Once upon a time, from the gritty streets of 1980s Detroit, came a band of restless young boys yearning to express the wild energy of their youth, and shake things up in what they considered to be an all-too-predictable music scene. Taking elements of punk, glam rock, and heavy metal, and mixing it with raw humor and pure, unadulterated Detroit attitude, THE NASTIES were a brilliant, albeit brief, light on the local scene.
Beginning with their first place win in the “WRIF Battle Of The High School Bands” as high school seniors in 1983, The Nasties then began to play the Detroit club scene almost every night of the week for their nearly three year run, playing shows with all the popular local acts of the day, including SEDUCE, THE ALMIGHTY STRUT, and WEAPONS, and opening for national touring acts at places like Blondies, Harpo’s and The Token Lounge… but they really began to earn a reputation for themselves with the introduction of their tongue-in-cheek original song “I Wanna Fuck Your Brains Out”. Of course, in today’s musical climate, expletives are everywhere and no one bats an eye, but in the 1980s, the inclusion of this song ruffled feathers to the point where the band was barred from playing several area venues, but the local fans loved it!
In 1986, there was much discussion about where to build the newly commissioned “Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame”, and naturally, Detroiters felt that The Hall belonged here in “Rock City”. Local radio station WLLZ started a petition campaign to present to the Hall Of Fame Committee, and Nasties lead singer Ron Perry felt that this campaign was in need of a theme song to bolster support. Just a week later the boys decended on Ann Arbor’s Old Schoolhouse recording studio
to record their own magnum opus, “Detroit Rocks”, with help from almost every working rock band in town. In true “We Are The World” fashion, Detroit Rocks put dozens of notable local musicians together on the same recording, from groups including THE ALMIGHTY STRUT, MOLLY HATCHET, BLACKFOOT, WEAPONS, MUGSY, THE LOOK, TOBY REDD, SAVAGE GRACE, BROWNSVILLE STATION, and many more, with the song culminating in an impassioned and improvised rap breakdown by THE MC5’s ROB TYNER. The tune received heavy-rotation airplay in Detroit for months and increased awareness of the Hall Of Fame campaign, but alas, The Hall went to Cleveland, and The Nasties fell apart.
Today in 2022, Rock and Roll seems to be at another crossroads, with many in the media pondering its impending “death”. So now, in the spirit of those excitable young boys from the 1980s, original lead singer Ron Perry has put together a new version of THE NASTIES in the ongoing battle to save rock and roll!
RON PERRY - Lead singer/guitarist Ron Perry grew up on the streets of Detroit, Michigan soaking up the rich musical heritage of what has come to be known as “Rock City”. Iggy & The Stooges, The MC5, Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent, were all heavy influences on any aspiring rock musician that came up through the trenches there, and these artists and so many others left an imprint that shaped Perry’s musical outlook going forward. After graduating high school, Perry joined the seminal Detroit punk band “THE NASTIES”, where he wrote the song “Detroit Rocks”, which became a regional hit garnering heavy airplay on local rock stations WLLZ and WRIF. It was in a small club there in the late 80s that Perry had a chance meeting with MOLLY HATCHET keyboardist and Taylor, MI resident John Galvin, and was recruited to replace that band’s departing singer Danny Joe Brown. After a move to Jacksonville Florida, and several months of rehearsing and writing with Hatchet, Brown decided to return to the fold, displacing Perry, but one of the songs Perry had written for Hatchet, “Take Miss Lucy Home” was included on Hatchet’s 1989 Capitol records release “Lightning Strikes Twice”. Perry was then asked to join another band managed by Molly Hatchet’s management company…the band that eventually became “CHINA SKY”. China Sky was quickly signed by CBS records after a private performance for legendary record man TJ Martell, and the resulting self-titled album was produced by Karl Richardson, who was best known for producing The Bee Gees “Saturday Night Fever”, which up to that point, was the top selling album of all time. China Sky managed two minor hits in “The Glory”, which was used in the soundtrack to the 1988 olympics on NBC, and “Some Kind Of Miracle”, co-written by legendary Broadway composer Frank Wildhorn, but alas, personality conflicts and creative differences soon broke up China Sky, and once again, Perry was on his own. Tired of the corporate games and limitations, he decided that going indie was the wave of the future. His next move was to scrape together enough money to open a recording studio in Jacksonville where he could spend as much time as needed to produce top-shelf recordings for his new band, “The Ron Perry Connection”, while also using his engineering skills to produce scores of local and not-solocal
acts, including a raucous two week stint producing demos for Rock & Roll pioneer Ike Turner. The Ron Perry Connection spent the next 15 years recording and touring full-time.
LAWRENCE WILSON - Drummer and Dearborn resident Lawrence Wilson has been playing drums in one form or another since the age of 9, and has since turned 10 five times. Lawrence began playing with local bands in high school and eventually spent two years as the touring drum tech and stage manager for the band “BLACKFOOT”. He has since manned the drum chair for many established and well known artists including RAGGEDY ANN, Stevie Ray Vaughn tribute
TEXAS FLOOD, THE SEAN BAKER ORCHESTRA, UNDERLAND, and most recently, local act MOB OPERA, and former Ted Nugent singer, DEREK ST. HOLMES.
JD DAVIS - Bassist J.D. Davis developed his “leave no hole unfilled” style of play working with virtually everybody in the Detroit area. Most notably, he was the ringleader for the band KUDA, and spent a few years off and on with Detroit rockers CATZASS, playing club shows and opening for the likes of Dave Gilbert and Sammy Hagar. When J.D isn’t burning the bass strings up, he enjoys sports such as bowling, golfing, and hey… drinking is a sport isn’t it?
