ROCKSTAR
I'm going to try and do a combo movie/soundtrack review here, so let's hope I don't fail miserably, OK?
Given the fact that most of the people who grew up listening to heavy metal in the 1980s have grown up and are now writing movie scripts, among other things, a movie like ROCK STAR was bound to appear sooner or later. Not to mention the fact that this film is loosely based on the story of Tim "Ripper" Owens, who was plucked out of obscurity from a JUDAS PRIEST tribute band to join the Priest ranks a few years ago. However, the story line is changed enough so Preist can't ask for royalties...
The soundtrack to this decent-but-not-great rock and roll drama is appropriately crunchy. This disc is packed with classics from KISS, MOTLEY CRUE, THE VERVE PIPE, TED NUGENT, BON JOVI, as well as "Rock Star" by Everlclear.
What I'm most impressed with is the supposed STEEL DRAGON songs, some of which were written by Sammy Hagar, most of which were sung by STEELHEART vocalist Mike "Mikey Steele" Matijevic, and Jeff Scott Soto, and NOT by Mark Wahlberg, as some articles have stated. In fact, one of the featured songs in the film is "We all Die Young" from the third Steelheart disc,
Wait, which was originally released in Japan only, but is now available domestically through
STEELHEART.COM. You can hear it in the film, and throughout the soundtrack; Mike's voice is as impressive as ever. He still has that monster six octave range, and makes songs like "Livin the Life", "Blood Pollution", and "Long Live Rock & Roll" shriek with Heavy Metal goodness.
The one disappointment I've seen so far with the publicizing of this film is that good old Mark Wahlberg is taking some credit for singing some of the tunes in the film...when it's quite obviously NOT him singing.
This soundtrack/film is a great trip down memory lane for anyone who ever had big hair, wore leather pants, wore too much makeup, or drank heavily, and woke up upside down, bare-assed in a hotel room with a face filled with dried dried splooge... that last one applies to women primarily.
