The Hollywood Stars 1974

 

One day Terry Rae called me about a group a guy named Kim Fowley was putting together. It was suppose to be a west coast answer to the New York Dolls. I went down to the rehearsal studio and the rest is history. Within a few weeks we were headlining The Whiskey A Go Go and every superstar in town was coming to see us! John Lennon came one night and applauded after every song! We got a record contract with Columbia Records and started working with various producers such as Bob Chapmen, Dave Clark (from the Dave Clark Five), Bob Ezrin (Alice Cooper), Jack Nitzche (Phil Spector's string arranger). We ended up with Bill Szymezyk (The Eagles) producer at the The Record Plant but his engineer Alan Blazek ended up doing it without the knowledge of Columbia or our great manager Sepp Donahower. After our demise one song (King of the nighttime world) ended up being covered by KISS on "Destroyer". Another song (Escape) was covered by Alice Cooper on "Welcome to my nightmare"

 

Hollywood Stars I

Scot Phares - vocals

Terry Rae - drums

Gary Van Dyke (then Kevin Barnhill) - bass

Mark Anthony - vocals, guitar

Ruben de Fuentes - lead guitar

Hollywood Stars II

1976-1977

 

In 1975 I did an year with Blue Cheer but there was an unfinished feeling about the Hollywood Stars in my mind. We were still immensely popular in Hollywood so we decided to reform the band. We rounded up the willing original members and reformed with Michael Rummans on bass and Bobby Drier on second drums. We recorded an album at Sound City with producer Neil Merryweather (Space Rangers, Lita Ford) and promptly landed a record deal with Clive Davis and Arista Records. We recorded another album at Cherokee Studios with producer Harry Maslin.

 

The Punk Rock took over Hollywood and the music scene changed.

 

I stuck to my guns and formed The Hollywood Stars III - 1978 a band that looked like the norm of the mid eighties heavy metal scene only six years early.

Al Austin on vocals, Bryce Mobrae - guitar, Michael Rummans (The Yellow Pages, The Kingbees, The Sloths) - bass, Bobby Drier - drums, Ruben de Fuentes - guitar