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The reason Korn, Limp Bizkit and the Deftones are categorized as alt-metal or rap-metal or just hardcore, is so they're not typecast as heavy metal, which came to connote glam or hair metal in the overwrought Eighties. That may be fine and dandy for the Family Values legion, but what about hirsute groups like Poison, Ratt and Cinderella, who are proud to say they ruined it for everyone?
Not to worry. Those bands will get their due, more than a decade
after their due was thought to be done. Beginning Memorial Day,
Poison, Ratt, Cinderella and Great White (or
possibly Dokken) are expected to hit the road for
a sixty-date tour, primarily playing in sheds across the
country.
Though the festival has been in flux for some time now, the retro
excursion's line-up is nearly finalized. "They're very likely gonna
do it," says Tammy Gardner, a representative at Great White's
management firm. But there's a potential conflict: It's believed
that Great White or Dokken will open the tour, with each band's
camp directing "if they're on it, we're not on it"-type remarks
toward the other, according to a source on a rival retro-metal
tour. "We're still on it or plan to be on it," says a
representative at Dokken's management company. "They're ready,
willing and able."
Ratt, Cinderella and Great White were recently signed to Sony by
A&R guru John Kalodner, a minor coup
considering most Eighties metal bands (Dokken, Iron Maiden,
Vixen, Dio) are signed to the lesser-known CMC
International. Poison (who are at present unsigned), and possibly
Cinderella, will likely be the only bands to hit the road without
an album to support.
Ratt's new record, which is being produced by Richie
Zito (Cheap Trick, Poison), is due out in
late May or early June, while Great White will be supporting two
new releases, an all Led Zeppelin-covers album and You Can't
Get There From Here, a record of originals due in June.
Dokken, if they get the nod, will be supporting the tentatively
titled IX, due out this spring. Poison's new album won't
be out until this winter, and Cinderella frontman Tom
Keifer is still in the writing stage, so it's highly
doubtful the quartet will have new material out by the time the
tour is expected to launch.
Last September, Poison frontman Bret Michaels had
his sights set on a more star-studded glam-metal package tour that
he hoped would feature Motley Crue along with
Def Leppard and Whitesnake. It's
not known if this poor-man's package will also be dubbed "Exile
From Mainstream," a folksy epithet Michaels had dubbed that
unrealized tour.
BLAIR R. FISCHER