METAL HEALTH (BANG YOUR MULLET)

I feel bad for Frankie Banali, or for that matter for any aging rockstar who only ever had one or two big hits and whose heyday is long since gone. When you’re 59 years old (!) and you’ve only ever done one thing in life… what other options to do you have but to play shitty clubs and attempt to relive your glory days? It was only too fitting that “Metal Health” was the theme song for Mickey Rourke’s character Randy “The Ram” Robinson in The Wrestler, matching eras aside.

Poor Banali’s been forced to hire a mulleted former Van Hagar cover band singer to fill late Quiet Riot lead singer Kevin Dubrow’s shoes since his death in 2007, maybe because he wants to but certainly because he has to in order to survive. As my compadre Axl commented in September when this sad news was announced:

Not a Van Halen cover band. A Van Hagar cover band. A group of men who went out of their way to learn and perform Van Halen’s catalog without David Lee Roth.

Them bills gotta get paid, I guess. And playing in what’s the Quiet Riot equivalent of 2010 Axl N’ Roses — except the friggin’ drummer, not the iconic frontman, is the only original dude left — beats slicing deli meat at the supermarket, I suppose. The above footage of “Metal Health” filmed on Saturday comes from SleazeRoxx.com [via reader Dave Dorst] and is the first with new lead singer Mark Huff. At least the dude’s got the pre-wig Dubrow hair style right, and for what it’s worth he’s a pretty solid Dubrowian singer.

I hope Frankie Banali is happy. Truly, actually happy.

-VN