In the early days of MTV, life often imitated art.
Which is how a real-life Beastie Boys bash, hosted by the music channel, came …
In the early days of MTV, life often imitated art. Which is how a real-life Beastie Boys bash, hosted by the music channel, came to look an awful lot like the band’s raucous “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)” video. “Things on that trip could have resulted in dangerous outcomes,” an MTV producer who asked not to be named told The Post. It was 1987 and someone at the network had the bright idea for the band to “kidnap” a fan and take the guy to Spring Break in Daytona Beach, Fla. “Kids were having sex on nightclub dance floors, the Beasties got the winner drunk and put him into a hot tub with a bunch of girls, kids were jumping off of balconies,” recalled the producer. “O.J. Simpson was [there as] a judge for the Hawaiian Tropic beauty contest. He would not have been there if not for MTV. “Everyone was blowing it out and showing off because of our cameras.” Finally, the producer had to rein in the action. “The Beastie Boys were getting wasted in a swimming pool and it could have gotten dangerous,” he said. After all, he pointed out, MTV was a multi-million-dollar business. “Sponsors were a big part of this.” Back when MTV debuted on Aug.1,1981, it seemed destined that business and pleasure would mix. The channel played rock ’n’ roll videos 24 hours a day, after all. It revolutionized not only pop culture but also cable TV — making music a visual commodity and delivering a crop of hard-partying role models into homes across America. And at MTV headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, the off-screen hijinks were often just as wild as the videos that the network played until the early aughts, when reality shows became the new normal. Sex on the elevator, cocaine in the offices, stars melting down — it all used to be par for the course at MTV. Ken R. Clark, who managed on-air talent, recalled an executive walking into a lounge at the network’s headquarters and finding an underling being sexually gratified by the female vocalist of a New Wave band. As Clark told The Post, the exec shouted just three words to his subordinate: “Shut that door!” KISS bassist Gene Simmons, meanwhile, was known for roaming the offices and, as Clark said, “hitting on staff.” On at least one occasion, however, the entreaties got out of hand. “A woman who worked in the office got flirty with Gene,” Clark added. “She said she would do anything for a backstage pass. He picked her up and put her on [the green room’s] pool table.” It’s unclear what happened next but, “She came out of the room, screaming.” As one of the network’s original VJs, Mark Goodman had a front-row seat for rock stars being outrageous. He remembers conducting a backstage interview with David Lee Roth at the 1983 Us Festival, which his band Van Halen headlined. “They got paid a ton of money, had a huge backstage compound and David was completely drunk and coked,” said Goodman, sounding not at all surprised by the behavior. “He’s the funniest guy in the world and kept laughing at his own jokes.
