Artist · EveryDisc catalogue

Crown of Thorns

Formed at the dawn of the 90s by Jean Beauvoir, who recruited Tony Thompson from Chic and The Powerstation, Micki Free from Shalamar, and top session bassist Michael Paige, the band Crown Of Thorns quickly became the subject of a fierce bidding war among major labels. The winner was Interscope, reportedly paying them a whole million dollars for the honor. Vocalist Jean Beauvoir was one of the early members of The Plasmatics, one of the most outrageous rock collectives of all time. From there, he moved to Little Steven as a bassist, then as a guitarist and co-producer, but after two albums and three extremely successful world tours, he left to pursue a solo career. The result was the platinum single “Feel The Heat” from the album Drums Along The Mohawk and tours with The Eurythmics and Tina Turner. In addition, he wrote songs with musicians such as Kiss, The Ramones, Lionel Richie, John Waite, and many others. His band Voodoo X recorded the album Volume 1 - The Awakening for the Columbia label, which is still considered one of the best melodic rock albums by most of the rock press and fans. The recording of the debut Crown of Thorns album featured Paul Stanley of Kiss, Jim Vallance (Bryan Adams/Aerosmith), and Beau Hill (Europe/Winger). However, as fate would have it, the resulting self-titled debut album never saw the light of day on Interscope. Due to a changing musical climate and management, the album’s release was delayed for more than a year, but then the band finally got the opportunity to go elsewhere! The album went on sale in mid-April 1994 and received rave reviews from critics. Kerrang! magazine called it “one of the best American hard rock albums in recent years” – it entered the metal charts a week after its release and stayed there for a full six months!