2002.MM.DD - Johnny Kreis Website - Hollywood Rose: The Very Beginning

Welcome
To Johnny Kreis's Untold and Never published before pictures and story of my time of playing drums with the Bad Boys of Heavy Metal Hollywood Rose webpage.

This site is created for those who never really knew that I (A Dutch-Indonesian Amercian born in California) really did play drums (late 1981 to 1982) for back then, known as "Hollywood Rose" which later became "Guns And Roses"

How It Started:

It all started back in the days when I played drums for a European Style Metal Band by the name of Shire based in Hollywood and Axel Rose (William Bailey) and one of his childhood friends had just arrived from back east somewhere and wanted to start his career in rock music, (little did he know that he would become a rockstar) and he temporarily stayed in the garage, where Shire practiced,........ but it didn't take him long to recruit members and start writing songs, so here's where I came in, Axel and Izzy approached me one day and asked me if I would laydown some drum tracks for their demo,..... at the time, Izzy also played with Shire, but wanted to do his thing and co-wrote some songs with Axel,...So I said Ya!..... Sorta Moonlighting on Shire but then, in the music biz you never know what came next or be on MTV the next day!

The Payment:

Now get this!....A Classic Moment! but I'll never forget this method of payment (and didn't mind, cause back then, we were just kids!) for recording these tracks for them!........... A Six Pack of Bud and A Medium Pizza!

Before tracking, we never practiced, so I didn't know the arrangements, cause there were none!..... Axel and Izzy would just tell me to "Play really fast and pound with a blues feel!... and that I did!... It went really well and I did enjoy the pizza and beer!... Just to remind you this was the very first demo of Hollywood Rose recorded at the Angry Samoans Studio in Hollywood........ I still have A copy of this demo and will put some samples of the cuts on this site later!

The Omen:

After listening to the remixed demo, someone, back then made this comment "Bill's voice is unique" and "He's Gonna Get Signed"
(Axel if you ever view this page, email me, I need a Job!)

The Style of Music:

Back then the words to describe our type of music, The Bluesy Screaming In Maximum Overdrive!, til his Throat Bled - Vocals.

The Double-Bass drum Madness of Mickey Mouse on Speed - My Drum Playing.

The Senseless Heavy Metal Roaring and Ripped-Off ZZtop Guitar Riffs - Bass and Guitars.

To sum it all up equaled, a drag race between a F-14 Tomcat in Full AfterBurner racing a fully restored Yugo, or ingesting mass quantities of Speed and telling yourself to just sit quietly in a round room without windows.

The Gigs:

The guys booked gigs at places like The Troubadour, Gazarris, Cathay De Grande, Madam Wongs East/West and landed a really big gig at the Country Club in Reseda opening for a Big Metal Act.

The Image:

When Hollywood Rose took the stage, people looked bewildered not seeing this look before which was between punk and metal glam (Hairspray Heroes)

The Look of a Rental Drummer:

The look I had was more of a Euro-Metal look, (shown on left) since Shire, which became my previous band was into the Scorpions, and Def Leppard.
Another cool thing about Hollywood Rose was that they paid me, and the amount was usually $20 a gig or 8 songs. That's a lot for a kid in his twenties. I'll also never forget a gig we did at the Troubadour, in where after the gig, Izzy came over to me and said, "Here's $22.75. That's all the money we made from the bar".... and I said "Dude!.... Thanks bro"

The Band Members:

The final line-up (late 1981 - ?) before the band broke-up........ Yep!.......... then got signed!
Axel Rose - Vocals
Izzy Bell - Rhythm Guitar
Chris Weber - Lead Guitar
Andre (never knew his last name) - Bass Guitar (updated)...Rick Marrs who was really the first bassist for Rose
Johnny Kreis - Drums

Final Words:

My experience jamming with Hollywood Rose was pretty fun and yet ironic, considering that they are now millionaires and have played around the globe multiple times with different members who joined up with other friends, like Tracy Gunns of LA Guns fame, who back then I knew also, and he was jamming in a band called Pyrrus in which Michael Jagos a brother of the singer for Shire, my previous band, back then, jammed with Tracy.

(Updated 12/03/02, After 20 or so years, and gallons of beer later,  yesterday I received an email from a very super person as he was back then and still is now, also an awesome bassist! also I have failed to mention The Very First Bassist for Rose/HR, Rick Marrs.

I have played in many bands since then, spaning different rock and metal styles. The Hard Rock bands I played with are:
Bad Boys, Striker, (not to be mistaken with Stryper) in which the band Shire opened up for Stryper at the Music Machine in Santa Monica and in Costa Mesa in the early 80's and finally HarmsWay, Harmsway being my last band I was in, I could say was my best band with the original music style of Night Ranger and Van Halen,....(Speaking of Van Halen), another believe it or not fact that in the early to mid 70's, my dad Richard Kreis played bass in a polka band and jamming in the German bars and clubs around town, the band consisted of Ria Van Der Berg- Singer, (Accordion), Richard Kreis - JK's Daddy) on (Bass), Jan Van Halen (VH's Dad) on (Clarinet) and One of my favorite Drummers........ (Who my Heavy Metal music career was inspired by)...Alex Van Halen.
...."Hey Alex, if you see this, email me!.....I need a Job!

These Days:

I still play my drums, but not with the intentions of making it big, I play drums for a Dutch-Indonesian Amercian band called SoundsUnlimited with my dad and we play more of the older style music, to the older audiences, and I love to design wierd but cool microweb sites like this one, digital design is an art, just like playing drums!

I truly hope you enjoyed your visit to these webpages, as It was my pleasure to share my special musical history with you!.....And I hope you had some giggles! out of it!

"A Picture Does Speak A Thousand Words"

Johnny Kreis

https://web.archive.org/web/20020722103407/http://www.laserfire.com/hollywoodrose/index.html

The image from the article:

I never realized before now that Izzy got his name from "Isbell" -> "Iz Bell" -> "Izzy Bell".

The 1981-82 timing for Hollywood Rose is off, but it was probably the time Izzy played in the band Shire. There is a later interview with another member of Shire, who talked about that period, his first meeting with Axl and the garage where they rehearsed.

I was about to post the image from the site. Another one:

Soulmonster wrote:I never realized before now that Izzy got his name from "Isbell" -> "Iz Bell" -> "Izzy Bell".

Axl had mentioned it in this interview:

https://www.a-4-d.com/t3596-1989-07-dd-mtv-interview-clips-axl

Axl: Izzy was Izzy since junior high. You know, Isbell. I remember we had a sheet behind his drums, "IZZY"! You know, it was great. And everybody knew him as Izzy.

Blackstar wrote:

Soulmonster wrote:I never realized before now that Izzy got his name from "Isbell" -> "Iz Bell" -> "Izzy Bell".

Axl had mentioned it in this interview:

https://www.a-4-d.com/t3596-1989-07-dd-mtv-interview-clips-axl

Axl: Izzy was Izzy since junior high. You know, Isbell. I remember we had a sheet behind his drums, "IZZY"! You know, it was great. And everybody knew him as Izzy.

I never understood what Axl meant.

This is brilliant. I remember when these demos surfaced, before the "Roots" CD, it was so great listening to them! It still is but all I have these days is the "Roots" CD because I lost the Johnny Kreis demos on some crashed HD...