Nelson: The Tragic Story of The Band Behind 'Love And Affection' & 'After the Rai

The story of the band Nelson who wrote hits including 'Love and Affection' & 'After the Rain'

0:00 - Early Years
2:35 - Father's Death/Mother Feud
3:50 - First Big Break/Epiphany
5:15 - Songwriting Success/Signing
8:27- Debut album/touring
13:13 - Second Album/Decline


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I cite my sources and they may differ than other people's accounts, so I don't guarantee the actual accuracy of my videos.

The band Nelson would be made up of twin brothers matthew and gunnar. While the pair would come on everyone’s radar in 1990 with their record After the Rain. They were one of the last so called hair metal acts that would take off up before the whole scene came crashing down. Record label infighting, image and credibility problems hampered the band as well as changing musical trends that resulted in the band spending years in the studio without new music. Today let’s explore whatever happened to the band Nelson.

The Nelson brothers would be born to parents Kristy and Ricky Nelson who were in show business. Their father with whom both brothers had a close bond with was an accomplished musician.. Their show business roots ran deeper than their parents. Their grandparents were Ozzie and Harriet. Their aunt would be Pam Dawber from the show Mork and Mindy while their uncle is Mark Harmon from NCIS

The brothers would be born in 1967 in hollywood with Gunnar Nelson recalling in the book Nothing but a good time “We were there at the very epicenter of the birth of country rock at the troubadour when our dad ricky put together the stone canyon band. At the troubadour any night you could see Linda Rondstadt’s first band, Jackson Brown, Buffalo Springfield all that kind of stuff. That’s what Matt and i grew up watching our father doing. ”

Given their deep connection to hollywood it wasn’t surprising that the brothers went down the same path. The Nelson brothers would start playing instruments at age 6, did their first recording session at age 11 and played their first club shows in LA at age 12 under the monicker Strange Agent with another friend from school guitarist Joey Cathcart. Gunner would play drums, while Matthew would play bass and front the band. Not siloing themselves to any one particular genre of music Matthew Nelson would admit in the same book the brothers were friends with punk rockers, new wavers and rockabillies. The band cut their chops playing five nights a week around LA sharing the stage with acts including the Plimsouls, and the Go Go’s. But being a decade and a half younger than their counterparts playing the same club shows also exposed the brothers to the ugly side of fame and made little time to form friendships with Matthew Nelson recalling in the same book “They’re the scariest motherf** I’ve ever seen. I mean far scarier than any punkers or rivet heads, you know metal guys. These were scary people that sang really happy songs, but they were all heroin addicts . They would do stuff like sabotage your gear before a show cut your power cable or kick your amps to where they would blow a tube.

By the middle of the 80’s the band would rename themselves The Nelsons. Their father Ricky would die in a plane crash in 1985 on new years eve. His sons at the time were now 18 and the loss proved to be devastating to them. What made the loss hurt even more was that the brothers were supposed to join their father on the plane trip to a gig in texas, but their father called them up and suggested they fly commercial. They would opt to stay home.

Adding insult to injury was that the brothers found out about their father’s death through teh radio. It was a local rock station who was playing their father’s music which they found strange, until the DJ announced their father’s passing.

The brothers relationship with their mother was in sharp contrast to their father. When their father died he left the family with 4 million dollars in debt. Their mother did little to nurture her sons musical dreams, also hitting the bottle pretty hard with the brothers telling yahoo their mother was a narcissist. Their mother went as far as when the boys turned 18 to write them letters tellign them their were delusional for trying to become musicians with Matthew telling yahoo “Our mother made it very difficult for us to play music,” says Matthew. “She said we always reminded her of [Rick], and the business was horrible and it was ‘gonna take you down.’”