Anthony McLain
Before Phoenix, There Was Prescott
Anthony's story begins in Prescott, where he played guitar in Spoiled Rotten from roughly 1985 to 1987. The group grew out of the high-school years, mixing covers with original material and taking whatever opportunities were available, from house parties and a skating rink to a senior prom that became memorable for reasons the band probably did not expect when it loaded in.
That early period matters because it shows that Anthony's move into the larger Arizona scene did not begin with a polished Phoenix club band. It began the same way many local music stories begin—with friends, borrowed rooms, original songs, small audiences and the belief that the next band might become something bigger. Spoiled Rotten recorded several originals, and by the time that chapter ended, Anthony already knew he wanted to keep moving forward.
The Band That Put Him Into the Valley Scene
By 1989, Anthony had entered the Phoenix and Mesa hard-rock world through RUKKUS. The band carried a melodic heavy-rock and metal identity, with a strong sense of arrangement and musicianship and influences that included Queensrÿche. For Anthony, getting into the band required more than showing up with a guitar. At one point he remembers having to learn roughly twenty-two songs in only two days, the kind of pressure that tells you immediately whether someone can survive in a working band.
RUKKUS became Anthony's real doorway into the Valley network. The band recorded, performed, crossed paths with other musicians and became part of the club culture that made Arizona's late-1980s and early-1990s scene feel connected even when the bands themselves sounded very different. Recordings associated with the group reached places such as Chaton Studios, while musicians including John Aquilino and Danny Wexler became part of the wider story around those sessions and connections.
That line captures something important about Anthony's approach to music: melody mattered, but so did impact. The best material did not have to choose between being heavy and being memorable. It could do both, and the push and pull between those two sides became part of the identity Anthony carried into later projects.
One Band Led to Another
RUKKUS did not become the end of Anthony's story. It became a branch point. From there his Arizona history continued through projects that included Phunk Junkeez, Idols of Perversity, PWR and OIL. Each move connected him to another part of the scene and another generation of musicians, which is exactly why his story belongs in a book about Arizona's musical family tree rather than in a simple list of bands.
- Spoiled Rotten — Prescott beginnings, approximately 1985–1987
- RUKKUS — Phoenix/Mesa hard rock and metal, approximately 1989–1992
- Phunk Junkeez — the story expands beyond the traditional hard-rock lane
- Idols of Perversity — another branch in Anthony's Arizona history
- PWR — continued evolution through the local scene
- OIL — part of the later chapter of Anthony's musical path
More Than a Single-Band Story
Arizona music history becomes much easier to understand when the musicians are followed from band to band. The same names reappear in different rooms, different lineups and different styles, and those connections are what turn a collection of local groups into a real scene. Anthony McLain's path is a strong example of that. Prescott led to Phoenix, one band opened the door to another, and the music kept changing without breaking the thread that connected it all.
That is also why RUKKUS deserves more than a footnote. The band sits at an important point in Anthony's development, right where the high-school beginnings gave way to a serious Valley hard-rock environment. The recordings, the musicians, the pressure of learning the material, the club circuit and the relationships that came out of that period all became part of what followed.
This Is Only Part of the Story
The complete Anthony McLain feature goes deeper into Spoiled Rotten, the RUKKUS years, recordings, lineup changes, the people connected to those sessions and the later projects that carried his Arizona history forward. That full story is being preserved for The Death of Local Music — Volume II: Arizona Legacy Bands.