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Rock On: Former Heavy Metal Stars Are Ready For a Reality Check

"This ain't American Idol," says Sebastian Bach, former lead screecher for Skid Row, and he is right. On American Idol, the aspirants performed with the guys from Queen. And on VH1's new reality show, SuperGroup, Bach performs with the guy from the Amboy Dukes. Maybe the difference isn't quite as big as he thinks it is.

SuperGroup is emerging as a small but growing hit. Episodes are rerun constantly on VH1 and VH1 Classic, and Bach's blithe pronouncements only improve with repetition. (One classic line, uttered while changing into leather and eyeliner for a photo shoot: "Baby, I'm a glam a-fishy-ahn-doh.")

Along with American Idol, Rock Star: INXS last summer, and this summer's Rock Star: Supernova (starring Tommy Lee), SuperGroup is yet more proof of an odd, somewhat anachronistic trend. Old-fashioned rock 'n' roll is finding a comfortable home on reality TV.

The former Amboy Duke alongside Bach is Ted Nugent, the veteran guitarist and inveterate loudmouth. The two are joined by three bandmates who used to be big, sort of. (It's just the concerts that got small.) The rhythm guitarist is Scott Ian from the metal band Anthrax; the bassist is Evan Seinfeld, formerly of the rap-rock pioneers Biohazard. And the drummer is Jason Bonham, from - well, mainly from his father, John, the legendary Led Zeppelin drummer, who died in 1980.

These rock stars are cocooned in a Las Vegas mansion for two weeks, left alone (unless you count the manager, the personal chef, the stylist, the publicists, the visiting wives, and, of course, the camera crew) to form a band.

A concert has been booked; now all they have to do is write a song or two, choose some covers, rehearse, and pick a band name. The final choice is Damnocracy, but on the next episode - to be broadcast Sunday at 10 p.m. - Bach makes an energetic case for Savage Animal. "It just rolls off my tongue," he keeps saying, and his bandmates let their eyebrows deliver the verdict.

For years, the sound of reality television was light R&B, or teen-pop.

The first Making the Band followed the guileless guys from O-Town. The first season of American Idol produced a belter (Kelly Clarkson) and a crooner (Justin Guarini). Even on The Osbournes, the main musical story wasn't about the doddering metalhead Ozzy Osbourne; it was about his daughter, Kelly, who has tried and failed - twice - to start a career as a teen-pop star. The Osbourne empire eventually gave way to the Simpson empire: Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey were Newlyweds; Jessica's sister starred in The Ashlee Simpson Show.

But by last year, the rules were changing. American Idol produced a couple of popular - but not popular enough - rocker contestants, Constantine Maroulis and Bo Bice, long-haired dudes who never let us forget that they had played in real bands, man. On Rock Star, the members of INXS auditioned potential lead singers as if they were casting a touring musical; in a sense, they were.

As it happens, most of the SuperGroup guys have been seen as well as heard: they're not just music veterans but television veterans, too. Bach and his wife, Maria Bach, appeared on a memorable VH1 program, I Married Sebastian Bach; he also has a role on Gilmore Girls. Ian has spent time as the host of VH1's Rock Show. Nugent taught people how to hunt in Surviving Nugent.

Still, for lots of rock stars, there's still a vague antipathy toward reality television: it seems somehow frivolous, especially when compared with the solemn tradition of men in tight trousers howling about loose women.

On the Ozzfest tour last year, Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden started a feud with Osbourne by claiming that real heavy-metal stars don't need reality shows. And during an episode of SuperGroup Post Show, a roundtable discussion that is broadcast on VH1 Classic, Bach mentioned Ashlee Simpson and was promptly interrupted by Seinfeld: "Don't ever say that name."