20?s w/ X-WildSide Guitarist Benny Rhynedance!

Benny "Rhyno" Rhynedance was bleached, buckled & cowboy booted like every other jackass. But, again there is a but, he along with his band mates beat the odds and stepped up the ladder a few rungs. They got spins on Mtv’s Headbangers Ball with "Hang on Lucy" and headlined the rock stage at Summerfest in Milwaukee to thousands. This is something the guys from Wanted, Pair-a-dice, Lage, Creature, Rings of Saturn, Hysteria, 22 Skidoo, Dr. Starr and many others could not claim. For that, we give mega props and Sludge salutes to WildSide & the Rhyno!

A real rock star would’ve had a roadie tune that shit up!

6. What rock star deserves a big smack in the mouth and why?

Easy one. Darryl aka Drew Hannah. Even though he was never even close to being a "Rock Star," I think I owe him. Ok, let’s be realistic here, not a real smack mind you, but maybe a verbal smack. His blatant "Benny-Bashing" for 10 years and his 20 Questions was so out in left field, I think a "pimp hand" is in order. I was a little miffed at all his anger after 11 long years had passed. I had very good reasons for quitting WS. I know I quit the band in poor fashion, told Darryl to fuck off, but man, at some point you have to let it go. I haven’t talked to this kid for 2 lifetimes, and yet he threw me under the bus like it was still 1994. What can I do?  I wish the guy happiness and health in his life. Oh yeah, add former Creed front man Scott Stapp to this list.

7. Tell us about working up at Eddie Van Halen’s studio? Give us a good Sludge’y Ed story if you got one? Also, is it true the first time you all met him he was playing and took his guitar off and handed it you, which left you light headed and cause you to nearly faint?

Going to Eddie Van Halen’s house/studio was AWESOME! We worked up there for months with ANDY JOHNS. Brent cut all his tracks there, and even re-cut everyone else’s! I would record guitar parts in the afternoon, come back the next day and hear completely different guitars recorded over where mine should have been. Brent would hang around all night and completely re-do all sorts of shit without telling anyone! Thank God Brent couldn’t sing! All the background vocals on UTI are mainly me, and sometimes Darryl and I for the gang-style vocals. All those harmonies in How Many Lies. All me. It Looks Like Love with the Nazareth style 3 and 4-part stuff? Hello! Andy Johns called me the "Michael Anthony" of WildSide. I loved recording vocals!

Yep, the first night I met Ed Van Halen, he was so damn nice I was floored. He said, "Hi there! I’m Ed. Here…<<hands me a guitar>> check out my new Peavey Wolfgang guitar! Cool, huh?" I felt woozy. It was sensory overload. It was like meeting Jesus, and HIM saying, "Yeah, I’M real!" Ed was so down to earth and such a normal guy. He really impressed me by how he went out of his way to be friendly and not a heartless prick. Twenty minutes later we were in the control room of 5150 listening to a rough mix of "Poundcake" and Alex Van Halen yelled at Darryl/Drew to "stay away from the tape machine, kid!" "Make sure he doesn’t accidentally hit a button or something!" I always thought that was funny. Alex wasn’t a friendly dude. Saw him twice. Dick both times.

Ed’s studio manager was his long term Pasadena friend named Ken Dean. Ken took a liking to me and would show me parts of the studio during the day that were very much off limits. Keep in mind that WS was the only other band beside Patti Smyth and Scandal that had ever recorded at Ed’s personal home studio. One afternoon Ken took me upstairs to Eddie’s "lock and key" home guitar shop/vault. This was like opening King Tut’s tomb in the Valley Of The Kings! Imagine 6 foot tall stacks of blank Strat bodies all red and white striped and fully 5150’d out. I’m talking 3 and 4 stacks deep. All of his old guitars from the 70’s were hung up on the walls like at a guitar store – the black and yellow VH II, the early shark explorer, and MANY others. It really was just so surreal. I knew every single guitar. I got to noodle about on one of the original and VERY used VH I white and black strats. I played the first homemade Wolfgang prototype guitar. Raw wood, no paint, and no-name electronics. I could have died at that point and felt like I had achieved my dreams.

I remember being bummed out that I didn’t win the 1984 "Van Halen Lost Weekend" contest on MTV after I mailed in over 1,000 postcards. Seven years later I hit the jackpot and was standing in Eddie’s personal guitar workshop. This was my equivalent to summiting Mt. Everest or meeting Santa Clause face to face.

Valerie Bertinelli once opened a window from the main mansion (and let me tell ya, it was a BIG ass mansion!) below the studio and yelled at me to be quiet. "Ssshhh! Wolfie’s sleeping!" This was just after little Wolfie was born and apparently I was making a racket as I was skateboarding above the house in front of the studio. I saw her 2 years later at the grocery store on Coldwater Canyon and Ventura Blvd. She said "Hi" and blew by me to Express Checkout with a bag of Chips Ahoy and a box of Hot Pockets.

Eddie once caught me red handed tracing one of his old strats on a piece of poster board. He didn’t look too happy. Ken gave me one of Ed’s old axes to map out on paper as I wanted Gibson guitars Custom Shop to build me this weird-ass custom Strat/Explorer guitar. Ed walks up and says,"What the fuck are you doin, man?" I say, "Uh… sorry Ed (never called him Eddie to his face) I was just designing a guitar I want to have made." He says, "Oh really? Okay, but why don’t you try this other one I got ’cause it’s smaller and you definitely want this wood, but also….." and he went into a whole other mode. The guy was so accommodating, and into building guitars. We spent half an hour futzing around with my design. Pure heaven!

How about the day Long Beach Exotics delivered a brand new red Lamborghini to Ed’s house. Apparently Rod Stewart bought it, drove it for the weekend and decided he didn’t want it, so they custom painted the mirrors all 5150-like and dropped it off at Eddie’s place the next weekend trying to sell it. This Lambo was so sweet looking. No one was around, or so I thought, and I’d never been close to this kind of car, so I jumped in the drivers seat. Little did I know that Ed had zoomed up the hill behind me in his funky 5150 golf cart and had seen me jump in. I had no idea he was right behind me. I put my hands on the wheel and was caressing the stick, when Ed yells, "HEY!" so loud in my ear that I almost pissed myself. He laughed his ass off as he saw how much he really surprised me. Then he kicked my ass out of the driver seat, jumped in, cranked it up and proceeded to back the $235,000 red euro supercar into a security camera pole, crushing the rear spoiler. And what did he say after doing this? "Hey man, this thing’s a piece of shit – Get this thing outta here!"

Ed is one class act, and I’ll never forget my time at his house. Hanging at 5150 made going through everything in WildSide worth it and I’ll never forget it.

8. WildSide also worked with the legendary Andy Johns (Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin). How about a good Andy story too?

Oh man, Andy is such a character. He’s a tall guy, 6′ 2" – 235lbs. maybe? Imagine a big Joe Elliot football player lookin guy. This is Andy Johns. He is a classic old school Englishman to a tee. There are so many stories with Andy. Most of the time he was VERY drunk and in quite a festive mood. No one would want to drive him home after studio sessions because he would make you hang out in his guest house and talk until 7am or whenever he passed out, which ever came first. I once dared him to down a fifth of cheap vodka so he would pass out and I could get back to my naked and waiting girlfriend in No. Hollywood.

Darryl once told Andy that he had to "earn his respect." Of course this was a totally pompous, arrogant, and ignorant thing to say to a producer that had recorded Led Zeppelin and been around the block a few times. You really didn’t want to piss Andy off. Andy flew over the console and I thought he would go through the control room window to get at Darryl and kick his skinny ass. We got Andy out of the studio, then he quit, walked down the street to the Pig & Whistle on Sunset, had some "cocktails and a fine beverage" then re-hired himself. Andy was a kick. You never knew what to expect day to day.

There was the time Andy and his wife threw a big barbeque at their house about halfway through the recording process in ’91, to bring everyone together, and keep it friendly. I just remember Andy went out and purchased about $1000 worth of Lobster Tails. This sounded great. Andy had the bbq set up on the side of the yard away from the pool. He wore a big white chef’s hat and apron. He looked funny. I looked away for second, then looked back, and Andy is cooking away on the bbq with one hand, flipping lobster tails, then with the other hand, has his running shorts pulled to the side, his hairy English cock out and hangin down, and is pissing straight into the lawn by his foot like it’s no big deal. This is happening in front of maybe 20 people including children. Nobody said a word. I’ll never forget that image. I was howling.

Andy was the best. I learned a lot about recording and how a real producer does it. Him and I had fun recording vocals and tricking Darryl into singing vocal lines 10 and 20X in a row for no reason. Darryl would get so pissed. We thought it was funny.



9. Let’s journey back to the Sunset Strip now. What was your first, worst & best impressions of what was the Sunset Strip, the Rainbow, Gazzarris and all that was the forever remembered heyday of hairbands in LA?

Drew Hannah & Benny "Rhyno" Rhynedance in happier times!

Looks like Benny is gonna blow a load from rubbin’ on him here.

My first memory when I hit Hollywood in May of ’86 was a poster of the first POISON album cover, and I thought "What the hell is that??" I’d never heard of POISON up in Seattle. A week later I had white bleached-blonde hair, wore eyeliner and an orange overcoat in the middle of summer. The chicks dug it! What an idiot I was!!! Hey fuck that, I remember Brent Woods wearing a PINK sequined suit-coat onstage, and Darryl wearing these VERY GAY pink flamingo earrings! Ha, dudes! Ah, we were young and stupid.

Worst impression was a drunk homeless guy with no pants on, disgustingly filthy, wandering around the curb in front of the ROXY pissing on people, and flinging poop all over the place while we were all trying to hand out our flyers for a show we had coming up with Tommi Gunn and Taz. Circa 1987.

Summer nights on the strip in 1986, ’87, and ’88 were absolutely phenomenal. We would get our fucked up, broken off straw hair all Aqua Netted up to the sky, put on our best $5 ripped up Levi’s, jump in our broken down ghetto Datsun trucks and head over the hill to Hollywood. From the Whisky to Gazzarri’s we would go back and forth about 10X handing out flyers. We were always eyeballing babes trying to hook up. How we did it looking like scary transsexuals, I don’t know, but it was working back then.

About 11pm or so, we’d call it a night for flyering and worm our way into the Rainbow where all hell would break loose. The best place was upstairs in the attic area where the dance floor was. You could practically do it in the coat check room, or in those little elevated VIP table areas. The Rainbow was heaven on earth for broke ass aspiring rocker dudes with nothing but lint in their pockets and rocks in their heads. That was me!

The Sunset Strip was such a magical place in the mid 80’s. It represented hope at that time. People there were like-minded. It was a community of positive feelings about rock-n-roll. Everyone on the Strip was there for the same reason – to have fun! On any given night, there were high level record execs all around with check writing powers that were offering contracts left and right. You never knew when it could be your night. If it wasn’t, you always had The Rainbow to make everything better. That scene will never exist again. Glad I was part of it.

10. Memory Lane:

All my memories revolve around music. Most of them anyways…



1978 = Junior High. Van Halen I. Eddie on the cover of Guitar Player. Listening to AC/DC and digging it. Dreaming about being David Cassidy and rocking out like Keith Partridge. First make-out in a janitor closet at a local Elks club with a girl named Erin. She stuck her tongue in my mouth and massaged my young buttocks. Sent me on a life long quest for that first feeling of lust. Thanks Erin….you bitch. ha! Life was easy then.

1982 =  I was a junior in high school. President Reagan. DeLorean guy arrested for cocaine. I went to Hawaii. Diver Down. Sabbath w/Dio : Neon Knights. Loverboy had a killer album out. Rush: Moving Pictures was on my turntable. I was fully into Judas Priest. Didn’t know Halford was gay. None of us did. Van Halen were my boys. Journey was everywhere. Quiet Riot and Motley Crue were about to shock the world and bring the Sunset Strip into my bedroom, and to the world’s attention. My fate would be sealed.

1986 = After 2 years in Seattle playing high school dances and biker bars as NUPROPHET, Darryl and I sold what few things we owned, changed the name of the band from NUPROPHET to ROGUE and moved to L.A. Our parents were not happy. Had no money, no job, no outlook, nothing to fall back on, and no  real hope. Quite a gamble, but I had my guitar, and was in ROGUE!! Saw TUFF perform at The Country Club. Was blown away. No lie. TUFF was HUGE in Hollywood. Maybe I was just impressionable and stupid. Saw POISON for the first time at The Palace across from Capitol Records in Hollywood. Blown away again! People were so into it!! Glam was taking over. Ran from the LAPD across a parking lot by The Country Club after we were caught posting ROGUE posters on a wall on Reseda Blvd. He let us go. Phew!! Spent that whole summer practically living at Zuma Beach north of Malibu Pier. Best summer of my life.

1989 = First time I tried cocaine. Greatest high ever experienced, aside from thousands of cheering fans. Bad move. Barely survived the next 4 years of personal misery, misfortune, and disappointment chasing that "great high" that I would never experience again. <<cue the psa for NOT doing cocaine ever!>> I was really into Skid Row at this point. Great guitar sounds. YOUNG GUNNS began to take over the Sunset Strip. We were "house band" at the Whisky on Monday night jam nights. Label interest. Looking like we might have a shot at rock stardom. Buzz on the street. Everyone else around us was getting a recording contract. I worked with Stevie Rachelle of TUFF at a phone sales job. I was kind of star struck at first. Stevie was a cool cat.

1992 = First tour with The Four Horsemen. Capitol CD released in May. Met the only girl I ever really loved, even if she turned out to be a chaotic stripper single mother with daddy issues and bi-polar/obsessive compulsive disorder. Boy, I sure can pick ‘em! The girl rocked my world, then shot it all to hell with a heck of a bang – literally. Big summer package tour with Babylon A.D. and Roxy Blue. Both WS and RB killed Babylon all summer long, night after night. We had such a blast on that tour. Roxy Blue and WS shared a 45′ Prevost Tour coach. We rocked ‘em from L.A. to Montreal, to Vancouver, to Miami and back to L.A. So many woman, so much free drugs. We were bullet proof, on a rocket ride, and destined for greatness….or so we thought.

1995 = I thought I would be an actor. I had a regular part as a bartender named Kevin on Melrose Place. Had a few speaking lines. Easiest money ever for doing nothing. Howard Stern is right. Anyone can act! Was friends with Heather Locklear because she knew my sister from her acting class. NICE CHICK!! So hot! Did the movie Exit To Eden. Had 2 big close ups 35 minutes in. Regular part on Beverly Hills 90210 as a "Peach Pit patron" and "a buddy" of Ian Zeiring. Once ate lunch with Tori Spelling. I thought I could get her. She seemed interested. I blew my chance. Dang! WildSide without Brent and I continued on and released a REALLY SHITTY fake-grunge type release. Everyone I knew that heard it, and knew us prior, thought it SUCKED badly. I tried to listen to it once at a Blockbuster Music store, on one of those "listening stations." I really wanted to like it, but every song stunk. I laughed out loud. What were they thinking? First time I heard the famous rumor that I was a Pirate working in Las Vegas. Ha!! I wasn’t. Became an uncle for the third time!

1998 = I was tired of Hollywood. The grind was old. My tastes in music changed. My interests in the music business and the passions that drove me for years completely left me. Sold everything I owned music-wise. I had been recruited by a friend in late 1996 to work for one of L.A.’s biggest and most notorious Investment Brokers. I was brought into, and taught the world of Investment Banking and Money Management. I returned home to Seattle in ’98 and pondered my next move. Opened up my first online brokerage account.

2001 = Living in Seattle. Helped my aging parents sell their home of 17 years and move out of state. Built a 120′ fence, and rebuilt a HUGE redwood deck with zero construction experience. Built my first computer from scratch. Grew a soul patch and thought I was cool. Wrong! I wasn’t. Addicted to Starbucks coffee, golf, and the Seattle Mariners. 9/11 happened. Was working out listening to Creed "My Sacrifice" when I saw the TV reports. My brother was inside the Pentagon in an outer blast zone, and survived.

2005 = Sitting around waiting for my invite back into WildSide version 3.0. Ha! Naw, just living life. My mother fell ill, and I took care of her and got her well again. Working on my car projects. Bought and sold Sirius Satellite Radio and Microsoft stock all year long.

Benny claims the summer of 1986 was the best of his life!

This photo is from 1986. Dear Ben, we’d hate to see what you

looked like during a bad summer. Just saying!

11. Name the 3 high points and the 3 low points of your music career?

High points were getting a 1.8 million dollar, 5 album recording contract with Capitol Records. That in itself was a feat to behold. The odds against us NOT getting that contract were staggering. Meeting Ed Van Halen. Meeting Peter Frampton. Meeting Gene Simmons and eating lunch with him everyday for a week in the fish-lounge at A&M recording studios and listening to his "Rock 101" stories. Great man. Smarter than Bill Gates. Hanging out with Paul Stanley at a pool party in Beverly Hills, watching these hot babes splash around in the pool and trying not freak out.

Low points had to be taking 2 years to release our CD from the time we got signed. Missing the deadline for the "Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" tour with Van Halen. We couldn’t finish our CD in time. VH took a then unknown ALICE IN CHAINS instead, and the rest is history. Overdosing (for the second time) on cocaine and about 5 other drugs in Dallas, TX. on April 8th, 1993. Nearly died. "Went to edge and definitely looked down." Never touched another drug ever again. Losing our record deal in late 1993 was our biggest failure.

Towards the end the guys added some scruff, a scowl & Benny

used less conditioner to go for that ratty split end look.

12. Of all the bands you guys played with who were the coolest and who were the biggest dicks to deal with?

Babylon AD were jealous jerks. TUFF turned out to be pretty cool, which was surprising. When YOUNG GUNNS started becoming a force in Hollywood, we ended up sharing a killer rehearsal space with them for 2 years or so, but rarely saw them. I was psyched to play with TUFF at THE TROUBADOUR once, but our set was cut short and we got limited P.A. use. Jorge still gave me free blow, so all was well, since that was the only thing that mattered back then.

After we got our record deal and had all the huge double page spreads in all the Rock papers in L.A. and sold-out Roxy shows, guys started hating on us big time. It was really weird. Kik Tracee, Mozart, Swingin Thing, Taz, Lancia, and all these local dudes just talking smack non-stop. It was petty jealousy but people were pretty cruel. Rarely did anyone put their hand out and say "Good job guys, congrats!" Usually it was something like, "Man you guys have changed…" Ugh.

13. What rock band should pack it in and call it a day for good and why?

WildSide. It’s over.

VanHalen. That reunion tour was hard to watch. It was clear that Ed and Sammy weren’t into it. I’m pissed that KISS did 18 Farewell Tours! I thought I was seeing the final concert, and 5 years later they’re still coming around? What gives? Good show though.

Hate to say it, but Motley needs to stop. I just can’t witness any further Vince destruction. I want him to succeed so badly, but he keeps blowing it.

14. Fans are currently selling your guitar picks on eBay for $ 5.00 to $ 20.00 and they are listed next to picks from Ron Wood, Steve Vai and other Gods.

How do you feel that nearly 20 years later someone still cares about you and the band you helped to form?

I’ve seen the picks for sale on eBay!! That is so strange to me. What is up with that? I was so nothing back then as far as guitar players go. Just a rhythm player Hollywood hack that looked the part and had super long hair. Kids would come up to me and say, " You’re one of the best rhythm players I’ve ever heard." I would quietly think to myself, "No, I’ve just played these songs 8 million times and I can play these songs stoned, and in my sleep, but thank you." More props here go to Brent Woods for making me a fairly decent player. I’m flattered that people buy that stuff and still give a rat’s ass about me. I just can’t wrap my head around the fact that people still listen to our first CD and consider it a "hair band must have." Cripes, it cost over $600,000 to make so I know it sounds decent sonically (even though the snare is way too hot in the mix on half the songs). My sincere appreciation goes out to those that continue to enjoy UTI. That’s why we created it in the first place. Party on rockers!

15. Okay, the rumor has been circulated for years and according to the ubl.com ( www.ubl.com/wildsideundertheinfluence ) "After a brief stint in 1995 at the Las Vegas Treasure Island Hotel as a pirate/stuntman, guitarist Benny Rhynedance went into Investment Banking in L.A. in ’96 and ended up on Wall Street with a known firm in 1998." So is it true? Were you a pirate on the famed Vegas Strip Treasure Island show?

I was never a pirate in Las Vegas. That was some goofy rumor that Darryl started in some AOL music chat area in 1995. Always loved that one. It’s STILL going around to this day. What’s funny is that they changed the show at Treasure Island in 2002 to some bad-girl-Britney-type sexy girl pirate show where they do battle against good guy English sailors. Really dumb. The long hair pirate stunt guys have been gone for years. Also, I was never with any Investment firms In NYC. I only worked in L.A. and went out on my own after that. I also heard that I was married and had 3 kids! Wrong. Never been married properly. I married that crazy hottie stripper chick in a courthouse in Orange County in 1993, but it turned out she was already married to 2 other guys at the same time, so nothing was legal. Again, I sure can pick the winners!