NO MORE MR. NICE GUY

By and large, Boone spent much of the 1980s and 1990s out of the secular media spotlight, but in 1997 he made a splash --- charting at #125 on the Billboard 200 chart --- with the LP "In A Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy," a tongue-in-cheek collection of Heavy Metal covers like Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" and Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven," along with other songs by Judas Priest, Van Halen, Alice Cooper, Metallica, Jimi Hendrix and Ozzy Osbourne arranged in a Big Band style by the top arrangers in the business. Joining Boone on the record were some of the original artists like Ronnie James Dio and Allice Cooper.

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It was Dick Clark's idea that Alice Copper and Pat Boone present the award for "Hard Rock/Heavy Metal" at the 1997 American Music Awards --- and suggested 'Coop' wear a V-neck sweater and white bucks with his long black hair puller under a gold cap, carrying a glass of mike. Boone was to come on dressed in leather, metal choker, bloack books and shades, with some fake tattoos plastered all over his skin. Boone performed Superbly --- and 'Coop' didn't get it at all. Much of the singer's Christian contingent failed to get the joke.