QUIET RIOT , the LA band that originally featured guitarist Randy Rhoads, as well as frontman Kevin DuBrow, and longtime drummer Frankie Banali. QR were best known for being the first LA metal band to have a number One album with Metal Health, which had been released in March of 1983 and hit #1 on the Billboard charts in November. That success is often regarded as the turning point for the LA metal scene with major record companies rushing to sing numerous other metal bands. The band’s follow up album Conditional Critical was less successful, and the band would never returned to their massive success as they had in ’83. Line up changes would take place over subsequent albums, followed by breaks, reunions, reformations, etc… DuBrow released a fine solo disc of covers titled In For The Kill in 2004, and in 2006 QR released Rehab. Sadly, DuBrow passed away a year later in November of 2007. A few years later Frankie Banali would resurrect the band, going through years of changing singers, while the band also included guitarist Alex Grossi and bass player Chuck Wright, who’d worked with the band before, even played on a few Metal Health tracks (including the title track). QR even recorded a few new albums in more recent years. Banali was diagnosed with cancer in October of 2019, and sadly passed away in August of 2020. The band carried on, and in 2021 Chuck Wright left the band, and Rudy Sarzo returned.
The ‘new’ track was from the Rehab era, written by Dubrow & Grossi. It features DuBrow, Banali, Grossi, and bass from Rudy Sarzo, as well as a few added players, such as Dizzy Reed on keyboards (Reed plays alongside Grossi, current QR drummer Johnny Kelly, and WASP bassist Mike Duda in Hooks & Blow). The song “I Can’t Hold On” is a classic melodic power ballad. I’ve played this track a dozen times and it’s got to be one of the best things the band ever recorded. In another decade “I Can’t Hold On” would’ve been a major hit. But it is something special to hear this now. The accompanying video was directed by Regina Banali (Frankie’s widow), and it is a moving video featuring plenty of photos and film clips of DuBrow and Banali, pesonal clips of Banali in his last days, as well as recent clips of Grossi and company putting the song together, with Sarzo adding bass in the studio. Apparently there are more tracks that were started by Frankie Banali, and the band is looking to release a full album next summer.
Quiet Riot is also reissung Rehab (digitally) at present. The single “I Can’t Hold On” is available on digital platforms (Spotify, Amazon US…).
Aside from a great new single, Quiet Riot and Kevin DuBrow are also the topic of a new book titled Keep On Rollin’ : My Fan Club Years with Kevin DuBrow & Quiet Riot, by Missy Whitney, who ran the band’s fan club in the ’80s. The book has been in the works for years and is now ready. It includes photos from Mark Weiss and Ron Sobol. Watch a quick preview of the book below and check out the press release, ordering info, and links at the bottom.
Quiet Riot released their debut album Metal Health in 1983. The band made history as the American heavy metal debut album ever to reach No. 1 on the Billboard charts in the United States. Quiet Riot’s Metal Health ultimately sold over six million copies in the U.S. and was credited with leading the way for other heavy metal bands worldwide to find their success. After guitarist Randy Rhoads and bassist Rudy Sarzo left the original Quiet Riot lineup to join Ozzy Osbourne, Kevin DuBrow picked up the pieces. He started his band under the name DuBrow. And from 1980 – 1982, he played tirelessly in Southern California clubs with multiple musicians until he found the lineup—Kevin DuBrow, Frankie Banali, Rudy Sarzo, and Carlos Cavazo. Missy Whitney worked alongside DuBrow in promoting his band to secure a record deal from the very beginning. DuBrow played a total of 106 gigs (Whitney reports) where she was in attendance, growing the band’s support and fan base. In September 1982, producer Spencer Proffer signed the band to a U.S. recording contract with CBS Records and recorded Metal Health. And with the release of Metal Health, Whitney continued to work with the band in an official fan club capacity by running the Quiet Riot Squad.
She was instrumental in connecting fans to the band, pre-social media, and developing fan newsletters, merchandise, and fan street teams across the U.S. Writing about her time working with DuBrow and Quiet Riot, Whitney completed her memoir entitled, “Keep On Rollin'” – My Fan Club Years with Kevin DuBrow and Quiet Riot in 2020. In it, she shares her unique experiences working alongside Kevin DuBrow and Frankie Banali. In her book, she discusses DuBrow’s untimely death in 2007 and pays tribute to Frankie Banali, who recently died of pancreatic cancer in August of 2020. The book is a collection of personal photos and handwritten letters from Kevin DuBrow. Plus, contributing photographs (and book cover) from iconic photographer Mark Weiss and early Quiet Riot photographer Ron Sobol. Missy Whitney and Mark Weiss partnered in 2020 and published under Mark Weiss’ new publishing company MiMa. Quiet Riot’s bassist, Rudy Sarzo, wrote the book’s foreword and Laura Mandell (Kevin DuBrow’s mother) wrote the afterword.
Keep On Rollin’ is hardcover, 208 pages. Links for purchase: $35 for book https://py.pl/1Kb4C6 $45 for personalized book with collector’s guitar pic https://py.pl/B2IY1
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS: Mark “Weissguy” Weiss is a world-renowned photographer who has traveled the globe photographing legends from Quiet Riot, Van Halen, Ozzy Osbourne, Aerosmith, Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Bon Jovi, and KISS. His photographs have been published in thousands of magazines worldwide. He is responsible for two of the era’s defining album covers, Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet and Twisted Sister’s Stay Hungry. His inimitable photographs helped craft the visual imagery of rock and metal in the 1980s. Ron Sobol, Quiet Riot photographer (1975-1980). Writer, producer, and director of Randy Rhoads: The Quiet Riot Years. Foreword contributor Rudy Sarzo is best known as the bassist for the heavy metal rock band, Quiet Riot. Also known for playing with such heavyweights as Ozzy Osbourne, Whitesnake, Dio, Blue Oyster Cult, and The Guess Who.
QUOTES: “I want to say kudos to what you guys (Mark Weiss and Ron Sobol) for what you are doing with Missy’s book because very little is known about the DuBrow period. In 1979 when Randy Rhoads left for Ozzy Osbourne—the period of Missy’s book ties the previous Quiet Riot, Metal Health, the world knows today. This book celebrates Kevin DuBrow, Frankie Banali, and Randy Rhoads. And it should be in the collection of—not only Quiet Riot and Ozzy Osbourne fans but in the collection of every music fan. I am honored to do the foreword because I was there and Missy was the O.G. fan club president.” —Rudy Sarzo, Quiet Riot
“Missy was looking for photo for the cover of her book and my photo was really special to her because she gave Kevin that necklace. He wore it on a one of my photo shoots, he wore it all the time, but it was really prominent in this one photo—which is going to be the cover. Her manuscript was just so genuine and pure—I thought—I gotta get involved with this. I think that people are going to see Kevin in a different way—that I think needs to be shown.” —Mark “Weissguy” Weiss
Fan Review: I can’t recommend anything more strongly than I will recommend this. Any Quiet Riot fan or music history enthusiast would be lucky to count this among their archives. Missy shows us sides of both Quiet Riot and Kevin DuBrow that have been lost to time or reserved only for those lucky enough to have been close to the band in its initial stages – she shows us who DuBrow was on and off the stage in his early days, drawing readers in with candid accounts of her friendship with the man himself. Following DuBrow’s example, she gives an honest account of her time as the Quiet Riot Squad president and a friend of the band that will evoke nostalgia for those who lived through the glory days and a yearning for those who were too young to have been there. Accompanied with rare photographs, a foreword by Rudy Sarzo and an afterword by Laura Mandell (DuBrow’s mother), Missy has built a wonderful tribute to a dearly departed friend that will make readers feel as if they had known him as well. — Shelby Geisert, Grand Valley, CO
Outsider Rock 