My Sunday Song – “We All Die Young” by Steelheart

For My Sunday Song #430, we are talking Steelheart’s “We All Die Young”. It is the first song off their 1996 album “Wait”, but that is not where you know it. You probably know it from the 2001 movie “Rock Star” with Mark Wahlberg. It was a song sung by the band Steel Dragon in the movie.  Miljenko Matijevic did the vocals for Mark on this song which makes sense as he did them with Steelheart and he co-wrote the song with Kenny Kanowsk.

The song deals with mortality and how fragile life is since we know that death is basically inevitable. The knowledge of that can be isolating and lonely as well as crush your dreams if you let it overpower you. The challenges in life can be overwhelming and take its toll on you if you let it.

The song starts with a slow build and is 80’s style hard rock song even though this was actually 1996. Miljenko’s vocals are freaking insane. Not too many singers can hit the high notes like he can. It is impressive to say the least. The song is not a high energy rocker, but more slow burner with some heavy ass drums and wicked guitar playing, but nothing comes close to outshining Miljenko’s screams and falsettos. A truly killer song.

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Rock Star: Music From the Motion Picture – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

Who would have thought that in 1991 while doing backing vocals for Stryper’s album ‘Against the Law’, that would lead to Jeff Scott Soto doing the singing vocals for a movie in 2001 called ‘Rock Star’ starring Mark Wahlberg That is what happened. The producer on the Stryper album was Tom Werman and Tom brought Jeff in for a ton of albums he worked on after Stryper’s album and when ‘Rock Star’ came up, he had Jeff come in and audition.

He originally auditioned for the singing voice of Mark Wahlberg’s character, but the producers of the movie thought his voice was too good actually. They wanted a less seasoned voice, but one that could rip in those 80’s styles so they brought in Miljenko ‘Mike’ Matijevic another Tom vocal favorite. Mike is the lead singer of the band Steelheart and man does he have some pipes as well. Jeff actually did backing vocals on Steelheart’s debut album as well.

The movie ‘Rock Star’ was inspired by what went on with Judas Priest after Rob Halford left the band. They brought in a Judas Priest Tribute band singer by the name of Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens. Mark Wahlberg’s character, Chris Cole, is a massive Steel Dragon fan and was in a tribute band called ‘Blood Pollution’. When the lead singer of Steel Dragon, Bobby Beers, quit (sung by Jeff Scott Soto), Chris Cole was hired (sung by Ike Matijevic) and then the movie chronicles the ups and downs of Chris Cole’s life as a result of this move.

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Steelheart – The Albums Ranked Worst to First

Formed in 1989 in Connecticut, the band quickly moved to L.A. where they were signed almost immediately and had their debut album out in 1990. The timing was perfect as record companies were over-saturating the market with the next big Glam Band or Hair Band as it has been so horrendously called over the years. Steelheart it that bill nicely as lead singer Miljenko Matijevic had the pipes and the looks. The band exploded on to the scene with their self-titled debut and saw the album go to #40. They quickly released their follow-up, ‘Tangled in the Reins’, in 1992 and it was dead on impact.

Then tragedy struck while on tour for the 2nd record. An unsecured light truss fell on to the stage, crushing Miljenko and breaking his nose, cheekbone, jaw and twisting his spine up severely. It took him years to recover and eventually in 1996 he made a comeback with ‘Wait”. The album didn’t do anything. Years went by and there was nothing from the band. Then in 2006, he re-emerged with a new band, same name, and released their fourth album, ‘Good 2B Alive’ in 2008. Again not much notice then thanks to Frontiers, 2017 saw them return once more with “Through Worlds of Stardust”. And here we are a few years later and finally ranking all five of their albums from Worst to First.

If you haven’t heard them before, they are worth checking out, and yes, even the worst has some great stuff. I hope you enjoy!

THE WORST – ‘WAIT’ (1996):

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