THE BUSBOYS Best known for their appearance in the 1982 comedy 48 Hrs., performing “Boys Are Back in Town,” these L. A. rockers merged new wave with boogie and R&B.

FAITH NO MORE Though replacement Mike Patton took the band into the Top 10, Chuck Mosely still earns royalties from “We Care a Lot,” enough to have recently bought a car.

TATE: Rufus and Funkadelic were rarely played on pop or rock stations. The divide between white and black pop began there. In terms of what rock was in the ’80s and early ’90s, you couldn’t be more rebel than being a black person who had a rock band. SKATORE: If you played instruments, they’d say, “Are you into Prince?” I would say, “That’s not the kind of stuff I’m feeling.” REID: I got a lot of “Good luck, buddy.” It’s hard to put into words how incredibly difficult it was. I made the first phone call [about forming the BRC] because I thought, “Am I nuts? Am I facing this alone?” Then we had a meeting and started putting on BRC shows at CBGB. GLOVER: When I joined Living Colour, I was also in a vocal group that sang in hallways and at parties. I’m on a subway going uptown one day, and I saw one of the guys from the group. And he’s like, “When are you gonna stop singing that rock shit and do some real music?” MICHAEL CAPLAN (former A&R executive, Epic Records): I went to see Living Colour at CB’s and was blown away. But I was working with the two heads of A&R at the ^{time and thought,} “^{Yeah, I’m gonna bring them a black rock band. Sure.}” Black people doing rock was an absurd “^{WHITE PEOPLE thought back then.} WOULD STAY, BUT THE BLACK ^{GLOVER: One person [at a label]} thought I sounded too much like Ben PEOPLE WOULD END UP LEAVING.” ^{Vereen. Or they said the songs didn’t} Angelo Moore have hooks. But the bottom line was always: “We don’t know how to market this. We don’t know where to put this in a record store. They’ll put you in the R&B section because they’ll see your faces on the cover.” EARL DOUGLAS (executive director, New York chapter, Black Rock Coalition): When we tried to book bands at black clubs uptown, there was flat-out resis-

tance—this whole perception of us playing white-
boy music. The biggest battle was that our audience
didn’t drink. I was saying, “Why are they reluctant
to bring us back?” And someone said, “You don’t
understand—the bar is where the club owners make
their money.” I thought, “We need some alcoholics
in this organization!”
MOSELY: I was totally aware that I was the lead singer
in a white band in a white world. A lot of people
thought that was very cool. But a lot of people didn’t.
Certain people, not in the band, couldn’t handle that
I was supposed to have a say in the decision-making
process regarding the band’s future. And when I did,
it was kind of not acceptable. When I acted my color,
that could be a major issue with some people. [Mosely
was fired in 1988 and then went on to replace H.R.
in Bad Brains from 1989 to 1992.]
MOORE: The radio stations would go, “We love
Fishbone! You black guys are fantastic! Give us
$3,000 and we’ll put your song on the radio!” It was
frustrating. I remember knocking on WROQ’s door

subsequently produces a three-song demo for Living Colour, paving the way for their major-label deal with Epic—and “Cult of Personality,” a hit that any suburban metalhead could easily understand.

FROM LEF T: CHRIS WALTER/RE TNA; TON Y MOT TRAM/RE TNA

to their studio. The back door. Eventually they let me in, but after a long-ass time of knockin’.

In 1987, Mick Jagger hires Reid to play on the Rolling Stones singer’s solo album Primitive Cool. Jagger

GLOVER: We had a rehearsal space in Bushwick [Brooklyn], and we’d be playing as the L train went by. No one complained about the noise, because who could be louder than the L train?

REID: The day we wrote “Cult of Personality” was a special day. I started playing the riff, and one thing lead to another. That riff came from Sabbath and Zeppelin. Also we were playing CB’s with bands like Prong and Circle Jerks.

CAPLAN: Then the Jagger thing happened. I took their original CBGB demo, plus the Jagger tracks. At the end of the cassette I put “Little Lies,” a ballad with a very conventional structure. I told my new boss, “This is indicative of the direction they’re moving in.” And that got the deal done.

REID: It felt good. But everything that’s cool has a corollary: “And now what?”

DANIELIA COTTON (musician): I grew up in a small white town in New Jersey, so when I saw the “Cult of Personality” video, it was awesome. It went into my brain that this is something you can do, and do it on a higher level than in your bedroom. When you saw Living Colour, it gave little black kids like me some hope.

TATE: What sold that video in terms of a pop audience was Corey’s bodysuit. White girls, black man, surfer body suit—it just seemed to connect. That’s what made Corey fuckable.

GLOVER: I thought, “That’ll be hot as fuck, but interesting to wear.” But I can not live that down.