MARSHALL BERLE I don’t know if you know this, but when “Round and Round” was released as a single by Atlantic, we had promotion guys on it and we couldn’t get arrested. We got a few spins here and there, but it was sort of dead in the water. But when that video came out, everybody jumped all over it and it just took off.
WARREN DeMARTINI We knew Milton Berle was going to be in it, and everybody was very excited to meet him. It was the juxtaposition of this total shoestring-budget video being made with this ultra, super-professional legendary TV superstar.
MARSHALL BERLE Funny story: I told Atlantic, “We gotta do a video.” So somebody at Atlantic sent me to a production office in L.A. And I’m there talking to a bunch of English guys, and I say, “Why don’t we get my uncle to be in the video?” “Who’s your uncle?” “Milton Berle.” And they go, “Who’s that?” But we made that thing for under $25,000. We shot it in a day in a warehouse.
STEPHEN PEARCY The idea was “We’re gonna build it around a dinner party, and the dinner party’s gonna be invaded by rats.” And we were the rats. Basically, the band would play, shit would fly, and Warren would fall out of the ceiling and land on the table. And Miltie, he was the funniest piece.
JUAN CROUCIER Milton took over. He was in drag, he was both husband and wife at the dinner, he started ad-libbing. We just let him roll with it.
STEPHEN PEARCY One of the directors was Don Letts from Big Audio Dynamite, right? The black guy with the real long dreads. Well, he thought he was just gonna tell Milton, “All right, you’re gonna do this…” Milton stopped him and went, “I’m going to do what I want to do in this video.” Don said, “All right, it’s all yours.” And walked away.
MARSHALL BERLE Milton was actually excited about doing it. Because he saw this as a new medium. I was telling him, “This is going to be the biggest thing. Music videos.” So he got excited. And he was very nice to all the guys.
STEPHEN PEARCY He’d look at me like, “What are you nuts, kid? You don’t know about me? My nephew hasn’t told you what I’m about?” I’d go, “Yeah, I know who you are, Mr. Berle.” He’d be like, “Fuckin’ rock ’n’ roll faggots…” But it was all tongue-in-cheek.
MARSHALL BERLE I used to take the guys to Friars Club roasts, where Milton would be the MC. They got a big kick out of that.
WARREN DeMARTINI I remember meeting Tom Bosley at the Friars Club. I was a huge Happy Days fan.
JUAN CROUCIER We loved Milton very much. He had a heart of gold. He’d sit down with us and light up a cigar and start telling us stories about some of the people we’d heard rumors about. He’d go, “All right, lemme tell you a story…” And all of us would just riddle him with questions.
STEPHEN PEARCY I asked him if he banged Marilyn Monroe.
JUAN CROUCIER To be honest with you I don’t remember that part. Maybe I was in the bathroom or something, I don’t know.
STEPHEN PEARCY He said, “Of course!” He was proud! We actually tried to get him a hooker, or maybe a stripper. I don’t think he went there, though.
JUAN CROUCIER So we released the video, it went onto MTV, and it was a whole new medium. Now you could not only hear the band—you could see ’em. So people throughout the greater United States could finally see what was happening in Hollywood. It really catapulted the band into a position of being able to actually get out there and do some great touring.
STEPHEN PEARCY You had to lock into one of these good tours. Mötley scored the Ozzy tour and then they moved up the ladder. They became an arena band. Who was next in line? Well, how about those Ratts? And sure enough, we got his U.S. tour, his European tour, and everywhere else. Then after that we opened for Billy Squier. And after that tour we were on our own. And we had a blast, man. We had a great time.
WARREN DeMARTINI We had a bus that we called the Free Bird, because it had a big bald eagle painted on it. We also called it the Rolling Hilton. And that was what we called home. We used that bus for, god, I can’t imagine how many miles.
STEPHEN PEARCY Oh, shit. The Rolling Hilton was the ultimate party bus. We probably had more girls on there than guys. There was so much lingerie, panties and bras. We started hanging them up everywhere. You couldn’t even walk through the place. But it started really stinkin’, you know? Getting funky. We were all loving it but it got crusty after a while.
JUAN CROUCIER And what started out as six weeks turned into ten months before we came home. We’d do runs, I believe our longest run was twenty-three shows without a day off. So people started telling us, “Hey man, you guys are on the radio.” And we’d be going, “Really? Because we’re out here in Des Moines, just sitting in a hotel waiting to play.”
STEPHEN PEARCY At some point we had to get a new bus, because I believe our bus got crabbed out. It had to be fumigated.
JUAN CROUCIER I mean, look, you’ve got a bunch of guys that are basically young, single men in their prime. A lot of testosterone, and a lot of very, very beautiful young ladies. It’s a really simple equation, right?
STEPHEN PEARCY It wasn’t the first bus that had been fucked up, I’m sure. But you’d be surprised who brought in those crabs. It wasn’t us. It was other people who brought those things around.
BEAU HILL When I met those guys, they were all starving street urchins, and the first year, they went from zero income to declaring an income of 1.2 million each. In one year.
MARSHALL BERLE I think their look was one of the main contributors to their success. Stephen, I mean, he’s a rock star. Just look at him. And all of them were into looking good. There was never a doubt in my mind, from the time before we made the EP, that they would be a big band. I knew it.
BOBBY BLOTZER Honest-to-god story, dude. At the end of the Out of the Cellar tour we came home … rich. Like, fucking filthy rich. Especially compared to what we were, which was filthy poor, you know?
BEAU HILL That’s both good and bad. It’s good because obviously they were enjoying some success. But some people are mature enough to be able to handle going, literally, from rags to riches, and others are not mentally prepared to deal with it.
STEPHEN PEARCY For me it was just the alcohol and the smoke. The booze. The girls. Those kind of “nature” drugs. But a little later you start meeting creepier people and then the other drugs start coming in. And everything’s for free. So what do you do? Somebody gives you an ounce of blow, a big bag of pills, you don’t know what it is. It turned into, like, CVS or whatever the drugstore is, you know?
BOBBY BLOTZER We had a hard time getting along. There was a lot of fun times, don’t get me wrong. But there was also a definite struggle for power.
HEIDI ROBINSON FITZGERALD (publicist) There was definitely a vibe there: “It’s all me. I’m the one.” There were some members who had that a little bit more than other members, but I think that that gave them a really interesting dynamic.
NEIL ZLOZOWER I found with all the bands, whether it’s Mötley, Ratt, Van Halen, when they’re out there in the beginning they’re all living in a one-bedroom apartment, they’re all eating Taco Bell and McDonald’s, they’re all starving to death. They’re all fucking the same girl and passing her around, maybe Robbin’s got this chick, and two days later Juan’s boning her, and Stephen will take over, whatever. Then, once the bands start getting money, that’s when the egos and the jealousy and the animosity starts moving in. It’s like, “Okay, I just got a Lexus,” so now someone else has to go out and get a Mercedes. Or, “This guy’s girlfriend has a thirty-six-inch bust, so I’ve gotta go out and buy my chick a forty-inch rack.” Or, “He’s got a three-bedroom house in Encino, well, I gotta go buy a five-bedroom house in Beverly Hills.” That’s when the band starts drifting apart and things start going to shit.
BOBBY BLOTZER I was the first person to buy a house. First person to buy a brand-new car. That red Trans Am in the “Back for More” video that Warren drives away in? I bought that the day before the shoot. But we had just sold four million records, we had a record deal for five records. So I bought a house, I bought my mom a brand-new car, I bought her a house, too. It was that sort of thing. It was surreal, man. Unbelievable.