Love/Hate

Love/Hate

Love/Hate is an American hard rock band formed in 1986. The group’s line-up includes Jizzy Pearl on vocals, Skid Rose on bass, Jon E. Love on guitar, and Joey Gold on drums, and later members include Darren Housholder, Chris Van Dahl and others associated with the band across different periods.

Career

The band emerges from the late 1980s and early 1990s hard rock and heavy metal scene, with Jizzy Pearl also linked to L.A. Guns, Ratt and Adler’s Appetite. Their debut album, Blackout in the Red Room, reaches number 154 on the Billboard 200 in 1990. The single “Why Do You Think They Call It Dope?” receives strong MTV airplay, particularly on Headbanger’s Ball.

By the time Wasted in America appears in 1992, heavy metal is no longer commercially fashionable, and the band is dropped by Columbia soon afterwards. Pearl then stages a publicity stunt involving the Hollywood Sign to draw attention to album sales.

Subsequent albums and line-up changes

Love/Hate moves to Caliber and releases Let’s Rumble in 1994, a more raw recording than its earlier work, with Darren Housholder replacing Jon E. Love on guitar. A later switch to Mayhem Records leads to I’m Not Happy in 1995, which brings Jon E. Love back into the line-up. In 1997 the band issues Livin’ Off Layla; during those sessions Jizzy Pearl leaves briefly and is replaced by Mark Torien of BulletBoys. Pearl returns for Let’s Eat in 1999, with Joey Gold again on drums.

Reunions and live activity

The original line-up reunites in February 2007 in Hollywood, California to perform Blackout in the Red Room in full. The show sells out at a capacity of 1,500. The band continues to play one-off shows and short tours with three-quarters of the original line-up.