NEW YORK (Top40 Charts/ Time Life Records) - Time Life continues their series of acclaimed music compilations with HARD & HEAVY, the most complete collection of hard rocking, head banging hits of the '70s and '80s ever assembled.
Hard & Heavy will be promoted on television with a half hour program hosted by Bret Michaels, lead singer for iconic hard rock band Poison and star of VH1's "Rock of Love" hit reality show. The collection also includes an exclusive DVD of Michaels performing acoustic versions of two of Poison's biggest hits plus two of Bret Michaels' original songs.
HARD & HEAVY features a virtual "who's who" of hard rock artists: Bad Company, Pat Benatar, Blue Oyster Cult, Boston, Cheap Trick, Cinderella, Alice Cooper, Damn Yankees, Deep Purple, Europe, Extreme, Foreigner, Sammy Hagar, Heart, Honeymoon Suite, Billy Idol, KISS, Loverboy, Meat Loaf, Megadeth, Nelson, Night Ranger, Poison, Judas Priest, Quiet Riot, Rush, Styx, Skid Row, .38 Special, George Thorogood, Twisted Sister, Whitesnake, and many more.
The collection features 152 Hard Rocking hits on 9 CDs plus a 2-CD set of power ballads by artists including Poison, Whitesnake, Cheap Trick, Heart, Kiss, Warrant, Kansas, Scorpions, Alice Cooper and many more. Fans who buy the CD collection online or via telephone will receive two bonus DVDs: "Hard & Heavy: Confidential" an exclusive four-song acoustic performance by BRET MICHAELS and "History of Rock 'n Roll," three hours of performance clips and interviews with classic rock legends. Plus, the collection comes in a special metal collector's box, a mini "heavy metal road case" that captures the feel and power of the music.
Michaels recorded four songs on acoustic guitar especially for the Hard and Heavy: Confidential DVD, "Every Rose Has Its Thorn," "Something To Believe In," "Driven" and "All I Ever Needed." The DVD is exclusively available as part of the collection.
Michaels joined forces with Time Life to create an essential look at the hard rocking hits of the '70s and '80s including many high-profile and must-have artists and songs that rarely appear in multi-artist collections. Filmed in the warehouse district of downtown Los Angeles with two hot rockin' co-hosts, the program features over 80 performance clips of music and artists from the '70s and '80s. Michaels talks about how this music affected him growing up, introduces some of his favorite songs and artists, and even talks about writing the classic rock ballad, "Every Rose Has Its Thorn."
"This is the music that I love, live and breathe everyday," says MICHAELS, "Hard & Heavy is, hands down, the hardest rockin' collection I've ever heard. Time Life has put together something that I've always dreamed of. Killer guitar riffs, emotional power ballads and high octane metal."
Time Life's executive producers, Vinny Vero and Mitch Peyser, the creative forces behind the collection, set out to license pivotal hard rock songs to create a complete collection. Said Vero, "Bret wanted to make sure what we were saying in the show was something he felt and believed. He was very involved in the scripting of the show and wanted to feel good about what he was saying." "It's definitely the hardest rockin' collection we've ever created," said Peyser.
