Two years ago, guitarist Tim Kelly died in a car accident. And Slaughter had to decide about whether to continue as a band.
"That was a hard decision," drummer Blas Elias said during a telephone interview from his home in Las Vegas. "We didn't know if we could keep going. But we decided to try it."
The band tapped Kelly's guitar technician, Jeff Blando, for the job.
"We made it a point not to go beyond the Slaughter family," Elias said. "And we pride ourselves that the band is still the original lineup."
Slaughter — Elias, Blando, vocalist Mark Slaughter and bassist Dana Strumm — will open for Poison in the E Center on Wednesday, Aug. 16. The show will begin at 6 p.m. Tickets are on sale at all Smith'sTix outlets and the E Center box office. Dokken and Cinderella will also perform.
For those interested, Poison and Cinderella are touring with their original lineups. Dokken's only personnel change is guitarist Reb Beach, who replaced George Lynch three years ago.
Although Slaughter's anthemic melodic metal tunes "Up All Night" and "Fly to the Angels" were a hit with metal fans just before the Northwestern "grunge" movement, it wasn't a big part of the '80s scene.
"We actually hit the tail end of the 'hair-band' era," Elias explained. "We hit it big in 1990. And we were loving life. We were playing arenas during the time when rock music was fun. People and fans thought metal bands were larger than life. Then, as fast as it hit us, it was taken away."
Elias said he remembered when Slaughter was on top rotation on MTV, then the next week, they were shunned. "We were told point blank that our music wasn't welcome on the network anymore. That was a blow to us. Then the radio stopped supporting us and so did the record companies."
But the band was determined to keep going. So, it continued to play small clubs. "It was like a step backwards," Elias said. "But we stuck it through, and we made it to the point where people are wanting to hear us again."
After a string of albums on the Chrysalis label, Slaughter made the switch to CMC International, a label that prides itself on classic-rock lineups, including Styx, Peter Frampton and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
"It's funny, for a band that critics and MTV have dissed as done for, we're more busy than we've ever been," Elias said with a laugh.
In addition to Slaughter, Elias has been busy with his own projects. The much talked about metal-band flick "Metal God," which will probably be renamed "So You Wanna Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star," is one of them.
"I play in a Judas Priest tribute band," said Elias, who named Ringo Starr, Kiss, Cheap Trick, Simon Phillips and Led Zeppelin's John Bonham as his major influences. "I'm excited about being in that show because it's the first movie that looks at metal bands seriously."
Slaughter is also planning its next album, which should be done in a few months.
"Our connection with our style of music is like a marriage," Elias said. "We vowed to be together through all the tough times, and we have. Things are looking up for us, now. And we're happy to have kept our integrity. And we plan to keep it no matter how hard things get."
E-mail: scott@desnews.com