I remember feuds were a big part of the Hollywood rock scene back in the day, an ugly side that was a microcosm of the music business in general.

Ruben Blue, publisher of L.A. Rocks/Rock City News, was always feuding with someone – notably Kelly Quintano, a former assistant who started her own paper, L.A. Rock Review. Blue constantly vilified Kelly Q in his own newspaper, and did his best to ban from his publication any band that supported Kelly and L.A. Rock Review.

Blue had done the same slander campaign years earlier to Craig Lee from L.A. Weekly, who would go on to successfully sue Blue, who did not learn his lesson.

Then, when I moved on and started Hollywood Rocks, Blue attacked me, too. That was just the way he has always been. I didn’t even hold it against him, even when he somehow finagled Warrant, my favorite band, to talk shit about me in Rock City News.

There were also lots of feuds between bands. I can remember members of Glamour Punks and Tryx fighting in the street. I can remember the feud between Razzle Dazzle and Friction Addiction. I can remember lots of bands that had a beef with Queeny Blast Pop.

And when Warrant broke big and returned to Los Angeles to play its biggest show ever, at Santa Monica Civic, at first Jailhouse was going to open the show, but then it was decided that members of Jailhouse had talked crap (personally, I have never heard any Jailhouse member utter a bad word in my whole life), so the Zeros were penciled in.

That stuff happened all the time.

One night, Sister Strange was opening for Big Bang Babies, and beforehand there was some sort of issue about the drum riser or something like that, and Sister Strange lead singer Torry Morgan told the crowd that Big Bang Babies were “rock stars before their time.”

Afterward, Big Bang Babies lead singer Kit Ashley just laughed it off. His band was much more popular than Sister Strange, and it would always be that way. Living well is the best revenge, right?

Big Bang Babies on cover of Hollywood Rocks magazine

-- Ratt is playing the Key Club next month in celebration of a new CD, and undoubtedly the concert will tinge great memories for me, as is always the case with Ratt.

Ratt was among the first Los Angeles bands I truly loved, and oh what a thrill it was to do a cover story on the band for Hollywood Rocks back in ’91. Stephen Pearcy invited me to his fancy hotel suite, broke out some beer, and we just talked for hours and took photos of him smoking cigarettes.

These days, Ratt features bassist Rob Crane, who grew up in the local rock scene, first as a Poison roadie and then as a member of Hot Wheelz, Wildside (different Wildside than Young Gunns version), New Haven and a few other bands before getting his first big break when he joined Vince Neil’s band.

Crane was always very popular and respected. I remember he once told me his parents offered four years of financial support in the music biz in lieu of college, and god bless him, the kid made it work.

Ratt's Rob Crane

-- It was much more fun being a rock critic in the late 80s and early 90s than it is now. There were a lot more record companies, and a lot more press parties in which publicists would feed us and get us drunk just for paying attention to whatever act they were pushing at the time. There were countless freebies at the Rainbow, the Roxy, Cat & Fiddle, etc., and it was rare I missed such an occasion.

One day, MCA and publicist Lauren Ashley invited a bunch of us to their offices for take-out Chinese food with Pretty Boy Floyd. It was so fun. At Epic, Hannah Bolte was always picking up the tab for something in hopes we would be kind to some unknown act at the time like Michael Bolton, who would go on to huge stardom. At Atlantic, Kathy Acquaviva would always go above and beyond the call of duty. And at CBS, publicist Marie Bonan was an absolute doll.

--  I guess the one true rock star who has been a loyal friend for more than 25 years is John Waite, my absolute favorite singer in the world. I wrote several articles about him after he left the Babys to go solo and then form Bad English, and we really respected one another. Eventually, I used to call him at home just to chat, and whenever he plays a local gig, Waite always sets me up with tickets and passes; I have probably seen him 100 times.

John Waite live in Las Vegas