James Gunn’s favourite band of the 1980s: “Guns N’ Roses were copying their look”
If you’ve been watching the second season of Peacemaker, the chaotic, boundary-pushing adult superhero series starring John Cena, then you’ll know it is packed full of eyebrow-raising moments, not least a drug and alcohol fuelled orgy in the very first episode. But it is also a fine show to check out if you want to discover some new music, and that’s thanks to the show’s creator, James Gunn.
The Superman director and head of DC Studios is a guitar music obsessive who played in his own group back in the day, and admits that he spends just as much time dreaming up dance sequences and musical moments in his shows as he does focusing on the acting and action. He regularly makes Spotify playlists that run into the hundreds of songs for any project, and Peacemaker was no exception.
He told Billboard: “When I start working on something like this I have a list… I have a Peacemaker list that ended up being 400 songs that I felt fit the mold of the music I was looking for. And I listen to it all the time. I take a shower, I’m listening to it, washing dishes, I put it on the Sonos in my house. And I find my favorites out of that and I know that I want to use them.”
Hair metal crops up again and again in Peacemaker, with Gunn explaining that it felt like exactly the sort of music Cena’s character would be into. That kicked off a soundtrack packed with tracks from the ’80s – some long-forgotten or totally under the radar – giving a second wind to plenty of those bands.
But Gunn also tracks down modern-day exponents of the genre, giving a huge boost in popularity to up-and-coming or little-known bands. One major example was for Scandi metallers The Cruel Intentions, who have seen a wave of interest since being included on the show. With a sound that very obviously throws back to the hairspray and histrionics days of Poison, Guns N’ Roses and Mötley Crüe, the band are based in Los Angeles and has seen demand for their gigs go through the roof.
Gunn explained: “We have three songs by The Cruel Intentions in an episode, they have an endless amount of good songs. They might be my favorite of the modern era bands. This next episode features Hanoi Rocks, which are my favorite band from that era, period. And they really are the place where punk became glam metal. They did create the look, 100% – Guns N’ Roses were copying their look for sure.”
Hanoi Rocks were also a band with roots in Scandinavia, this time Finland, starting off in the late 1970s and attracting huge interest in countries like Japan. The band moved to London and signed a major label deal, releasing a fourth album that sold in big numbers globally and led to a sold-out US tour in 1984 before disaster struck. The band’s drummer, ‘Razzle’, had been drinking heavily in LA with Mötley Crüe frontman Vince Neil when the inebriated pair decided to drive to a store to get more alcohol.
On the way, the pair hit another car, causing brain damage in the occupants, and killing Razzle in the process, with Neil arrested at the scene. Hanoi Rocks never recovered from the loss of their drummer and split up just a year later.
