All language subtitles for the.rainbow.2019.bdrip.x264-dev0

Lemmy! Lemmy! Lemmy!
Lemmy! Lemmy! Lemmy! Lemmy!

A statue of Lemmy Kilmister

was unveiled last night
at The Rainbow Bar & Grill.

The Los Angeles bar's outdoor patio
has now been dubbed "Lemmy's Lounge".

I just want to welcome
everybody here.

This is truly
an event from the fans.

Want to thank Mikeal, the Maglieris here
for putting this on, and honoring Lemmy.

Yeah.

We're here
for a very special night,

we're showing tribute
to one of our dear friends.

Let's open up this statue.

Lemmy!
Lemmy! Lemmy! Lemmy!

Lemmy is always here, and now Lemmy is
permanently here, not going anywhere.

He's at home here,
and they've enshrined it.

And this to me is going to be,
basically, rock n' roll mecca.

Everybody from rock n' roll's
gotta come here one time
in their life and pay homage.

Lemmy! Lemmy! Lemmy! Lemmy!

Lemmy! Lemmy! Lemmy! Lemmy!

Alright, we are Motörhead.
And we are going to kick your ass.

It was like a party
every night. It was crazy.

It was absolutely insane, I've
never seen anything like that.

If you were cool, you could
get away with anything.

I used to get away
with murder in there.

I'd see musicians
getting head under the table
and shit like that.

I said do what the fuck
you want, I don't care.

It was bacchanalia.

It was exactly
how you'd picture it, times ten.

It was the place to be.

It was the rock n' roll café.

I was here every single night
hanging out. All of us were.

You'd see everybody here.

Slash, Ozzy, Lemmy.

- John Bonham.
- Motley Crue.

- Keith Moon.
- Van Halen.

- Jimmy Page.
- Janis Joplin.

- Jimi Hendrix.
- The list goes on and on and on.

It was different then.

There was a culture,
a glamorous culture,

the likes of which
will not happen again.

And the watering hole
of all of it...

The one great hub...

The only rock mecca...

The church of rock n' roll...
The Rainbow.

The Rainbow somehow was sort
of when the planets line up.

A special place
at a special time.

It didn't happen
in the Valley, it didn't
happen on Ventura Boulevard,

it didn't happen
in Iowa or Wyoming.

It happened in Los Angeles.
Perfect weather.

And up the hills,
everybody lived there.

They all came
from all over the world.

And at night they would all
come down and celebrate life.

Anything was possible.

My name is
Mario Maglieri Sr.,

and I've been here 42 years.

I've fed more musicians
you can shake a stick at.

My grandpa had
a restaurant back in Chicago.

Know what, I had rock n' roll
in my bar in Chicago

before you ever heard
of rock n' roll.

Lots of people have been critical
of rock n' roll for a long time,

but if I may say so,

I think for the wrong reason,
because they thought
it was bad music.

Well, actually,
it is worse than that.

As here used it is a cynical,
commercial exploitation
of the emotions of children.

Rock n' roll music
in the United States is dying.

One of his partners
from the restaurant, Elmer,

was gonna open
a business out here.

Elmer Valentine,
he saw the Whisky in France,

and he brought it to America.

He went to Europe,
and in France saw a club
called Whisky A Go Go,

that had these girls standing
behind the bar on the ledge dancing.

That's where he came up
with the concept of the Go-Go girls.

So he opened the club
January 16, 1964.

When I went there about less
than 2 months after it opened,

the guy couldn't run it.
They were robbing him blind.

Elmer had called
my Dad and said "Come in
and straighten this out."

Yeah, I'll come down there.
$200 a week, a lot of money.

My Father came in, to like,
reorganize the business
and run the business.

I fired everyone in the place,

got all new help,
and uh, I straightened it out,

and it became successful
the way it is.

We had I think
three cages of girls
dancing on the stage.

And we had
more movie stars in there
than you could actually count.

Packed house every night.
Was like a hang out.

Here he is with a song
called 'Going to a Go Go',

Smokey Robinson
and the Miracles.

We were the first club
to integrate that we brought
black acts in.

Los Angeles, they didn't
want blacks in the street,

so I fucked 'em all, I brought
'em all for the whole year.

Smokey Robinson, Martha Reeves,
The Temptations, The Tops.

You name 'em, I had 'em.

He's color, a human
being, you know, God put us
all here for a reason.

I don't care what color you are.

I don't give a shit.

And the visitor
to Hollywood soon discovers

that this small town has
a wealth of entertainment,
but much more.

My Grandpa moved out
to be a manager at first,

and you know,
eventually over time started
buying into the business.

His whole family
at that point moved out here.

Everyone, you know,
was living in LA.

I was 16 years
old when I started
at the Whisky A Go Go.

He was a busboy, God,
in the 60's at the Whisky.

I was a kid,
he did not want me there,

and I insisted that he bring me
in there, that I wanted
to come in and work there.

I would come in and work,
maybe five, six nights a week,

and I was still going
to High School, then College.

But on my nights off
I wasn't allowed to go in there.

He did not want me
in that environment.

It was an era of peace
and love and free drugs,

and he just didn't want me
to become a part of all that.

He thought I'd fall prey,
so to speak, of what was
going on around me.

I personally had a ball.

My Father ran
the business as far
as the nightclub end of it.

The booking was done by Elmer.

Johnny Rivers
was there for a year.

And then after
rock n' roll started in, then
we started with rock n' roll.

The Doors started
as the house band.

We're paying them
about 50 bucks a week,

a case of beer
a night, whatever,
just to keep 'em entertained.

How The Doors got booked
in the Whisky to begin with

was Chris Gowdy, who worked
in our office as a bookkeeper,

and Charlotte,
who's a ticket taker
at the front door,

went to a club
called The London Fog,

they saw Jim,
and they wanted to screw Jim.

That's why they got hired.

The Doors
opening for Johnny Rivers

and getting
booed off on the stage.

They learned their trade.
They came and rehearsed all day.

That 'Light My Fire' song
that became
12 and a half minutes,

I heard that for two
and a half hours at a time.

By the time it came out
on the radio and became famous,

I was like, "Oh my God,
do I have to hear this again?"

Mother.

Turn it off!
Turn these fucking...!

Actually when I met
Oliver Stone,

this was years later, after he
did the movie 'The Doors",

I had to correct him.

Hey, come on, man!

Here's your act right there.

My Father did not throw Jim out.

Jim had a habit of like
kinda dropping his pants.

Now I know today, they wear
their pants below their ass,

in those days
you didn't do that.

The girls would go crazy
in the audience.

And one night in particular,

and this is where the movie
got it misinterpreted,

is he decided
to do a frontal nudity,

and kind of showed
his works onstage.

My Father got so ticked off
that he pulled the plug.

Jim jumped off the stage
onto the dance floor,

went down the steps
of the dance floor, went up
on the second landing,

and peed over the balcony.

Literally like,
to say screw you back
to my Dad for unplugging him.

Went up
in the dressing room and hid,

and at two
in the morning he came down
and apologized to my Dad

and they were
back onstage the next night.

Jim Morrison
used too many drugs.

He was not a bad kid,
he was a good kid.

Like I'd tell him "Hey,"
you know I called 'em names,

"You get out
on that stage at 9 o'clock,

not 5, not 5 after, you're not
I'll beat the shit outta ya."

The Whisky was the place
where the happening acts
were happening.

If you come out to LA as a band,

you really
want that on your resume,

that you've played
at the Whisky A Go Go, I mean,
it's a big thing.

My Dad was 17, 18 years old
working in these clubs,

and it's mind-blowing
the people he had
to have come across.

At the time you're not aware
of what's going on around you,

you know, I'm hanging out
with Jimi Hendrix
and Arthur Lee from Love.

I mean, just
to be sitting at the Whisky

and have someone from
The Beatles or have Andy Warhol
sitting in there,

I mean that's just,
it's unbelievable.

And I was the busboy
for probably six, eight months

and then I was the manager
when my Dad wanted
to take a night off.

I worked into bartending.
I learned the business
from the ground up.

Out of College, Law School,
everything else I did,

the best education I had
was right here
on the Sunset Strip.

Janis Joplin came in,
and her name's
Pearl by the way,

Janis was her stage name.

And she sat down in the middle
booth of the Whisky,

she had like four glasses
of Southern Comfort
on the rocks,

and on or about her fourth one,

my Dad said put
a case of Southern Comfort
into Pearls trunk.

She leaves with her manager,

the next morning on the news
they said that Janis Joplin had
died of alcohol poisoning.

I thought, well,
the booze I gave her,
I must've killed her.

She had all those drinks,
and I mean, I was a kid.

So for like three days,
I thought I killed her

until the coroner's report came
out and found out
she actually OD-ed,

and no, I did not
kill Janis Joplin.

And here's
the world famous
Whisky A Go Go on the Strip,

a favorite dancing spot for both
the mods and movie stars
who want to get it on.

Let's drop in and see
what's happening tonight.

The Whisky was pretty essential,

it was one
of the first great
rock n' roll clubs.

It's the Old Marquis
in London, it's the CBGB
of the West Coast,

it's the place that you know
everybody's gone through.

You thought it was
this big, massive concert hall,

you can't fit more
than 200 people inside.

It was just a regular bar
with people, and yet anybody
who's anybody played there.

A lot of great artists
over the years, Led Zeppelin.

Buffalo Springfield
is another big band,

Fleetwood Mac
is another big band,

Alice Cooper,
you know, all these bands
when they were nothing.

When you first start out,
and before you figure out
your game,

The Whisky's the place to do it.

I cannot tell you how many
thousands of people got
started on this street.

Everybody, they've all
done their first tour
through the States in clubs,

so they ended up
at the Whisky in LA.

The first time we ever
played in Los Angeles
was at the Whisky,

and there was like a line
around the block twice.

We had opening nights
probably two to three times
a week with major groups,

and then you always had
the house band, Chicago,
CTA at that time.

They were, like,
I think seven guys

living in
a one bedroom apartment
on the Hollywood Boulevard.

We didn't have
much of anything. I mean
we're just trying to survive.

We all lived together
in a little house
on Holly Drive under the 101

and, you know,
coming to the Whiskey to work

was a chance to make
some dough to feed ourselves

and to possibly get, you know,

a connection
to something even better.

We were opening
for Velvet Underground,

they were promoting
their very famous first album

with the Andy Warhol
banana on the cover.

And not only did we,
sort of, become the house band,

that would be on the off nights,
not the nights when...

- Like the big names.
- The big names
would come through.

But we did get access
to the club during the daytime.

We were in here rehearsing
that was to become
Chicago Transit Authority,

the first album.

This was a sounding ground,

and a place for us to really
write and arrange the music

that put us on the map.

Next thing you know, we had
record company executives
in here

and bidding wars were starting.

And so we wound up acing a deal
with Columbia Records,

which started here.

West Hollywood's
a popular part of LA,

you know obviously
you had Tower Records there,

you had a lot
of nightclubs around there,

and it just had cemented itself

even before the Whisky
as being sort
of the entertainment strip.

You know, this is the Whisky
on the Sunset Strip
in Hollywood.

Palm trees, suntan chicks,
and it was just, it was cool.

Sunset Blvd was packed
with people strolling,

you know, it was like
a party on the sidewalk.

Going to a concert
was an event, it was
the gathering of the tribes,

and the streets were just
filled with really interesting,

attractive, glamorous people.

And you'd just hop
from one club
to the next, you know,

passing joints and just,
"Hey brother, what's happening?"

You'd walk
up the street and people
would hand you a hit of acid.

Every night there
was people on the street,

the street
was full of young people.

Just strolling
up and down the street
you would meet movie stars,

rock stars, everyone.

A wandering band of members
of a so-called religious cult
with a leader they call Jesus

has had three
of its followers arrested

in the investigation
of the murder of Sharon Tate
and six others.

Charles Manson.

The girl called me at home
and said there's
a guy downstairs,

we're closed, he won't get up.

So I'll be right down there,
so I drove down all the way
to the Whisky,

and I go downstairs and said
"What are you doing here?"

He said "You know who I am?"

I stopped him,
"I don't give a fuck
who you are, okay?"

"Now you
gotta leave or you don't,
I'm gonna kick your ass."

He says "I'm Jesus."

I tell him
"I'm God, motherfucker,
now get up from that chair."

He got up, or I'd of had to beat
the shit out of him. Either one.

The Whisky was a club
where groups came to see
other groups play.

That was a change in time,

and if you give credit
to an individual,
it'd be my Dad.

He literally came out
and stood at the front door
of The Rainbow,

so the groups started
coming in here to hang out.

The Rainbow was
originally the Villa Nova,

which was
a famous restaurant in itself.

I was here
with my parents when it
was Villa Nova in the 50's.

It was loaded with movie stars.

Marilyn Monroe dated
Joe Dimaggio in that booth
right behind us.

I was friends with Tony Curtis.

I believe it was around the time
that they were making
'Some Like It Hot',

that Marilyn Monroe
and Tony Curtis would
meet here at The Rainbow,

then called the Villa Nova,
and have their little liaisons,

and then went out
to the bungalows
up by the ocean.

She was cheating
on Arthur Miller,
her playwright husband.

Arthur Miller found out,
and wanted to fight with him.

And then it was
either the director
of 'Some Like It Hot'

broke it up, or Arthur Miller
decided it wasn't worth
fighting with him.

Tony promised
to stop the relationship
with Marilyn Monroe,

and they all agreed
and shook hands, and that was
the end of that.

The Whisky was a place
where groups came
to see other groups.

Now the groups were coming
up to The Rainbow to hang out,
to hang with one another.

We had a private club upstairs
called The Vampires Lair.

The Hollywood Vampires,
it was a club of people
that just all hung together.

It was Micky Dolenz,
and Alice Cooper.

You had Ringo,
John Lennon, these people
hung in here all the time.

The Hollywood Vampires were me,

Alice, Harry, Keith, and John,
that was kind of the core.

So they were hanging
out up there, and then...
Oh, I can't look.

Shortly after
it opened, we were kind
of a drinking men's club,

like you would have in England,
you know, call it
the Priars or something.

I think maybe it might have had
something to do with the fact

that this had such a cool, like
private, private, private...

You know, it was tough enough
to get downstairs,

you know, and then to get up
here, over The Rainbow was
like another level,

and then to get up here was
basically impossible

unless you were
one of those guys.

Every kind of act
you could imagine,

every kind of drug
you could imagine,
probably went through there,

I'm not going
to point fingers at anyone.

We were
just smoking and drinking
and laughing and puking.

There probably wasn't a whole
lot of people that even
wanted to go up there.

It's like all those weirdoes.

Contrary to a little bit
of urban myth,

Alice and I,
we were into sports,
Harry was a basketball player.

And Alice's idea was
to start a softball team

called the Hollywood Vampires.

He got t-shirts made and we
would play these charity games,

and we'd go out and raise money
and stuff, then we'd
come here and get hammered.

But The Rainbow is just
a great restaurant,

and it got to the point
where it was probably

one of the premiere rock places
along the Sunset Strip.

The Rainbow became the home
of the moving stars,

where rock stars and musicians
and the movie stars came
to see one another.

Literally to be seen
or to see who's here.

It was more than instantaneous,
it was kind of unbelievable.

Anybody who was in town,
whether they were
recording or playing a show

would come here.

This was the hub.
Main acts would come to LA,

they'd come here
on a night off to see
what was going on.

Bands who were
actually the innovators
of all, of all music.

The Who, or The Stones.

Well, I met 'em all.
I talked to them.

Give 'em booze,
whatever they want.

Was it James Brown wouldn't go
in any other restroom but here?

You'd never know
who you were gonna see.

Zeppelin would come in
all the time,

they'd put the big
round table in the middle,
all of Zeppelin were there.

Deep Purple would come in,
The Who, and it was packed,

it was absolutely packed, and it
was really a fun different era.

And it's really
a restaurant in a club.

I have a lot
of memories of that kitchen.

So busy, all the time.

Always having something to eat,
even if you had no money,
I mean he would...

Mario was always,

"Eh, pay me later, you know,
whatever, I didn't
hear anything."

It's not just the location
of it, because it's right
in the middle of everything,

but the food's really good.

They have the best
damn soups, the pizzas
are notorious,

I always tell my friends
you get a Spago steak
at a Rainbow price.

The steak, you gotta
pay 60, 70 dollars for a steak,

I've got the best steak
in this city right here.

You feel sick, you gotta
eat some Rainbow chicken soup.

It's the only way
to cure your throat.

My name is Miguel Murillo,
and I'm the chef at The Rainbow.

Miguel is a mainstay,
without a doubt, he makes
sure this place runs right.

I started
working here April 1972,

started as a busboy,
I'd never cooked before.

He used to clean toilets,
now he's the chef.

Miguel did the movie
Up In Smoke, Cheech and Chong
used to hang in here.

In fact, Cheech married
one of our waitresses.

We smoked
this whole lid, man, and I
haven't even had a buzz yet.

We had a French chef
that we first opened
The Rainbow with

and Miguel
watched him prepare the food,

and then with my mother's
recipes he incorporated into it

and developed the menu we have.

The consistency is unbelievable,

since I was a kid it tastes
exactly the same.

Miguel's been here 43 years,

we have not one or two, but many
long, long time employees.

It's not unusual for someone
to be here 25, 30 years.

The same chef and the same owner

have been around for about 30,
at least 30 some odd years.

It was like, you know,
go in the kitchen.
It was like your house.

I remember being there
as a little kid
running around,

my whole childhood
my Grandfather
would work late nights

until three in the morning
every night, my Dad same thing.

As kids we didn't go to bed
until two, three in the morning,

because it was just
what our family was used to.

I made it a family, I want
my family. What else you got
in life? Nothing.

I took care
of my people that came in,

"Hello, how are ya, how's your
kids, how's your wife?"

It's like that TV show Cheers,

people like to go where
everybody knows your name.

And to this day,
we are now 43 years later,

and they are still
coming here on a regular basis.

You can come on
a Monday or Tuesday, which
you wouldn't even expect it,

and you may have
five or ten rock stars.

Ozzy's here
about three, four times a week.

Lemmy from Motörhead bought
a place right down the street
so he would be near The Rainbow.

He makes no bones about it,
he has to be by The Rainbow.

Lemmy is a God. Lemmy is
awesome, he's always
been a part of this club,

he loves
hanging out at The Rainbow.
He's always at The Rainbow.

He's like furniture there,
he's always there.

People call and they
think he owns the place,

you know, I get all these calls,
what does Lemmy have
to do with The Rainbow,

it's like
he just hangs out there.

Lemmy, he still comes here.

Plays the machine on the bar,
that's all he does.

But he minds his own business,
such a nice guy.

He's in front
of the machine all the time,
drinking his jack and cokes,

and uh, you don't bug him.

One of the coolest
things about The Rainbow

is celebrities like to hang
out there cause they don't
get messed with.

People who are
famous can hang there
and kind of sit in a corner

and keep to themselves,
and not get fucked with
by every person that walks by.

That guy helped me out in Vegas
one time with another joint
we had there,

and Lemmy's a good man.

He's an amazing guy,
he's a great person,
and we all adore him.

It was the kind
of crowd that I liked.

I wasn't really crazy
about like the Sky Bar,
or the W.

These places
struck me as a bit pretentious,

you know, leisure suit attitude,
you know sports jackets,
it's just, I don't know.

This is rock n' roll. This is
as rock n' roll as it gets.

A rock star is a peculiar thing,

it's come to mean
you're extraordinary.

You can be Bill Clinton,
you're a rock star,

or Obama, or whoever
it is you think is cool.

You can't say,
"See that guy over there,
he's a hip-hop star,"

it fucking means nothing.

"That guy over there,
he's a country star."

Take your pick, "That guy's
a heavy metal star,"
it means fuck all.

There is only rock, because
as much as we love Sinatra,
and the Rat Pack,

it's not this thing.

Mom and Dad
and outside culture
didn't effect it,

so peoples
hair grew longer, they wore
more flamboyant clothes.

Straight guys like Robert Plant
were wearing chick clothing,

and the sort of ambiguous
nature of guys moving
like girls, and stuff.

It was not judgment,
in fact, I don't remember
the word gay being uttered.

You just did whatever you
wanted to do.

When people
say tell us a story,
it doesn't have to be sexual,

if it's rock n' roll,
it's always about sexual.

If it's country music it's
about your beer and your truck
or your hog or whatever.

That's why we picked up guitars
in the first place.

What do you think, we have
some great secret to impart
to the world?

I don't look like Bob Dylan,
nobody pretends to be that.

We just wanted to get laid.

The Rainbow
was really a place
where rock n' roll musicians

could go and hang out,
and just be themselves,

and be able to you know,
have a good time.

The kind of good time
that a musician wants to have.

You know, the reputation was
rock n' roll... sex, drugs
and rock n' roll.

People want to live
a kind of a rock n' roll
gypsy lifestyle

where you don't have
to apologize.

There was
even a magazine called Star,

and on the cover of every
issue of star were groupies

who would tell their stories
of bedding down Robert Plant,

or the Aerosmith guys,
or whoever.
They were celebrated.

We get to fuck
the prettiest boys, you get
to smoke the best dope.

You get to meet all
the most far out people.
It's magic.

You just had to be cool
about it. That was the sort
of fine line.

Once I finally got out
of high school in 1978

my first thing to do
was to pack up the car
and come to Hollywood.

It was in the heart
of the disco era,

rock was a secondary thing.

The very first night I came out
in '77 I came to The Rainbow,

and then I came every night
after that for years.

There were all these guys
waiting for a chance,
going through different bands.

I'm talking about me
and Nikki Sixx, Blackie Lawless

and we were all hanging
here wondering what was
going to happen to us.

I was an aspiring
rock n' roll musician

and hanging out at all
the various clubs in LA,

you know, sort of doing
that thing that you do which is
going to check out bands,

going to sort of network
so to speak.

I mean all kinds
of interesting stories

about things that have developed
at The Rainbow,

from record deals
to songs, to bands,
members of bands meeting,

I mean all kinds of, you name
it, it's happened there.

Rock music
in the 80's all came out
of The Rainbow and The Whisky.

I was a stalwart at The Rainbow.
I have a long history
with Mikeal and Mario.

I first met them
unbeknownst to them

probably when I was like 15.

I used to make
fake IDs and we'd go
in there on the weekends.

Mikeal was always
hanging around the door.

He finally busted me
with my fake ID

and I'd gone down
there with Steven

and he was using
the fake ID I made for him.

He walked right in,
and I got held up.

I was drunk too,
and I was pissed,
so I went back to my pad,

and I went
into my Mom's clothes,

cause it was Tuesday,
it was ladies night.

So I went through
a bunch of her shit

and I put together
this makeshift female
sort of get up,

and some make-up and that,
and I padded my chest up

and did the whole nine
and went back
up there and got in.

But then suddenly I
realized the grim reality

is that I'm dressed
as a girl in The Rainbow.
It did work though. I got in.

Well, I would
probably be breaking
the law by saying

the first time
I was let in here.

As a musician you could live
on a bowl of chicken soup
and a loaf of bread

because they always gave you
a loaf of bread,

which was like the thing
you fill up on

but then you get a little bit
of nourishment with it.

It was a big bowl too.

There's so many that literally
give credit to my Dad

because yeah, he supported
them while they were coming up.

And he always
took them under his wing.

If someone came in
and it looked like they were
down and out on their luck,

or trying to get started,
my Dad was always like,
here, gotta feed you.

Have a bowl of soup.

I met Mario
in The Runaways days,

we had an apartment
around the corner
up here on Clarke street.

And we would come
to The Rainbow every night

and Mario would take care of us
every night 'cause
we didn't have any money.

You know, in those days I might
have had enough for a beer.

Mario was always very,
very cool about it.

He'd hook me up with the next,
maybe, even a refill.

You know, I don't know
why he was so sweet
to me but he was.

And to this day
I always thank him for it.

Mario really gave us a place
to put a roof over our heads.

We were trying
to be rock stars, learning,

and reaching out for different
people to help us,
and Mario was there.

The Runaways had the largest
attendance record

in the history
of the Whisky a Go Go

that wrapped around The Rainbow
four nights in a row.

Your Grandpa let me
in there, he'd buy me a meal,
I didn't have any money.

I've seriously heard
that story from a thousand
different people.

It's me, it's my nature.

I feel sorry
for the guy down there,

not the guy up,
but the guy down here.

You gotta treat everybody well,

no matter who they are,
it don't matter.

Except Manson,
he's nuts that guy.

Around that period
that I came up
to Hollywood, you know,

that was the era of Van Halen.

You know, Van Halen
got signed out of the Whiskey
in the late 70s.

I got to see them do
their first album at The Whisky,

and it was insane,
I'd never heard of them.

Me and my friends
were all into Van Halen

and they were playing,
they were doing some
release party.

So I come down,
I was a little kid,

and there's just thousands
of people in the street.

I mean you've never seen
so many people in your life

and they're all in front
of the Whisky trying
to get into the Whisky

to see Van Halen.

And someone announces
that the tickets are on sale

at Tower Records
down the street,

so everyone runs from The Whisky
over to Tower Records

trying to get their tickets,
and then some fuck up
happened over there,

the tickets end up
being sold here.

Sold the 500 tickets
in about four seconds,
and it was just mayhem.

I mean, the SWAT team, you know,

the whole nine yards was
out here protecting
the Sunset Blvd from this,

like, potential riot
from this Van Halen crowd.

I went up to The Rainbow
just to, you know,
say hi to my Grandpa and stuff,

and he made me walk
Weird Al Yankovich
into the show.

So I got to go see
Van Halen with Weird Al.

And it was the coolest
night ever.

When we saw Van Halen take off
and it was a local band,

and everybody was aware
of who they were,
and how good they were.

We knew a door had
flung open on that.

I've seen a lot of bands
at the Whisky.

But one of the important gigs
for as far as The Whisky,

and LA and all that
was I saw Motley Crue there.

Motley Crue,
this leather
and chain clad band

pushed their way
through the LA club circuit
just two years ago.

Now with the release
of their second album
Shout At The Devil,

Motley Crue has them
waiting around the block
for hours in the cold and rain.

Motley Crue!

A lot of us got record deals.

Quiet Riot, Motley,
W.A.S.P., Ratt, Dokken,

that's when we really
took over the strip.

It was just crazy here.

From right here at The Rainbow
down to the edge
of The Whisky corner,

it was just packed.

Get set for three hours
of the loudest, rudest,

crudest, heaviest, meanest,
music around.

It's time
for the Headbangers ball.

It was just total domination
on TV, radio, concerts,

everything was dominated
from the bands that came
from this strip right here.

I think Poison
are fucking great!

And there were so many
signed bands living
here and all friends,

so it was a real,
real community
and a really cool scene.

I was signed
with W.A.S.P. for four years,
all the way up to about '87.

We were all touring so much,

we weren't even aware
that there was a second wave
of metal coming out of LA.

How the fuck are you doing?

Is it fucking hot
in this fucking place?

Been a long time.

Approximately one year ago,

an LA club band
hoping to gain recognition

released their first album
Appetite for Destruction.

They say
the stones to the 60's were
the kings of their genre.

They say Aerosmith in
the 70's was the same thing,

they say in the late 80'
going into the 90's it is
Guns N' Roses.

It was
just Guns N' Roses, LA Guns,

Faster Pussycat thing
happening and the whole city
was buzzing,

and I was fortunate,
I got right out of WASP
and right into LA Guns.

I just watched that whole thing,
that whole second wave
take over too,

especially GNR,
how big they got.

Axl Rose,
he came on stage
and he started talking,

he said we played
this town in Florida,

and the Mayor said we'll
never play there again.

Well he can suck my dick,
he grabbed his privates.

One of my biggest shows as a kid

was Guns N' Roses and Metallica
at the Rose Bowl,

and I run into my Grandpa
at like 12 years old,

and he's like, what the fuck
are you doing here?

Like the last person
you'd think you're run into

at a venue that holds
a hundred thousand people
is your grandfather.

But that happened.

He's hanging out.

They invited him down,
he was there, you know,
he had his laminate on,

you know,
he was going backstage.

I was trying
to go to the bathroom
and I ran right into him.

Guns N' Roses was
a good show, good group,
I like them.

I still like 'em.

In the early days
of Guns N' Roses,

we used to hang out
at The Rainbow all the time.

When I joined
Guns N' Roses,
we always came back here.

You know,
we had our booth,
which is the corner booth.

Slash's name is on that booth.

We all sat there,
but he claimed it.

You know the booth
thing is just something
that materialized,

I don't know
if it was intentional.

They just put this one picture
of me in the back booth,

and that sort
of just turned into,
like, Slash's booth somehow.

They probably thought maybe,
you know, with all
those pizza's and stuff,

maybe it's time to give him
some sort of a booth, you know.

We always felt
protected in our booth

and people didn't
really bother us
because this was our place.

And Mario, the guys
and Mikeal would say,
"Hey, this is your home.

You could do
whatever you want here.

You want
to film a video, do it."

there was no contracts
or asking for money,
or any of that bullshit.

The first video
that I performed
in with Guns N' Roses

was shot right here
at the Roxy with Arnold.

We all sat in here
waiting for our scenes
to come up

because as you know,
filming stuff,
you gotta set cameras or lights.

Arnold had a trailer that
was parked in the parking lot,
we'd all go over there.

I remember we went in there
and he's smoking cigars
and drinking Goldschlager.

And we all did shots with him.

So by the time we shot
the last scene where Arnold
comes out of the Roxy

and we're all standing in a line

where it's Slash, me,
Duff, Dizzy and Axl,

we'd been in here
for about four hours
drinking heavily.

So, by the time we got
to the film set, if you watch,

we're very wobbly
on that last scene,
specially Slash.

You know,
we shot many videos here.

When we shot part
of a video called Estranged,

which is one of a three
part epic video series

that Guns N' Roses did.

I remember going to that,

and that was just
amazing to see a video
being filmed at our club.

And then I gave them a guitar
that I threw off a cliff

for the "Don't Cry" video.

That was a good Les Paul too,
it went neck first
off this cliff,

and it came back
in three pieces, and we sort
of tied it back together.

We don't buy any
of this memorabilia
or the guitars and things,

they're given to us regularly.

Phil Campbell from Motörhead
gave me the one that's over
my head somewhere here.

That's like a $5000 guitar,
but he wanted it to be
in The Rainbow.

We got Eddie Van Halen's guitar
up there, we've got tons
of drum heads.

I mean all sorts
of cool memorabilia.

And all
the pictures on the walls

of all the famous rock stars
that have been here or...

I've given
them their gold albums.

It's a little bit of a museum,

it's like we're the real
Hard Rock Café, you know.

The story I heard is
that the guys
who started Hard Rock,

got the idea from The Rainbow.

I would not be surprised.

So Mario, you know, I brought
him one of my Guns N' Roses
snare drums,

which was like
a signature series
drum that they made for me,

it says "To Mario
and The Rainbow, Matt Sorum,
Guns N' fucking Roses".

And Mario says, "Matt, what's
with the language?

You know
I don't like it when you cuss."

You know, I'm like, "Mario,
I mean, we're in The Rainbow,
I mean, really?"

He takes a piece of tape
and covers up the "fuckin'."

He thought
I should be respectful
of what's on the wall,

and not everybody wants to see
the word "fuckin'," okay?

So, still up there and it still
got that old piece of tape

from over twenty years ago.

Are you still doing
rock n' roll?

A few heavy metal
comedians around.

Yeah, I had
a lot of fun with it.

I was good friends
with Sam Kinison, who came
to The Rainbow all the time.

We used to come here,
and the funny thing is
that Sam would often drink,

and yet we would be
called upon to help walk some
of the rock stars out the door.

Like Ozzy Osbourne,
he'd get a little tipsy.

And then me and Sam Kinison
would walk them out to the car.

And it was an honor, here I am
with a legend like this,

and I'm helping
him walk to his car.
Hooking up under his arm.

"Oh thank you Ron,
appreciate it.

Thank you very much,
thank you Sam."

And then of course, me and Bill
used to help Sam Kinison
get to his car.

He had this great car,
it was a corvette,
it said EX REV,

'cause Sam was
a Pentecostal minister
in a former life.

Nobody ever
helped me out the door
and I'm kind of jealous.

- What was Ozzy like?
- Oh Ozzy's great,
so funny, so mellow,

you know I was expecting,
"Ah, you got any bats on you?

Rawr! Can I get some
raw meat, you know?"

And he's not
like that at all, he's so kind.

You know, he's so British,
"Hello, how are you? I've always
been afraid to meet you."

That's what he told me.

"I'm afraid to meet you because
I heard you were too wild
for me to hang out with."

Oh yeah, yeah, great,
Ozzy Osbourne's
afraid to meet me?

I can't tell you how
many people that my father has
lectured on their drug issues.

Of using drugs.

He will turn to customers here
that are regular drinkers

still to this day and say
"You drink too much."

We sell drinks for a living,
okay, he will sit down and tell
them "You drink too much."

There's a few
characters like that in town

who cared about the people
that frequented
their establishments.

That wasn't uncommon, it is now.

Mario's an exception.

That's why I didn't care so much
when my daughter Amy
would come around.

Because I knew
that there was this

protective almost family thing.

When I got some success,

I remember my drinking getting
a little out of control.

'Cause now
I had money to buy beers,

and buy beers for my friends,
you know, and do some shots too.

And I remember Mario
pulling me aside one night

and he literally gave me
that fatherly talk,

because my Dad wasn't around
up here in Hollywood.

I was a kid running around
on my own, you know.

And he said "Matt, I don't like
how you're acting kid,

you're drinking too much."

I was like
"Aww, come on, Mario."

"No! Listen to me.
I'm telling you you drink
too much, simmer down."

And, you
know, that really stuck
with me, you know, because he...

He was like a father figure
to a lot of us
who had come to Hollywood,

you know, looking for the dream

and we were away from family
and any sort of grounding,
you know.

Over the years, you
know, I had different issues,

and Mario had taken care
of me a few times.

He definitely
saw where I was at,

and he did give me sort
of a speech as to, you know,
what the fuck am I doing,

why would I, blah blah blah...

And, you know, and I listened
to him within reason.

You know, I took it to heart.

The grunge era came in the 90's,

it cut down
everybody on the streets,

you know, it wasn't craziness
out on the streets in the 90's.

Because
it is more overcast here,

we don't spend 300 days a year
playing volleyball like
they do down in California.

You tend to spend more time
indoors. Whether reading a book,
or seeing films.

Or practicing
music in your garage.

Musical tastes changed,

the glamorous part
of the scene came and went.

Once the guys started
cutting their hair

and looked like, let me see,
are you a Domino's
pizza delivery boy?

Do you work
for the sanitation department?

Or are you in a band?
You're done.

As far as the flow
when it comes to The Rainbow,
it kept a consistent thing.

The Rainbow was
still kind of catering
to the 80's people.

You know, The Rainbow
kind of kept that rock n' roll,

that old, you know,
80's rock feel alive.

But, as far
as The Whisky, it definitely
affected the business.

The economy changed,
and when the economy changed,
the industry changed.

You had the record companies
that backed every group.

When we threw a party
at the Whisky, you had Capitol,
you had Atlantic.

You had all these major
companies that literally
came behind the groups

and backed them up.

The record companies,
they weren't throwing out

several thousand dollars
a night to promote a new group
that was coming out.

And back in the late
90's when the record sales
started to drop

and music became free,

the bands stopped making money,
so the bands stopped touring.

That's when it got bad,
and that was my generation.

Money got tight. There were
times that it was strained.

My grandpa got real sick.

He had cancer, and they had
to take him for chemotherapy.

He had a very rare type
of cancer that was in his face.

They actually had to remove
his nose at one point.

He had a 10 percent survival
rate, well he beat that,
he was tough.

And my Dad was by his side,

so it was basically
my Dad and my Grandpa,

for a long time,
were just non-existent.

When it comes to my son,

at first it was like,
you have to cover the business,

you know, you run the weekends
and answer the phone.

And I'm actually quite amazed
that he picked everything
up just like that.

Within two years
all of a sudden
he's booking groups.

I've been around
it my whole life,
so it was just natural,

I just took over and started
doing everything.

No matter what was going on
in our personal life,

no matter
what was going on at home,

it was like, I couldn't let
that effect business.

Like the business needs
to go on, this is
what we live off of,

the show must go on, literally.

I started off, I did all
System of a Down's
first shows here,

all Hoobastank's first shows,

I was booking Hoobastank
for 10 years before they
got a record deal.

Linkin Park, I booked
those guys for years,

we did Eminem's first LA show.

You know, we heard
about this white rapper Eminem,

and it was all the big rage.
You know, he wanted
fifteen hundred bucks,

we were like, wow that's a lot,
but we'll give it a shot.

That show is the first show
that Dr. Dre saw him,

and that's when he got signed,
right after that show.

Anything out of that late 90's
early 2000's generation
we helped out,

and we booked all their shows
and started them
from the ground up.

My grandson,
thank God he came along,

you know if it weren't for him
forget about it,
it wouldn't happen.

I'm very proud,
proud of the fact that my son
was able to take over,

and this kid was born
with a silver spoon,
or gold spoon in his mouth,

doesn't have to work,
didn't have to do anything

and he gets out and works
as hard if not harder
than I worked.

Day and night.

And that brought a joy
to my father, that was
his pride, was his grandson.

He keeps that place
open seven days a week,

when we used to open maybe
three, four days a week.

And he knows
the music better than my son,
probably better than me.

He's a booker,
that's what he does.

To me it was never
about the partying
or about the fun.

Like I'm just a music freak,
I love music, I love concerts.

And now he runs the whole show over
there.
He runs it all for us.

I don't really have an actual
position at either place,
I'm just the boss.

I rarely will
walk into the Whisky,

and to be quite honest with you
I'm at an age where I can't
stand the noise.

I've had some
pretty crazy shows.

I've had some shows
where they get pretty violent.

It just depends on the crowd.

I had a friend over
at Taang! Records,

he was like, "Oh let's
put these British bands,

you know like really just
like Oi! type punk rock bands,"

and I mean, this place
just broke out into a riot.

There was like skinheads,
and the non-skinheads,

they're fighting, I mean you had
every type of bad person
in the punk rock scene

all at one place at one time,
literally just fighting.

Somehow a gunshot went off,
the place was berserk,

SWAT team, the barricades,
the whole nine yards,
I mean it was insane.

Another one,
it was like a hardcore show,
pretty rough crowd.

These thugs came in
and started a big fight.

There's trash cans
getting thrown,

people getting the shit
kicked out of them.

We had it to the point
where all the security
guards were inside the club,

and the maniacs were outside.

My sister's husband
was just hired
as a security guard here.

He doesn't really know how
to deal with these situations.

He goes outside,
the second he walks out there
he gets clipped in the jaw.

And I mean, there's just blood
gushing everywhere,

so we go out to help him,
he goes around the side
trying to help somebody else,

and gets hit again.

Fully destroyed his jaw,

like broken
every little piece of his jaw.

And then that was
his last day of security.

Um, he sells real estate.

You know.
It's a lot calmer of a job.

This is tradition
at its core, you know.

And thank God,
because I'd hate it to fall
into somebody else's hands.

Sunset Strip
as we know it is being
stripped away a little bit.

You can find
construction going up
everywhere on the strip.

Developers buying
old buildings to replace them
with luxury hotels.

The Rainbow
hasn't changed at all.

I came back to Los Angeles,

and I remember walking
into The Rainbow after
not seeing it for 15 years

and going
"It hasn't fucking changed."

They've always seemed
to keep the integrity
of the club intact.

It's so real.

And it has been...
I don't know how they do it.

It goes back
to the atmosphere, you keep
that comfortable atmosphere.

This is still the base décor
that you see around here
from the old Villa Nova.

Finish the booths,
or redo the tops of the tables,

but you have to keep it
looking the same.

If you change it...
My father taught me that.

If you change it, you'll change
the face of the business.

And so people today are
still comfortable being here.

We want people to feel
like they're in rock n' roll.

Now we have
a whole revitalization
of the 80's rock movement,

and I love the fact
that you can go to The Rainbow,

feel the rock vibe,
come to the Whisky
and see Dokken,

or see Warrant
still in this day.

That's what we're going for,

I'm not really a fan
of music of today,
and where music's going.

Technology is
the new crack of music.

It's too easy to press
a button and sound better
than you normally do.

So almost everybody
that gets up on stage,

I'm talking about big bands,
are not playing live.

It really isn't this thing
of wanting to learn
how to play a guitar.

Wanting to master drums,
wanting to play bass or sing.

It's part and parcel
of the digital age

and also
the way the record companies

have decided the direction
that they've gone.

But I think that the magic
that you hear on a record

comes from people really
interacting in the same room.

It's not something that you
can do from different people's
living rooms from a distance.

Having outlets, you know,
venues for young bands

to get together and do
their thing is essential.

Especially
if we're discovering music,

I mean that's an art
that is close to dead.

I think it's a shame,

it makes
it really difficult
for new young acts and artists

to get a foot in the door.

The music business
itself is not catering
to rock n' roll at all.

I miss those times.

You know, as far
as rock is concerned,
it's not viable to make music.

Here, I'll play a game
with you and see if you
can answer this question.

From 1958 until 1988

name 100 classic,
iconic bands that will
stand the test of time.

Let me see, I've got Elvis,
The Beatles, The Stones,

Led Zeppelin, Hendrix,
in pop and R&B and stuff

you've got The Jackson Five,
Michael Jackson, Madonna,

even disco,
Donna Summers on that level.

Motown, The Supremes,
it all happened
at the same time. Okay.

From 1988 until today,

give me 5 bands that will stand
the test of time.

It's not on that level.

Good evening,
thanks very much for joining us,

the breaking news
tonight is sad.

A founding member
of one of the most popular music
acts of all time has died.

Just 67 years old,
and he was quite simply,
a rock star.

The rock legend
David Bowie has died,

he was 69 years of age.

Tributes
from around the world
this morning for Tom Petty,

who died
overnight at the age of 66.
The legendary rocker...

Musician Prince
has died at his home
in Minneapolis,

he was 57, and had been...

Paul Katner, a giant of the 60's
music scene has died. He was 74...

Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister,

the front man for the heavy
metal band Motörhead

has died at the age of 70.

Sunset Strip
rock club owner Mario Maglieri
has died at the age of 93.

That day I was in such
a state of shock, there was...

I mean,
just people on top of people,

and literally
in a state of shock.

He was the godfather,
he was the icon.

And nobody
could ever take his place.

He was my hero, my hero.

He gave us
this block of rock n' roll.

I don't know where
we would be without it.

An era is gone.

But Mikeal will carry on
and become an icon too I think.

And Mikey, the grandson,
he's just amazing.

I think my son
is the future of the club,

and he's done a tremendous
job of carrying on
that generational thing.

My two daughters,
they keep it strong,
keep it alive,

we're a very close knit family.

- She lives across the hall.
- She works down at the Whisky.

- She works at the Whisky.
- I do.

I worked here for many years.
Now I'm raising those cuties.

Now I have a grandson,

I have another generation
that will come into it.

And hopefully he'll be
the next one to come through.

I've got a daughter, we're good.

The premise of rock n' roll

and the understanding
of what the word really means.

Icon, which yeah, eventually
will we lose those icons,

are they making any new ones?

And I think
that's what Mikeal Jr.
has holding in his hands.

What kind of entertainment
is he gonna bring
to Sunset Boulevard

that's gonna say
that's the next big thing?

Where's the next Guns N' Roses?

Cause when you look
at Guns N' Roses,

it wasn't just a band,
it was a cultural shift

of music, fashion, style,

as sense of being of who
you were as an individual.

Like The Doors, like Van Halen.

Like any other band that came
out of the Sunset Strip.

The one great thing
that I learned
through rock n' roll

is that something
big will happen,

where everyone all of a sudden,

you stop in your tracks
and go "Holy shit.
Something is exploding."

So if you're a rock
n' roll musician, you know
the history of rock n' roll,

you know that rock n' roll
will never die.

The Rainbow is
a right of passage
for the world of rock n' roll.

This is the strip.
This is the home
of rock n' roll.

I'd hate for that place to go,

it'd just
sort of kill what's left

of a really iconic chapter
in music history.

This thing,
this small little place,

just serves burgers
and beer and booze and stuff,

but both Whisky and The Rainbow

mean bucketsful for the culture.

This place still breaks records.

People from all over the world
come here just to see it.

Major, major artists,
major, major movie stars

still come through here
on a regular basis.

I don't think
rock will ever die,

I don't think the music
will ever die so,

The Rainbow and this strip
will be here forever
as far as I'm concerned.

It's not the biggest place,
but it's the place.

For me it was
the greatest time of my life.

Rock n' roll
is about celebrating life.

I want that feeling
to continue on.

I want them all to feel
like they can always
come back.

This is their home.

It's gonna stay,
and it is the history
of the Sunset Strip.

This classical period,
where possibly the best records
of all time were made.

Being in the atmosphere
of Hollywood and creativity
of that era.

It was just the coolest
feeling and vibe
that I ever experienced.

The idea of pursuing
your dreams, and that energy.

And I really
believe that The Rainbow
is the vortex for that energy.

This is the history,
these are your roots.

The next kid can come in here,

and some old guy like me
can sit him down and say

"Listen kid, once upon a time,
there was a special place,
it was called The Rainbow."