The Four Horsemen (band)
Encyclopedia
The Four Horsemen were an American hard rock band, who enjoyed a brief popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Their style was blues
influenced heavy rock
, but their fame was both fleeting and marred by tragedy.
-born guitarist Haggis
(a.k.a. Stephen Harris), who had been a member of Zodiac Mindwarp and a touring bassist for The Cult
.Sleazeroxx article http://www.sleazeroxx.com/bands/fourhorsemen/fourhorsemen.shtml Haggis formed the band in Hollywood, California
, when he decided to leave the Cult, switching from bass to rhythm guitar. He had previously worked with Rick Rubin
, the producer
of the Electric
album for the Cult, who introduced Haggis to the vocalist Frank Starr. Rubin also suggested the drummer Ken "Dimwit" Montgomery to Haggis. Dimwit was the brother of Charles Montgomery, aka Chuck Biscuits
, then drummer with Danzig
who were also working with Rubin.
Their first release was a self titled four track EP
in 1989, which was influenced by the sound of AC/DC
and early Status Quo.
Their debut full length album, Nobody Said it Was Easy, produced by Rubin, was released in 1991, following a two year delay when Starr was arrrested on drug charges and spent six months in jail. The album generated the title track as a single, followed by the hit "Rockin' Is Ma' Business". However, Starr was arrested again and this time spent a year in jail on a drugs charge. This, combined with poor album sales as the grunge
scene started to take over from traditional rock, caused the record label
to drop them in 1992.
In 1994, the band reconciled their differences and started to put together a third release which was to become Gettin' Pretty Good... at Barely Gettin' By. But the first of two tragedies struck on September 27, 1994, when their original drummer, Ken Montgomery, died of a drug overdose
. The band continued with production of the album, dedicating it to Montgomery and with Chuck Biscuits
taking over on drums for the album's completion. But the band then split further, when Haggis and Ben Pape decided to leave, having had enough of Starr's behaviour.
Then in November, 1995, Starr was hit by a drunk driver
, while driving his motorcycle
down Sunset Strip
. Starr suffered a severe head injury which left him in a coma
. Dave Lizmi carried on with the band as the sole remaining original member, releasing Gettin' Pretty Good... at Barely Gettin' By in 1996 on the Magnetic Air label, and embarking on a tour with vocalist Ron Young, formerly of Little Caesar
, replacing Starr. Though it was initially hoped that Starr would recover, he eventually died on June 18, 1999. Following Starr's death, the band broke up.
In 2005, Haggis and Lizmi assembled as much archive footage of the band as they could gather, and released a two disc retrospective, Left for Dead. Disc one was a DVD
featuring all videos from the Nobody Said it Was Easy CD
, plus rare interviews, live performances, and behind the scenes footage. Disc two was a live album
.
Other players:
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
influenced heavy rock
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
, but their fame was both fleeting and marred by tragedy.
History
The Four Horsemen were formed in the late 1980s by the WelshWales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
-born guitarist Haggis
Kid Chaos
Kid Chaos a.k.a. Haggis is a Welsh rock bassist and guitarist who played in incarnations of hard rock bands Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction, The Cult, and The Four Horsemen as well as guesting with Appetite for Destruction era Guns N' Roses.Harris was born in Wales...
(a.k.a. Stephen Harris), who had been a member of Zodiac Mindwarp and a touring bassist for The Cult
The Cult
The Cult are a British rock band that was formed in 1983. They gained a dedicated following in Britain in the mid 1980s as a post-punk band with singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary", before breaking mainstream in the United States in the late 1980s as a hard rock band with singles such as "Love...
.Sleazeroxx article http://www.sleazeroxx.com/bands/fourhorsemen/fourhorsemen.shtml Haggis formed the band in Hollywood, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, when he decided to leave the Cult, switching from bass to rhythm guitar. He had previously worked with Rick Rubin
Rick Rubin
Frederick Jay "Rick" Rubin is an American record producer and the co-president of Columbia Records. Along with Russell Simmons, Rubin was the co-founder of Def Jam Records and also established American Recordings...
, the producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
of the Electric
Electric (The Cult album)
Electric is the pivotal third album by The Cult. Released in 1987, the album marked a deliberate stylistic change in the band from a Gothic rock to a hard rock band. Rick Rubin, the producer on Electric, had been specifically hired to remake the band's sound...
album for the Cult, who introduced Haggis to the vocalist Frank Starr. Rubin also suggested the drummer Ken "Dimwit" Montgomery to Haggis. Dimwit was the brother of Charles Montgomery, aka Chuck Biscuits
Chuck Biscuits
Chuck Biscuits is a Canadian-born drummer, now a U.S. citizen, who is best known as an original member of the heavy metal/hard rock band Danzig. Most recently, he was a member of the punk rock band Social Distortion in the late 1990s...
, then drummer with Danzig
Danzig (band)
Danzig is an American heavy metal band, formed in 1987 in Lodi, New Jersey. The band serves as a musical outlet for the singer/songwriter Glenn Danzig. Danzig can be seen as the third stage in Glenn Danzig's musical career, preceded by the horror punk bands The Misfits and Samhain...
who were also working with Rubin.
Their first release was a self titled four track EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
in 1989, which was influenced by the sound of AC/DC
AC/DC
AC/DC are an Australian rock band, formed in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Commonly classified as hard rock, they are considered pioneers of heavy metal, though they themselves have always classified their music as simply "rock and roll"...
and early Status Quo.
Their debut full length album, Nobody Said it Was Easy, produced by Rubin, was released in 1991, following a two year delay when Starr was arrrested on drug charges and spent six months in jail. The album generated the title track as a single, followed by the hit "Rockin' Is Ma' Business". However, Starr was arrested again and this time spent a year in jail on a drugs charge. This, combined with poor album sales as the grunge
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
scene started to take over from traditional rock, caused the record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
to drop them in 1992.
In 1994, the band reconciled their differences and started to put together a third release which was to become Gettin' Pretty Good... at Barely Gettin' By. But the first of two tragedies struck on September 27, 1994, when their original drummer, Ken Montgomery, died of a drug overdose
Drug overdose
The term drug overdose describes the ingestion or application of a drug or other substance in quantities greater than are recommended or generally practiced...
. The band continued with production of the album, dedicating it to Montgomery and with Chuck Biscuits
Chuck Biscuits
Chuck Biscuits is a Canadian-born drummer, now a U.S. citizen, who is best known as an original member of the heavy metal/hard rock band Danzig. Most recently, he was a member of the punk rock band Social Distortion in the late 1990s...
taking over on drums for the album's completion. But the band then split further, when Haggis and Ben Pape decided to leave, having had enough of Starr's behaviour.
Then in November, 1995, Starr was hit by a drunk driver
Driving under the influence
Driving under the influence is the act of driving a motor vehicle with blood levels of alcohol in excess of a legal limit...
, while driving his motorcycle
Motorcycle
A motorcycle is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions.Motorcycles are one of the most...
down Sunset Strip
Sunset Strip
The Sunset Strip is the name given to the mile-and-a-half stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through West Hollywood, California. It extends from West Hollywood's eastern border with Hollywood at Harper Avenue, to its western border with Beverly Hills at Sierra Drive...
. Starr suffered a severe head injury which left him in a coma
Coma
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
. Dave Lizmi carried on with the band as the sole remaining original member, releasing Gettin' Pretty Good... at Barely Gettin' By in 1996 on the Magnetic Air label, and embarking on a tour with vocalist Ron Young, formerly of Little Caesar
Little Caesar (band)
-History:The band was founded late in the 1980s by Ron Young, who had previously worked as a nightclub bouncer. The group independently released an EP which led to their signing with DGC Records, a subsidiary of Geffen Records, in 1989. John Kalodner did A&R work for the group, and Bob Rock...
, replacing Starr. Though it was initially hoped that Starr would recover, he eventually died on June 18, 1999. Following Starr's death, the band broke up.
In 2005, Haggis and Lizmi assembled as much archive footage of the band as they could gather, and released a two disc retrospective, Left for Dead. Disc one was a DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
featuring all videos from the Nobody Said it Was Easy CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
, plus rare interviews, live performances, and behind the scenes footage. Disc two was a live album
Live album
A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...
.
Lineup
Original members (1989):- Frank C. Starr (vocals)
- Dave Lizmi (guitar)
- HaggisKid ChaosKid Chaos a.k.a. Haggis is a Welsh rock bassist and guitarist who played in incarnations of hard rock bands Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction, The Cult, and The Four Horsemen as well as guesting with Appetite for Destruction era Guns N' Roses.Harris was born in Wales...
(guitar, former bassist of The Cult and Zodiac Mindwarp, when he went by the stage name of Kid Chaos) - Ben Pape (bass)
- Ken "Dimwit" Montgomery (drums)
Other players:
- Ron Young (vocals, ex-Little Caesar)
- Tim Beattie (vocals)
- Pharaoh (bass)
- Chuck BiscuitsChuck BiscuitsChuck Biscuits is a Canadian-born drummer, now a U.S. citizen, who is best known as an original member of the heavy metal/hard rock band Danzig. Most recently, he was a member of the punk rock band Social Distortion in the late 1990s...
(drums) - Randy Cooke (drums)
- Mike Valentine (guitar)
- Mike Lavoie (guitar)
- Rick McGee (guitar)
- Derek Young (bass)
Singles
| Year | Song | U.S. Mainstream Rock |
|---|---|---|
| 1991 | "Nobody Said it Was Easy" | 16 |
| 1991 | "Rockin Is Ma Business" | 38 |
| 1992 | "Tired Wings" | 27 |
Albums and EPs
- The Four Horsemen (EP) (1989) - Caroline/ILL labels
- Nobody Said it Was Easy (1991) - Def American
- Gettin' Pretty Good... at Barely Gettin' By (1996) - Magnetic Air
- Left For Dead (Box set) (2005) - Self-released DVD, live CD and booklet