5 Hair Metal Songs Featuring Big-Name Guest Performers

By all accounts, the ’80s had been an ultra-competitive decade for rock bands, however our record of 5 Hair Steel Songs That includes Large-Identify Visitor Performers reveals that they might sometimes play good.

As hair metallic — or glam metallic, or pop-metal, or no matter you wish to name it — grew to become the predominant rock subgenre conquering the airwaves, artists and producers alike discovered that they might multiply their winnings with some well timed collaborations.

A few of these visitor options allowed rockers to meet their heroes or pay again favors completed for them earlier of their careers. Others had been deliberate in order that bands might ingratiate themselves with their friends and additional monetize their relationship.

Learn on to study extra about 5 Hair Steel Songs That includes Large-Identify Visitor Performers.

Alice Cooper, “Solely My Coronary heart Talkin'” that includes Steven Tyler

With producer and music physician Desmond Youngster on the helm, Alice Cooper’s 1989 comeback album Trash grew to become a star-studded affair. Virtually each observe includes a big-name collaborator, together with four-fifths of Aerosmith (sans Brad Whitford), Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora, Kip Winger, Steve Lukather and extra. It is exhausting to select only one, however we’ll single out “Solely My Coronary heart Talkin’,” the splashy energy ballad that includes Steven Tyler that might have simply changed “Angel” on Aerosmith’s Everlasting Trip.

Need extra? Within the guitar division, Joe Perry and Sambora convey their signature kinds to “Home of Hearth” and “Hell Is Dwelling With out You,” respectively.

The collaborations continued on Cooper’s subsequent album, Hey Stoopid. Its title observe options a searing guitar solo from Slash and backing vocals from Ozzy Osbourne, whereas standout single “Feed My Frankenstein” options bass from Nikki Sixx and a dual-guitar solo from Steve Vai and Joe Satriani.

Michael Monroe, “Lifeless, Jail or Rock ‘n’ Roll” that includes Axl Rose

Weapons N’ Roses had been avowed followers of Hanoi Rocks, so it made good sense for Axl Rose to visitor on frontman Michael Monroe’s 1989 solo album Not Fakin’ It. Rose’s banshee wail might be heard briefly on lead single “Lifeless, Jail or Rock ‘n’ Roll” and title observe (and Nazareth cowl) “Not Fakin’ It.”

“We had been each Nazareth followers,” Monroe defined to Traditional Rock in 2023. “It was no shock to me that he appreciated them, as I might hear the affect of Dan McCafferty in his singing model. Nonetheless, he wasn’t acquainted with the music ‘Not Fakin’ It,’ which was a Nazareth cowl on my album, so realizing that it was a Nazareth music made him like the album much more.”

Monroe later repaid the favor by enjoying harmonica on Weapons N’ Roses’ Use Your Phantasm observe “Dangerous Obsession” and singing on their cowl of the Lifeless Boys’ “Ain’t It Enjoyable.” The latter appeared on “The Spaghetti Incident?,” which additionally featured Weapons’ rendition of Nazareth’s “Hair of the Canine.”

Motley Crue, “Slice of Your Pie” that includes Steven Tyler

Motley Crue and Aerosmith each recorded their 1989 albums — Dr. Feelgood and Pump, respectively — at Vancouver’s Little Mountain Sound Studios across the similar time, so it was most likely straightforward for Steven Tyler to pop by a session and add some signature vocalizing to the intro of Motley Crue’s “Slice of Your Pie.” The Aerosmith frontman additionally contributes backing vocals on “Identical Ol’ State of affairs” and “Sticky Candy” alongside Bryan Adams and Jack Blades.

Different visitor performances on the star-studded Dr. Feelgood embody Low-cost Trick’s Robin Zander and Rick Nielsen, who sing backup on “She Goes Down,” and Skid Row’s collective backing vocals on “Time for Change.”

Ratt, “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose” That includes Jon Bon Jovi

Ratt gave Bon Jovi an early profession break once they booked the fledgling rockers as their help act on their 1985 tour. A number of years later, Jon Bon Jovi returned the favor by singing backup on “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose” off Ratt’s 1990 album Detonator. The LP was co-produced and co-written by Desmond Youngster, the veteran songwriter who collaborated on Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Moist and New Jersey albums, together with a number of different blockbuster titles from the period.

“He got here in there, yodeled and that was cool, man,” Ratt frontman Stephen Pearcy instructed Mitch Lafon in 2021. “He threw us a bone for making them so fucking enormous.”

Warrant, “Cherry Pie” That includes C.C. DeVille

Poison and Warrant had been two of the largest and horniest rock bands on the Sundown Strip on the daybreak of the ’90s, so a collaboration between them was good model synergy. Warrant frontman Jani Lane invited Poison guitarist C.C. DeVille to chop a solo on the band’s “Cherry Pie” within the hopes of currying their favor and securing a help slot on their tour.

The networking paid off, however Cherry Pie producer Beau Hill wasn’t thrilled with the method. “Sitting within the studio with C.C. was essentially the most painful expertise of my life,” Hill mentioned in Richard Bienstock and Tom Beaujour’s 2021 ebook Nothin’ however a Good Time. “C.C., on a great day, would by no means come as much as my requirements of one thing that I might wish to put my identify on and launch to the general public. However I bent over backwards to accommodate the larger good, if you’ll.”

Regardless of Hill’s objections, “Cherry Pie” grew to become a High 10 hit, and DeVille’s chaotic solo enhances the music’s outrageous perspective.