Video Girls and Rock-Star Arm Candy: The Ladies Who Loved Hair Metal
Poison, “Fallen Angel” – Susan Hatten
Susan Hatten enacts the archetype storyline of a starry-eyed gal coming to Hollywood for fame and fortune, but Poison reminds us that all that glitters isn’t gold.
Alice Cooper, “Poison” – Rana Kennedy
Alice’s best-known foray into hair-metal finds him bemoaning a video vixen’s lethal allure. Of course he turns the tables on her in the end.
Motley Crue, “Girls, Girls, Girls” – Sharise Ruddell
Ladies and gentlemen, the national anthem of strip clubs! One of the dancers in this clip is Ruddell, whom Vince Neil would marry in 1988 and divorce in 1993.
Guns n’ Roses, “Don’t Cry” and “November Rain” – Stephanie Seymour
Possibly only Axl Rose himself knows what exactly what these very odd videos, parts one and two of a trilogy (“Estranged” was the third), are getting at. “November Rain” imagines Roses’ wedding to then girlfriend Stephanie Seymour, and a disastrous reception.
Guns n’ Roses, “Since I Don’t Have You” – Jennifer Driver
Sure, there are hot chicks in the video for G n’R’s cover of a 1959 Skyliners hit. But what’s with Gary Oldman as a mime? Why is Axl bound and gagged?
Warrant, “Cherry Pie” and Great White, “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” – Bobbie Brown
These two videos (one an unsubtle rewrite of Queen’s “We Will Rock You,” the other an Ian Hunter cover) feature Ms. Brown front and center: her vixen-itude was her prerogative.
Whitesnake, “Is This Love” and “Here I Go Again” and Ratt, “Back for More – Tawny Kitaen
At the time of filming this Ratt clip, the va-va-voomiest of all ’80s video vixens was dating the band’s Robbin Crosby; by the time of these two era-defining Whitesnake vids, she had moved on to David Coverdale.
Vince Neil and Heidi Mark attend the 15th Annual American Music Awards in Beverly Hills, California on January 25, 1988.
Axl Rose with girlfriend Stephanie Seymour in the early 1990s.
Stephanie Seymour and Axl Rose of Guns N’ Roses attending the Maybelline 1991 Look of the Year event in New York, New York on September 3, 1991.
Bret Michaels of Poison and Pamela Anderson at Webster Hall in New York City on October 8, 1994.
Heather Locklear and Tommy Lee attend the 44th Annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California on January 31, 1987.