I remember reading that DuBrow was unaware of Slade or Noddy Holder's existence at the time of the recording of that debut, he said he patterned himself after Steve Marriott. It was the producer who said "You sound like the guy from Slade" and recommended covering a Slade song. Given how little Slade meant in the US while Humble Pie ruled the stadiums for a while I tend to believe that.
Long before they were an 80's (anyway) household name:
I was a fan of the
other guys in Kevin's bands, but I always thought he was an unpleasant gasbag. I was taking bass lessons from Carlos Cavazo's brother when DuBrow changed their name back to Quiet Riot after Kevin decided to cash in on Randy's name after his death. Tony (my teacher) was in the band at the time. Once they got a little attention, Kevin had Chuck Wright come in on bass and then kicked him out once Rudy was available again (though, as usual, he didn't play on the album).
Even Quiet Riot's biggest original hit (Metal Health) was
not their original, it was a Snow song with new lyrics (Snow was Carlos and Tony's former band). They also covered one more Small Faces track (Itchycoo Park) in their later incarnation, as well as covering The Kinks, The Dave Clark Five and Spooky Tooth for good measure.
And for complete LA rock kid nerd points, some of Wolfgang became Autograph:
