Mickey rocks: Sex, drugs and Satan at Disney

Human Events, Jan 22, 1999 by Schweizer, Peter, Schweizer, Rochelle

In 1995 Eisner had the record company moved onto the Disney Studio Lot so he could be more deeply involved in running the company. Disney attorneys review all of their contracts and albums, and Joe Roth, chairman of Disney Studios, has taken an active role in managing Hollywood Records' affairs by listening to each album prior to its release.

Disney clearly knows what Hollywood Records is producing. In fact, groups like Insane Clown Posse and Humble Gods fit in well with their roster of acts.

Joe Roth claims that "The Great Malenko" was pulled because he found it "foul and offensive." He says that he doesn't want "music that's about abusing women or encouraging violence." But some bands on the current Hollywood Records roster make Insane Clown Posse seem relatively benign.

With the exception of the rock band Queen, the company has never been interested in recruiting established talent. It's too costly. "Michael [Eisner] doesn't believe in it, and I don't believe in it," says Roth. "When you do that, it appears desperate."

`Kill 'Em All,'

`Am I Evil?'

Since the real money is in developing upand-coming performers, Hollywood Records has, instead, sifted its way through almost every conceivable musical outpost in search for the next great hit. And when the talent hasn't been there, the morbid, vicious, and obscene have been used to gain publicity.

When the label was launched in 1989, Michael Eisner looked for a music industry professional who could run the company. He personally picked a music industry attorney named Peter Paterno to head the new company. Paterno was an industry veteran who had represented groups like Guns 'N Roses, Metallica, and Delicious Vinyl.

The Disney chairman knew what he was getting. Patemo was good friends with then Eisner pal David Geffen.

His clients were certainly evidence of what Eisner could expect from Patemo. Delicious Vinyl was a pioneer in rap music that helped to launch the careers of rappers Tone Loc, Def Jef, Mellow Man Ace, and Young MC.

But Patemo was also deeply involved in the heavy metal music scene. He represented Metallica, which offered a bold message of violence in its sons. An early album was titled "Kill 'Em All," and included songs like "Am I Evil?" Am I Evil? Yes I am

Am I Evil? I am man, yes I On with the action now, I'll strip your pride. I'll spread your blood around,

I'll see you ride.

Your face is scarred with steel, wounds deep and neat.

Like a double dozen before ya, smells so sweet.

The band became notorious in heavy metal circles in the early 1980s by selling promotional T-shirts that read "Metal Up Your A-." But for Michael Eisner, Peter Paterno was the perfect man to lead Mickey's new label. "It is our good fortune to be able to enlist the services of Mr. Paterno," he said, "a proven leader in the music industry and a man whose judgment we respect very highly." Eisner promised that Paterno "will work closely with me" in developing the company.

As a young company, Hollywood

Records was desperate for attention. Once at the helm of Disney's new record label, Paterno backed some of the most controversial bands in music. He started out by signing up an obscure rapper named Prince Akeem, who sang about how black poverty arose from a white conspiracy.