Wild Stories About L.A.'s Sunset Strip

The Whiskey a Go Go remains an iconic Sunset Strip venue. Between May and August 1966, the house band played The Doors.The DoorsLead singer Jim Morrison almost missed the entire show during The Doors' last performance at the club.

The venue’s history shows this.The venue’s history.Morrison stayed at the Tropicana Motel, high on acid and half naked, while his bandmates started the show. They found him halfway through, then took him to the Whiskey and the stage. He played their final song, “The End,” by improvising.

Three months after The Doors left the Whiskey a Go Go, a protest started on the Sunset Strip.

Protesters gathered outside Pandora’s Box, a nightclub and coffee shop, on November 12, 1966. They protested a 10:00 p.m. curfew meant to reduce the number of stoned, high, and sometimes naked young people frequenting the Strip.

After tension built between young people and police, a large group of protesters arrived. They carried signs demanding the curfew be lifted. Tommy McLaughlin, singer of May Wines, told LA Weekly.LA Weekly:

Fliers spread, radio stations got the news, and word spread. A thousand people showed up: frat party boys, Marines on leave, pre-hippies, stoned high schoolers, plus appearances by Peter Fonda, Sonny and Cher, and even Gilligan and Bob Denver.

The protest only caused Pandora’s Box to close. Still, the kids had a good night.

When Tom Petty arrived in Los Angeles from Florida with his stoner friends, they drove the Strip, buying tapes. The area had many record labels, and they wanted access.Tom PettyTom Petty arrived in Los Angeles from Florida with his stoner friends. They drove up and down the Strip, shopping for tapes. Dozens of record labels operated there, and they sought entry. Petty isquotedPaul Zollo’s 2005 book, Conversations With Tom PettyConversations With Tom Pettydescribing those days:

"… we would just go in the front door of every one with a tape and say, 'Hi, we just got here from Florida, can we play you this tape?'"

The Continental Hyatt House, called the Riot House, hosted much debauchery in the 1970s. It might have been the first place rock stars destroyed hotel rooms. Led Zeppelin tested this idea best.Led Zeppelinrented the entire top floor and engaged in various acts of depravity. A rumor claimed drummer John Bonham once drove a motorcycle through the hotel hallways.

Guitarist Big Jim Sullivan toldKCRWabout visiting the band at the hotel. When the elevator opened to the top floor, he saw nearly a foot of foam on the floor. Then, "as I looked out this naked girl came sliding past…and then another one and then, followed by John Paul Jones and John Bonham."

Not to be left out of the grand tradition of trashing the Hyatt, a drunkenKeith RichardsKeith Richards tossed a television set out the window of the hotel in 1972. Someone caught the incident.Video recorded the event.Documentarian Robert Frank filmed it. Other rock stars copied this act, maybe thinking the TV toss made Richards a unique talent.

Mötley CrüeMötley Crüe started a new partying style on the Sunset Strip with 1980s glam rock. In a 2011 interview withLA WeeklyGuitarist Nikki Sixx recalls a wild Strip memory:

I tied a girl up in the Whisky bathroom with Mick's guitar cable, then got blow from Tommy. I forgot she was inside! Vince found her, and everything was fine. Being in Mötley Crüe in 1981 in Los Angeles.

A post from TheWhiskyAGoGo (@thewhiskyagogo)onDec 14, 2017 at 8:33am PST/time>

Sixx had other stories. After another night partying and getting high on the Strip, the bassist overdosed withGuns n’Roses' Slash. Sixx describestaking heroin, pills, cocaine, and lots of alcohol before passing out. He was declared dead for almost two minutes.

Adrenaline revived him. The incident inspired the Crüe song “Kickstart my Heart.”

Quaaludes became the drug of choice in the 1970s and 1980s. The first timeSkid Rowlead singer Sebastian Bach tried them at the Rainbow Bar and Grill with Duff McKagan andMetallica’s Lars Ulrich.

In an interview with theNew York Times, he describes the experience like this:

Suddenly we stand up. We lose control of our face muscles; our lips droop, and we start drooling on each other. We thought, “We better sit down.” We went to the booth, got spit on our leather jackets, and Lars thought of a smart idea: charge fans $5 for a picture. He said, “Here are your heroes! Guns N’ Roses, Skid Row! Get a picture.” Snap. We were [slurred slow-motion voice], “Hey, man, Lars, that’s not cool.” Click.

It’s one of the most famous, and tragic, stories of the Sunset Strip’s wild days. In 1982, actorJohn Belushirented a $200 room at the Chateau. Before he died, he reportedly partied all night with musician Cathy Evelyn Smith and got visits from Hollywood stars like Robert DeNiro and Robin Williams.

Smith later told police Belushi was fine when she left, but she returned and found a sceneshe described:

I did not think anything was wrong. If he was in trouble, I would have known what to do. But I did not think he was in trouble. So, I got in the car, did some business, and came back. The place was—it wasDragnet.

South of the Sunset Strip, the Troubadour held major importance in the 1970s and 1980s music scene, hosting hundreds of famous shows. Guns N’ Roses played there with Geffen representative Tom Zutaut in the crowd. Reports state all band members except Axl got drunk, did heroin, snorted coke, or all of these things.Rolling Stone.

Geffen signed the band anyway.