(1/15/11 – Day 3) Well, I never made it to the second day of NAMM (I will not go into details, let’s just say I took a spill). Day 3 was great though. As I expected, Saturday was twice as packed and the vibe was awesome. I hung with hundreds of fellow metal dogs and took pictures of members of Anthrax, Slayer, Megadeth, Armored Saint, Testament, Yngwie Malmsteen and a few others. I want to send out a special thanks to The Lippin Group for making this happen for METAL SHOP -Ralph

(1/13/11 – Day 1) Even though not to many rock celebs were in attendance, the crowd was fairly large. Hey, it’s NAMM and most of the day was spent looking at a lot of guitars, drums and other instruments. I took photos of instruments that some METAL SHOP listeners may recognize. Oh yeah, and I ran into Megadeth’s David Ellefson! He was in a rush, but still stopped for a quick picture for METAL SHOP! -Ralph

(1/12/11 Pre-Show) The NAMM (North American Music Merchants) convention is held every year in January and is the largest gathering for music instruments and equipment. Today began with me trying to decide if I was even going to get my lazy ass out of bed and go pick up my media badge for this weekend’s show in Anaheim, California. Since today is just set-up day, we were only allowed in Hall E at the convention center. I am glad I went early though because as I walked in, Phil Collen (Def Leppard) and Alex Skolnick (Testament) were making an early special appearance, promoting software for a company named Agile. I snapped a few pictures and I am excited to meet more rock celebs this weekend. -Ralph

Some great hair band photos from back in the day were posted at accesshollywood.com.

Ratt in their full 80’s regalia, strike a pose, Chicago, Jan. 1, 1990

Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi poses for a pic with fellow hair metal god Joe Elliot of Def Leppard, Jan. 12, 1989

A young Sebastian Bach rocks out with his band, Skid Row, at The Forum, Los Angeles, Jan. 3, 1990

Hair metal kings Motley Crue — Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Nikki Sixx and Mick Mars pose for a shot, Jan. 1984

Brett Michaels attends a taping of the television Show’ ABC in Concert’ at the Hard Rock Cafe in Los Angeles, April 30, 1991

Def Leppard and Poison played the second to last show of their summer tour just north of Portland, Oregon on September 11th and HAIR BAND RADIO’s Jillicious got up close and personal.