0.01
These bits of the video were heavily inspired (as in, word-for-word, costume-by-costume) by the short documentary Heavy Metal Parking Lot, filmed in 1986 in the car park before a Judas Priest and Dokken show. The whole film is currently on YouTube, but prior to that it was a bit of a cult sensation, being passed around on bootleg VHS tapes and watched endlessly on tour buses (Nirvana were apparently huge fans). It’s still influencing people – Steel Panther’s 2019 album Heavy Metal Rules is named after a quote from the doc’s breakout icon 'Zebra-man'. The documentary’s co-director, Jeff Krulik, found the Flavor Of The Weak video “really weird”, telling The Stranger: “There’s a note-for-note re-creation by the major-label band American Hi-Fi, made by major video filmmaker Chris Applebaum, for the song Flavor Of The Weak. We should have taken them to task for ripping us off, but we took the high road.” There’s a 2006 follow-up to the doc, for which a lot of the parking lot’s more memorable characters were tracked down.
0.04
In 2001, 1986 was an unthinkable 15 years prior. Madly, though, this video is now 19 years old. What the fuck, yo. What the goddamnable fuck.
0.49
The band name American Hi-Fi was suggested to frontman Stacy Jones by none other than unkillable Rolling Stones legend Keith Richards when the band ran into him in a club. Jones mentioned that they were trying to come up with a new name – they had previously performed as BMX Girl – and Richards came up with American Hi-Fi from somewhere. Also, what the hell kind of clubs were they going to where they would just casually run into Keith Richards?