The actual term 'Hollywood vampire' has been around for a very long time, even before it was ever used in conjunction with any of the Rolling Stones (if memory serves correctly, at least), and while as of late, the name has been most connected with L.A. Guns due to their incredible 1991 release Hollywood Vampires, there is an entire other facet to the name, a facet that most of the world doesn't know about.  One night in the Rainbow, back in the days after Tracii Guns, a half-vampire guitarist extraordinaire, had left the fledgling Guns 'N Roses, the five half-vampire members of the soon-to-be L.A. Guns were hanging out with their full-blooded vampire counterparts (minus Wade, as he didn't come to Hollywood until 1990), and were playfully bandying band names around, trying to figure out what to call themselves.  It had come down to the names L.A. Guns, which was the original name for Guns 'N Roses, and Hollywood Vampires, which was thought to be a most appropriate name for a band comprised of vamps from Hollywood.  But as things went, the name of L.A. Guns was chosen, because the name Hollywood Vampires was something of a misleading moniker . . . after all, the five members of the new band were all half-vampires, able to go out in the sunlight and do all of the things that most 'normal' bands do.  Phil Lewis thought it a friendly gesture towards the gang in Hollywood if they left the name for them, in case they wanted to get a band by that name together, and the rest was history, at least concerning the name.

Back in 1987, Clarisse, Brandi, and Wade had yet to come to Hollywood, and the bunch that hung out with one another consisted of Steele, Stacey, Dorian, Tommy, Donita, and Katheryne, and the six of them often monkeyed around with different band configurations amongst themselves, playing clubs and the like just for the sheer fun of it.  Around 1988, a steady band lineup emerged from all of this playing around, and the original incarnation of the Hollywood Vampires was formed, with the lineup of Steele on vocals, Stacey on lead and rhythm guitar, Donita on occasional vocals, and rhythm and lead guitar, Dorian on bass, and Katheryne on drums.  Tommy would do the odd bits here and there, such as contributing keyboards and taking care of a lot of the stuff during the stage show, but at the time he wasn't interested in getting into a full-time band, as he was getting deeply immersed in some occult archeological studies with another vamp at UCLA, and because he could only get to the campus at night, he tended to be extremely busy at the time.  This lineup appears on the releases Gutter Royalty and I Stole Your Girlfriend AND Your Car, and was rather successful, giving spectacular shows and gaining a solid fanbase among the rock mavens in L.A.  Donita sang on several of the early Vampires' songs, also, and she would often provide backup vocals during songs, as did Dorian.  While Steele was, and still is, the primary vocalist for the Vampires, he has no problems letting someone else step up to the mic, so he often shared vocal duties with any of the others that were interested . . . Stacey made an appearance for an especially raucous version of "Whole Lotta Rosie" on Gutter Royalty.

Clarisse made her appearance in Los Angeles in late 1988, and while she never became a formal member of the Hollywood Vampires band, she would often fill in for members of the band for fun, and at various points in the ensuing couple of years, she had done duties in every musical facet of the band.  Some nights she would play guitar, on other nights, bass, and still others drums . . . for a while, she was singing for the Vampires nearly every time they played, because Steele loved to hear her sing and liked what she could do with the songs.  So Clarisse is often referred to as the sixth member of the original Hollywood Vampires lineup, though nobody ever bothered to make anything official, Clarisse included.  As she says, "I just did it because it was fun . . . I could have cared less if I was officially stamped or not, just as long as I got to fool around with 'em."

The Hollywood Vampires are not signed to any record label, and therefore their releases are very limited in quantity.  The albums and EP's, which consist of an approximately equal mix of cover songs and originals, are all self-produced in the music studios found beneath the city, in the Catacombs, and the ever-diligent Tommy takes care of all of the CD mastering and printing duties.  Album artwork usually consists of pictures and paintings contributed by fans, or sometimes pictures done specifically for the album . . . such is the case for 1990's I Stole Your Girlfriend AND Your Car, which features a close-up picture of Stacey giving the observer a very large middle finger.  While official copies of these releases tend to be hard to come by within a month of their release, bootleg copies, both on tape and CD, can be found fairly easily if you know the right people.