BIOGRAPHY – Enuff Z’Nuff
Published on September 7, 2011 by Christian Sellers · No Comments
Even to fans of Poison and Faster Pussycat, Enuff Z’Nuff seemed to take their glam metal image a step too far, almost a parody of the Hollywood rock scene. But over the last twenty years the Illinois-based group have struggled through personal tragedies, legal troubles and drug abuse. It is somewhat ironic that the group would be formed by an ex-high school jock who had taken the stage name of Chip Z’Nuff. A fan of basketball, baseball and hockey, Z’Nuff had turned to music at the age of fourteen when he began performing in public and recording demos at home on his cassette player. His first band was called We’re Staying but it would be after meeting another wannabe rock star that he would decide to form his own group. Donnie Vie had raised his two younger sisters while his mother worked and his father was absent, taking them with him to local shows and hiding them out of view of patrons and officials. Z’Nuff and Vie immediately sensed a connection and began recording songs together, eventually recruiting guitarist Gino Martino and drummer B.W. Boeski to form Enough Z’Nuff.
Seeking financial assistance, the band’s first recording session took place in 1985 and was distributed as an independent demo entitled Hollywood Squares. The group would soon undergo a radical change, renaming themselves Enuff Z’Nuff and replacing Boeski and Martino with Vikki Foxx and Derek Frigo, respectively. The son of jazz violinist Johnny Frigo, who first started out as a session bassist during the 1950s, Derek Frigo was first inspired to play guitar after hearing Eddie Van Halen. Performing around Chicago, Enuff Z’Nuff‘s first break came when they were approached by local filmmaker John McNaughton about including one of their songs on the soundtrack to his independent exploitation movie, a sleazy and sadistic thriller called Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. The track selected would be Fingers on It, which had been included on the band’s earlier demo, but the movie would encounter censorship issues and would remain unreleased for four years.
Despite disappointment over the treatment of the film, Enuff Z’Nuff managed to attract the attention of several record labels, including Capitol and Warner Brothers, but it would be ATCO Records C.E.O. (a division of Atlantic Records) Derek Shulman, the man who had previously discovered Bon Jovi and Cinderella, who would offer the most promising deal. The label wasted no time in hiring producer Ron Fajerstein and engineer Dan Harjung, both of whom had collaborated on The Bears‘ Rise and Shine, and set to work on the recording of their debut album. Among the tracks written during the sessions were a power ballad called Fly High Michelle, dedicated to the memory of Vie’s friend who had recently died. Despite the group insisting that the song Baby Loves You be included on the album the label eventually overruled them, although it would later surface on their follow-up. Despite issues with Fajerstein resulting in him being fired, Enuff Z’Nuff‘s album was released on August 22th 1989 and became a surprise success.
Their first single, an upbeat and energetic pop song called The Real Thing, was released along with the album and brought the band their first hit. However, they were frustrated with the bright colours and over-the-top glam image that its accompanying video boasted, something that would prompt many metal fans to dismiss them as being comical and pretentious. The video for their next single, Fly High Michelle, would take the camp glamour even further, with rainbows and clouds adding an almost cartoon-like look, far removed from the tragedy that had inspired the song. Opinions on the band were mixed; some critics were impressed by the overall tone of the album, while others dismissed them as ridiculous and lacking depth. Within twelve months after the release of Fly High Michelle, glam metal had begun to die and fans no longer wanted to see men in make-up and blonde hair running around the stage and winking at the camera.
Enuff Z’Nuff, who had been frustrated by how their label had portrayed them, embraced the new change in music taste and decided to turn their back on their glam image and venture into darker territories for their next album. With Fajerstein long gone, the band reunited with Paul Lani, who had mixed their debut, to handle the production on what would become Strength. For Frigo the sessions would prove to be a memorable experience as his father would contribute both violin and viola on the songs Strength and Goodbye. The title track would also see appearances from Lani on the mellotron and cellist Dennis Karmazyn, later known for his work on the video game Resident Evil 5.
Strength was released through Atlantic on March 26th 1991, the same day that Mr. Big would unleash their commercial breakthrough Lean Into It. Stripped of their make-up, Enuff Z’Nuff returned to the charts with the single Mother’s Eyes, which saw the band exploring more mature subjects such as racism. But like many similar bands their popularity would suffer in the new decade and soon they were forced to file for bankruptcy. Enuff Z’Nuff‘s time with ATCO would also come to an end, while the band members began to struggle with depression and drug abuse. Although for the first time in several years they found themselves without a label, a deal was soon struck with Arista Records, under the watchful eye of Clive Davis, who had overseen the careers of Janis Joplin and Earth, Wind & Fire while at CBS. The band’s third album, Animals with Human Intelligence, would follow on March 9th 1993 but the experience would be a troublesome affair, with Vie struggling with addiction withdrawal and Fox deciding to leave the band in order to perform with former Mötley Crüe frontman on his first solo album Exposed.
Fox was almost immediately replaced by Ricky Parent, who had followed the band and had insisted on joining. Born in Passaic, New Jersey, Parent had moved to Los Angeles to launch a music career and had joined forces with ex-Dokken bassist Jeff Pilson for the “supergroup” War & Peace. Frigo would also leave soon afterwards, while the band parted ways with yet another label. After dealing with two major companies, Enuff Z’Nuff opted for an independent label and signed with Caroline Records, who had handled fellow Chicago group the Smashing Pumpkins during their earlier career. Their next release would be an unusual choice; originally titled Hollywood Squares, the band’s original demos had been remastered and released under the title 1985, allowing fans to discover their humble beginnings, before ATCO had transformed them into a glam metal act. The release would see Enuff Z’Nuff reunite with their original guitarist Martino, resulting in a brand new album, 1995′s Tweaked.
His time with the band would be brief and was soon replaced by Johnny Monaco, with his first album with Enuff Z’Nuff being 1999′s Paraphernalia. Ten years since the release of their debut and the group were struggling to match their earlier success. Following the recording of the group’s next album, Welcome to Blue Island (named after the area of Illinois they had originated from), Vie suddenly backed out of a tour without warning, forcing Monaco to stand is as the singer for the subsequent dates. Vie had been dealing with drug abuse, legal issues and depression and needed to escape the pressures of the band, eventually relocating from Illinois to Los Angeles, where he formed the groups L.A. Smogg and the Donnie Vie Band. In 2004 a compilation of previous unreleased material called ? was released, which included a cover of the Queen track Stone Cold Crazy.
The same year their former guitarist Frigo died from a drug overdose at the age of thirty-seven, as the band prepared to embark on a tour of Japan. In 2007 Parent, who had been with the band for the last thirteen years, lost his battle with cancer and was replaced by Eric Donner, the son of the late rock and roll musician Ral Donner, best known for the 1961 song You Don’t Know What You’ve Got (Until You Lose It). After a six-year hiatus, Vie eventually rejoined the band and, having recruited drummer Randi Scott and guitarist Tory Stoffregen from the Iowa group The Black Mollys, commenced recording on their comeback album, Dissonance, which would be accompanied by a European tour alongside Faster Pussycat.
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