Mars Bonfire
Mars Bonfire was born Dennis Edmonton, the older brother of Steppenwolf drummer Jerry Edmonton. He wrote "Born to Be Wild" alone in his apartment, inspired by his Ford Falcon and a violent thunderstorm in the San Bernardino mountains. He pitched the demo to three or four music publishers before anyone showed interest. Eventually he slipped the cassette tape through Steppenwolf's front door. The phrase "heavy metal thunder" came to him while recalling the periodic table during the storm, and music historians credit it as one of the earliest uses of "heavy metal" as a genre name.
In our deep dive into Born to Be Wild, we trace the song from Bonfire's apartment to the film placement in Easy Rider that gave it global reach, and what it reveals about a songwriter who accidentally named an entire genre.
