Slaughter: Whatever happened to the band featuring Mark Slaughter and Dana Strum who came up with hits including Up All Night & Fly To The Angels. The band would suffer through a tragedy in the late 90's when guitarist Tim Kelly was killed in a car accident.
0:00 - Early Years/Vinnie Vincen Invasion
2:29 - Slaughter's First Album
5:29 - Second Album/Fans
9:03- Legal Problems/Commercial Decline
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I cite my sources and they may differ than other people's accounts, so I don't guarantee the actual accuracy of my videos.
The group Slaughter was one of the last hair metal bands to have success just before the whole scene imploded in the early 90’s thanks to the rise of alternative music. Their success was almost unheard of because of the unusual path they took. Today, let’s explore the history of Slaughter.
Slaughter’s beginnings started with vocalist Mark Slaughter and bassist Dana Strum. Mark Slaughter would hail from Vegas and was even a one time guitar teacher, and fronted a band called Xcursion but the city, wasn’t a hotbed of rock talent back in the 80’s. He would tell the Las Vegas sun
"I'm very proud to be from Las Vegas. This is a great city."
"In those days, you high-tailed it out of Vegas as fast as you could to go be a rock star in L.A., New York or whatever,""Coming from Vegas was almost comedy."
Slaughter and Strum would meet for the first time when Slaughter was recording backing vocals for a band called Sin, who was hoping to land a fanbase in Japan.
Strum, at the time was a studio engineer who had already worked with ex-kiss guitarist Vinnie Vincent and who famously told randy rhoads to audition for Ozzy.
Strum would recall to the las vegas sun. Side note guys i’ve done a whole video on the life and death of randy rhoads. The link is down below. Strum would recall meeting slaughter saying
"All of a sudden I hear this kid in the background sessions, singing, 'YAAAAAH' in that (upper) register," "And I said, 'Hang on, do you always sing like that?' And he's like, 'Do you want me to drop down?' And I'm like, 'No, no, no. Is that an act or do you always sing like that?' And he says, 'Well, I'm kind of like a soprano in the choir.' " Soon enough Strum got slaughter a gig fronting Vinnie Vincent Invasion through the mid to late 80’s. The band would would eventually lose their deal with Chrysalis records after which the band called it a day. Apparently the label was not happy with Vincent with Slaughter telling Classic Rock Revisited ou know, Vinnie was difficult, and the record company was not happy with some of his business dealings.” Lucky for Strum and Slaughter Chrysalis wanted to do business with the pair with Slaughter telling the LA Times
"Another guy got the job and made the first album but then he left. I did the first tour and the next album. Vinnie didn't like my singing but the record company did," "That's why they signed me after Vinnie's band folded." "God, how I hated dyeing my hair blonde and being all made up and singing that music,". "One of the happiest days of my life was Aug. 28, 1988. That's when I was through with that band. There was only one good thing about it - it was my stepping stone to building Slaughter."
The pair would relocate to Las Vegas to write and record Slaughter’s first album and recruit guitarist Tim Kelley and drummer Blas Elias (Blas Uh-lie-issss).. The album would be self-produced and the original plan was for Strum to help record the album and then leave, but he ended up staying.