  Evidently blond girls who drive purple cars aren’t supposed to listen to this song.  But I was OK with that.  And that was when I realized that rock and roll had become part of my identity.

Related posts:

1. My Top 10 Non-Bon Jovi Songs
2. Top Ten Songs for Fixing a Rotten Day
3. The Music Video Exposed: Wayne Isham

Now, this week, if you’re interested in reading about what actually went down at the stadium, SunSentinel. com has an article from someone who actually got to go.

I still think it would have been awesome to get to go to this (if I had lived closer), if for no better reason than to be able to say that I’d gotten to be an extra in a movie.

Related posts:

1. Tom Cruise in Rock of Ages
2. ‘Rock of Ages’ touring production starts
3. Fun article on Rock of Ages

I have to admit that when they announced that they’d cast Tom Cruise in this movie, I was dubious at best.   I’ve got really high hopes for the movie version of Rock of Ages.

Partially that’s because I still haven’t gotten around to seeing the Broadway version yet.  I’ve really got to do that this summer, especially since I want to see that before the movie comes out.  I want to be able to see the live show without having any expectations from the movie.

(The other half of the reason is that my mother likes Mamma Mia.  I really don’t like that movie, and would rather watch a concert DVD, or really, just about anything else.    I was hoping that the movie version of Rock of Ages might qualify as a suitably musical compromise when I come home to visit my parents.)

But if he can handle the singing and the rest of the performance as well as he’s pulling off the hair metal look in that photo, I have to say that this is looking excellent.   He certainly looks like he’s really putting a lot of effort into it, and he’s got the pose and the face down to a tee.  This image is more or less exactly what I was really hoping to see, and so long as the singing is decent, this looks awesome.  I’m really starting to look forward to the movie when it comes out–I’m definitely planning on seeing it in the theater.

Related posts:

1. More Rock of Ages
2. Rock of Ages Movie In The Works
3. Try out for the Canadian production of ‘Rock of Ages’

This time, we’re looking at my top 10 songs from bands other than Bon Jovi.  To qualify for this list, Bon Jovi must be in no way involved with the song.  They cannot be credited writers or performers–even if the song is actually performed by another artist.

1. Poison
   Artist: Alice Cooper
   Album: Trash
   This has long been sitting uncontested at the top of my most-played list–the margin between it and the next closest song is huge.
2. Rainbow in the Dark
   Artist: Dio
   Album: Holy Diver
   This was one of the songs that really introduced me to metal, and I still love it.  Evidently, I love it a lot.
3. Los Angeloser
   Artist: Meat Loaf
   Album: Hang Cool Teddy Bear
   Compared to some of the other songs on this list, I haven’t had this one all that long.  It’s risen up the list fast.  I think that’s because it sounds so different.  (I’ve also done a Random Song post on this one, go check it out!)
4. Cum on Feel the Noize
   Artist: Quiet Riot
   I kind of went through a phase with this one–I listened to it a lot for awhile, and then I kind of stopped listening to it, so it dropped down the list a lot.
5. Sweet Child O’ Mine
   Artist: Guns N’ Roses
   Album: Appetite for Destruction
   This particular song has been sort of slowly creeping up the list, since it’s always a favorite.  I never get tired of it.
6. God Gave Rock and Roll to You II
   Artist: KISS
   Album: Alive III
   This was another Random Song pick that I did some time ago, but I also love this song.  This is one that I know that I seek out and play a lot.
7. Refugee
   Artist: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
   Album:  Damn the Torpedoes
   Another song that I know that I seek out and play a lot.  This one really just is a favorite of mine.
8. Badlands
   Artist: Bruce Springsteen
   Album: Darkness on the Edge of Town
   This has been another slow climber.  It’s such a great piece of rock and roll that I play it all the time.
9. Paint It Black
   Artist: Rolling Stones
   Album: Flashpoint
   So far, the only live song on the list.  But this is classic Stones, and the live recording here just makes the song.
10. Bringin’ On The Heartbreak
    Artist: Def Leppard
    Album: High ‘n’ Dry
    Seriously, this one was a surprise.  Out of all of the Def Leppard songs that I have, I’m surprised that this one’s been played the most.

Related posts:

1. My Current Top 10 Bon Jovi Songs (January 2011)
2. Five More Songs Bon Jovi Can Cut
3. Five songs Bon Jovi can cut to make room for the rarities

I like seeing a hair metal joke where the song itself isn’t the butt of the joke.  That’s usually a fairly rare thing.  Usually whenever you see a reference to hair metal in a joke, it’s always on the receiving end of the mockery.  This was a refreshing change, and funny to boot.

Related posts:

1. Brutal Legend Track List Released
2. Bret Michaels is out of the hospital
3. Ronnie James Dio has died

I do remember actually seeing this video for the first time on TV back when it was released.  I had left the TV tuned to VH1 Classic, and went into the kitchen to get breakfast.  When I first heard it, I really wondered why it sounded like Ozzy–and then I realized what it was when I came back in and saw the TV, and saw the actual video.

Speaking as someone who is a fan of both Ozzy and John Lennon, I really liked this video.  It really felt like a tribute to me.   I really liked the way that Ozzy handled the song–he did it straight, but with real feeling behind it.

The video itself is one of the best music videos that I’ve seen in quite some time.  The production is so simple, but yet it manages to tell a complete story.   The song itself is a great tribute, but it’s not complete without the video.  The images of the walk through New York City to Strawberry Fields in Central Park are what really makes the video for me.

I have to say, out of the many tributes to Lennon last year, this was one of the few that actually moved me.

Related posts:

1. Claymation Ozzy Commercial
2. ‘Let It Die’ Video Review
3. Ozzy and Slash Pics from House of Blues

The visual effects on the video make it look like part of a horror movie to me.  And I think that really works well with the hard and heavy sound of the song.   I especially like the juxtaposition of the more organic video effects with the high-tech, distorted sound of the lyrics in the song itself.  The two distortions, visual and audio, play off each other and link the video to the song itself.

The subject matter here is pretty basic; it’s a classic performance/studio video.  However, they throw in just enough of those distortion effects on the video, especially in the beginning, to make it stand out as a music video.

And sometimes, a simpler video is better. In this case, the song itself is really strong, dynamic, and aggressive.  It doesn’t need a fancy video.  The song carries itself, and the video just illustrates it.

I especially like the shot of Ozzy framed by fire right around 1:30 into the video. Now that’s rock ‘n’ roll.

Related posts:

1. ‘Let Me Hear You Scream’ Video Review
2. ‘What Do You Got’ Video Review
3. ‘Love Will Set You Free’ Video Review

Most of the pictures are standard publicity shots.  However, there’s a really good one of Slash smiling at something toward the end of the gallery.  You know I’m a sucker for rock stars who dress the part, and he’s got the look going.  Plus, I love that he hasn’t cut his hair and still wears the top hat.

I originally encountered Slash’s work through Guns N’ Roses, like pretty much everything else.  But his solos and work with that band were what left me interested enough to continue following his career.  It was all of his other work that cemented his position right behind Richie Sambora as one of my favorite guitarists.

Related posts:

1. Claymation Ozzy Commercial
2. Ozzy did a video of John Lennon’s ‘How?’
3. ‘This Is Our House’ Review

If it weren’t wrong to refer to anything with the lead singer of one of the most influential metal bands of all time in it as ‘cute’, I think this video would qualify. For something so short, it’s remarkably funny.

One of my favorite things about Ozzy has always been that he’s not afraid of a a little humor.

The character that he voiced for Brutal Legend was a really good example of that. The game’s developers actually thought to take the shopkeeper interaction which is a staple of just about every adventure-type game and make it entertaining. But it was Ozzy’s delivery that really made the whole thing funny.

And the guy can still put out some pretty good metal.

Related posts:

1. Ozzy did a video of John Lennon’s ‘How?’
2. Ozzy and Slash Pics from House of Blues
3. The Top Heavy Metal Singers