Autograph

A hook-driven hard rock unit exploded onto the scene in 1984 thanks to the pop-metal party anthem “Turn Up the Radio.” Their polished fusion of sophisticated AOR and pop-metal invited immediate parallels with Van Halen, Fastway, and Slade. Vocalist Steve Plunkett, guitarist Steve Lynch, bassist Randy Rand, keyboardist Steven Isham, and drummer Keni Richards assembled the group in Los Angeles, California in 1983. They secured an RCA contract almost immediately and unveiled their debut album, Sign in Please, the following year. That 1984 release spawned the singles “Send Her to Me” and “Turn Up the Radio,” the latter quickly earning recognition as an enduring ’80s classic. The 1985 follow-up, That’s the Stuff, delivered two more high-octane singles—“Blondes in Black Cars” and the anthemic title track—before the band logged opening slots for Mötley Crüe and Heart. Despite its solid quality, 1987’s Loud and Clear underperformed commercially because of tepid label promotion; the band subsequently departed RCA and disbanded in 1989. Autograph re-formed without Plunkett in 2014 to play a string of festivals, then issued their first new single in decades, “You Are Us, We Are You,” in 2015. The five-song EP Louder appeared the next year, and in 2017 the group signed with David Ellefson of Megadeth’s EMP label to release their long-awaited fourth studio album, Get Off Your Ass. Bassist Randy Rand passed away on April 26, 2022, at age 62.