Hanoi Rocks Chat Highlights: Strange Insights and Comic Relief
April 22, 2002

JR notes: In April, I participated in a free-for-all chat with Michael Monroe and Andy McCoy of the newly-reborn Hanoi Rocks. While the chat was short on insights, it was long on entertainment value, much of that the result of the wacky behavior of the Hanoi fans who participated. Afterwards, I decided to post the following review of the chat to the Hanoi Rocks list because I realized that in the midst of the comic relief were a few revealing and interesting comments from Mike and Andy. Enjoy! (a full transcript of the chat is available online at hanoirocks.com in the news section).

Hanoi's first ever online chat was nothing if not entertaining. Hats off to Jukka and the guys for making it happen.

Each time Mike and Andy answered a question, they were picking from about fifteen or so, so the chat was pretty chaotic. The questions had me smiling, but also a little shocked at the bizarre conduct of certain fans. With so many "hot topics" to talk about, I figured that folks wouldn't want to miss an opportunity to put a really thoughtful question to Mike and Andy directly. But unfortunately, ill-thought questions were numerous, and included:

"Andy, are you gay?"
"Mike is the best!!! You are so fucking rock and roll, more than Andy"
"Andy use your fast fingers and write please."
"Fuck this shit. Why even bother to make a chat like this if you dont ever answer"
"How old is Sebastian Bach?"
"HEY!!! MIKE CAN YOU FART IN THOSE TIGHT PANTS!!??
"Give me the fucking names of your FAVOURITE BASSPLAYERS!!??"
"I GOT SOME SHIT IN MY HEAD AND IT TICKLES!!!!!! FUCK"
"Was the movie about ANDY true or total bullshit??? Answers, answers... ;)"
"i got fucken nothing to say"
"Yo Andy! How`s your singing going with your new teeth?"
"What do you prefer cider or beer ?"
"Which is the best finnish festival?"
"Mike, will you let Andy sing on the new album?" (then again, maybe that is a fair question) :)

A couple of these ridiculous questions actually did get answered head on, I enjoyed this interaction:

"MICHAEL, ARE YOU A MAN OR A WOMAN. SAME QUESTION TO ANDY"

Andy's response: <> Are you a man enough to be a woman ?

--- I also enjoyed this strange interaction prompted by Andy saying:

"<> In order to compose the most incredible music, you have to know the spices!"

To which someone responded:

"ANDY GIVE ME THOSE SPICES,PLEASE"

To which Andy replied back,

"<> Not all of the spices are legal and some are hard to get. Find out for yourself!"

---

Very entertaining stuff!

One thing that honestly surprised me was Andy's comment that "'Piece of Mind' is my favorite track written by Michael Monroe." At first, I thought Andy was referring to the album, but from the context, it appears he's referring to the song. So I went back and refreshed my memory, and yes, "Peace of Mind" is that two minute piece of experimental noise on Michael's Peace of Mind album. If that truly is Andy's favorite solo song of Michael's, I would definitely be insulted. :) But Michael didn't seem to mind. In terms of Michael's favorite solo song of Andy's, the answer was: "ADMIN1: Michael said he likes 'Strung Out' by Andy"

Michael and Andy handled it all gracefully, but the chaos of the chat prevented truly compelling questions from being asked and answered. Unless, of course, you're interested in what Michael's favorite Uriah Heep album is. However, there were some interesting moments. As far as I recall, the "good soldiers" issue did not come up, although one person asked Michael if he had spoken with Sami lately (I did miss part of the chat when I had to reboot, so you should check it out online when Jukka posts it. Also, not all of the questions and answers were in English, so I might have missed some key stuff). And other people did ask Michael and Andy what Sami and Nasty thought of the new Hanoi Rocks. But with so many questions asked at the same time, many went unanswered.

Come to think of it, there was one interaction about Nasty:

"was nasty really the worst motherfucker on earth back in the days?"

<> You wouldnt believe what I've seen concerning Nasty.

Give the chat participants some credit - they kept posting questions about Nasty and Sami and their connection to Mike, Andy, and the new Hanoi Rocks. When the previous tidbit about Nasty came out, a bunch of people peppered Andy for a follow up anecdote, but none was forthcoming. However, a chat participant, "minkd," offered this up about Nasty:

"nasty puked up sauerkraut in the back of my dodge colt in LA"

Now there's part of the Hanoi story I hadn't heard before....

One thing you Sami fans might want to make a note of, evidently Michael does seem to think fairly highly of Sami as a bassist....during the chat, Michael gave a list of his favorite drummers, guitarists, and bass players. Anyway, Sami made his list of favorite bass players! OK, so his current bass player made the list too, but since Andy himself didn't get a mention from Michael in his "best guitarists" list, I would say that Sami got a pretty big compliment there!

But there was also the following matter-of-fact exchange:

"Why didnīt you ask Sami to be the bassplayer?"

"<> SAMI LEFT HANOI ROCKS IN 84"

--- Here was one answer by Andy that the group might like:

"<> This is not a come back, this is a rebirth. We'll definitely be more than one album. Were in it for long haul."

JR

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