Captain Howdy

And just realised Stay is a cover of The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber.

So I finally bit the bullet and bought this and unsurprisingly it really is not that great. Certainly not terrible as I do have a wide taste in music, but it's not what I want from Santa Cruz. The self titled album is still untouchable for me, as they really mixed the heavier elements well with their original hard rock style, but this just feels like an angry dude who was maybe not the main song writer just being angry for the sake of it. One thing I noticed straight away was the direct lifting of lyrics from Marilyn Manson in the song Take me to America: Manson: And I don't want you and I don't need you Don't bother to resist, or I'll beat you It's not your fault that you're always wrong The weak ones are there to justify the strong Santa Cruz: And I don't want you and I don't need you This world has seen too much of your come through It's not your fault that you're always wrong Cause everything you do is gonna make me strong

If that picture is really recent, he must have been in really bad shape as he certainly looks older than 67. Not much info on what the illness was.

https://blabbermouth.net/news/former-l-a-guns-and-w-a-s-p-drummer-steve-riley-dead-at-67 Former L.A. GUNS And W.A.S.P. Drummer STEVE RILEY Dead At 67 October 27, 2023 Former L.A. GUNS and W.A.S.P. drummer Steve Riley has died at the age of 67. The news of Riley's death was first reported by Metal Sludge and was confirmed by his longtime friend Jason Green, who shared a new video on his Waste Some Time With Jason Green YouTube channel in which he said that Green had suffered from various health issues prior to his passing. A source close to Riley told Metal Sludge that the drummer died yesterday (Thursday, October 26) after he had been recently hospitalized. He had also been using a cane to walk in recent months. Riley was the drummer for W.A.S.P. on the first four albums and world tours from 1983 to 1987. After leaving W.A.S.P. in 1987, Riley joined L.A. GUNS and played on the band's most commercially successful albums. In a 2011 blog for Modern Drummer, Riley wrote: "I've been blessed to be involved in both waves of hard rock and metal in 1980s Los Angeles. The first of the two was the MÖTLEY CRÜE, RATT, W.A.S.P. and DOKKEN movement. Then came the GUNS N' ROSES, L.A. GUNS and FASTER PUSSYCAT bunch. I'm one of those rare drummers that played in two successful bands from both waves. Pretty cool stuff!" Three years ago, Massachusetts native Riley told Antihero Magazine about his early years on the Sunset Strip rock scene: "I've said it in many interviews, W.A.S.P., RATT, MÖTLEY CRÜE, DOKKEN, GREAT WHITE, that first wave of metal out of Los Angeles, we were working so much, we were on the road all of us so much that we never really even noticed what was happening in Los Angeles because we'd only be back for a few weeks or a few days actually sometimes, and then back out on the road or back into the studio. So we didn't notice the second wave of metal coming out of L.A. with GUNS N' ROSES, L.A. GUNS, FASTER PUSSYCAT and JETBOY, we didn't see that happening. So when Blackie [Lawless], then behaved by firing Randy Piper, then he fired me and then eventually fired Chris [Holmes]. He disbanded that great band. But when that happened with me in 1987, and he let me go, I was just fortunate. I was approached by these guys in L.A GUNS. They were big, big fans of W.A.S.P. I mean, huge fans, the guys in GUNS N' ROSES were too. I didn't realize that, that they were all huge fans of W.A.S.P. and they approached me, and they asked me if I wanted to join. And I kind of went right from headlining Long Beach Arena to playing a club show with L.A GUNS. So I didn't really know about the second wave of metal and I was really fortunate to go right from W.A.S.P. into L.A GUNS." In April 2021, an out-of-court resolution was reached between Riley and L.A. GUNS guitarist Tracii Guns and vocalist Phil Lewis over the rights to the band's name. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Tracii and Phil continued to operate under the L.A. GUNS trademark, while Riley and his bandmates from the other version of L.A. GUNS carried on under the new name RILEY'S L.A. GUNS. Last month, RILEY'S L.A. GUNS released a new single, "The Dark Horse", via Golden Robot Records. The track is taken from the band's upcoming sophomore album of the same name, tentatively due in early 2024. RILEY'S L.A. GUNS featured Riley alongside Orlando, Florida-based guitarist/vocalist Kurt Frohlich, Nickels and guitarist Scott Griffin, who played bass for L.A. GUNS from 2007 until 2009, and then again from 2011 to 2014. Photo courtesy of Golden Robot Records

Seriously though, T-Bone appears to be the longest serving "active" member.

Dan

I was just kinda saying that if you had commented and rated that would mean you could rule those out, but as I say, its really only the same 4 or 5 people who bother with the rating.

There is an option to see which ones you rated. But only a handful of people seem to bother with that.

Just looked at my profile and I hit my 20 year anniversary on the message board last week. Fuck.

Something a bit different

Music video

One of my fave songs by the band. Shame it was not on the standard release back in the day. I do like the Quiet Riot version as well, but think this is the better of the two, but props to Kevin for writing this gem.

While on the subject of charity rock songs: