Chuck Klosterman's Favorite Hair Metal Albums

See also: Top 20 Hair Metal Albums Of All Time: The Complete List

It's hair metal week on West Coast Sound! And it's hard to imagine a greater enthusiast for the genre than Chuck Klosterman. His 2001 music memoir Fargo Rock City does an exemplary job of examining what was great about the cock rock era. (It might well be the only serious book-length treatise on the subject.) It also gets into his one-time obsession with Lita Ford, above, who “made me think about sexy women as people — not just as the subject of some long-haired guy's lyrics.”

In the process of putting together our top 20 hair metal albums list — which we're counting down this week — we compiled suggestions from writers around the country. We were honored to get input from Klosterman, and you can see his top 25 below. Oh, and check out his most recent novel, The Visible Man, which concerns a character possessing the technology to make himself invisible. Does he use it to visit Lita Ford in her boudoir? There's only one way to find out.

Chuck Klosterman's top 25 hair metal albums

24. The Cult

Electric (1987)

23. Living Colour

Vivid (1988)

22. Ratt

Out Of The Cellar (1984)

21. Ozzy Osbourne

Bark At The Moon (1983)

20. Britny Fox

Britny Fox (1988)

19. Def Leppard

High N' Dry (1981)

18. Tesla

The Great Radio Controversy (1989)

17. David Lee Roth

Eat'Em And Smile (1986)

16. Ace Frehley

Frehley's Comet (1987)

15. KISS

Animalize (1984)

14. Poison

Open Up And Say…Ahh! (1988)

13. Ratt

Ratt (EP) (1983)

12. Warrant

Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich (1988)

11. W.A.S.P.

Live…In The Raw (1987)

10. Skid Row

Skid Row (1989)

9. Cinderella

Long Cold Winter (1988)

8. Motley Crue

Too Fast For Love (1981)

7. Poison

Look What The Cat Dragged In (1986)

6. Def Leppard

Pyromania (1983)

5. Faster Pussycat

Faster Pussycat (1987)

4. Guns N' Roses

G N' R Lies (1988)

3. Vinnie Vincent Invasion

Invasion (1986)

2. Motley Crue

Shout At The Devil (1983)

1. Guns N' Roses

Appetite For Destruction (1987)

See also:

*The Top 20 Hair Metal Albums Of All Time: #20-16

*The Top 20 Hair Metal Albums Of All Time: #15-11

*The Top 20 Hair Metal Albums Of All Time: #10-6

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