A ‘Beverly Hills 90210′ Flashback With Jimmer from the Rave-Ups

Jimmer Podrasky wrapped up his residency Wednesday night at Lucy's 51 in Toluca Lake, Calif. to promote his excellent return effort "The Would-Be Plans" by performing with the Rave-Ups. That's the same band he led back in the '80s when they landed a spot in "Pretty in Pink" and were inexplicably left off the soundtrack. Still, the Rave-Ups prevailed —at least for a while — landing a major-label contract with Epic Records and another high-profile gig, playing on the teen soap "Beverly Hills 90210."

During the original show's decade-long run, a number of bands, ranging from the Flaming Lips and the Cramps to Color Me Badd and Maroon 5 predecessors Kara's Flowers, also appeared on the show.

"That was one of the last things the Rave-Ups did," Podrasky says. Again, the band's brush with Hollywood turned into a somewhat nightmarish adventure. Podrasky thought the band was hired simply to perform on the show, but while he was waiting on the set, he was greeted by a gentleman who asked if he received his script. "He showed me the script and the lines were just... I refused to do it," Podrasky recalls. "I said, 'I'm not an actor. I can't say this stuff. I would never say anything like that.'"

Unbeknownst to Podrasky, he was speaking to Darren Starr, the creator of the show. "He was nice enough to say, 'Can you say a few things and put it in your own language?' So I did eventually have to say a couple of lines. It made me uncomfortable, but it wasn't the usual, 'Hey, is everybody having a good time!' kind of thing."

The Rave-Ups received plenty of exposure with the show's producer using several songs from the band's 1990 album "Chance."

What happened off-camera is perhaps even more notable. During the shoot, Podrasky met and had a whirlwind affair with "90210" star Shannen Doherty that led to a brief engagement that was later called off.

"When she first came up to talk to me on the set, I didn't even know who she was," Podrasky recalls. "I honestly thought she was a make-up girl." After that meeting, Podrasky, Doherty, Rave-Ups drummer Tim Jimenez, and "90210" co-star Jennie Garth went out drinking at a bar.

Their brief romance only last about a month, but it got hot and heavy fairly quickly. "She actually proposed at one point," Podrasky says. But Doherty's parents didn't approve of the rock musician, who was also a single dad at that point. After having dinner with her parents, Podrasky received a phone call from the actress's father the following day saying that he that he forbid him from marrying Doherty. "I was happy about that," he says. "I knew it was silly. I was much older and I was never going to marry that girl. I remember at one point her saying to me, 'How come you haven't written a song about me?' And I lied to her and told her I already had."

Podrasky told Doherty the song was titled "With This Ring," although it existed in title only. Eventually, he did write a song with that title, but "it wasn't about Shannen, it was more about [Molly Ringwald's sister and the mother of his son] Beth," he says. That song appears on Podrasky's album "The Would-Be Plans." Podrasky's next live gig is at the Echo in Los Angeles, opening for I See Hawks in L.A.

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