The band eventually “crossed over to everyone” when they moved to London in 1981 (where they met British-born Razzle) and set up a legendary weekly residency at Soho’s Marquee Club. Hanoi Rocks (Photo: Fin Costello/Redferns) I could never imagine being with a groupie in my life – or a stranger, for that matter.” I’m a freak even in the rock ‘n’ roll world I guess because I was never interested in the groupie scene. It seemed like many of the hair metal bands started playing rock ‘n’ roll for girls, posing in big hairstyles, rather than for the music. And the was not about parties and girls and drugs. I mean, we started out on the street and we had a street gang, us-against-the-world mentality. and a lot of kinda missed the point of what we were doing. We took influences from everywhere and just made our own thing. We played everything from punk to calypso. We just wanted to put together the coolest band ever, and we were influenced by everything from funk to reggae to blues.
Monroe, who ironically never lived in LA (“I don’t drive,” he laughs), admits that “It was a big surprise to learn that we were so influential on those West Coast bands.” He recalls the origins of Hanoi Rocks in Helsinki and says: “We never planned anything. After that, everyone wore the same hair, clothes and makeup as Monroe.” (Monroe remembers Shiflett’s pre-Foos glam band Lost Kittenz which opened for him once in 1989, chuckling, “Even Chris Shiflett had a Michael Monroe haircut!”) The LA Weekly even had an article in 2017 claiming that “One Band From Finland-Inspired the Entire Sunset Strip Hair Metal Scene”, and in Hanoi Rocks autobiography All those wasted years, stated Foo Fighters guitarist Chris Shiflett: “The Hollywood scene changed in just one night after people saw the pictures of Hanoi Rocks. While Monroe moved to New York and started all over again, living on the streets for a few months just like he had done in the troubled early days of Hanoi, in Los Angeles, the Hanoi Rocks influence was so strong that seemingly every band quoted them in “musicians wanted” recycler ads. Meanwhile, Mötley Crüe wasn’t the only Hanoi-inspired 80s rock band to enjoy the kind of success that eluded Hanoi Rocks itself. See also Jennifer Lopez arrives in a studio in LA after a surprising marriage with Ben Affleck in Las Vegas (Their next album, Theater of painwas dedicated to Razzle.) But the tragedy marked the end for Hanoi Rocks, which broke up in 1985 after a short, ill-fated overseas tour with ex-Clash drummer Terry Chimes filling in. Neil was charged with manslaughter and given a light 30-day prison sentence (he actually only served 19 days) and five years’ probation, and Mötley Crüe became even more famous. Neil, whose blood alcohol level was well above the legal limit of 0.17, crashed his car on his way back from the liquor store two passengers in another car involved in the accident were seriously injured, while Razzle was killed instantly. But after just two weeks on the road, on December 8, 1984, Hanoi Rocks drummer Razzle went on a beer run with Crüe vocalist Vince Neil at a party at Neil’s house in Redondo Beach.
and a new album, Two steps of the move, produced by Bob Ezrin of Lou Reed/Alice Cooper/KISS fame they also embarked on their first US tour, opening for Mötley Crüe. They had a major label deal in the US with TSTIME Records. After Hanoi Rocks made a splash in Helsinki, Stockholm and then London, releasing four cult-classic glitter metal albums in Europe, they finally seemed poised for mainstream success in 1984.
It would of course be understandable if Monroe used to be bitter.
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