Enuff Z'Nuff Whatever Happened To Chip Z'Nuff, Donnie Vie & The Band Behind 'New Thing'

The sad story of Enuff Z'Nuff featuring the duo of bassist Chip Z'Nuff and singer/guitarist Donnie Vie.

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This is a fan request and I’ve been meaning to do a story on these guys because i definitely feel like their music is underappreciated and misunderstood. Enuff Z Nuff would be lumped in with the hair metal party towards the end of the genre’s demise in the late 80’s and early 90’s. When they first popped up on the scene the band were hailed as the next big thing, but their self-destructive tendencies torpedoed their trajectory. Bassist chip z nuff would summarize the band’s career by saying,It’s been ten steps forward and thirty steps back.” Stay tuned to find out the full story.

Led by the charismatic pairing of bassist Chip Z Nuff and vocalist Donnie Vie the band were more power pop than glam as they would blend the styles of the beatles and cheap trick for the hair metal generation, Enuf Z Nuff career failures were made up of every rock n’ roll cliche - drugs, infighting, a revolving cast of band members , bad business decisions and death.

The band’s humble roots date back to Chicago in 1983. Bassist Chip Z Nuff would hook up with a guitar player and singer named Donnie Vie who was 5 years his junior and came from a broken home. The pair would put a band together and Chip Z Nuff would recall the band’s early days saying to Louder sound in 2019 “The bond was unbreakable,The task at hand was: ‘Let’s write some great songs.’” We knew we had a good sound. We were very flamboyant, very colourful, we looked great.They would find another guitarist and drummer and They would come up with the name Enough Z’ Nuff before shortening it to Enuff Z’ Nuff.

The band would move into a cheap house, buy a drum machine and start writing music. They would never play by the books by renting out a studio and recording music,, instead as bassist enuff z nuff would tell loudersound they would sneak into a studio at lake geneva in wisconcin at 2 in the morning and record demos after everyone else had left.
The band would compile a demo called Hollywood Squares and send it to the major labels but no one seemed interested at first. Several years into their career they would cement their classic lineup with the addition of guitarist Derek Frigo and drummer Vikki Fox in 1988. Along with their new lineup came substance abuse problems. Enuff Z Nuff would tell Loudersound
“Everyone was fairly jacked up, found myself always trying to break up fights, trying to keep the drug dealers away from the band. I tried to make the road a little bit smoother for us. It never was, it was constantly bumpy.”
. Performing around Chicago, Enuff Z’Nuff‘s first break came when they were approached by local filmmaker John McNaughton about including their song Fingers On It” on the soundtrack to his independent film called Henry: Portrait of a Serial . Unfortunately for the band, the movie ran into censorship issues and would remain shelved for 4 years. Towards the end of the 80’s the Atlantic Records owned label Atco signed the band.
Released in 1989, the band’s self titled debut album featured two hit songs including "New Thing" and their biggest hit "Fly High Michelle," Soon enough the band was being featured on MTV, on TV Shows and their record sold a cool half a million albums. While there was a lot to celebrate the band members grew frustrated with how they were labelled as a hair metal band. Frontman Donny Vie would tell legendary rock interviews
we were true power pop and had we stayed on that path I think we would have had more longevity, a more stable career than the whole path we later got started on. We got signed at the worst possible time in the whole metal frenzy. With a major label there’s a whole marketing angle that you could never imagine and they’re not at all into music or trained in that but what they do know is how to sell something. So they’re looking at us and I think for the first time in a long time they had no idea where to go with us or how to “package” us.
Bad marketing aside, the band was stunned when their label Atco gave them a bill for $800K. The band signed a bad deal and weren’t selling enough albums to pay back their label..
Not helping things were the band’s growing drug dependency. While bassist Chip Z'Nuff never was a heavy user, it would be the rest of the band spiraling out of control. “
The band would release one more album with Atco records, 1991’s Strength. The album stalled at number 143 on the bilboard charts but the album got a lot of attention.

Видео Enuff Z'Nuff Whatever Happened To Chip Z'Nuff, Donnie Vie & The Band Behind 'New Thing' канала Rock N' Roll True Stories