(TheBRHM.com) It’s spring 2006 and VH1 is heavy into its reality television bag. By this time, the network had gotten its mitts on The Surreal Life, the blueprint show for what would be an onslaught of reality shows where celebrities or those interested in dating the celebrity stay in a house for a few week. You know the format: they get little challenges too to keep things “interesting” and instigate drama.
It’s not the most groundbreaking concept for a show looking at it now but 20 years ago, no one knew this would be one of the forms of reality TV that would dominate prime time slots on cable and network television. To mix things up a bit, VH1 decided to theme one of these projects and came up with the concept of Supergroup.
What Was ‘Supergroup’?
Well, in music, a supergroup is a band or act composed of established musicians from popular bands. Note the keywords “established musicians” and “popular acts”. VH1’s show was based around five musicians living in a Las Vegas house for roughly two weeks. They’re tasked with coming up an original song and performing it living in a set.
The five musicians included former Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach as vocalist, bassist/vocalist Evan Seinfeld of Biohazard as bass player, Ted Nugent on lead guitar, Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian as the thumbtack guitarist, and former Foreigner drummer and the son of Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, Jason Bonham.
To say it was a “good show” would be a lie. Honestly, I’m not a big fan of reality shows because you know drama has to be cooked up just to keep the ball rolling. In this show, the drama was more subdued. There was concern that Bach could fall into drinking again, they were having trouble putting together a song, and naming the band—they went with Damnocracy but I thought Bach’s suggestion of Fist was good.
Unfortunately, there was already a few bands named Fist. I mean, while good it’s not the most unique name and the song they recorded “Take It Back” didn’t pack much of a punch. It something you’d heard before and not a good version of it.
The crescendo for the series was performing live and that episode was a good one. I’d say it was the most enjoyable episode of the series from start to finish. After the show, the band went back to doing what they were doing in their own acts and that’s it.
Or Was It…?
Apparently, the seven episodes had enough mmph in them to warrant the planning of second show—not necessarily a second season—featuring an all-woman band. Slated to be on board for the show was Ann Wilson, lead singer of Heart. That was enough to pique my interest but the show never made it to production.
It really makes me wonder what happened there because it seemed like VH1 had something with the Supergroup concept. Hell, they could’ve even done multiple seasons with a band if they could find musicians who were solo or seeking a return to the industry. Even solo acts have to consider their touring and recording schedule, after all.
Supergroup seems like a show that would’ve been revived on VH1 Classic years ago. If not that, the concept could’ve been salvaged for a similar project. Of course, it’s definitely easier to make reality TV stars out of non-celebrities given a network doesn’t have to wrestle so much with meeting a celebrity’s demands to be on the show. Even celebrities who haven’t been relevant in a decade will have a little pull in contract negotiations if they’re desired for the show.
I will say one thing good came out of the show: it was the lead-in precursor to VH1 Metal Month. I loved Metal Month, so I’ll give the show a check mark for that at least.
If you remember this show, what was your take on it? Enjoyable? Worthy of more seasons? A waste of time for the musicians and viewers at home? Let us know down below!
Staff Writer; M. Swift
This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.