The legendary Rainbow Bar and Grill celebrated its 50th anniversary Sunday with its annual party in the parking lot with a number of performances. The Rainbow (Formerly Villa Nova) started with Gary Stromberg and Bob Gibson who brought in Mario Maglieri, Lou Adler, and Elmer Valentine as co-owners. Before the Rainbow existed and it was still Villa Nova, that was where Joe DiMaggio met Marilyn Monroe. The Rainbow opened April 16, 1972 with a party for Elton John and would soon become the hang out for all kinds of music legends in the 70’s like Neil Diamond, Alice Cooper, Harry Nilsson, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Micky Dolenz, and Keith Moon. This group is where the name Hollywood Vampires originated. In the 80’s when hard-rock and hair metal/ glam rock became the next major genre of the Sunset Strip, bands like Motley Crue, Guns N’ Roses, W.A.S.P., Poison, and L.A. Guns. Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister could be seen for years at the end of the outdoor bar playing video poker drinking Jack & Coke until his passing in 2015. The outdoor bar was renamed the Lemmy lounge and features a bronze statue of Lemmy along with a number of photos, motorhead themed tables, stools, and merch. The Rainbow has been referenced in songs by the Earl Slick Band, Guns N’ Roses, Jimmy Buffett, and Cheech and Chong. It can be seen in the Guns N’ Roses music videos for “Estranged,” and “November Rain,” and was featured in the Motley Crue biopic The Dirt. The band Rainbow was named after it. In 2019 a documentary about the Rainbow was released. In 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic David Lee Roth released the song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow Bar and Grill.”
Eddie Trunk
The lineup for the 50th Anniversary bash included headliner Steel Panther, Orgy, Ratt frontman Stephen Pearcy, Crazy Town, and Pretty Boy Floyd. The debut of Sometimes Y (Yelawolf and Shooter Jennings) came around 5:30 P.M. and when radio/ tv host Eddie Trunk (That Metal Show) came out to announce them, he mentioned how lucky everyone was to be inside as there was a line forming outside which went down several blocks once their performance ended. Their self-titled debut album released March 11th has already hit 17 million streams globally. Jennings produced the album and it was recorded at the world famous Sunset Sound. The band consists of Yelawolf on vocals, Jennings on guitar/keys, drummer Jamie Douglass, bassist Ted Russell Kamp, and guitarist John Schreffler.
Sometimes Y will play their first full-length show at the Viper Room May 8th. Yelawolf stated “When we heard The Viper Room could be closing soon, there was no fuckin way we weren’t gonna do a show there before they shut the door,” “We just played our first show together ever at The Rainbow and we wanted to pay our respects to another legendary stage on the Sunset Strip. So SOMETIMES Y will be doing a FREE show on May 8th at The Viper Room in Los Angeles!!”
