ROB HALFORD, JOE ELLIOTT, RUDY SARZO, CARMINE APPICE Discuss MTV's Early Years In New Book

Greg Prato, the author of such books as "Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History Of Seattle Rock Music", "Touched By Magic: The Tommy Bolin Story" and "A Devil On One Shoulder And An Angel On The Other: The Story Of Shannon Hoon And Blind Melon", has a new title that is now available for purchase.

"MTV Ruled The World: The Early Years Of Music Video" is the first-ever book to focus solely on the channel's important building-block years, specifically from the MTV's launch to when its original group of VJs left the channel. Comprised of over 70 all-new interviews — including those with Rob Halford, Geddy Lee, Joe Elliott, Phil Collen, Bruce Kulick, Rudy Sarzo, Warren DeMartini, Lita Ford, Eric Bloom, Carmine Appice, Herman Rarebell, Marky Ramone, Jello Biafra and Pete Angelus (director of VAN HALEN and David Lee Roth videos) — the book is not only an eye-opening account of the early years of MTV and the stories behind its biggest videos, but also of the music industry, important music developments/events, and the "Big '80s" in general.

"MTV Ruled The World: The Early Years Of Music Video" includes chapters titled "Van Halen" (which focuses on the making of and people's thoughts on VAN HALEN's videos),"Def Leppard (and Mutt Lange)" (which focuses on the making of and people's thoughts on DEF LEPPARD's videos and how it was working with Mutt Lange),"Videos: Heavy Metal" (which includes stories behind various popular heavy metal videos from the '80s),and "Kiss Unmasks On MTV" (which includes people's memories of when KISS unmasked on MTV in '83).

Quotes from the book:

Joe Elliott (DEF LEPPARD): "About half-way through making 'Pyromania', we were starting to hear back from Cliff Burnstein, who was one of our co-managers, the one that was based in America, about this cable channel that was starting to play the video for 'Bringin' On The Heartbreak'. We probably just went, 'Yeah, OK. Whatever.' Because we were heavily concentrating on making a new record. But I guess it would have been about three months after that, we got a Telex — remember those? — from Cliff, saying, ''High N' Dry' has just doubled its sales in four months.' We'd gone from like 250,000 copies to going gold. We're like, 'Why?!' And he's like, 'Well, this MTV thing.'"

Rob Halford (JUDAS PRIEST): "In a very short space of time, it was just huge, and everybody was clamoring to get on MTV. It became swamped. You had to get your timing absolutely right with the release of your single, album, or tour. Everybody was wanting to get on that MTV network. It was just rammed. It was like the 101 at rush hour in L.A. Everybody was crawling to get their slot and their time spot, because of its value and importance. We didn't realize it, but then when you come back to America, there are more people. There are more fans. You're selling more records. And that's 'the MTV bump.'"

Rudy Sarzo (QUIET RIOT, OZZY OSBOURNE, WHITESNAKE): "Around 1981, if you wanted to build up a band, you had to do it city to city, radio station to radio station. I experienced that while I was touring with Ozzy Osbourne. Strategically, touring was a little different, too, because you would basically stick to one area. Let's say you play the Northeast. You would spend maybe four weeks playing that northeast area of the United States. Whereas, when MTV came, you could actually skip the 'C markets' and some of the 'B markets' and spread it around more to the cosmopolitan areas."

Carmine Appice (VANILLA FUDGE, BLUE MURDER, OZZY OSBOURNE): "'Bark At The Moon' was wild, because me and Ozzy were doing the album in New York. I was actually the associate producer on 'Bark At The Moon', initially. And then we flew over on the SST — me and Ozzy — to London. It was like a three-hour flight, so we weren't that jet-lagged. The next day, we were at this old mental hospital, where we did the video. That was a crazy experience, because while Ozzy was getting that make-up on — which took him about four or five hours — we would be on set, walking around, looking around, and checking out the place. It was a pretty horrible place. It was all falling apart. It was a real mental institution. We found embryos in bottles in the closet. It was abandoned, and it was probably 200 years old, if not more. It was a spooky place to do that video. And then they showed the rain scene. We were standing outside at the funeral, and they were shooting up the water on us, to make it look like rain. It was damned cold out there! We had these top hats on, and you see the rain dripping off the top hats. After those scenes were done, we had to be wrapped in towels. It was hard for Ozzy, because he had to put that make-up on. Any fun that it would have been was killed for four or five hours."

Bruce Kulick (KISS): "We went to England [to shoot the 'Tears Are Falling' video]. I always love being in England. I remember we were using a video director that knew how to do over-the-top stuff. I loved the fact that he wanted to feature me and use the solo dramatically, even if it made me do 'the shower thing,' and suddenly, I'm doing what looked like a hair commercial! But that was great. Even though we knew it was a one-shot thing, I followed the direction, and I wasn't really that worried about the guitar [getting wet], because hey, I was a rock star, so we'll deal with the guitar. We'll wipe it down. I dug the set. I thought it was really cool. I was really happy how it came out. I was very proud of the band at that time. I was glad to be a 'video star.' The volcano I thought was really funny. Thank God it worked and went off when it was supposed to. Everything just really came together. We went to England because, at the time — in '85 — the dollar was stronger than the pound, so a $100,000 video might only cost $75,000. I liked that they used a 'girl next door' pretty girl [as the female role in the video], not some stripper."

The MTV book is 427 pages long and priced at $24.99 (ISBN # 978-0-578-07197-8).

For ordering information and to view samples from the book before purchasing, go to this location.