(L-R) Gillby Clarke, Lukas Rossi, Tommy Lee and Jason Newsted

Black trenchcoat, mile-high razorblade hair, raccoon eyes and an overdose of the devil’s horns; he’d wondered aloud more than once whether anyone would care for a li’ punked-out kid from Toronto. But it seems like a helluva lot of people do. Else Lukas Rossi wouldn’t have pimped out giants from Australia, Iceland and South Africa (well, at a shade less than five feet Dilana Robichaux is not exactly a giant) to front Rock Star Supernova. The second season of the CBS reality show had the headbangers of the world hooked on to the antics of the greatest among the wannabe rock stars every Tuesday and Friday.

Between July 3 and September 13, when Lukas edged past Dilana to front Supernova, the voting volume across the Americas, Australia and Iceland is said to have surpassed all previous records. Not that it is that big a deal, one might say. Because while on paper the coming together of EXes from Motley Crue, Guns--Roses and Metallica might cock all the right ears, purists see it as a last-ditch effort by these phenomenal has-beens to grab the eyeballs and the moolah before fading away into oblivion. After all, Tommy Lee’s 10 inches of fame are long over (and wife, ex-wife, girlfriend Pam Anderson’s too we might add).

Gilbey Clarke, the only one who takes the show seriously enough to talk in whole sentences has had a long love-hate relationship with Axl Rose while for Jason Newsted to survive 13 years of bullying by James Hettfield and gang has itself taken a visible toll. Thus, it is only fitting that in between getting smashed out at Vegas and routinely announcing new projects, almost taking for granted that the faithful few have forgotten the previous promises, the ebbing trio decide to spend the summer gaping, laughing at and literally beating up a ‘Motley Crue’ of 15 crazed aspirants, while CBS pulls off yet another grand PR coup by registering the highest volumes of voting for a reality show ever. Performing in front of a paid television audience, subject to favouritism among the millions worldwide, and thrown together in Darwinian competition inside a ‘Geisha Mansion’, trying to front a band has never been tackier. The supergroup took even more egg on their faces when contestant

Phil Ritchie leaked that he was on the show to get some free publicity for his own band back home and didn’t give a shit about the Tomahawks’. As if in sync, the Puerto Rican, self-styled superwoman Zayra Alvarez, when asked if she had ever owned any music written by the trio, answered in front of a live audience, “Baby, I must have been in my diapers then!”

But on this side of the divide all is well with the world. For those who had frozen to spot by Ice Man Magni Asgeirsson icicle stare and smooth rendition of Back from the USSR, and for whom the working class rugged chic of Toby Rand gave way to supersweet adulation when he dedicated his encore performance Mr Brightside to fellow Australian Steve Irwin. And even if the world has largely forgiven Dilana’s delinquent arrogance when she delivered the craziest version of Zombie ever, Lukas ‘fans’ (yup, after playing with Papa Roach, Cleavage, Big Wreck and I Mother Earth back home, he does have the right to call his followers by that name) have always known it would be him. For one look at the 29-year-old hybrid of Jeff Buckley, Peter Pan and Freddie Mercury, and Tommy Lee is said to have told his band mates, “It’ gonna be him.”

It did surprise many that considering the inflated egos of the super group trio, they ditched teamman Magni in favour of the overdressed acid talker who took almost four episodes to open up his throat and turns his back to the audience like only a zillion times. It might be because Lukas Rossi was the only one who had confessed to coming to the show not to settle for the second or third place. “Even as a kid,” he has famously said, “I didn’t have posters of my favourite groups Smashing Pumpkins and The Cult on my wall. I wanted to be the one on the posters.” While he sure does look good on the posters now and spins a mean spell in the band’s first single, It’s all love, one sure hopes his minuscule frame an ‘oh-so-89’ gothic garb wins over the lovely men and women of Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, in Las Vegas on New Year’s Eve. Till then Lukas Rossi is yet to arrive.

Rock Star Supernova: Had to change their name from Supernova after some ancient Orange County band filed an injunction against using that title

Lukas Rossi: Lead vocals
Born: December 21, 1976
He’s: The only one who feasts off purple eyelashes, super shiny lipgloss and black unkempt nails and still looks adorable
He can: Sing a mean version of Creep and come up with soulful originals like Headspin

Glibey Clarke: Guitar
Born: August 17, 1962
He’s: Of course, we cannot forget the roots of Guns-n-Roses (2004)
He can: Talk in grammatically correct sentences when he is not smashed

Jason Newsted: Bass Guitar
Born: March 4, 1963
He’s: Deep and throaty singing style not discounting the things he makes the strings do; with a pick or without
He can: Suffer from a perennially broken cartilage from banging his head too hard at Metallica’s many concerts

Tommy Lee: Drums
Born : October 3, 1962
He’s: Remembered for descending upon his audience, playing all the while, a la Britney Spears
He: Owns some mean weapon and dates his ex-wife Pamela Anderson