Most of you who know me today would be stunned to learn that I was, in fact, a metal head in high school.

Sure, I rocked the mullet, but I never really lived the lifestyle. Didn't go to Crue concerts and get wasted off my arse. Didn't get in trouble at school a bunch; I was no rebel. However, once a month, Mom would pick me up a copy of Circus magazine and a box of 'Nilla wafers from the grocery store.

My appreciation for 1980s heavy metal was two-fold:

1. While loud and rooted somewhat in punk, heavy metal was always legitimately musical. Its melodies were quite pop in structure, and a typical metal guitar solo was practically textbook classical technique. Furthermore, metal is campy and escapist, a showy combination of 1970s glam with 1980s rock.


2. In the days before TMZ.com and 500 channels, American Idol and The Hills, metal was pretty much the pop culture subject of choice for small-town and suburban white kids.

Yes, my musical taste is all over the place, but it's not random or indiscriminate. While to keep up with heavy metal back in the day was a means of keeping up with 1980s pop culture, the genre was also rife with talent, infinitely more so -- in my opinion -- than the junk the Li'l Waynes and Akons of the world put out today.

Long story short: I'm sure most of you saw that Kevin DuBrow was found dead on Sunday. DuBrow, 52, was found dead in his Las Vegas home on Sunday.

DuBrow was primarily known as the lead singer for Quiet Riot, one of 1980s better metal bands, the first to score a No. 1 album on Billboard's album chart. There is no word on a cause of death, but people who know him said he was in great shape.

Of course, what my friends and I joked about today was that if DuBrow died at 52, he had to have been only 28 when "Cum On Feel The Noize" was released in 1983. We got a laugh out of that considering DuBrow looked like he was nearing 50 at the time.

That tune was a Top 10 hit for Quiet Riot, but it was a remake of a 1973 Slade tune -- one of two Slade remakes from DuBrow's band. There actually was a third version of this song done up by Oasis, and I have to say that I liked it better than Slade's version, which featured mostly a campy, 1970s sound.

Quiet Riot's version of the song blows either out of the water. Now, if I put together a Top 10 metal bands list, I'm not sure Quiet Riot would make that Top 10, but for those of us whose impressionable years in music were founded upon the early 1980s, there's no doubt that Kevin DuBrow was an icon.

Now, for those of you who noticed that the song's title contains a vulgarity, I thought I'd note that the original version from Slade also contained it. It's not like it was a 1980s bastardization.

On the other hand -- and this is a total tangent -- does anybody get at least a bit creeped out anytime they pass a Kum n' Go convenience store?

As far as I know, there are only a few in Oklahoma, primarily in the eastern part of the state (Okmulgee). However, given that my late-night blog post was at least sorta about "cum," I figured I'd post this video I found on YouTube done up by some guy who just had to talk to a Kum n' Go store clerk himself. Forgive the poor audio synching; I didn't create it. Just wanted to offer some video evidence of these things called Kum n' Go.