CROWN OF THORNS
CROWN JEWELS

The box set!

Crown Of Thorns had to wait a long time to unleash themselves on the unsuspecting public, but having finally done so, everyone agrees it was worth the wait.

Formed at the dawn of the decade by Jean Beauvoir recruiting Tony Thompson of Chic and The Powerstation, Micki Free of Shalamar and top session bassist  Michael Paige, Crown Of Thorns quickly became the subject of a fierce major label bidding war. Interscope emerged as the winner, reportedly paying them a cool million dollars for the honor.

Vocalist Jean Beauvoir, was an original member of The Plasmatics, one of the most outrageous rock acts ever. He recorded platinum albums with them and performed some of the most O.T.T. shows in history. From there he moved on to join Little Steven as a bassist and then guitarist/co-producer, but after two albums and three hugely successful world tours he left to pursue a solo career. This resulted in the Platinum worldwide single "Feel The Heat" from the "Drums Along The Mohawk" LP, produced and performed by himself, and tours with The Eurythmics and Tina Turner. Besides that, he co-wrote songs with the likes of Kiss, The Ramones, Lionel Ritchie, John Waite and many others. His band Voodoo X, recorded the album "Volume 1 - The Awakening" for Columbia which is still considered one of the best melodic rock albums ever by most of the rock press and metal fans.

Having put the band together, Crown Of Thorns enlisted the help of Paul Stanley of Kiss to co-produce certain tracks on the album. Other notable collaborations were with Jim Vallance (Bryan Adams/Aerosmith) on "The Healer" and "House Of Love", and Beau Hill (Europe/Winger) on the title track. Fate decreed, however, that the resulting self-titled debut album would never see the light of day as an Interscope release. With musical climates changing and management differences the album was delayed for well over a year - then finally the band was free to go elsewhere! Enter Alfa/EMI Records, Japan and Now & Then Records, UK. Crown of Thorns liked what they had to offer and promptly signed with them, allowing the record to be released.

The album arrived in shops mid April 1994 to much critical acclaim. This was promptly followed by a packed out show at London's Marquee Club. With the album receiving rave reviews everywhere - Kerrang! dubbed it "One of the finest American Hard Rock albums in recent years" - it entered the Metal charts a week after release and stayed there for an incredible six months!

Crown Of Thorns returned to Great Britain in the summer where they toured extensively and capitalized on the glowing reviews of their showcase gig. This time, however, Tony Thompson was replaced full time by Hawk Lopez, recommended to Jean by former Ozzy Osbourne drummer Randy Castillo. Crown Of Thorns were back in the UK throughout November as special guests to Skin's "very raw and very hard" UK tour. There, they won many new fans and helped highlight the release of "Raw Thorns", a collection of 12-track demos.

Building upon the foundations set by their activities throughout 1994, 1995 marked the dawning of a totally new era for Crown Of Thorns. Almost a year after the Marquee debut, the quartet found themselves once more in London, this time headlining the "Gods of Rock" spectacular held at London Astoria. This time with new guitarist Tommy Lafferty, a long time collaborator of Jean and contributor to many of his solo projects including lead guitarist of the highly successful Voodoo X. Tommy on his own acclaim was the founder of the group From the Fire, whose album "Thirty Days and Dirty Nights" was produced by Jean.

1995 gave Crown Of Thorns the opportunity to show its stadium potential when Jean was asked by Jon Bon Jovi to be special guests to Bon Jovi and Van Halen for three months throughout all of Europe, playing to over a million people and with raving audience response. With their re-recorded "Are you Ready" single CD climbing the UK-charts and after Crown Of Thorns performance at the prestigious Rock am Ring festival in Germany, the band finalized deals with the other territories and returned home to the US for a bit of a rest. But not for long! They soon after headed back into the studio for the completion of their new album "Breakthrough", that was released in early 1996 and raised even more eyebrows when the foursome headed back on the road to give their audiences an earful of their hard hitting yet melodic new material! The band toured extensively mostly in Germany to sold out audiences, kicking ass as usual! Soon after the touring assault, the writing began for the album "Lost Cathedral". Crown of Thorns recruited the talent of "Little Steven" Van Zandt from Bruce Springsteen's E-street band for some co-writing and Max Norman of Ozzy Osbourne/Megadeth fame to mix the album. After months of hard work, the album was released and it took the world by storm. The press called this album one of the best rock albums of the decade. Jean as always always found time to do other tidbits such as performing a duet of "Hungry Heart" with Bruce Springsteen at Paris Bercy show and also found time to write and produce a song for the Robert DeNiro "FLAWLESS" soundtrack. But soon after, they were back at work on the next Crown of Thorns album.

In came the millennium, which brought us "Destiny Unknown", the CofT masterpiece! Having 3 songs recruited by major film directors for the feature films "THE GUILTY" starring Bill Pullman and "BEL AIR BITCH PROJECT", it was said that this record maintained the best of Crown of Thorns. Combining tasteful futuristic elements, driving guitars, melodic choruses and great on the edge vocals as expected from Jean Beauvoir. The press was all over this one giving 10 out of 10's and best album reviews all over the place! The Crown of Thorns crusade continued.

The year 2002 brought us the latest and what's said by critics to be the best CofT album to date. "KARMA"! Featuring 11 power packed CofT gems, including an exciting cover of George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord". This album is melodic, heavy, with songs that stick to your brain and you just can't get em out. "KARMA" is catapulting the band to cover stories all over Europe, accompanied by rave reviews.

After all these years of exciting news and an action packed career, it was surely time for a best of package. It wouldn’t be CROWN OF THORNS if this wasn’t special.

First, the band recruited Sebastian Kozak to design an all-new stunning cover artwork. Then, all tracks of the album were remastered. To top it off, they recorded two brand-new Christmas flavored bonus tracks and a video interview, encompassing their entire career.

After all, this is the ultimate CROWN OF THORNS package, a must for every fan of this amazing band!