3 Hair Metal Ballads From 1988 That Could Have Been Country Songs

You might think hair metal and country music have very little in common. The former is glossy and often androgynous, while the latter finds its connection in down-to-earth relatability. However, they both represent a kind of folk music. And most genres of American songs are going to take you back to the same places.

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There’s bound to be overlap in a Western system with only 12 notes and countless songs containing the same few chords. Lyrically, both forms reach working-class audiences with heartbreak ballads, underdog tales, party songs, and the like. So let’s travel back to 1988, to the age of malls, big hair, and spandex. See if you can spot the threads between these three hair metal ballads and country music.

“Every Rose Has Its Thorn” by Poison

I already know what Poison’s hit ballad sounds like as a country song. I live in Nashville, and on any given night or afternoon, you’ll hear someone crooning Bret Michaels’s tearjerker to sloshed tourists on Broadway. Michaels always had a Nashville vibe, with his large-brimmed hats and bedazzled boot-cut jeans. But don’t limit your imagination to Broadway’s cover bands; Michaels has released multiple twangy reworkings of “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”.

“Patience” by Guns N’ Roses

GN’R fans have needed a lot of patience while waiting for new music from the band. Four years passed between Appetite For Destruction and the Use Your Illusion double albums. But that was a mere sprint compared to the war of attrition it took to complete Chinese Democracy. Still, “Patience”, the song, arrived on the stopgap EP, GN’R Lies, in 1988. Here we have Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin returning from the Sunset Strip to their Indiana roots. With slight changes in the production, this lonesome acoustic ballad might have topped the country charts.

“I’ll Be There For You” by Bon Jovi

Bon Jovi already showed its Americana pedigree as hair metal rose in popularity in the mid-80s. One of the band’s biggest hits, “Wanted Dead Or Alive”, is an outlaw tale delivered through the lens of New Jersey rock stars. But I can imagine a country star belting “I’ll Be There For You”. When Def Leppard released its blockbuster album Hysteria in 1987, producer Mutt Lange introduced pop country to its future. Soon, country radio started to mimic the glossy tracks of Bon Jovi and Def Leppard. “I’ll Be There For You” fits right in alongside neatly polished singles by Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood.

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