Steel Panther Were a Little Intimidated on America’s Got Talent
Steel Panther meets America’s Got Talent? Yep, in case you missed it, the band made a cameo there, and according to a recent interview with Brazil’s A Rádio Rock, they were a bit intimidated to be on mainstream television.
If you’ve ever heard of Steel Panther, then you know their songs aren’t typically TV friendly, what with songs about Asian hookers, tons of sexual imagery, and the ridiculous amounts of drug references peppered throughout their discography. And the fact that they’re not necessarily radio friendly wasn’t lost on vocalist Michael Starr.
“It was really, really scary. Our brand is very dirty and raunchy and heavy metal rock ‘n’ roll, right? It’s all about sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll. So to go on America’s Got Talent, which is really super straight and has to be very super clean, it was scary. I didn’t wanna say ‘fuck’ while I was singing… But the experience was great. Unfortunately, we didn’t win, but we made it to the second round, and that was pretty cool. And now we get noticed by old ladies and shopping malls. It’s pretty cool.”
When asked if they would take a chance and do something similar again, however, Starr didn’t hesitate in saying they’d jump at the opportunity if it came around again.
“Yeah, of course. We’re thinking about doing Canada’s Got Talent or maybe Brazil’s Got Talent. Why not? We’ll do ’em all… We can just do a tour of talent shows and just try and win.”
The band did decently well on America’s Got Talent, but failed to make it through to the Top 10. They played the song “Death To All But Metal” from the band’s 2009 Feel the Steel record, and as mentioned above, took out some of the swearing to make it clean for television.
In an interview with Parade, the band shared a bit more about how they got the opportunity to be on the show:
“We got a phone call from somebody that said, ‘Hey, you guys should go audition for America’s Got Talent. Our first reaction was, we’re professionals ,and we didn’t think that you’re allowed to be on that show if you’re professionals, but apparently, somewhere along the way, they opened the competition to people who are professionals. We had to weigh it out and say, ‘Hey, the type of band that we are, the things that we say and sing about don’t necessarily mesh with network television rules.’ We did bring that up, and they said, ‘We know. We’re cool with that.’”
