Col. Parker

by Greg Prato
Led by former Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke and Stray Cats drummer Slim Jim Phantom (as well as bassist/singer Muddy Stardust and keyboardist Teddy Andreadis), the straight-ahead rock outfit Col. Parker formed in 1999. The band's origins lay in the Phantom-owned Cat Club in Hollywood, where each Thursday night, Phantom would invite friends to come up and jam, as they started off by playing strictly covers of such classic rockers as the Faces, Rolling Stones, T. Rex, Chuck Berry, and Mott the Hoople, among others. Solely on the strength of their live performance, the ad-hoc band was offered a recording contract from the V2 label, and Col. Parker (named after Elvis Presley's infamous manager) began focusing on penning original tunes. Their debut album, 2001's Rock N Roll Music, shows the band not sounding too far off from their influences, especially Exile on Main Street-era Rolling Stones, mixing originals with a pair of covers (Janis Joplin's "Mercedes Benz" and the New York Dolls' "Pills").