Rock N Roll Gutter

This week in The Gutter we're taking a ride through the life and career of Donnie Iris. A guy who knew his way around a damn good rock 'n' roll song.

Born Dominic Ierace in western Pennsylvania, Donnie started singing at weddings when he was just five years old. From those early days on the local music scene to national success with The Jaggerz, he was already making his mark. A stint with Wild Cherry, the band behind "Play That Funky Music," brought him together with keyboardist Mark Avsec, setting the stage for what came next.

Enter Donnie Iris and the Cruisers. Together, Iris and Avsec delivered a string of power-pop and rock 'n' roll favorites, including "Ah! Leah!," "Love Is Like a Rock," and "My Girl." Big hooks, unmistakable vocals, killer arrangements. 

Sadly, we lost Donnie in October 2026, but the music is still here, and that's what we're celebrating.

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On this episode of The Rock N Roll Gutter we dig into the story of Raging Slab—their music, their attitude, and a band that never seemed particularly interested in playing by anybody else’s rules.

Somewhere between Southern rock, blues, boogie, and straight-up hard rock, Raging Slab carved out a sound from heavy riffs and swampy grooves. They had the riffs, the swagger, the groove, and just enough dirt under their fingernails to make the whole thing sound like it came straight out of a smoky bar at the wrong end of town.

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By special request, The Gutter is heading back to late-’80s Los Angeles, where the hair was big, the guitars were loud, and the Sunset Strip was crawling with bands looking for their shot at rock ’n’ roll glory. Enter Wildside — a band with the attitude, the hooks, and enough sleaze to make themselves right at home on the Sunset Strip .

Originally known as Young Gunns, Wildside landed a deal with Capitol Records and brought in producer Andy Johns to help deliver their brand of hard rock. They had the songs, the swagger, and the kind of sound that should’ve earned them a bigger piece of the action. But as plenty of bands discovered back then, having the goods didn’t guarantee you’d get a seat at the table.

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This week, The Gutter is giving you a double shot of late-’80s hard rock featuring Radio Active Cats and Cats In Boots.

Radio Active Cats brought together hard rock, Chuck Berry riffs, power-pop hooks, and plenty of swagger, creating a unique sound that should have found a home alongside the louder, dirtier bands crawling out of the clubs at the time.

Then there’s Cats In Boots — a band created when musicians from Japan and the United States joined forces to make some seriously good Rock & Roll. They came roaring out of the late-’80s hard-rock scene with plenty of riffs, attitude, and absolutely no guarantee that the record-buying public was paying attention.

Neither band became a household name, and that's exactly why we're here. We're digging into the music, the stories, the players, and what made these bands worth remembering.

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This week in The Gutter, we’re heading back to late-’80s Los Angeles to dig into Candy, a band that had all the right ingredients for the Sunset Strip but somehow never got the attention they deserved. Fronted by Kyle Vincent and featuring a young Gilby Clarke on guitar, Candy mashed together punk attitude, glam swagger, power pop chords, and enough melody to make the whole thing incredibly catchy. They had the songs, the look, and the right city at the right time—but somehow they ended up getting lost in the shuffle while bigger names grabbed the spotlight.

We’ll talk about their early days, their connection to the L.A. scene, their debut album Whatever Happened to Fun..., and the musicians who passed through the band. Candy may not have become household names, but there’s a reason people who remember them still talk about the band.

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To celebrate our 50th episode, The Rock N Roll Gutter Podcast crawls into the seedy world of Hanoi Rocks, the Finnish rock ’n’ roll wrecking crew that took punk attitude, glam swagger, bluesy sleaze, and a healthy disregard for personal safety and smashed it all together.

At the center of the chaos were Michael Monroe and Andy McCoy, two wildly different personalities who somehow managed to create one of the most distinctive—and influential—bands to crawl out of the underground in the 1980s. We’ll get into the albums, the lineup changes, the legendary live shows, the excess, and the tragedy that changed everything. We’ll also look at the musicians who helped create the Hanoi Rocks sound, including Nasty Suicide, Sami Yaffa, and Razzle.

From the streets of Helsinki to the clubs of London and the madness of America, Hanoi Rocks built a reputation on killer riffs, dangerous good looks, outrageous fashion, and the kind of rock ’n’ roll lifestyle that comes with a warning label.

But nobody could have predicted just how much this strange little band from Finland would influence the glam and sleaze explosion that followed. From the Sunset Strip to stages around the world, their fingerprints would end up all over the music.

Because Hanoi Rocks weren’t just another pretty band in funny clothes.

They were ahead of the curve.

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This week in The Gutter, we dive headfirst into the life and career of the legendary Hanoi Rocks frontman; Michael Monroe. From the streets of Helsinki to the stages of the world, Monroe carved out a career that was never about playing it safe. He was punk before punk was fashionable, glam before glam got polished, and a rock star before the word “rock star” became a marketing strategy.

We trace the rise of Hanoi Rocks, the band's chaotic journey from Finland to international cult heroes, and the musicians who helped create their unmistakable sound and style. Along the way, we get into Monroe's friendships and musical relationships with some of rock's biggest names, his years in New York, his solo career, and the many twists, turns and near-misses that have made his story so damn entertaining.

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Today in The Gutter we kickoff Season Five by celebrating two unsung heroes of sleaze rock whose influence is still being felt today.

When people talk about Hanoi Rocks, the spotlight usually falls on Michael Monroe and Andy McCoy. But this week, we're turning that spotlight toward two musicians who helped build the band's legendary sound from the ground up: Nasty Suicide and Sami Yaffa.

From the punk clubs of Helsinki to stages around the world, these guys lived every chapter of the rock 'n' roll story—the chaos, the triumphs, and the heartbreak. We'll dive into Hanoi Rocks, the tragedy that changed everything, and the incredible careers both men forged after the band, proving that their story didn't end when Hanoi Rocks did.

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This week in The Gutter, we close out Season 4 with the one and only Izzy Stradlin. 

Izzy helped birth one of the most dangerous bands in rock — then walked away from stadiums, platinum records, and the whole circus at the peak of the madness, because he'd rather ride his motorcycle in peace than chase another gold record. 

We dig into the guy who never needed the spotlight to prove he belonged in it: the gutter-glam Sunset Strip days with a teenage Axl Rose, the riffs that would soundtrack a generation, and the exit from Guns N' Roses just as the excess hit its rotten peak. This isn't the VH1-special version. It doesn't end in rehab or a reunion cash grab — it ends with a guy who got out clean, kept making records on his own terms, and never looked back for applause. 

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This week in The Gutter, we head back to the dark side of Hollywood to spotlight one of the most notorious bands of the Sunset Strip era: The Joneses.

The Joneses mixed punk attitude, Stones swagger, and dangerous living into a sound that helped create the blueprint for Hollywood gutter rock. Loud, sleazy, and unapologetically raw, they were one of the most influential bands to emerge from the L.A. underground.

From the notorious clubs of Hollywood to their reputation as one of the best live bands on the scene, we'll explore the music, the chaos, the excess, and the legacy of a group that should have been much bigger than they were. Oh, and did I mention bank robbery??

If you want to understand where Hollywood sleaze rock really came from, it all starts with The Joneses.

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