Brad Gillis said the series of ballads released by Night Ranger in the ‘80s were responsible for killing the band.
The guitarist – who co-founded Night Ranger in 1982 – blamed his record label for their choice of singles which, he said, created a public misconception of what they were about.
“I don’t consider us a metal band,” Gillis told BraveWords in a new interview. “I consider us as a hard rock band. Of course, we got put in this pigeon hole with all the ballads that MCA wanted when we signed with them – ‘Sister Christian,’ then they put out ‘Sentimental Street’ and ‘Goodbye’ and all these ballads.”
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Agreeing that the success of those songs were both a blessing and a curse, Gillis continued: “It kind of killed us. And that’s too bad, because they could’ve come out with a lot of heavier rockers and we could have had a different whole perspective on our career.”
When Night Ranger Lost Their ‘Safe Zone’
In a separate interview in July, drummer Kelly Keagy reflected on the pros and cons of “Sister Christian,” which reached No. 5 in 1984.
“The record company gives you a large amount of money to make a record and so their goal is to sell records,” he said. “And we’re back here to going, ‘Yeah, but we got to go out and play. We can’t do four ballads in the set.’”
After that track’s success, he added, the label only cared about finding another “Sister Christian,” which severely limited the band’s room for creativity. As the drummer described it, Night Ranger “didn’t have a safe zone anymore” as the label pushed for similar songs to follow it.
The band, who are poised to release their Best Of collection, are currently on tour.
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Music in the ’80s is typically associated with the neon-tinged synthpop of MTV’s early era, but there was much more to this wildly varied decade.
Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso
