Metal Shop / Metal Skool (1997–2007) The quartet began to gain popularity on the
Sunset Strip during the early 2000s under the name Metal Shop (soon changed into Metal Skool, then into Steel Panther). their self-produced debut extended play. The band appeared in a
Discover Card advertisement as Danger Kitty and in the sitcom
Drew Carey Show as themselves. Also in 2003, their song "Death to All But Metal" was included in a compilation CD called ''Hey, That's What I Call Sludge! Vol. 1
put out by the Metal Sludge web site. Their cover of the song "Fantasy" by Aldo Nova was used as the opening musical theme for the MTV program Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory''. On November 27, 2007 Metal Skool played original songs as well as covers of
KISS songs at the Gene Simmons roast; they can be seen in the background of Gene Simmons' reality show
Gene Simmons Family Jewels. That year, they also appeared as themselves on
Las Vegas in the episode "The High Price of Gas".
Feel the Steel (2008–2010) in
Tampere, Finland In April 2008, the band changed their name from Metal Skool to Steel Panther, making a new debut at The Rockin' Saddle Club in
Redlands, California. In May 2008, the band signed a contract with
Republic Records (owned by record label
Universal Records) announcing plans for a new studio album. Sometime collaborator
Dean Cameron, also credited with co-writing "Supersonic Sex Machine" on the band's next album
Balls Out, directed and co-wrote a pilot presentation in an attempt to land Steel Panther their own television program.
Balls Out and British Invasion (2011–2013) Steel Panther released their second album
Balls Out on October 31, 2011 in the UK and on November 1, 2011 in North America also through
Universal Republic.
Balls Out continued their revival of the heavy metal genre and debuted at No. 1 on the UK iTunes Rock chart surpassing
Megadeth's
TH1RT3EN and
Lou Reed's and
Metallica's
Lulu.
Balls Out also debuted at No. 4 on the US iTunes Rock chart, No. 40 on the Billboard 200 chart and at No. 1 on the Billboard Comedy chart with first-week sales of 12,000 copies in the US. Due to their growing popularity, Steel Panther were invited by
Def Leppard to join them and co-headliners
Mötley Crüe as "Special Guests" on the
Mirrorball Tour in December 2011. Exactly one week after ending the UK arena tour in London with
Def Leppard and
Mötley Crüe, Steel Panther opened for
Guns N' Roses at the Forum in Los Angeles, CA on December 21, 2011. On December 6, 2011, Steel Panther announced their second solo UK tour in support of their newest album
Balls Out. Tickets for the shows went on sale on December 9, 2011, with many ticket providers selling out their allocations within a month.
Brazzers sponsored the Australian tour of Steel Panther in early October 2012, which sold out in Brisbane, Sydney (two shows), Melbourne, and Adelaide. Another headline UK tour took place in November 2012. In late 2012, Steel Panther's European tour was crowned a huge success. They played sold-out shows, particularly in Germany. The DVD was released worldwide on October 22, 2012. The DVD was filmed at
Brixton Academy in London and features a two-hour concert/documentary based on the band's sold-out British tour. Steel Panther played on the main stage at
Download Festival in June 2012, during which they were joined on stage by
Corey Taylor of
Slipknot to play "Death to All But Metal". Taylor wore wellies on stage. They played in front of a crowd of over 100,000 people. Steel Panther toured Australia in December 2013, supported by
Buckcherry and
Fozzy. Shows were sold out in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth between December 6 and 12.:
All You Can Eat (2014–2015) In late 2013, Steel Panther announced a new tour in the year 2014, titled the "Spreading the Disease (S.T.D.) Tour". They toured Europe throughout February and March 2014. In support of their latest album, Steel Panther began touring North America in May 2014, their first headlining tour of America. In June, they moved the tour to Europe and continued to tour through August 2014. and
The Lounge Kittens. The band sold out almost every venue on the tour, which included Wembley Arena, London. In April 2015, the group had a cameo in the music video for the
Ninja Sex Party song "Road Trip" to tell of their sexual exploits that year. Michael Starr contributes vocals to "
6969" on NSP's third album
Attitude City as the head Dick Elder. Steel Panther started a YouTube series called Steel Panther TV in Fall 2014 with segments like Science Panther, Love on the Rocks, Cineminute, World of Music, and Demolicious.
Lower the Bar and Heavy Metal Rules (2016–2021) 2018 in Germany Steel Panther's acoustic album ''Live from Lexxi's Mom's Garage'' became available for pre-order on January 7, 2016, with the new song "That's When You Came In" preceding the album's release on February 26. The band went on the
Adult Swim call-in show
FishCenter Live to promote the album on January 22, 2016. In September of the same year, Steel Panther released a cover of
Cheap Trick's "
She's Tight" with the announcement that their fourth studio album
Lower the Bar would be released on March 24, 2017.
Robin Zander and
Bobbie Brown made cameo appearances in the music video for "She's Tight". Their fifth album
Heavy Metal Rules was announced in July 2019, and scheduled for a September 27, 2019 release. The music video for the first single from the album, "All I Wanna Do Is Fuck (Myself Tonight)", debuted on July 8, 2019. The second single titled, "Always Gonna Be a Ho", was released on August 9, 2019. The third single "Gods of Pussy" was released on September 6, 2019. Music videos for the title track, Fuck Everybody, and Let's Get High Tonight were also released on the band's YouTube channel though were not released as singles. In December 2020, they released "Fuck 2020" as a non-album single and music video. The song is an alternative version of "Fuck Everybody" from
Heavy Metal Rules with new lyrics reflecting the
COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2021, they released covers of the Van Halen classics "
Beautiful Girls" and "D.O.A." as non-album singles. A video was released for the songs where they are in a video meeting setup reminiscent of
Zoom.
New bassist, On the Prowl, and upcoming seventh studio album (2021–present) In December 2018, the band announced that long-time bassist Lexxi Foxx would be missing the upcoming tour to go to "sex rehab". Foxx's stand-in was Joe "Spyder" Lester, the band's tour manager, as well as Starr and Satchel's former bandmate from The Atomic Punks. Lexxi returned to the band for the next tour, but still missed some dates, where he was filled in for by both Spyder and Tanner "T.K." Keegan. In July 2021, it was revealed that Foxx had left the band. The band cited it was a mutual decision, jokingly stating that Foxx was pursuing his own business "Sexxy Lexxi's Prettiest Pets". In August, the band opened up virtual auditions for a new bass player. The band introduced new touring bassist Rikki Dazzle in October 2021, though Michael Starr revealed the band were still looking for a permanent member. In December, the band launched the "Road to the Road" promotion, featuring a bracket of 32 selected auditions to narrow down to a field of 10 finalists. The pre-selected finalists included Dazzle and Rikki Thrash (who would both tour with the band in November and December), as well as Spyder; in September of 2022, Spyder was selected as the new full-time bassist for the band. The band's self-produced sixth studio album,
On The Prowl, was released in 2023. Also in 2023, Steel Panther had a successful audition for ''
America's Got Talent''. In October 2024,
Feel the Steel was certified Gold in the UK, after reaching 100,000 copies sold. The band is currently working on a new studio album, with hopes of releasing the material in 2026. ==Band members==