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> Login to your account > Register★ SMASHED GLADYS
From page 15 of Classic Rock Magazine October 2006
Cover of October 2006 issue.
WORDS: SLEAZEGRINDER
I heard that the singer in this band is the chick in Mötley Crliie’s Looks That Kill video – you know, the one they poke with sticks.
Smashed Gladys singer Sally Cato has never denied it. Also, the rest of the band were the sleazy lookin’ skinny gits backing Aerosmith and Run DMC in the Walk This Way video.
Have I ever heard ’em?
Maybe. Sally Cato and guitarist Bart Lewis were refugees from the Toronto punk scene. They formed the band in New York City in 1983, where their street-tough, hard-glam sound caught the ear of Gene Simmons, who produced their first demo. Eventually, said demo helped them snag a record deal and lots of famous friends, including Ozzy, who recorded with them, and Cheap Trick and Blue Ö yster Cult, who they toured with.
So what went wrong?
They just took too long trying to get famous. Elektra Records dropped them, and after spending several lost years in the dog days of the glam decline Smashed Gladys finally snagged a new deal with Atlantic in 1993. Mick Ronson was set to produce, but then he got cancer and died. And so did Smashed Gladys’s record deal. The end.
Sleaze is back. So why not Gladys? Sally Cato quit the music business and went back to her first career, graphic design. She currently owns a successful firm in Manhattan that specialises in design work for Broadway. Roger Lane and JD Malo continued a fitful career in sleaze, with Lane joining the Throbs and Malo ping-ponging through the Michael Monroe Band, Cycle Sluts From Hell and Higher Octane.
Well, cool. What’s with the weird name, though?
Here it is, one of the most gloriously dumb band name origins I’ve ever heard, from Sally Cato: “Elvis Presley’s mother was named Gladys, and we figured that if she gave birth to Elvis, then she’s probably the Virgin Mary of rock music. I don’t know, but if I gave birth to Elvis I would certainly want to do something about it – like drink a quart of Southern Comfort; so I would be Smashed Gladys. It just sort of snowballed along that line.” Now you know.
