In 1991 I was a senior in high school and at this point I had been a metal fan for 8 years. As I was getting older and changing, so was metal music. New bands were starting to emerge sporting different kinds of sounds which in some cases was totally annoying and in other cases totally interesting. When I first heard Ugly Kid Joe, I remember thinking that this was the coolest fucking band. Just like any UKJ fan, the first song I heard was “Everything About You.” I loved this song but yet I just got the impression that this was just a tiny bit of what this band was about. This song was all I needed to steer me towards picking up their debut EP As Ugly As They Wanna Be. After just one listen my assumptions were confirmed in full. This band kicked fucking ass.
Why did I love this band so much? Well, because it was so different, so light hearted, and it just seemed to be forged from a much different mold than so many of the other new bands coming out at the time. So many of the bands coming out around this time were either sounding like generic versions of already generic glam bands. Bands like Firehouse, Trixter, etc were just watered down versions of already watered down bands. With Ugly Kid Joe, it was something new.
Ugly Kid Joe’s sound had so many different elements to the sound and it was just what I needed to break up the monotony. They were part Black Sabbath, part glam metal, part Red Hot Chili Peppers, part Suicidal Tendencies, and full on bad ass. I fucking loved this band. They were doing something truly unique and it seemed to be a huge hit. The EP was so solid but at only five songs long, it left me wanting more. In 1992 I was so psyched to get to see Ugly Kid Joe touring for the EP and in Atlanta at the Masquerade they played to a capacity sold out crowd. The show was everything I hoped it would be plus some. It was so much fucking fun. Whitfield Crane and Co rocked the fuck out of that room and that night they played a whole slew of songs that would eventually appear on their upcoming album.
Later in 1992, Ugly Kid Joe released their debut full length album America’s Least Wanted. This album took things to a whole new level. “Neighbor”, “Goddamn Devil”, “Don’t Go” song for song America’s Least Wanted blew my mind. I vividly remember thinking the only odd number on this one was the cover of Harry Chapin’s “Cats in the Cradle” but for some reason it totally worked and I dug it. Ugly Kid Joe had a three pretty big singles (“Everything About You”, “Neighbor”, and “Cats In The Cradle” and they were touring with everyone from Ozzy Osbourne to Motorhead to Def Leppard. They even had a very successful headlining tour which sold out the Roxy Theater here in Atlanta with Collison as their opening act. The band just seemed to get better and better and their live shows were top notch and they seemed to be riding high. The band put out a follow up album called Menace to Sobriety that showed a significant growth, some maturity, and kicked so much ass but something happened. All of the sudden, everyone hated Ugly Kid Joe.
So why did so many people hate this band? I never got it and I still don’t. They had great songs, they had a singer that could sing his fucking ass off, they had a versatile style that was funky, heavy, and melodic, and they put on a fucking unstoppable live show. What was there to not like? I mean, these guys’ first two albums went fucking double platinum. Could that many people actually hate them? Actually, metal in general seemed to be hated as a whole because of the incoming of a new wave of music known as grunge. I’m not saying that grunge killed metal but let’s face it. Bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and just about every other Seattle band suddenly made metal of any face uncool. Where metal was once commercially successful, grunge now took over the throne and sent all the metal bands for the most part back to working day jobs. In a nut shell, it was cool to hate metal and it was cool to hate Ugly Kid Joe.
After the release of 1996’s Motel California album (which even I sadly overlooked), Ugly Kid Joe called it a day and silently bowed out. No big press releases, no big statements, no farewell tour, nothing. Ugly Kid Joe quietly exited the scene. In 2011, as quietly as they bowed out, Ugly Kid Joe returned to the scene with a brand new EP called Stairway to Hell and the minute I heard “Devil’s Paradise” I just smiled a shit eating grin. One of my favorite bands had returned and they sounded every bit as good if not better than they did 15 years prior. Ugly Kid Joe has played some amazing shows since coming back in 2011 and as of now have yet to play ONE US show. I can only hope that eventually Ugly Kid Joe will find their way back to the states and see that their fans are still alive and well and looking forward to getting ugly with them once again.
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