The winner of “On the Road With Bruce,” a kid named Brian, sent in a whopping 113 entry postcards. In the promo, an authentic young alt takes over the life of some nondescript suit named Gavin, teasing a prize package that featured a Manhattan apartment, a new BMW, $50,000 and the services of a financial advisor.
So naturally it celebrated the end of the decade by deigning to let one lucky viewer get revenge on the most loathsome product of the Reagan era: Yuppie scum. In it Michael Hutchence and Jon Farriss get interviewed by a VJ with a chicken before picking the trailer park winner out of a pink cowboy hat.īy the end of the Eighties, MTV was one of the biggest networks in the world and the crown jewel of the media conglomerate Viacom. Apparently, MTV captured enough footage over the course of that day to air a special that lasted an unconscionable seven hours, though only a three minute snippet exists. There’s also some ridiculously corny footage from the contest as well - though the audio quality is warped beyond belief - in which the band narrate their adventures on the high sea in messages-in-bottles that later wash-up on the shore.Īccording to an article in the Penn State student newspaper (two contestants were Penn State students), the contest was nearly derailed by a hurricane, but the organizers quickly relocated to a bar in nearby Dallas. In the promo, Tommy Lee really sells his pirate impression, though Vince Neil’s could use some work. But to be perfectly honest, the footage from the actual contest pales in comparison to the bonkers promo, in which MTV apparently bought a third house, had a bunch of college kids paint it pink and let someone drive a chopper right through it.Īnticipating the musical cruise fad by a couple decades, this contest let one lucky fan ride straight through the Bermuda triangle with Mötley Crüe and a whole host of strange characters.
#JOHN COUGAR LITTLE PINK HOUSES FREE#
Mellencamp also treated Miles to a ride on his motorcycle, a free house show and a private screening of the 1984 flick Streets of Fire (cool?).
#JOHN COUGAR LITTLE PINK HOUSES FULL#
The deed to the non-toxic house ended up going to a Seattle, Washington woman named Susan Miles, who, as part of her prize package, also received a pink jeep, a new stereo and - because why not - a garage full of Hawaiian Punch. “On the second night, Alex Van Halen handed me a sixteen-ouncer and said, ‘You’re not leaving this spot until you drink that beer.’ I poured it out in a trash can.” “The next morning, I had one of the worst hangovers of my life,” Jefferis recalled in Rob Tennenbaum and Craig Marks’ MTV oral history, I Want My MTV.
Finally, a friend he’d brought along alerted producers that Jefferis had a plate in his head, the result of a traumatic injury, and that he should not be consuming drugs and alcohol at all, much less imbibing at VH levels. But as the night wore on, it became clear that Jefferis did not have the constitution for this kind of partying.
But there was also plenty of footage not suitable for broadcast: Van Halen and their crew pumped Jefferis full of drugs and booze, and at one point David Lee Roth locked him in the shower with a stripper. The promotion was a massive success for MTV, which aired much of the mayhem, including the moment Van Halen brought Jefferis on stage, smashed his face into a giant cake and showered him with champagne. Jefferis was the winner of MTV’s “Lost Weekend” contest and his prize was a few days of debauchery on the road with the Eighties metal legends. In 1984, a man named Kurt Jefferis nearly partied to death with Van Halen.