Hard 'N Heavy Volume 7

Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier; February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer, songwriter and musician whose career spans more than five decades. With a stage show that sometimes included a guillotine, gallows, electric chair, fake blood, boa constrictor and baby dolls, Cooper drew equally from horror movies, vaudeville and garage rock to pioneer a grandly theatrical and violent brand of heavy metal that was designed to shock. Alice Cooper originally was a band that consisted of Furnier on vocals and harmonica, Glen Buxton on lead guitar, Michael Bruce on rhythm guitar, Dennis Dunaway on bass guitar, and Neal Smith on drums. Taking on the name in 1968, the Alice Cooper band broke into the international music mainstream with the 1971 hit "I'm Eighteen". It was followed in 1972 by the even bigger single "School's Out", which reached #1 in the UK during that summer. The band reached its commercial peak with the transatlantic #1 album Billion Dollar Babies in 1973. Furnier's solo career as Alice Cooper, legally adopting the band's name as his own, began with the 1975 concept album Welcome to My Nightmare, and reached his commercial peak with the 1989 hit "Poison". His most recent studio release (his 18th solo album) was in 2008, Along Came a Spider. Expanding from his original Detroit-based garage rock roots, over the years Cooper has experimented with many different musical styles, including art rock, conceptual rock, rock and roll, jazz, new wave, and heavy metal. He's known for his social and witty persona offstage. The Rolling Stone Album Guide goes so far as to call him the world's most "beloved heavy metal entertainer". He helped to shape the sound and look of heavy metal, and is seen as the person who "first introduced horror imagery to rock'n'roll, and whose stagecraft and showmanship have permanently transformed the genre". Away from music, Cooper is a film actor, a golfing celebrity, a restaurateur, and since 2004 a popular radio DJ with his classic rock show Nights with Alice Cooper. In 2011, the original Alice Cooper Group was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Paul Bruce Dickinson (born 7 August 1958) is an English singer, airline pilot, fencer, broadcaster, author, director, musician, screenwriter, actor, marketing director, entrepreneur and songwriter best known as the vocalist of the heavy metal group Iron Maiden. Dickinson performed for some local bands including Styx (not the American band of the same name) in 1976, Speed, (1977–1978), and Shots in early 1979. He then joined the band Samson later in 1979, where he gained some popularity. In this band he went by the name of "Bruce Bruce." He left Samson in 1981, citing musical differences. Shortly afterwards, in 1981, Dickinson was hired as Iron Maiden's new vocalist, replacing Paul Di'Anno, and debuting for that band with the 1982 album The Number of the Beast. During his time in that band, they issued a series of high impact releases, resulting in Dickinson gaining worldwide fame, and becoming one of the most acclaimed heavy metal vocalists of all time. Dickinson quit Iron Maiden in 1993 in order to pursue his solo career, being replaced by Blaze Bayley. Dickinson's solo work ranged across a wide variety of heavy metal and rock styles. Dickinson rejoined Maiden in 1999 along with guitarist Adrian Smith. Since then, Dickinson has only released one more solo album, Tyranny of Souls. He is the older cousin of Rob Dickinson, lead singer of British alternative rock band Catherine Wheel. His son Austin Dickinson is the lead singer in metalcore band Rise to Remain. Description above from the Wikipedia article Bruce Dickinson, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Blackie Lawless (born Steven Edward Duren; September 4, 1956) is an American songwriter and musician best known as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist (formerly bassist) for the heavy metal band W.A.S.P. He began his music career playing with bands such as Black Rabbit and Orfax Rainbow. In 1975, after Johnny Thunders left the glam rock band New York Dolls in the middle of a tour of Florida, the band started auditioning for guitarists. He was hired but only stayed for the remainder of the tour. After the tour, he went to California with bassist Arthur Kane and helped found Killer Kane. At that time, his stage name was "Blackie Goozeman" as stated on the back of Killer Kane's only EP. About a year later, Kane returned to New York City but Lawless decided to stay in West Los Angeles. In 1976, he formed Sister, which also featured future W.A.S.P. guitarist Randy Piper. Around 1978, a new lineup was assembled which included Nikki Sixx as bassist and Lizzie Grey on guitar. Later, Chris Holmes joined. Sister evolved into Circus Circus in 1979, with Piper again appearing in the lineup. In 1981, following Circus Circus' failure, Lawless joined Lizzie Grey and Nikki Sixx's band London, with whom he played a few gigs and recorded two songs as demos, though by this time Sixx had already departed to form Mötley Crüe. In 1982, he switched to bass after firing original member bassist Rik Fox, later of Steeler fame who had joined the band only 4 months prior, and had named W.A.S.P. over personal issues. The lineup also included Randy Piper and was soon completed with Chris Holmes on lead guitar and Tony Richards on drums. W.A.S.P. underwent numerous lineup changes, with Lawless being the last remaining original member and chief songwriter. Many of his songs tended to deal with religious or apocalyptic themes, due to his Christian upbringing. The band achieved their greatest success from 1985 to 1988, with several hit singles including "L.O.V.E. Machine", "I Wanna Be Somebody", and "Wild Child".

Michael Andrew "Duff" McKagan (born February 5, 1964), is an American musician. He played bass for twelve years in the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. McKagan rejoined the band in 2016, following their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Dave Mustaine is the founder, main songwriter, guitarist, and lead vocalist for the American thrash metal band Megadeth. Before, he was the first lead guitarist and co-songwriter of the metal band Metallica until his departure in 1983.

Saul Hudson (born 23 July 1965), better known as Slash, is an English-American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the lead guitarist of the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Slash has received critical acclaim and is considered one of the greatest guitarists in rock history.

Glenn Raymond Tipton is a guitarist by profession. He plays lead and rhythm guitars for the English heavy metal group Judas Priest.