Badlands (American band)

Badlands was founded in 1988 by the former Black Sabbath singer Ray Gillen and guitarist Jake E. Lee hard rock band.

History

Ray Gillen had been lead singer of Black Sabbath for a short time. He was replaced in 1986 after five concerts of the tour for the album Seventh Star Glenn Hughes and sung for the rest of the tour, before he was invited by Tony Iommi to become a permanent member of the group. He took the band on the album The Eternal Idol, but was released prior to publication. His vocal tracks were removed and re-recorded by the new Black Sabbath singer Tony Martin. They appeared only when in 2010 a deluxe version of the album was released, which included a second CD with the original recordings.

Jake E. Lee was a founding member of Ratt and entered 1982 with Rough Cutt. It was a year later successor to Brad Gillis in the band of Ozzy Osbourne and took the albums Osbourne Bark at the Moon and The Ultimate Sin on before he left the group in 1987. As Gillen tried to contact him, he at first did not respond, but then later it came to a meeting.

At this meeting Gillen brought with drummer Eric Singer, who had taken after a time as a touring drummer for Lita Ford with Black Sabbath albums Seventh Star and The Eternal Idol, after the recording of The Eternal Idol, he had, however, left the group. Bassist Greg Chaisson completed the quartet in 1988 with the recording of his first album, Badlands, began. It was a " moody, blues - oriented record with unmistakable Led Zeppelin, Bad Company and Grand Funk influences " out, which the group breathed " by their enthusiasm and passionate compositions new life ." The band went on tour, which she had to quit after three months already again because Gillen fell ill with pneumonia and hospitalization was necessary. After his recovery, the record label Atlantic Records refused to give any support for a new tour and called instead for a another album.

In early 1990, the group split up by Eric Singer and replaced him with Jeff Martin, the former singer of the band Racer X, who was also an excellent drummer. Martin had previously played together with Chaisson, namely in the bands Surgical Steel and St. Michael. Voodoo Highway, which in 1991 released second album of the group, was produced by Jake E. Lee. That same year, rumors leaked out that it was Ray Gillen seriously ill. Atlantic Records deprived of any support group; the band organized the next tour in the U.S. at their own expense. In the summer of 1992, the group lost its recording contract with Atlantic.

The group started yet with the songwriting for a third album and produced in the Goodnight LA Studios a demo tape with 10 songs. During this time, the ratio of Gillen to the rest of the group was more tense, finally followed by the separation. A pre- booked tour of England and Wales wanted to conduct the band with singer Debbie Holliday as a replacement for Ray Gillen; the English promoter demanded, however, that Gillen was to sing. Therefore, the singer returned once to the group and denied her the tour.

In early 1993, badlands sparked up. Ray Gillen died on 1 December of the year in New York of complications from AIDS; he had the disease until recently concealed front of the other musicians of his band. The captured with him 1992 album was released posthumously in 1998 under the title of Dusk.

Discography