photo by Cody Smyth
Before "Headbangers Ball" got its name, the show was called "Heavy Metal Mania" and was hosted for about two years by Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider. Then, the program changed to the "Ball," and Kevin Seal and Adam Curry were hosts for a brief time before Riki Rachtman took over in 1987 and Headbangers Ball" quickly became an institution.
For years, the show persevered with Rachtman alternately playing the roles of rocker, clown and interviewer. He accompanied Alice in Chains on a trip to a water part, in which singer Layne Staley fished in a public aquarium, members showed up in flippers and a duck life preserver and general mayhem ensued. On other programs, Rachtman went skydiving with Megadeth, partied with Pantera and stood bemused as Niravna frontman Kurt Cobain appeared for a "Headbangers Ball" interview in a full ball gown.
After the decline of metal, "Headbangers" went off the air for a while, starting in January 1995. But it was resurrected in 2003 on MTV2 and was hosted by Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta until early 2007. Along with the usual slew of headbanging favorites, Jasta brought in more underground acts, such as Pig Destroyer, Cattle Decapitation and Meshuggah.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of "Headbangers Ball," Snider, Rachtman and Jasta took part in a roundtable discussion hosted by Sirius radio programmer and personality Jose Mangin. Click "more" to check out some of the discussion and debate:
And chech out Jamey Jasta's and Dee Snider's lists of their all-time favorite metal songs.
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