Hey Mike,
First off, I'd just like to say that I appreciate your taking the time to elaborate on things. Collecting your thoughts and putting them in writing to post here certainly wasn't a two minute act. Besides, you (or anyone else, for that matter) don't owe me any kind of explanation for anything. Which is why I think it's pretty cool of you to have posted your thoughts.
I can't say that I disagree with a lot of what you say. Yes, it was frustrating at times, especially when you know deep down inside that you possibly could have been a lot more successful if you'd been given the proper chance. We were blessed with two excellent songwriters in the group I truly thought our originals could stand up to anything that was playing on rock FM radio at the time. Although we were pretty successful in the region with a lot of supportive fans, bad decision making on the part of our management (and on our part, to a degree) ultimately prevented us from moving on to bigger and better things. I was truly in it for the music and if teasing my hair and wearing an earring was going to keep me playing, well then I was gonna do it. (heh, I had a prettier hairdo than my girlfriend back then

). Our deal with management was such that we had to look the way they wanted us to look and there were certain (arguably banal) songs that we were required to cover. I didn't care at the time...I was young and happy we were allowed to play 50% originals. I just enjoyed playing what I thought was good music. But I think we all knew even back then that the whole melodic glam metal thing wasn't going to last forever. And I'd be lying if I said I was sad when I finally threw my can of Aqua Net in the trash.
Looking back on all of this 20 years later, it's easy for folks laugh and ask "how could you look like that?" or "how could you play those songs?" (and I do get that a lot). Yeah, the look was cheesy, but at the time it was perfectly acceptable...hair metal was all over MTV and no one thought twice about it. But as time passes and music evolves, your perceptions change. What was cool then seems silly now.
I guess what I was really trying to say is that I shouldn't have to be ashamed of having played music that I enjoyed, believed in and worked hard at...or be ridiculed for having looked a certain way which back then was just "part of the show". It's not like I look anything like that today (heaven forbid). You may not particularly like that style of music, but sweeping statements labeling everything in that genre as junk seemed a bit unfair to me.
Kira,
I bet when you posted that photo of your little figurine, you never in your wildest dreams imagined that it would develop into something like this
