| A fan favorite at their live shows, it was just a matter of time before “Gay Boy Boogie” made its way into the studio, accompanied appropriately by a bawdy video. Returning to the director’s chair was punk rock mastermind Frank Meyer of The Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs who had directed their previous video for “Highway to Hell.” An instant hard rock masterpiece, that video featured brilliant cameos from Johnny Martin (L.A. Guns), John Bush (Armored Saint, ex-Anthrax), and dUg Pinnick (King’s X). “The idea to do a video for ‘Bad Boy Boogie’ was considered soon after we completed the ‘Highway To Hell’ video’,” explains drummer Brian Welch. “It’s one of the raunchier songs lyrically that we do live, and I thought ‘Why don’t we do something fun for this?’ After all, people come to our shows expecting an R rated show, so let’s give ’em an R rated video too!” Reinterpreting the Twisted Sister iconic video for “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” GayC/DC and Meyer envisioned a prequal to their “Highway to Hell” video with L.A. Guns’ Johnny Martin reprising his role of “Waldo.” “This was our love letter to Twisted Sister and homage to director Marty Callner but with a GayC/DC twist,” says Welch. (The late Callner was an acclaimed director for videos by Bon Jovi, KISS, and Whitesnake among others, as well as “We’re Not Going to Take It.” He passed away in March 2025). “For Waldo’s parents, I asked Joanie Pimentel [bass player from No Small Children], to play the mom. For the dad, I asked Don Speziale who was the lead actor in several of my films when I was in film school and also wrote the scripts for Pansy Division when we were developing the Jonah video series for the That’s So Gay album,” adds Freeman about the casting choices. While the video (which was premiered by American Songwriter who called the video “full-on GayC/DC glam metal queer rock”) adds to their lovingly boa-frocked reverence for AC/DC, their adoration for Twisted Sister does not go uncredited, especially when it comes to that glam metal band’s colorful onstage regalia. “We love Twisted Sister who took rock and drag further than anybody at the time,” laughs Welch. “This is our homage and ‘thank you’ for giving us as young gay kids the opportunity to see fully grown men in drag every day on MTV decades before RuPaul’s Drag Race was a thing.” Reinforcing the adage “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” Twisted Sister’s lead singer Dee Snider offered his unwavering approval, “I think this is great!” Taking “the songs of perhaps the globe’s most heterosexual band and turning them into something altogether more fabulous” (Classic Rock Magazine), the glitter-hugged and boa-frocked “GayC/DC is literally the gayest AC/DC cover band out there” (Metal Injection). Reworking AC/DC’s uber-hetero-leaning catalog and tweaking it ever so slightly in a gay way (not that there’s anything wrong with it), they transform the classics into songs like “Dirty Dudes (Done Dirt Cheap),” “Big Balls” (which obviously didn’t really require any changes at all), and their recent cover “It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll).” While the band and their presentation may be campy, their musicianship is pure, unadulterated rock. Founded by Freeman (who also plays bass for Pansy Division) and drummer Brian Welch, GayC/DC is rounded out by bassist Glen Pavan, Patrick Goodwin on guitar and Steve McKnight on lead guitar. |