‘In every town, there would be girls waiting at the hotel. It was debauchery’ Punky Meadows

What was it like to be a glam-rock god in the 1970s? Just ask Angel star guitarist Punky Meadows

LOS ANGELES — If looks could kill, Angel would have been lethal, particularly the glam band’s chiseled guitarist, Punky Meadows.

You know the classic rock star pose with the cheeks sucked in? Meadows invented it.

No one on earth looked cooler if pomp happened to be your flavor, and Meadows was the primary creative force behind Angel, who were signed to Casablanca in the 1970s but could never chase down the popularity of  label mates Kiss, the biggest rock band ever back then.

Angel was known for its theatrical stage shows that including a disappearing act, and Meadows ended up doing one for real. No one heard a word from him for three decades since Angel, which also featured legendary keyboardist Gregg Giuffria, last called it a day 35 years ago.

Alas, Meadows is back. He has a new indy album, “Fallen Angel,” and he is playing some live shows.

In one of his first interviews since the comeback, Meadows looks back with fondness in this tasty Metal Sludge interview.

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METAL SLUDGE: You just saw all the Angel guys again for the first time in a really long time for that event in Las Vegas. What was it like to see everyone again?

PUNKY MEADOWS: It was fantastic and quite emotional. I had seen (drummer) Barry Brandt and (singer) Frank DiMino before, and of course (bassist) Felix Robinson is in my band, but I hadn’t seen Gregg Giuffria in all these years. It was really nice. We had a blast, a nice dinner. We did a thing with Eddie Trunk, then a big dinner, just a really good time, and it was nice catching up. We’re talking about doing an Angel show in the future.

And you’ve got a new solo album, “Fallen Angel.”

MEADOWS: Yeah, it’s great. It’s getting great reviews all over the world, just crazy. I think it’s genius. Everyone loves it, and they’re calling it the best rock album of 2016. When we recorded this, we wanted to do songs that everyone could sing along to, with great melodies like the songs I grew up with.

You’ve got a brand-new vocalist named Chandler Mogel, and I don’t think anyone really knows who this guy is. Does he have any experience singing in public?

MEADOWS: Yeah, he has done some things. He was in band called Outloud. No big commercial success, but he’s a hell of a singer, and he had some great songs to work with. Danny Farrow and myself, we wrote the songs and arranged it and produced it, and we made a great team together. I really do love every song. It was No. 6 on amazon, and No. 6 on new rock artists on Billboard, I think.

You look back at Angel, your years in that band, do you have good memories?

MEADOWS: Oh, it was always fun. Angel, that was my baby, and we had a good run. We were a band that people say was ahead of its time, and that’s probably true. MTV wasn’t around yet, and we were doing this big thing, we were primed for that kind of visual thing, but when it was it over, I washed my hands of it, and I left L.A. in 1988 and did well. I bought property, did well, then eight or nine years ago I started looking at Facebook, and I could see how great Angel really was. It opened my eyes, how we inspired so many other musicians. It was nice to see that, to see how much we meant to so many people. Even if we didn’t make any money, we made a lot of people happy, so Angel, through the good times and the band, I’m proud of it. We made our mark in roll and roll.

What was the groupie situation like back then?

MEADOWS: Come on, are you kidding me? We would be onstage and point to a certain girl to bring her backstage. Our lives were filled with women. When we’d get onstage, they screamed like the Beatles — guys, too! It was a great audience, and in every town, there would be girls waiting at the hotel. It was debauchery. In Chicago one night, we had a bunch of Playboy playmates backstage, and they all came back to the hotel, drunk and crazy. The next morning, I’ve got one of the playmates laying across me on the bed, and my manager comes in, and he’s like, “What’s all this broken glass on the bed?” I guess we had broken one of the pictures on the wall, and we didn’t even notice. It was crazy back in those days, but back then, that’s what you did; this was before MTV, and you’d find a girl — or a couple of girls — and you went back to the hotel, did your thing, and you were off on the bus, and away you went.

Angel was a very legendary band. Can you talk about some of your bandmates starting with the late Mickie Jones?

MEADOWS: Mickie was my buddy. We grew up together and started the band with Gregg Giuffria. Mickie was a go-getter and a star. I loved the guy, but he was his own worst enemy.

I don’t want to speak ill of the dead, but towards the end he did kind of have a bad reputation.

MEADOWS: Yeah, I don’t want to bad mouth anyone, either, but he would do things to get himself in trouble, kind of a con man. But he was never really mean, just his own worst enemy. I felt bad. he was a great guy, kind of like a brother who always gets in trouble.

And later it was Felix Robinson on bass.

MEADOWS: Great guy. Very laid-back, great bass player, great singer. An unknown talent who can sing anything. We really hit it off together.

And Gregg Giuffria, of course. You had great hair, Punky, but so did he.

MEADOWS: Gregg is Gregg. It’s funny. I dug him so much, he was so cool. When we played together, I finally had a keyboard player with me, and it was like magic. We had good songwriting going on between us. We really inspired each other.

Did you like his band, Giuffria?

MEADOWS: I never really got into that, all the 80s stuff with all the guitar tapping. After a while, it’s all been done. It’s not something for the heart and soul.

I actually thought Giuffria’s singer, David Glen Eisley, was good.

MEADOWS: Oh, he was. We actually all had a band together with David Glen Eisley, Gregg and myself, called Legend. It was a great band, and (Eisley) was a cool guy,  but then Gregg got that deal with Simmons Records. That whole 80s thing, that doesn’t impress me with how fast you can tap on the neck of a guitar. Rock comes from the street, not this MIT stuff.

What about Frank DiMino?

MEADOWS: I love Frank. He has one of the best voices in rock and roll, still to this day. Frank can still do it. He has a voice from heaven, an angelic tenor like an opera singer, just so powerful and strong. He’s a great showman, too, like Freddie Mercury. You can’t beat him.

The real truth is, Angel was not as big as expected. Were you bummed out about that? Do you have any regrets?

MEADOWS: I don’t know if it’s a regret, but I do wish we were bigger. Kiss never had a hit, except “Beth,” so, the radio, they weren’t playing stuff like Angel and Kiss but more like Fleetwood Mac, soft-rock stuff. With Kiss, this was like before MTV, so bands would go out and tour. That’s what Kiss did. People had seen them play. They were a live band, and people saw how great they were as a live band even though they had a hard time getting airplay. We were so good live that with any major tour, we would eventually get thrown off. The audience would be girls screaming, and bands didn’t like that, so we were forced to headline prematurely because no one wanted to take us out with them.  We got some gigs with Aerosmith, and at first we had five or six spotlights, the second night we had four, and so on, and finally we were down to one spotlight. I asked why, and my manager said you play by the headliner’s rules. But when you blow them off the stage, they don’t like that, so they tried to sabotage us.

Since you’re kind of an expert on unsung bands from the 70s, we’re going to throw you some names, you tell us what you think, starting with UFO.

MEADOWS: UFO? They were big, though. With Michael Schenker? They were great. They influenced a lot of people.

How about The Babys?

MEADOWS: I like John Waite. He’s a great singer. I never got into The Babys, though. I don’t know why, though, because they were good, like Sweet. But to be honest, I couldn’t say good or bad.

Starz.

MEADOWS: I don’t know about them. I thought they were like old Aerosmith. That was their thing. If you want to know what band I really liked, it’s The Rasberries. They make the hair on my arms stand up. Eric Carmen can sing.

What about The Runaways?

MEADOWS: They were cool. They were great. Cherie Currie and Lita. I remember they toured with us, and their first bass player, Jackie Fox, she had to have a chaperone because she was underage. They were pioneers. It was cool.

What hot model or actress liked you?

MEADOWS: I don’t know. I never went for those kinds. Linda Blair followed us on tour a lot. I just found chicks who came and said hi. That was enough. If she was really pretty, I could pursue her.

There is that great photo of the band in a thrashed hotel room.

MEADOWS: Oh, from (bootleg album) “Bad Publicity”?

Yeah. Was that real, or was it staged? And was that the typical way you guys left hotel rooms?

MEADOWS: That was staged, but on our first tour, we did that kind of stuff, taking chandeliers down and making necklaces out of ’em for girls, that kind of stuff. After the first tour, we had a meeting, and they were like, “Now you guys have to pay for it all!” And we were like, “Really? Oh shit.” Just dumb. I don’t like to do stuff like that anymore.

Angel put out a series of albums, and the later ones were much more pop. I loved the later songs like “L.A. Lady.”

MEADOWS: I know what you mean. When people talk about their favorites, everyone mentions the first two Angel records and “The Tower,” but my favorites were “White Hot” and “Sinful.” I love pop music. My new stuff is like “Sinful.”

Let’s do a few when’s-the-last-time. When’s the last time you signed an autograph?

MEADOWS: A couple of weeks ago in St. Louis.  I signed a bunch of autographs.

Smelled the air in New York City.

MEADOWS: That was just recently at B.B. Kings for the record release party. I love New York City. It was great. It was soldout. It got great reviews. There were like 600 people there, and we sold a lot of merchandise, too. We made a good chunk of change.

You should have worn all white, Punky.

MEADOWS: I am going to. We’re playing a gig Aug. 6 in Pennsylvania, and I’m going to wear all white.

When is the last time you kissed the mirror?

MEADOWS: Every fucking day, 24 hours. Even when I walk the street, I put on makeup, and people know I’m a star. I love that kind of stuff. I love the glam thing. It’s always about image. Elvis was the most beautiful man in the world, and that’s what it’s all about.

A couple more, Punky. When is the last time you’ve had more than two girls in your bed?

MEADOWS: I could get myself in trouble (laughs)

And finally, when is the last time you tripped out on you own Angel logo?

MEADOWS: People ask me about the logo all the time, so I’m used to it, but still to this day, it’s one of those things that make you freak out when you turn it upside down. It’s so cool.

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Gerry Gittelson can be reached at gerryg123@hotmail.com