PERSONALITIES //CHRIS HOLMES
EDDIE VAN HALEN USED CHRIS HOLMES’ IBANEZ EXPLORER:
“He used [my Ibanez Destroyer] on [Women and Children First], yeah. He gave me the guitar that’s on the album cover — we switched guitars. He was one of the coolest musicians, an unbelievable player. He had a knack for taking the best from anybody he ever listened to and combined them — Billy Gibbons, Clapton, you name them — and he made it look so easy. He blew my mind.”
AMONG THE MANY memorable (and in some cases, unintentionally hilarious) depictions of rock ’n’ roll hedonism featured in Penelope Spheeris’ 1988 documentary, The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years, one scene in particular became something of an instant classic: It’s a night time sequence in which an extremely inebriated Chris Holmes, then the wild and wooly lead guitarist for the notorious shock metal band W.A.S.P., lazes about in a chair float in a swimming pool and chugs freely from a bottle of vodka.
“I’m a full-blown alcoholic,” he says matter-of-factly to the off-screen Spheeris. He seems sadly self-aware of his own absurdity, yet oddly defiant as he unconvincingly claims, “I’m a happy camper.” Throughout the interview, Holmes’ words become more unintelligible, and his mood grows darker (he states that he’s already had something like five pints of booze that day). Finally, he produces a fresh bottle of vodka, unscrews it and power-chugs roughly half of it before pouring what’s left over his head. It’s as if he’s out to prove some sort of point. But what?
Making the scene all the more surreal — and tragic — is the presence of the guitarist’s mother, who
