Rock Icons is a brand new docu-series on VH1 classic by Banger Films, featuring some of the biggest and most influential names in rock and roll. It premiered this past Saturday on VH1 Classic, and featured the lead singer and bassist of Rush, Geddy Lee.
Sam Dunn, founder of Banger Films/music anthropologist recounts how Rock Icons came out saying:
Initially the idea was doing a show called Metal Icons, since metal has been our bread and butter being at Banger Films for 10 years now. We approached VH1 Classic about doing it on the heels of Metal Evolution, as it did really well, but at the time they didn’t really need a new show. Fast forward a couple of years and we got an email saying, “Are you guys still interested in doing that Metal Icons show?” Of course we said yes, and as we started to develop the idea we all agreed that it shouldn’t just be metal. It should be broadened out to rock, because it just gives us the opportunity to tell stories about a broader range of musicians.
As far as for who they picked
What we like to do at Banger is tell good stories, so it was really about zeroing in on musicians that we felt had a good story to tell, whether it’s Rob Halford, Geddy Lee, Ann Wilson or Billy Corgan. These are musicians that have made a major impact over the past several decades, and many of them haven’t had documentaries made about their lives or even about the bands they’ve played in.
Today it was announced that the March 21st episode is to feature Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, and will be able to be seen on VH1 Classic at 10pm.
As for what’s next, there seems to be a mixture of Soundgarden, child-targeted music programming, hip-hop, and Satan. You can never forget the Satan.
“First we’ve got to finish editing Rock Icons. Then we’re doing a feature documentary on Soundgarden which we’re really excited about. They approached us about doing a film on their career, which they haven’t really talked about.”
“And we’ve launched a kids programming division at Banger called B Minors and we’re hoping to start doing some music-related kid’s stuff, which I think could be cool.”
“There’s two other projects we’ve been working on for a while. One is a documentary on Satan which really looks at kind of what’s been called “The Satanic Panic,” that exploded in the 1980s… And then we’re also doing a feature film on hip hop that’s kind of like (Banger Films 2005 feature) Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey, but about hip hop, where the Canadian rapper Shad is on his own journey to answer the question “What is hip hop?”
The rest of the interview can be found on VH1.com.
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