Hair Band History (April 23rd)

Remembering Def Leppard co-founder and guitarist Steve Clark, "The Riffmaster" would have celebrated a birthday today (April 23, 1960). Steve died in 1991. R.I.P.

April 23, 1988: Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar On Me", the fourth single from the album "Hysteria", debuted at No. 93 on the US Billboard Hot 100. MTV in the US started showing the music video on April 13th and it ran as a Sneak Preview for several weeks. The true "Song of the Summer" that year, it would peak at No. 2 on the Hot 100 in July.

Incredible timing with 1984 being the "Year of the Rat" and L.A.'s RATT out to conquer the earth with their debut album. First single "Round And Round" was a smash on radio and the music video on MTV. The band toured all year which included a string of Canadian dates in late April.

April 23, 1992: KISS launched the "Revenge" Tour with 13 club shows in North America, starting with The Stone in San Francisco and ending at The Ritz in New York City and Brooklyn's L'Amour in early May. This was the first show with new drummer Eric Singer who had been shuffling between Alice Cooper's tour and KISS in the studio. The new album "Revenge" would be issued a month later.

Happy Birthday to original Faster Pussycat guitarist [1985-93] Brent Muscat (April 23, 1967).

April 23, 1990: The debut album from Nashville hard rockers Giant was exported to the UK as "Last Of The Runaways" landed in record shops, featuring singles "I'm A Believer", "Innocent Days" and their biggest hit, US Top 20 power ballad "I'll See You In My Dreams". Release information source: Kerrang! ad - April 21, 1990.

April 23, 2003 – Twisted Sister announced they were reforming and would hit the road for the first time in 16 years. The following month they kicked off the tour on USO military bases in South Korea.

April 23, 2008: Def Leppard released the music video for "Nine Lives", a duet with country star Tim McGraw and first single from their new album "Songs From The Sparkle Lounge". Drummer Rick Allen's brother Robert was McGraw's tour manager at the time.

April 1990: Kerrang! Magazine in the UK landed an exclusive interview with Guns N' Roses' Axl Rose... "The songs are comin' together (Use Your Illusion) - they're comin' together real heavy. I've written all these ballads and Slash has written all these really heavy crunch rockers. It makes for an interestin' kinda confusion..."