BADLANDS

DISCOGRAPHY:

1989 – Badlands

1991 – Voodoo Highway

1999 – Dusk

HISTORY:

Badlands were a bluesy hard rock band with some big names from the ’80s metal scene who released some of the most revered albums in hair metal history. Infighting would destroy the band, and the death of vocalist Ray Gillen would seal their fate.

After parting ways with Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Jake E. Lee joined forces with one time Black Sabbath lead vocalist Ray Gillen. Lee ended up recruiting bassist Greg Chaisson whom he had gotten to know when the latter auditioned unsuccessfully in Scotland during three weeks in the summer of ’85 for the bassist position with Ozzy Osbourne. The pair stayed in touch and eventually Lee called Chaisson

to audition for the band. The group was rounded off by(ex-anddrummer). The self-titled debut released viadid well (over 475,000 units sold) backed by the singles “Dreams In The Dark” and “Winter’s Call” but was likely viewed as a commercial failure by the label.would be gone by the time the second album came around, with‘s former bandmate) taking over on the drum stool.

Things started to come to a head between Gillen and the rest of the band during the recording of Voodoo Highway as the singer felt that the group could come up with better more commercial songs while the rest of the band was satisfied with what they had. Voodoo Highway did reasonably well selling over 300,000 units but eventually, Gillen parted ways with the band. Lee, Chaisson and Martin would hook up with another singer Debby Holiday (Stiletto) and planned a six-week tour of the UK but apparently were told that promoters would not be happy with a band line-up

without. The trio swalloed their pride and welcomedback into the band for what turned out to be a rather contentious tour.was out ofagain and replaced bywho recorded some demos and played a few shows with the band before the group packed it in for good.

Dusk, which was released much later in 1999, was a series of demos that the band did a few days prior to going out on tour after the Voodoo Highway album had been released. Years later after the band had broken up, there was a lot of interest in Badlands‘ “lost” third album so Chaisson tracked down the engineer and bought the tapes. Lee and Chaisson ended up remixing the demos and selling them to a record company in Japan.

Eric Singer would go on to become the most famous of the Badlands alumni, touring and recording with both Alice Cooper and KISS including being the longest tenured drummer for the latter. Jake E. Lee released a few solo albums without much fanfare, before forming Red Dragon Cartel and even reuniting briefly with Chaisson in that band until the latter was diagnosed with cancer and forced to quit while he received treatment. Ray Gillen went on to join Sun Red Sun, but would pass away from AIDS on December 3, 1993 before recording for that band’s debut album was finished. Chaisson moved to Phoenix shortly after Badlands disbanded and released a solo album entitled It’s About Time in ’94 before pretty much disappearing from the public limelight to focus on his family. Martin went on to play with a number of people including George Lynch, Michael Schenker, Don Dokken and UFO.

TRACK LIST AND BAND MEMBERS PER ALBUM:

Badlands (1989) album:

01. High Wire

02. Dreams In The Dark

03. Jade’s Song

04. Winter’s Call

05. Dancing On The Edge

06. Streets Cry Freedom

07. Hard Driver

08. Rumblin’ Train

09. Devil’s Stomp

10. Seasons

11. Ball & Chain

Band Members:

Ray Gillen – vocals and harp

Jake E. Lee – guitar and keyboards

Greg Chaisson – bass

Eric Singer – drums

Voodoo Highway (1991) album:

01. The Last Time

02. Show Me The Way

03. Shine On

04. Whiskey Dust

05. Joe’s Blues

06. Soul Stealer

07. 3 Day Funk

08. Silver Horses

09. Love Don’t Mean A Thing

10. Voodoo Highway

11. Fire And Rain

12. Heaven’s Train

13. In A Dream

Band Members:

Ray Gillen – vocals and harp

Jake E. Lee – guitar and keyboards

Greg Chaisson – bass

Jeff Martin – drums

Dusk (1999) album:

01. Healer

02. Sun Red Sun

03. Tribal Moon

04. The River

05. Walking Attitude

06. The Fire Lasts Forever

07. Dog

08. Fat Cat

09. Lord Knows

10. Ride The Jack

Band Members:

Ray Gillen – vocals and harp

Jake E. Lee – guitar and keyboards

Greg Chaisson – bass

Jeff Martin – drums

Badlands‘ “Dreams In The Dark” video:

Badlands – Dreams In The Dark 1989 Rip to the late great and amazing singer Ray Gillen . From their first album Badlands. Very clear Video. With Ray talking about how great it was for the song to reach number one. Nice to see him happy. Gone too soon.

Badlands‘ “Winter’s Call” video:

Badlands‘ “The Last Time” video: