Today In Metal History 🤘 August 18th, 2024🤘 HELLOWEEN, BON JOVI, OPETH, DRAGONFORCE

HEAVY BIRTHDAYS

Happy 74th
Dennis Elliott (FOREIGNER) – August 18th, 1950

Happy 71st
Jim Ayoub (MAHOGANY RUSH) – August 18th, 1953

Happy 56th
Brian Tichy (WHITESNAKE, BILLY IDOL, FOREIGNER, OZZY OSBOURNE) – August 18th, 1968

HEAVY RELEASES

Famed photographer Mark “Weissguy” Weiss from The Decade That Rocked explains the album cover photo shoot controversy!  

“The guys came home after finishing the album, the album title was changed to Slippery When Wet inspired by the #5. A strip club in Vancouver near where they were recording. The idea was to do a photo by the beach and get some girls posing with cut out shirts with the new title of the album on it. Jon lived right across the street from the beach in Bradley Beach, New Jersey, where we did the shoot. All the guys came with their cars, motorcycles and girls. We needed a few more girls so I walked across the street and pulled a few more. My assistant Danny took a walk with Tico across the street and came back with just what the Dr. ordered. An Italian hot girl named Angela. We found her – this was going to be the girl on the cover. Then I got some soap and water and started having a car wash party. The photo ended up in the sleeve of the album.”

“The album was done. The label had 200,000 copies printed up in her cut up Slippery When Wet custom t-shirt. Everything was ready to go. But this was 1986, and the PMRC was in full swing. Record stores were threatening the labels to ease up on the explicit content and imagery or they wouldn’t sell the records. Polygram Records knew they had a smash album on their hands, and they didn’t want to jeopardize that success. So we went back to the drawing board to come up with another cover.”

“Jon came to my studio in New York shortly after the news that we had to come up with a new cover. He just said to me, “Garbage bag. Spray bottle.” I propped up the bag and sprayed it, then Jon wrote the words Slippery When Wet. “That’s it, there’s the cover.” He didn’t even wait to see the Polaroid. The next day I delivered the photo, and the rest is history.”

Happy 15th
BURNT BY THE SUN’s Heart Of Darkness – August 18th, 2009
GOREAPHOBIA’s Mortal Repulsion – August 18th, 2009
GWAR’s Lust In Space – August 18th, 2009

Happy 14th
SATANIC WARFARE’s Nachzeher – August 18th 2010