A Look Back At The Glory Days Of 1980s Metal Magazines

Kiss was actually always the easiest act to interview, although there was always the danger of being hit on by The Tongue, Gene Simmons. And they were part of one of my best-ever afternoons of all time: backstage in the press lounge at the 1988 Monsters Of Rock show at Giants Stadium with the late Eric Carr, who drew a lot of cute caricatures of his rock star friends for myself and my colleagues from Rock Scene. It made up for the fact that we could not find our car in the giant parking lot for six hours after the show ended.<br/>Kiss also knew how to throw a good party, and they were one of the last bands to have one at the Playboy Club in Manhattan right before it closed. It was that night that Gene Simmons twirled me around like a ballerina... which led to me falling on my face on the dance floor in my four-inch heels. This was a time when record labels had money to spend, and the parties they fronted for metal bands were pretty opulent. <br>(Courtesy of Anne Raso) — Gothamist

Anne Raso

Published Jun 25, 2017

Modified Jun 25, 2017

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I spent all of 1983 and 1984 as the associate editor of Tiger Beat, but I followed up my time there writing for some of the biggest metal mags. From 1985 to 1992, I wrote for the pages of Circus, Metallix, Rock Scene, RIP, Hard Rock Video and Video Rock Stars, which shared prominent space on the newsstands with the pastel, teeny-bopper covers. The funny thing was, even the most hardcore of metal acts wanted to be in the teen mags, while the teen stars only wanted to be in serious showbiz publications like Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter.

Writing for Circus, while also having a Daily News rock column for a couple of years, gave me good access, though there was less sex, drugs & rock n' roll than one might think.

Click through for a look at my time with some of the biggest metal acts of the 1980s.

Anne Raso is a NYC-based writer and editor. She has edited and written for numerous teen magazines and music magazines over the years and served as a rock columnist at the Daily News. She currently edits the lifestyle website LuxeLifeNYC and contributes to Discovery Girls and Classic Rock Revisited.