King Kobra was a Los Angeles glam metal band formed by famed rock drummer Carmine Appice, the brother of Black Sabbath and Dio drummer Vinnie, after being introduced to singer Mark Free of Modern Design by Ronnie Mancuso of Vanilla Fudge. The drummer began the process of recruiting bleach blond musicians to fit the band’s image in the Southern California scene of the time. The group obtained a deal with Capitol Records and issued a debut in 1985. The debut sold 300,000 copies. Ironically, the album’s single was the track Hunger which was written by Kick Axe, using the name Spectre General, for the Transformers film. The follow-up album lacked catchy tunes, was softer and failed to gain traction. With financial success missing the members became increasingly discontent with Carmine Appice’s bigger share of proceeds and income and began squabbling. Free was the first to jump ship. The singer would resurface in 1995 as Marcie Free having undergone a sex change operation. Rod would record a new album before departing for W.A.S.P. Sweda would go on to bigger things with Bullet Boys. III would appear on the band’s own Rocker label and featured former Montrose singer Johnny Edwards. The album was initially meant for a Gene Simmons imprint according to media reports. Peter Criss would contribute to III regardless. The band would be put to rest when Appice would take off to work on Blue Murder with guitarist John Sykes.
The band split up, but not for good. Returning in 2000, Hollywood Trash was issued in 2001. Kelly Keeling was the new frontman. Axe killer re-released the band’s first two albums in Europe. An album called Number One was issued by Mausoleum Records entitled Number One which featured miscellaneous rare and unreleased material.