A Tiger's Tale

If Memory Swerves™, 'twas on this day in music history (July 25, 1982) that “Eye Of The Tiger” — theme song to the block-headed film sequel Rocky III or IV — bare-knuckled its way to the top of the Billboard® pop charts, Number One with a proper patrolman's bullet! As the story goes, human growth supplementeer Rocky "Sylvester ” Stallone challenged frost and tipped-hair metal Survivor® Jim Peterik to (in)appropriate the chord progression in Queen’s “Another One Bites The Dust,” yet without calling attention to itself or the copyright lawyers would sue their tiger ballsacks off. Peterik hopped into his “Vehicle” with his bloody .38 Special and fringed leather pouch of ditchweed marijuana and drove off to Chicago's Brookfield Zoo looking for inspiration, hand-spun cotton candy and 6 ft. licorice ropes. Just a man — stoned to the brass-plated toes of his lizard-skin boots — and his will to survive. With vanity chains hanging from the pockets of his leather pants, silken scarves around his neck and geetar strapped to his back, Peterik strolled the zoo grounds singing half-baked gibberish that would later become hits for Night Ranger™, before arriving at the tiger’s den, where he embarked on an epic, mind-melding stare-down with an Amur tiger that lasted into the evening and early morning hours, all thanks to a zookeeper who afforded Peterik undisturbed access in exchange for two pre-rolled pin joints. When Peterik stumbled out of the zoo at dawn, the song was completed, and the writer forever changed. Today, the mind-meld that took “Eye of the Tiger” to movie screens and chart success has transformed the former hair metallion into a tiger-striped carnival curiosity (pictured here). “So many times, it happens too fast. You change your passion for glory,” says Peterik. “But you don’t lose your grip on the dreams of the past. You must fight just to keep them alive.” Bravo and Brilliantine™, Your Tigership!