https://rollingstone.com.br/musica/nelson-pacificador/

*Attention: there is small spoilers for the end of the second season of Peacemaker below |
james gunn called the final episode of the second season Peacemaker as “Full Nelson” (“Nelson Key” in the Brazilian version) for the most insane reason possible. The co-CEO of DC Studios recruited the hard rock/glam metal band Nelson — the ultra-blonde twin brothers Matthew and Gunnar Nelsonwho reigned on MTV in 1990 with the chart-topping hit “(Can’t Live Without Your) Love and Affection” — to perform on screen during the episode’s emotional peak.

First we see the 80s metal connoisseur, Christopher Smithalso known as Peacemaker (John Cena), to take Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) to a party boat upon seeing that Nelson is going to play, declaring them “the most underrated of all time”. As the couple finally kisses drunkenly, their children Ricky Nelson — rock idol from the early 60s — take the stage performing the most profound of songs: the genuinely excellent power ballad “To Get Back to You”album track Lightning Strikes Backfrom 2010, which had a total of around 30,000 streams on Spotify as of Thursday.

“I wanted a band that was popular in the 80s or 90s and would potentially play on a rock cruise, which they did, I think.”says Gunn. As a Generation X punk rocker, he says Nelson’s hits “they weren’t something I necessarily liked”but read about Lightning Strikes Back in a book about hair metal, he took a look and loved it.

“I thought that album kind of revealed how talented they were. I really believe it’s a great album that no one knows about, a great example of melodic rock. And the music is fantastic.”

Last year, Matthew — a James Gunn fan whose son “I practically grew up listening to it” the soundtrack of Guardians of the Galaxy — and Gunnar Nelson were backstage after a show in Los Angeles when one of Gunn’s producers showed up. “We couldn’t believe it”said Matthew. “He said, ‘Our mission is basically to see if you guys are still okay and playing well.’ It was like, ‘What’s the verdict?’ And he said, ‘You passed the test.’” (For the record, the Nelson brothers never accepted the hair metal label and were not part of that scene, despite their abundant locks and highly compared to Paquitas da Xuxa in Brazil: “We always thought we were a heavy version of Hollies.”)

Gunn took the brothers to Savannah, Georgia, and placed them on a stage built on a steamboat with real paddle wheels, with hundreds of extras in the audience. He used the same set to film a scene with the recent glam band Foxy Shazamwho sings the season’s theme song, “Oh Lord”. “It was just a few takes”says Gunn. “And instead I ended up shooting two music videos. I shouldn’t have done either of those things.”

The video of “To Get Back to You”with scenes from the season, was officially released. A video of “Oh Lord” will be released soon. “It was literally my favorite day on set, and I can’t believe everything we did.”adds Gunn. “Nelson was performing on stage and the Foxy Shazam musicians were watching them the whole time, and then Foxy Shazam was performing and the Nelsons were watching them.”

Matthew ended up raving about Foxy Shazam and the vocal range of the band’s lead singer, Eric Nally. “I hope this blows them up — as it should have already.”he says. “And with us, you know, people will know we’re not dead.” Matthew emphasizes that his own band never stopped. “We know what it is to be Taylor Swift for a few years”it says. “But we played for a long time before that happened, and we played for even longer after.”

The brothers always liked “To Get Back to You”which was co-written with Mark Slaughter (from the band Slaughter) and features a guitar solo by Steve Lukatherfrom Toto. But it never came out as a single and they never played it live — they had to learn it for the episode and now they’ve added it to their repertoire.

The general idea of ​​the album Lightning Strikes Twice was to continue the super-selling album After the Rain (1990) and pretend that the rise of grunge had never interrupted his career. “I really like this album from beginning to end”says Matthew. “In fact, it was an album that we put together almost as a continuation of our debut album, as if the nightmare of the last two decades hadn’t happened.”

Now the band, and one of their more obscure songs, has reached a new audience — and they, too, have the comfort of knowing they exist alongside the Superman in the DC Cinematic Universe. “I think this is fantastic”says Matthew. “People always thought we were cartoons anyway.”

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