About Steel Panther
Steel Panther is an American comedic glam metal band from Los Angeles, California. Fronted by lead singer Michael Starr, the band formed in 2000 as Metal Shop and was also known as Metal Skool before adopting the name Steel Panther in 2008. The band is known for its profane and humorous lyrics, and for parodying the stereotypical glam metal lifestyle.
The quartet began to gain popularity on the Sunset Strip during the early 2000s under the name Metal Shop . Their lineup consisted of lead vocalist Ralph Saenz , guitarist Russ Parrish , bassist Travis Haley and drummer Darren Leader . The band did weekly shows on Monday nights at the Viper Room, and subsequently the Key Club, playing covers of hair metal hits while sharing their passion for the bands that made the songs famous. Despite the name changes and Saenz and Parrish putting in time in the Van Halen tribute band Atomic Punks, they finally managed to gain some success. In 2003 they released Hole Patrol, their self-produced debut extended play. The band appeared in a Discover Card advertisement as Danger Kitty and in the sitcom Drew Carey Show as themselves. Also in 2003, their song "Death to All But Metal" was included in a compilation CD called Hey, That's What I Call Sludge! Vol. 1 put out by the Metal Sludge web site. Their cover of the song "Fantasy" by Aldo Nova was used as the opening musical theme for the MTV program Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory. On November 27, 2007 Metal Skool played original songs as well as covers of KISS songs at the Gene Simmons roast; they can be seen in the background of Gene Simmons' reality show Gene Simmons Family Jewels. That year, they also appeared as themselves on Las Vegas in the episode "The High Price of Gas".
In April 2008, the band decided to change their name from Metal Skool to Steel Panther, making a new debut at The Rockin' Saddle Club in Redlands, California. In an interview with Michael Starr, he states that the band's name wasn't inspired by Steel Dragon, the band with Zakk Wylde and Mark Wahlberg in the movie Rock Star . In May 2008, the band signed a contract with Republic Records announcing plans for a new studio album.
Steel Panther released Feel the Steel on June 8, 2009 in the United Kingdom and on October 6, 2009 in North America through Universal Republic, making it their major record label debut. Feel the Steel debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Comedy chart, No. 123 on the Billboard 200 chart and would eventually peak at No. 98 on the Billboard 200 chart. The record features hit singles, "Community Property" and "Death to All but Metal" as well as notable guest vocal performances from Corey Taylor, Justin Hawkins, and M. Shadows. The track "Eyes of a Panther" is featured on the soundtrack for the video game Skate 3. Sometime collaborator Dean Cameron, also credited with co-writing "Supersonic Sex Machine" on the band's next album Balls Out, directed and co-wrote a pilot presentation in an attempt to land Steel Panther their own television program.
The record's success also caught the attention of the Grammys, making it onto the "Best Comedy Album" ballot in October 2010, yet failing to reach a nomination.
Steel Panther released their second album Balls Out on October 31, 2011 in the UK and on November 1, 2011 in North America also through Universal Republic. Balls Out continued their revival of the heavy metal genre and debuted at No. 1 on the UK iTunes Rock chart surpassing Megadeth's TH1RT3EN and Lou Reed's and Metallica's Lulu. Balls Out also debuted at No. 4 on the US iTunes Rock chart, No. 40 on the Billboard 200 chart and at No. 1 on the Billboard Comedy chart with first-week sales of 12,000 copies in the US.
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