Living in these social media/short-attention-span times, unless you were old enough to actually remember The 80s before technology took over and sped the world up, it’s difficult to imagine anyone waiting longer than two minutes for anything. But in the Fall of 1984, when heavy metal headliners Quiet Riot teamed with MTV to deliver the most outrageous holiday contest ever conceived of, no one even thought twice of waiting to find out who would win it. In fact it was talked about for almost two months before an actual winner was picked:
A guy I knew who operated a small recording studio and independent metal label out of his parent’s basement, who I’ll call “Dean”, was suspiciously over confident that he’d be the winner. The 18-year old High School senior had sent in something like 200 postcards and bragged about how “someone at Metal Blade Records” was putting “a word in” at MTV for him.
A lot of people I knew at the time were also looking forward to this party, so much so that a lot of them had already canceled plans with their families, thinking that Dean winning this thing was in the bag. Me, I just knew that there was no way in hell MTV was going to throw an alcohol-infused Christmas Party with a metal band at an 18-year old guy’s house with his under-aged friends hanging out. Connections might help you get around the laws in Los Angeles or even in Seattle. But in Portland, Oregon’s up-tight Catholic neighborhoods there was no way it was going to happen. Hell, no…literally.
Two weeks prior to MTV announcing the winner, I saw two girls from the neighborhood who I didn’t like go into Frederick’s of Hollywood in the mall, no doubt shopping for even sluttier outfits than they usually wore…which, trust me, is really saying something. I later learned that one of the girls had stolen her mom’s boyfriend’s credit card and racked up a $600 bill ($1400.00 today) buying herself and her friend enticing outfits to wear to the “Quiet Riot Party at Dean’s house” and, subsequently winning themselves the Asses of The Year Award, too, because Dean –as predicted– didn’t win the contest even with his “connections”.
The winner of MTV’s Metal Christmas with Quiet Riot was 23-year old metal head and bass player, Dru Rigney, from Santa Ana, CA.
“I had entered the contest a few weeks before and they called me and told me I had won,” Rigney, now a respiratory therapist with a trauma unit, explains in an interview over Facebook. “I invited about 50 guests -plus as many neighbors as I could so there wouldn’t be any problems.”
As a metal musician himself, having Quiet Riot spend Christmas day at his house was the perfect choice. In fact it couldn’t have gone over better. Rigney, his friends and Quiet Riot melded as if they’d known each other a long time.
“The band showed up in a limo at around 11 AM and stayed until around 10PM, ” Rigney says. “We had full catered Christmas dinner and an open bar. We drank and played pool and hung out. Franki Banalli (Quiet Riot’s drummer) saw our equipment stored in the garage while we were playing pool, and said, if we set it up, they would play.”
Rigney and his friends, including his own band, spent Christmas day and the next partying until the sun came up.
“After Quiet Riot left, my band took the party to the warehouse we rented at the time (for rehearsal space) and kept the party going until, like, 5 AM.”
When asked if his memories of this ultimate 80s experience were as cool as it sounds, what Rigney says is exactly what one would expect.
“It was definitely fun. No Christmas has ever been the same.”
I remember that. The 80s were awesome.
I was Dru’s girlfriend (the tall blonde in the videos on Christmas Day, dressed in black leather and fishnet…lol…Hey, it was* the 80’s!!). This day was Surreal. Dru was a big fan of the band (and I was a fan, but not as* much), so we both made a whole lot of entries for the contest. And then I did another 50* entries in his, name (I guess I had more time or inclination, or something..lol). The weeks coming up to the announcement, we both just had this odd feeing that we might win. I mean, it was like we just KNEW. We talked about it more than a few times. When the call came on the phone (old school dial phone, in our condo, no cellphones, yet.. haha), he picked up, and I could tell right away that we had won. (I wasn’t sure yet if it was in his name, or in my name, as we both put in a lot of entries – but I did a ton* of entries). As I recall, it was a weekend day, probably Saturday, and it was a fairly quick phone call. From that point on, we were just walking on a cloud! When you love a band, and you are in your early 20’s and you know they are coming to YOUR HOME on Xmas day? … Not to mention aLL of the gifts HE* won (and did not* share with me; not one item! lol… That’s OK, Dru; it just got me to finally get the momentum to move out of the condo at the end of the month. 😉 (*We’d been together over 5 years, but the teeny engagement ring on my finger was starting to tarnish,(lol) and it was obvious we were going in different directions. The day, like I said was just surreal. The guys came out and hung out ALL day, late into evening, as I recall. Came in a limo, and Kevin DuBrow was in “high gear”. First thing he did, was take me by the hand, pull me aside, and ask me if we had any “Coke”. “Sure! Come over here…” I led him in to the garage to the back where the 2nd refrigerator was, filled to the brim with beverages of all kinds, courtesy of MTV. A disappointed look came over his clownish face, and he pointed to the side of his nose and sniffed in. “Ahhhh. No. I mean, *I* don’t anyway.” haha. I thought that was an odd request to give in the first 5 minutes, literally, of meeting someone; but then again, I was talking to a Rock Star. And not just ANY* Rock Star. This one was just a couple levels down from Keith Moon in his persona and “high activity levels”. I did not know at the time about his serious drug use, but I guess it was fairly obvious, looking back. The band used OUR band equipment in his Dad’s backyard (we set it up..that was the deal..they said they’d play, if WE set up and provided the gear). It was insane.
Girl, I absolutely LOVED reading your memories of that day. I think I should add your story in. It’s just great. Thank you for reaching out and sharing it with me. I, too, was a metal chick in the 80s.