Las Vegas F1 headliner: ‘Polarizing’ song now a crowd favorite
Ask Mickey Thomas the song that draws the strongest response in the 50-year history Jefferson Starship and later Starship, and he’s quick with the answer.
“The greatest reaction for me is ‘We Built This City,’ ” Thomas says. “That’s where everybody rises to their feet, and wants to get close to the stage, and is the most exciting exchange between us and the audience.”
It wasn’t always so for that particular song, which was dubbed one of the worst of the 1980s decades ago. Thomas acknowledges as much, shrugging off its history, as his iteration of Starship returns to Las Vegas to play an F1 VIP show at Elara for Hilton Grand Vacations on Thursday.
“We Built This City” was the first single by Starship in 1985, off the album “Knee Deep in The Hoopla.” It went to No. 1 on the Billboard charts, and also was a top-seller in Australia and Canada.
The song topped other lists, too — unfortunately.
It led a 2011 Rolling Stone poll of the worst songs of the 1980s. Blender (2004) and GQ (2016) both called it the worst song of all time. Detractors didn’t appreciate the song’s commercial sound, while the tune was presented as anti-commercial, The 1980s production and reference can sound dated, though that decade is undergoing a revival with many of ‘80s acts — including Starship featuring Thomas — headlining across the country.
“It’s been a polarizing song, yeah, but that’s one of the reasons why people still talk about it, right?” Thomas says. “It’s still present, it’s still in the forefront of people’s minds a lot.”
When the song came out, it ran a fairly scorn-free rise to the top of the charts. It wasn’t until decades later, Thomas says, that the backlash was unleashed.
“We had these lists, with Blender coming out with like the 50 worst songs ever recorded or something like that,” Thomas says. “Of course, ‘We Built This City’ is No. 1. I remember my manager at the time said, ‘If you’re going to be on a list be No. 1. I remember there were some good artists in there. One of the Paul McCartney-Michael Jackson duets was in there, Huey Lewis, Phil Collins, Four Non Blondes, great artists … But it was something that piqued people’s interest.”
Thomas has also hit No. 1 with Starship’s “Sara,” and No. 3 with “Fooled Around And Fell In Love” as a member of Elvin Bishop’s band. The current Starship features Las Vegas vocalist Cian Coey, who wowed as a singer with Meat Loaf during his “Rocktellz & Cocktails” show at Planet Hollywood a decade ago.
Thomas’s latest booking is a show on the F1 racecourse, at HGV Clubhouse in front of the 52-story Elara’s mirrored facade. HGV is also hosting shows by rap star Flo Rida and country duo Lo Cash during race weekend. The company presents thousands of concerts, meet-and-greets and VIP-style events.
Starship has the catalogue and the cache to drive business at Las Vegas’s F1 event.
“Las Vegas being such a destination city, there are a lot of public shows for us there and a lot of corporate shows, too,” says Thomas, who has headlined with Starship at Golden Nugget Showroom in recent years. “We’d love to do eight shows over a couple of months, or maybe just a two-week or four-week run sometime. As long as people keep enjoying these songs, we’d find that really fun.”
Cool Hang Alert
Column fave Amy Saunders is offering free tickets to her manic variety show “Mavericks” at Plaza Showroom from Thursday through Saturday. These ducats are dealt to Strip employees experiencing a loss of hours due to F1 shutting down business. Just present a current or recent pay stub, employee ID or badge at the box office outside the showroom. Go to mavericksdtlv.com for additional intel.
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.
