Steven Adler, the original drummer of Guns N’ Roses, tells of his experiences with the band in his autobiography My Appetite for Destruction: Sex, And Drugs, And Guns N’ Roses. The book also deals with Adler’s early introduction to rock and disco in the Los Angeles nightclubs run by the gangster Eddie Nash.
These nightclubs, including the Starwood and Odyssey, were frequented by gays as well as young teens preyed upon by many of these gays. Adler, for one, relates how he was raped.
Here, Jamie Dlux revisits this long-ago milieu. We are introduced to the varied players, nightclub staffers and musicians who partied until dawn at the Nash clubs.
If you’ve seen Paul Thomas Anderson’s film Boogie Nights, the character played by Alfred Molina was said to be inspired by Nash. Nash was at one time one of California’s largest cocaine dealers. In the film, he’s coked out of his mind, dancing around in a robe and Speedos to Rick Springfield’s “Jessie’s Girl.”
And here, Alfred Molina gets cut short while enjoying a post-midnight boogie.