Steel Panther’s Michael Starr chats with NRR about closing down the House of Blues on Sunset Strip, and what the Fanthers can expect next.


Glam rock band Steel Panther were revealed to be the last band ever to perform at the historic House of Blues in West Hollywood, a 20-year resident of the Sunset Strip, which will be demolished to make way for another luxury hotel.

Steel Panther performed a long-running Monday night residency at the club, so it’s fitting they close it out with one final Monday night. They will be joined on stage for this show by Billy Ray Cyrus and other celebrity friends.

NRR: Hi Michael, thanks for taking time out of your morning for us. I saw you at Ultimate Jam Night last night, you put on a hell of a performance, that was really fun.
Michael Starr: Hey, I had a really good time, it’s really fun. It’s nice to be able to go out when I am off tour and jam with my peers and just hang out and see people that I don’t get to see because I am working so much, and it’s cool to stay warmed up.
NRR: How did you get involved with the Ultimate Jam Night crew? Who got you into that?
Michael Starr: My old bass player from Atomic Punks, Joe Lester.
NRR: The era is ending, House of Blues is being demolished and you going to be pushing the switch, so to speak. How does it feel to be the last band playing the House of Blues?
Michael Starr: It feels fantastic, it’s an honor. I think they opened that place up with a Crosby, Stills and Nash show, which is kind of appropriate for Steel Panther to take it down, you know what I mean? It’s like heavy metal is fucking up the world, and it’s really an honor to do it. I am debating whether we should have everyone just take a piece of the building for themselves to take home, I don’t know if that would be appropriate, but it would definitely be heavy metal.
NRR: You have been known for your celebrity guests, and we already know that you’ll be bringing out Billy Ray Cyrus. What can you tell us about Monday’s show?
Michael Starr: Monday is going to be packed with a bunch of dudes that we’ve all had jam sessions with in the past, that we have work relationships with. And I don’t want to spoil the surprise for anyone that’s going to come, but it’s going to be cool man, it’s not just going to be dudes in bands, it’s going to be a variety of different types of people, and also, just to let people know that bought tickets, it’s not just going to be a bunch of guests all night, we are going to play Steel Panther songs and have a good time.
NRR:
 How is a band known for it’s over the top debauchery going to top itself for this show?
Michael Starr:You know, we don’t really think about topping ourselves, we just live our lives fast, loud and heavy, you know what I mean, so it just doesn’t matter, wherever we are, we bring it. What really makes a difference for us is the crowd dictates what is going to fucking happen, so if we get a fucking crowd going off getting wretched man then we’re going to get a dirty ass Steel Panther show. If a girl is going to hop up and take off her pants and her top and start making out with another chick then who knows what’s going to happen after that.
NRR: What is the wildest thing that has happened so far on stage at a Steel Panther show?
Michael Starr: This one guy cut off his arm and two of his toes, sewed it back on, and then did some cocaine and heroin. Yeah it’s pretty bitchin’, no one has ever done that at our show and when he did that it was like “holy shit!” It was fucking tense. And his arm worked, it’s killer, he had the actual scar tattooed.
The second coolest thing that happened while we were jamming is we had Sebastian Bach and Cee Lo do a duet of “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey, that was pretty awesome man. Yeah, it was pretty cool to get Cee Lo, you know, he does his shit and then you got Bach doing his fucking metal shit and you put those two together and it’s like fucking crazy.
You never know what’s going to happen, that’s the fun thing about our shows, we don’t even know what’s going to happen. We’ve done shows in the past where it’s gone fucking crazy, right and we’re coming back the next week we’re like, “We’ve got to make it more crazy,” and it didn’t happen so we learned the hard way, fuck it, we just bring it no matter what, whatever happens happens.
NRR: What’s next for Steel Panther?
Michael Starr:What’s next for us is that we’re going to be going on the KISS Kruise in October, playing with Lita Ford, Fozzy, then we go on and then KISS goes on. There’ll be 3 shows on the boat and it docks in Jamaica and we’re going to get some pretty killer weed and it should be a great fucking time.
And then after that we’re working on getting ourselves to Brazil to do our own tour up there. KISS had brought us out there to open up for them and then we did the Monsters of Rock tour as well. So we are looking to go right after the cruise from Florida straight to Brazil and do two to four weeks out there.
NRR: Do you have anything else you want to share with our readers?
Michael Starr:Yeah, I need more twitter followers. My twitter handle is @MichaelStarrr so if you want to follow me, that would be cool. I am trying to beat Satchel and I am only ahead of him by 1000 people and I really want to kick his ass, so the more the better.

Michael Starr
Facebook | Twitter

Steel Panther
Website | Facebook | Twitter

House of Blues, Sunset Strip
Website | Facebook | Twitter

About The Author

Kathy is a freelance concert photographer based in Los Angeles, CA. Kathy started photographing bands in the early 80s, where she was a fixture on the L.A. rock scene. She returned to concert photography in 2011, starting Wicked Goddess Photography. She is editor-in-chief of Spice of Wickedness, and regularly contributes content to several sites, including Loudwire, Diffuser, and Find Your Seen. Kathy can be found on twitter @wickedgoddess.