By all accounts,\u00a0the ’80s were an ultra-competitive decade for rock bands, but our list of 5 Hair Metal Songs Featuring Big-Name Guest Performers shows that they could occasionally play nice.<\/p>\n
As hair metal<\/a> \u2014 or glam metal, or pop-metal, or whatever you want to call it \u2014 became the predominant rock subgenre conquering the airwaves, artists and producers alike found that they could multiply their winnings with some timely collaborations.<\/p>\n Some of these\u00a0guest features allowed\u00a0rockers to\u00a0meet their heroes or pay back favors done for them earlier in their careers. Others were planned\u00a0so that bands could\u00a0ingratiate themselves with their peers and further monetize their relationship.<\/p>\n Read on to\u00a0learn more about 5 Hair Metal Songs Featuring Big-Name Guest Performers.<\/p>\n With producer and song doctor Desmond Child at the helm, Alice Cooper<\/a>‘s 1989 comeback album\u00a0Trash<\/em><\/a>\u00a0became a star-studded\u00a0affair. Almost every track features a big-name collaborator, including four-fifths of Aerosmith<\/a> (sans Brad Whitford<\/a>), Jon Bon Jovi<\/a> and Richie Sambora<\/a>, Kip Winger, Steve Lukather<\/a> and more. It’s hard to pick just one, but we’ll single out “Only My Heart Talkin’,” the splashy power ballad featuring Steven Tyler<\/a> that could have easily replaced “Angel” on Aerosmith’s\u00a0Permanent Vacation<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n Want more? In the guitar department, Joe Perry<\/a> and Sambora bring their signature styles to “House of Fire” and “Hell Is Living Without You,” respectively.<\/p>\n The collaborations continued on Cooper’s next album,\u00a0Hey Stoopid<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em>Its title track features\u00a0a searing guitar solo from Slash<\/a> and backing vocals from Ozzy Osbourne<\/a>, while standout single “Feed My Frankenstein” features bass from Nikki Sixx<\/a> and a dual-guitar solo from Steve Vai<\/a> and Joe Satriani<\/a>.<\/p>\n Guns N’ Roses<\/a> were avowed fans of Hanoi Rocks<\/a>, so it made perfect sense for Axl Rose<\/a> to guest on frontman Michael Monroe<\/a>‘s 1989 solo album\u00a0Not Fakin’ It<\/em>.\u00a0Rose’s banshee wail can be heard briefly on lead single “Dead, Jail or Rock ‘n’ Roll” and title track (and Nazareth<\/a> cover) “Not Fakin’ It.”<\/p>\n “We were both Nazareth fans,” Monroe explained to Classic Rock<\/a><\/em> in 2023. “It was no surprise to me that he\u00a0liked them, as I could hear\u00a0the\u00a0influence of Dan McCafferty in his singing style. However, he wasn’t familiar with the song ‘Not Fakin’ It,’ which was a Nazareth cover on my album, so knowing that it was a Nazareth song made him like\u00a0the album even more.”<\/p>\n Monroe later repaid the favor by playing harmonica on Guns N’ Roses’\u00a0Use Your Illusion<\/a><\/em> track “Bad Obsession” and singing on their cover of the Dead Boys’ “Ain’t It Fun.” The latter appeared on\u00a0“The Spaghetti Incident?<\/em>,”<\/a> which also featured Guns’ rendition of Nazareth’s “Hair of the Dog.”<\/p>\n Motley Crue<\/a> and Aerosmith both recorded their 1989 albums \u2014\u00a0Dr. Feelgood<\/em><\/a> and Pump<\/em><\/a>, respectively \u2014\u00a0at Vancouver’s Little Mountain Sound Studios around the same time, so it was probably easy for Steven Tyler to pop by a session and\u00a0add some signature vocalizing\u00a0to the intro\u00a0of Motley Crue’s\u00a0“Slice of Your Pie.”\u00a0The Aerosmith frontman also contributes backing vocals on “Same Ol’ Situation” and “Sticky Sweet” alongside Bryan Adams<\/a> and Jack Blades<\/a>.<\/p>\n Other guest performances on the star-studded\u00a0Dr. Feelgood<\/em> include Cheap Trick<\/a>‘s Robin Zander<\/a> and Rick Nielsen<\/a>, who sing backup on “She Goes Down,” and Skid Row’<\/a>s collective\u00a0backing vocals\u00a0on “Time for Change.”<\/p>\n Ratt<\/a> gave Bon Jovi<\/a> an early career break when they\u00a0booked the fledgling rockers as their support act on their 1985 tour. Several years\u00a0later, Jon Bon Jovi returned the favor by singing backup on “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose” off Ratt’s 1990 album\u00a0Detonator<\/em>. The LP was co-produced and co-written by Desmond Child, the veteran songwriter who collaborated on Bon Jovi’s\u00a0Slippery When Wet<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0New Jersey<\/em><\/a> albums, along with several other blockbuster titles\u00a0from the era.<\/p>\n “He came in there, yodeled and that was cool, man,” Ratt frontman Stephen Pearcy told Mitch Lafon<\/a> in 2021. “He threw us a bone for making them so fucking huge.”<\/p>\n Poison<\/a> and Warrant<\/a> were two of the biggest and horniest rock bands on the Sunset Strip at the dawn of the ’90s, so\u00a0a collaboration between them was perfect brand synergy. Warrant frontman Jani Lane invited Poison guitarist C.C. DeVille to cut a solo on the band’s “Cherry Pie” in the hopes of currying their favor and securing a support slot on their tour.<\/p>\n The networking paid off,\u00a0but\u00a0Cherry Pie<\/em> producer Beau Hill wasn’t thrilled with the process. “Sitting in the studio with C.C. was the most painful experience of my life,” Hill said in\u00a0Richard Bienstock and Tom Beaujour’s 2021 book\u00a0Nothin’ but a Good Time<\/em>. “C.C., on a good day, would never come up to my standards of something that I would want to put my name on and release to the public. But I bent over backwards to accommodate the greater good, if you will.”<\/p>\n Despite Hill’s objections, “Cherry Pie” became a Top 10 hit, and DeVille’s chaotic solo\u00a0complements the song’s outrageous attitude.<\/p>\n The maligned subgenre deserves better and these hair metal bands should be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nAlice Cooper, “Only My Heart Talkin'” featuring Steven Tyler<\/h3>\n
Michael Monroe, “Dead, Jail or Rock ‘n’ Roll” featuring Axl Rose<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Motley Crue, “Slice of Your Pie” featuring Steven Tyler<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Ratt, “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose” Featuring Jon Bon Jovi<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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<\/div>\n<\/div>\nWarrant, “Cherry Pie” Featuring C.C. DeVille<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Hair Metal Bands That Belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame<\/h2>\n