Troy Hamby

The year was 1986.  I was 11 years and was in 6th grade at Deep Creek Middle School in Baltimore, MD.  It was time to spread my wings and venture beyond the safe Christian artists that I had grown up with (Carman, Petra, Amy Grant among others).  So, as I searched the musical landscape of the mid 80′s, there was one wonderful, spectacular genre that captivated me: HAIR METAL! 

You may be asking “Troy, why?”  Well, I was listening to a classic rock station the other day and much to my chagrin, I heard a song by one of my favorite bands in the 80′s.  That means that I am in the classic category…NOOOO!!!!  But, it got me reminiscing about the good old days…so, in honor of that magical time, I present to you my top 10 hair bands of all time (feel free to disagree).

10.Cinderella

9.Whitesnake (“In the Still of the Night” was an awesome song!)

8.Motley Crue (say what you want, but they kicked butt in the 80′s!)

7.Poison (before the cheesy reality show, Bret Michael actually wrote some good songs…admit it, you still find yourself singing “Every Rose Has it’s Thorn”)

6.Ratt (not as known as the rest but one of my favorites)

5.Skid Row (I listened to this CD about 10 times a day, every day for about a year)

4.Aerosmith (some would argue they’re not a hair band but they came along for me in that era)

3.Van Halen (doesn’t get any better than ‘Jump’ and ‘Panama’…I played  ALOT of air guitar to those songs!)

2.Guns n Roses (don’t get me wrong, I’m not recommending you run out and buy this album but the 1st time I heard “Appetite for Destruction”, I was blown away!)

1.Def Leppard (this was the seminal band for me until I discovered gangsta rap.  Every album they put out was awesome…I still know the words to their 1st 4 albums)