Badlands (American band)

Infobox musical artist
Name = Badlands


Img_capt =
Img_size =
Landscape =
Background = group_or_band
Alias =
Origin = Los Angeles, California
Genre = Blues-rock, Hard rock
Years_active = 1988 – 1993
Label = Atlantic
Associated_acts = KISS, Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Alice Cooper, Artension
URL =
Current_members =
Past_members = Ray Gillen
Jake E. Lee
Greg Chaisson
Eric Singer
Jeff Martin
John West

Badlands was a short-lived rock band founded by former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Jake E. Lee and former Black Sabbath members Ray Gillen and Eric Singer. Badlands also featured bassist Greg Chaisson. After the first Badlands album, Eric Singer was replaced by Jeff Martin. The group lasted from 1988 to 1993 and released two albums, "Badlands" (1989) and "Voodoo Highway" (1991) before Gillen left and was replaced by singer John West from New York. Ray's death in 1993 effectively ended any hopes of re-uniting the project. A posthumous release of the album "Dusk" (originally recorded in 1992-1993) was released in 1998.

Formation

After touring with Ozzy Osbourne in support of the "Ultimate Sin" album, Lee decided to leave the band and work on a new project. Wishing to distance himself as much as possible from his former boss, he set about looking for a charismatic front man with which to launch it. He found just that when he met Ray Gillen, a struggling vocalist who had just been separated from Black Sabbath after a short time. Within weeks, the duo had enlisted bassist Greg Chaisson and Gillen’s former Black Sabbath bandmate Eric Singer on drums.

"Badlands"

The band released "Badlands" in June, 1989 to good reviews. The band released videos for the songs "Dreams In The Dark" and the Zeppelin-like "Winter’s Call", and both enjoying decent airplay on MTV. This boosted the album to its peak on Billboard’s album charts at no. 57.

"Voodoo Highway"

Eric Singer soon quit to join KISS following the death of drummer Eric Carr. Badlands picked up Jeff Martin, former vocalist for Surgical Steel and Racer X to take over on drums, and the band released "Voodoo Highway" in 1991. However, Badlands was slowly breaking apart at the seams. During the recording process, Lee accused Gillen of conspiring with their label to push the band in a more commercial direction. This subsequently led to Gillen being fired. However, since a tour of the UK had already been booked, the vocalist was temporarily re-admitted for its completion. Unfortunately, this wasn't well-publicised in the UK press and the tour attendance was possibly affected.

Decline and Breakup

While Voodoo Highway was being recorded and produced, band tensions began to rise. The band also refused to co-operate with Atlantic Records, who demanded a song writer (Desmond Child) be hired to help write songs with the band. Lee refused and stated "They'd rather make money touring than releasing an album they did not believe in". Meanwhile, Gillen had been writing his own material that the band could supposedly use and had called Atlantic to tell them he had three or four songs ready that all had potential to be hits. However, the band had other ideas and refused to record them. Gillen called Atlantic again and told them that the band were not interested and that they needed to pressure the band into recording the songs. The band continued to refuse claiming the songs were of an average standard. The band was subsequently dropped from Atlantic after the album was released. After the dispute of the material Gillen had recorded, he quit the band claiming that Lee was a lazy musician, unlike his former band mate Tony Iommi. Lee hired Debbie Holiday to replace Gillen on their UK tour. However, Gillen was drafted back in to complete the tour before finally exiting the band. This short reunion didn't go without controversy and the final decline was witnessed by millions. [http://wimpwire.flexnes.com/399_badlands.htm]

Kerrang! Articles

After Gillen left the band and announced his replacement, Lee was contacted by Kerrang! magazine to talk about the new vocalist. The majority of fans and listeners were still shocked at the news that a female soul singer had been chosen to replace Gillen. The interview with Lee was published in issue #399 and readers were shocked at the speed at which Lee and Gillen's friendship had fallen apart. Lee talked only briefly about Gillen's replacement and much of the article was based on Gillen's erratic behaviour. He also raised over Gillen's personal life. In issue 401, Gillen responded by addressing many of the points that Lee had made claiming them to be falsified or exaggerated. He spoke of the reason he had returned to the band and proceeded to call Lee a lazy musician and claimed Lee "couldn't wear Van Halen's socks, because if he could, we'd be writing good songs". He also talked briefly of his future endeavours. [http://wimpwire.flexnes.com/399_badlands.htm]

On-Stage Confrontation

On Thursday, July 2nd the band played at the London Astoria. Just a few songs in, Gillen pulled out a copy of the Kerrang! magazine that had been released with Lee's story in it and shouted to the crowd "there's two sides to every story" while Lee stood there and mouthed "Its all true". Questions were being raised whether the band would continue or whether Gillen and Lee would fight it out on stage there and then. However, the band did continue and played the rest of its set.

In Kerrang! issue #400 Neil Jeffries reviewed the gig and claimed that he'd never seen a band with so much tension play so superbly. He praised Lee's guitar work and claimed the band were absolutely superb despite their obvious feuds. [http://wimpwire.flexnes.com/399_badlands.htm]

Gillen's death

After the UK tour was complete, Gillen was officially fired from the band. Lee insisted to the press that the band would continue with singer John West. The band wrote and recorded some new songs, however, Atlantic Records had had enough and dropped the band from their label entirely. Gillen then appeared with George Lynch’s solo band on the album "Sacred Groove". Following that, he formed Sun Red Sun with guitarist Al Romano, former Alice in Chains bassist Mike Starr, and drummer Bobby Rondinelli. But, just as the new group was off and running, Gillen was diagnosed with HIV. On December 3, 1993, he died at his New Jersey home due to AIDS-related complications. Ironically, John West was brought in to finish the Sun Red Sun recordings, and in 1998 toured with George Lynch. Five years later, the unreleased Badlands album Dusk was released in Japan.

Trivia

*Greg Chaisson and Jeff Martin later played in the bands Blindside Blues Band and Red Sea.
*There was also another band called Badlands with singer John Sloman, guitarist John Sykes, keyboardist Graeme Pleeth, bassist Neil Murray, and drummer John Munroe. Both bands named Badlands had a Black Sabbath connection, in future-member Neil Murray for the UK-band and former members Ray Gillen and Eric Singer for the US-band. John West also played with Neil Murray on drummer Cozy Powell's Especially for You album.
*Ray Gillen from the Badlands discussed here, and John Sykes from the other Badlands briefly played together in an early version of Blue Murder.

Discography