Another scene in the movie apparently sees Steel Dragon's two vocalists come together in a display of metal brotherhood, emphasizing the film's "follow your dreams" underlying theme.It was hysterical witnessing Wahlberg clad in a long-haired wig and black leather, as it was seeing the charmingly tough Wylde in a 15-year time warp, with teased hair and leather bellbottoms. At onepoint, during a delay in filming, he dazzled the crowd with a guitarsolo, including generous doses of Eddie Van Halen's "Eruption," andthen took the mic to deliver some of his patented wisdom (EddieVedder, for example, is a "pussy-ass cunt"...or was it "cunt-asspussy"?). C.C. DeVille also provided plenty of amusement as the evening's emcee, fawning over scantily clad "metal babe" contest participants while shamelessly hawking his new Samantha 7 project. But all in all, although one wished for better organized and less rushedmusical performances, it was an undeniably fun night of celebratingmetal's decades of decadence.
Ricky "BADASS" Bell aka Brian Vander Ark

Sources close to the production, which was shooting with the working title of "Metal God," say musicians making cameo appearances will include Colleen Fitzpatrick, a.k.a. Vitamin C, playing a fan, and Sean Kinney and Mike Inez of Alice in Chains appearing as members of a fictional Seattle band - not much of a stretch! 

Sharp-eyed fans will also spot Myles Kennedy of the Mayfield Four and Chris Hower of Radford in the film, directed by Stephen Herek. 

 Wahlberg's character is styled after Tim "Ripper" Owens, who fronted a Judas Priest cover band 

Wahlberg, fans may recall, used to perform under the handle Marky Mark with his group the Funky Bunch, while his brother Donnie was a
member of New Kids on the Block.

Steel Dragon features Dokken's Jeff Pilson on bass, Jason Bonham on drums and Zakk Wylde on guitar. The tribute band that gives Wahlberg his start, called Blood Pollution, includes the Verve Pipe's Brian Vander Ark, Slaughter's Blas Elias and Zakk Wylde bandmate Nick Catanese. 

Stephan Jenkins of Third Eye Blind also has a small role in the film as the lead singer of a rival cover group. Jennifer Aniston plays Wahlberg's girlfriend.

The soundtrack will feature Steel Dragon performing a half-dozen songs written for the movie by such artists as Jay and Jeremy Popoff (Lit), Twiggy Ramirez (Marilyn Manson), Peter Beckett (Survivor, Little River Band), Steve Plunkett (Autograph), Sammy Hagar, Desmond Child and Richie Blackmore.  Additional tracks for the disc are pending. 

The album and film will also feature a new song from the Verve Pipe as well as popular '80s songs by the likes of Bon Jovi, Motley and Kiss. 

JP: Yes. Basically, it is a movie that is loosely based on Ripper Owens, who is the singer of (Judas) Priest. The whole rags to riches thing. And in the movie, Mark Wahlberg plays the singer in a tribute band to the band Steel Dragon. And in Steel Dragon the singer leaves. And they get the singer from the cover band to sing with them. And I am in the original band, Steel Dragon with Zakk Wylde, and Jason Bonham. And they are trying to make it seem like a real band. Which is very cool. That is why they got real musicians to play in the movie.And in the tribute band is Blas Elias from Slaughter, and Brian Vander Ark from the Verve Pipe on bass, and Mark Wahlberg singing.           <<<<

KNAC.COM: So it sounds like they were trying to put together a real stellar band to make some great music for this.

JP: That is exactly what they are trying to do. It is an interesting movie. It is a period movie. The music has a heavy edge, like a Black Sabbath feeling to the music. So it is very cool playing with Zakk, he is playing on fire on this. He is great. Some of it is heavy, and some of it is more turned down, '80s-ish sounding.      >>>>

KNAC.COM: You know what's going to happen, they are going to make a Monkey's thing out of you guys. You guys will be a movie band. And you guys may go do some shows. Imagine that, the record does well, and you go play some shows together. And as long as there is one in Boston I am happy.

JP: Yes, (laughter). That would be funny. It is not an unreasonable thing to may be happen. 

KNAC.COM: How did you get involved with this in the first place.                                                <<<<

Even though we were used to the pre-production title we will now have to get used to the new name prior to the unveiling to the general public for the Spring release.                -Ed McArdle, August 13, 2000

In October, 2000, the name was changed again to "Rock Star".  "Rock Star" it is...

Metal God extra speaks about his experience:  I worked seven days on it as an extra-- a random longhair in some concert scenes, mostly -- and I thought it was a  lot of fun. (It's work, and you have to be serious about it, but I still thought it was a blast.) The various principle actors seemed to all be enjoying themselves making the movie; I saw a lot of good-natured joking around between takes.

Mr.Wahlberg himself seemed to me to be a down-to-earth, good hearted human being, and a professional. What I saw of  the movie overall, suggested the producers were catching the whole Heavy  Metal concert-going subculture thing pretty well. (I thought, as a person  that had attended a number of real 1980's metal concerts.) The music they  wrote for the show was just great headbanging stuff. ("Steel Dragon rocks!")

The guest musicians worked hard to keep us all pumped up, and banging our heads. Zakk Wylde was a crack-up between takes; he once told some cardboard cut-out people way in the deep background area to liven up when he played. I hate to admit it, but I'll probably end up buying the soundtrack when it's out, even after hearing the same few songs over and over for days. ;-)  All in all, it's a movie I don't plan to miss. I hope it does well at the box office, and I'm glad I got to work on it.--Ward Shrake July 10, 2000

On the Set of Metal God--June 2000

    This past May, I was given a chance to participate in a lifestyle I have only been able to observe most of my life.  It was a controlled, professional environment, to be sure--but it was still an early '80s, heavy metal concert setting.  I was in the middle of what was a far-off world when I was first introduced to it at at age seven: short skirts, high heels, big hair, lots of make-up, ripped jeans, loud music...