The Four Horsemen were an American hard rock band that had brief popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Their style was blues influenced heavy rock and their fame was both fleeting Formed in the late eighties by Wales-born guitarist Haggis (a.k.a. Stephen Harris), who had been a touring bassist for The Cult and member of Zodiac Mindwarp, the Four Horsemen were based out of Hollywood, California, and featured Frank Starr on vocals.
Their first release was a self titled four track EP in 1989, which generated enough interest to get them a full album record contract with Def American.
The second album, Nobody Said it Was Easy was produced by Rick Rubin, and was by far their most popular. The album produced the title track as a single and the hit "Rockin' is Ma Business.". However, the band was tied up in legal disputes with Rubin and lead singer Frank Starr also spent some time in jail on a drugs charge, the combination of which put their album on hold for nearly two years. By the time it was finally released in 1991, the music scene was just about to change with the rise of Grunge which in turn led to a rapid downturn in many of the existing hard rock acts. Just as they were getting wider recognition, their market disappeared. Business problems, another stint in jail by Frank Starr and internal fights followed, which prompted Haggis to leave the band.
In 1994, the band reconciled their differences and started to put together a third release with Pharaoh replacing Haggis on bass. But the first of two tragedies struck on September 27th 1994 when original drummer Dimwit (Ken Montgomery) died from a drug overdose. The band continued with creating the album, dedicating it to Dimwit and including the poignant ballad 'Song for Absent Friends' which is clearly influenced by his death. Dimwit's brother Chuck Biscuits took over on drums.
Then in November of 1995, lead singer Frank Starr was hit by a drunk driver while driving his motorcycle down Sunset Strip and was left in a coma suffering from severe head injuries. The band soldiered on, releasing the third album Gettin Pretty Good...At Barely Gettin' By... in 1996 on the Magnetic Air label and embarking on a tour with Ron Young of Little Caesar on vocals, hoping that Starr would come out of the coma, but he eventually died on June 18, 1999, and the band broke up.
In 2007, Haggis assembled as much archive footage of the band as he could, and released a 2 disc retrospective, Left for Dead. Disc one is a DVD featuring the promo videos from Nobody said it was Easy, plus rare interview, live performance and behind the scenes footage. Disc two is a live CD.
Lineup
Original Members:1989: The Four Horsemen
Frank C. Starr (vocals ex-Alien and Sin)
Dave Lizmi (guitar)
Haggis (guitar, former bassist of The Cult and Zodiac Mindwarp when he went by the name of Kid Chaos)
Ben Pape (bass)
Ken "Dimwit" Montgomery (drums)
Other Players:
Ron Young (vocals)
Pharaoh (bass)
Chuck Biscuits (drums)
Randy Cooke (drums)
Rick McGee (guitar)
Discography
1989 The Four Horesemen (EP) - Caroline/ILL labels
01 Welfare Boogie
02 Shelly
03 High School Rock N Roller
04 Hard Lovin' Man
1991 Nobody Said it Was Easy - Def American01 Nobody Said It Was Easy
02 Rockin' Is Ma' Business
03 Tired Wings
04 Can't Stop Rockin'
05 Wanted Man
06 Let It Rock
07 Hot Head
08 Moonshine
09 Homesick Blues
10 75 Again
11 Lookin' For Trouble
12 I Need A Thrill/Somethin' Good
1996 Gettin' Pretty Good at Barely Gettin' By - Magnetic Air01 Still Alive And Well
02 Gettin' Pretty Good At Barely Gettin' By
03 Drunk Again
04 Livin' These Blues
05 Song For Absent Friends
06 Keep Your Life
07 Hot Rod
08 Rock My Universe
09 Back In Business Again
10 Hit The Road
11 Keep On Keepin' On
12 My Song
13 What The Hell Went Wrong
2005 Left For Dead CD/Live'92 - No Label
01 '75 Again
02 Moonshine
03 Tired Wings
04 Can't Get Next To You
05 Nobody Said It Was Easy
06 Hothead
07 The Roadie From Hell
08 I Need A Thrill
09 Wanted Man
10 Rockin Is Ma Business
11 Let It Rock
12 Lookin For Trouble and full of tragedy.
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