12.07 Rock Never Dies

Title	Rock Never Dies
Episode #	Season 12, Episode 7
First aired	December 1, 2016
Directed by	Eduardo Sanchez
Written by	Robert Berens
On IMDB	Rock Never Dies
Outline	Realizing the influence he has as Vince Vincente, Lucifer arranges to test out his power on unsuspecting fans. Sam, Dean, Castiel, and Crowley bring the fight to Lucifer in Los Angeles.
Monster	One month since 12.01 Keep Calm and Carry On
Timeline
Location(s)	Lebanon, Kansas Los Angeles, California
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Characters

• Sam Winchester
• Dean Winchester
• Castiel
• Crowley
• Lucifer
• Vince Vincente
• Tommy
• Russell Lemmons
• Roseleen Greenfield

Definitions

• Angel Blade
• Archangels
• Ass-butt
• Binding Link
• Costumes & Disguises
• Impala
• Kuma Blu
• Ladyheart
• Lucifer's Feather
• Satanic Looking Symbols
• Table of Death
• Vessel

Music

• "Bad Dog Blues" by The Rob Donnelly Band (Cavendish Music Library / Imagem Production Music)

(playing in the bar Crowley and Cas are calling Sam and Dean from)

• "Bloody Messiah" by Ladyheart

(playing on Sam's cell phone as they are driving to LA and later at Club Meteor; song co-written by Jay Gruska and Robert Berens)

• "Next" by Chapel of Rock

(playing in Club Meteor as the crowd is let in)

Quotes

Dean: You still living an '80s buddy comedy with Crowley?
Castiel: Unfortunately yes.

Crowley: Hello boys, long time. We team up to save the world, and then bupkis. You don't call, you don't write.
Dean: Yeah. We don't care.

Dean: Oh, Sam. Hair rock? Really? Come on?

Sam: It's not hair-it's not hair rock. It's hard rock. It's legitimate hard rock. Don't judge a book by its cover.

Dean: Yeah. Or a dude by his rainbow wig and leopard prints.

Dean: You consider switching up the duds there. It's a bit stiff for this town.

Sam: He could be an agent, or something.
Dean: Yeah, maybe a third-tier agent.

Castiel: At least I don't look like a lumberjack.

Crowley: You little people wouldn't understand. But I've been a king. Having people look at you like you're everything, knowing that once they buy in, you can make them do anything. It's intoxicating.
Dean: Well, that's super creepy.

Sam: Cas. You'll last three minutes. Tops.

Castiel: Then I'll buy you three minutes.

Crowley: Make it four. What? I help.

Castiel: You think this is fun?
Lucifer: Oh. I wouldn't expect you to understand. I've been inside you. I know what a weak, duty-bound, pleasureless dullard you are. And you, bad doggy. Sit!

Lucifer: Guys. You know I can end you all with a snap of my finger. Why would I do that when you can't do anything to me?

Dean: Why're you doing this?

Lucifer: Why?
Sam: You and God made up. You forgave Him. What would He think?

Lucifer: Not especially interested in His opinion. Dear old Dad, He finally apologized for abandoning me and what's the very next thing He does? He ditches me. And you two, by the way. And rides off into the sunset with Aunty Amara. He needed my help, and He'd say anything to get it. His words, your words -- they mean nothing. Don't you get it? This is all meaningless. Heaven. Hell. This world. If it ever meant anything that moment is passed. Nothing down here except hopeless distraction addicts. So full of emptiness, so desperate to fill up the void. They don't mind being served another stale rerun of a rerun of a rerun. You know what my plan is? I don't have one. I'm just going to keep smashing Daddy's already broken toys, and making you watch.

Dean: Well, we didn't catch Lucifer but we did save the crowd so I'd call that a win.

Sam: I wouldn't. Vince Vincente is dead.
Dean: We never even hoped to save him. And yes, I know the third album-
Sam: No, he was still a person. And he meant something to a lot of people. And Lucifer just took all that and twisted all that up and snuffed it out. Lucifer was bad enough when he had a plan, a motive. Now he's just having fun. I mean, how many people died tonight? Them-this. It's all on us. We let him out. We're not winning, we're just losing slow. And you heard what he said-
Crowley: Onward and upwards. He's going big.
Castiel: And he'll go bigger.

Dean: And we'll stop him. We will. It's what we do, man.

Trivia & References

While Gordy and Adam are attempting to summon Lucifer, a record is being played in reverse. Backmasking has been alleged to contain Satanist messages, most famously Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" which alleges to have the message "Here's to my sweet Satan" backmasked.

Gordy: Yeah, like you found that artifact. Face it, Adam your Satan feather is faker than my Mother's Chinatown Fendi.

Fendi is an Italian luxury brand, known for their expensive handbags, among other items.

Sam: So I've been trying to dig up info on the British Men of Letters, keeping an eye for cases. And you've been goofing off with a game that went out of style five years ago.

Dean: I don't think Mom's quite ready for Snapchat.

Snapchat is a mobile image and message app.

Crowley: What's with all this Maharishi crap?

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi developed the Transcendental Mediation technique, and became a guru to many celebrities, miost notably the Beatles and the Beach Boys.

Russell: You have been pleased with our arrangement thus far?

Crowley: Oh, as punch. A soul's a soul. But there is a certain prestige to owning a Swift or Drake.

Taylor Swift and Drake are both very successful musicians.

Russell: Yeah, okay. I doubted it too. But, Vince came to me with a killer pitch. The original Ladyheart line-up reunited. Back in the day, those cats sold like 10 mil.

Crowley: So did Hootie & the Blowfish.

Hootie & the Blowfish is an American rock band which enjoyed some mainstream success in the '90s. Their debut album Cracked Rear View sold 16 million copies and was the best-selling album of 1995.

The name Russell Lemmons might be a play on Russell Simmons, the famous record label executive.

Lucifer: You know rock's not the reason. It's just an excuse. To worship. To adore. See humans have always been desperate to put someone or something above them and lets face it, God ain't cutting it these days. It takes a Kim Kardashian, whatever Justin Bieber is, and me. They're enjoying a ride. So should you.

Kim Kardashian, a reality TV star, and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Bieber Justin Beiber, a Canadian pop star, are both hugely popular celebrities (or they were in 2016 when the episode was filmed).

Sam: Look at this, rock star biographies. Like all of them, from Aerosmith to ZZ Top. It looks like he's studying how to be famous.

Dean: Well, so what? Lucifer's a dork. That's good to know.

The books in Lucifer's hotel room are: Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis and Larry Sloman, My Cross to Bear by Gregg Allman, When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin by Mick Wall, Watch You Bleed: The Saga of Guns N' Roses by Stephen Davis, Sex, Drugs, Ratt & Roll: My Life in Rock by Stephen Pearcy and Sam Benjamin, No One Here Gets Out Alive: The Biography of Jim Morrison by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugarman, Johnny Cash: The Life by Robert Hilburn and Born to Drum by Tony Barrell.

The two in particular that are most relevant to this episode are the Led Zeppelin biography, because of the rumors of Satan-worship surrounding the band, and the Guns n' Roses biography, because the band reunited with three of the original members in 2016 and did a highly lucrative reunion tour. Like Ladyheart in this episode, the Guns n' Roses 2016 reunion began with a much-hyped secret show at a club in Hollywood.

Castiel: Look at this: 'The seeds of a ripe dragonfruit, drizzled with exactly one ounce of acacia honey, prepared in a ceramic bowl (no plastic)...' What is this spell?

Crowley: It's breakfast. It's Vince's rider. I've seen worse.

A rider is a set of requests or demands that a performer sets as criteria for performance. Along with normal stipulations about gear setup and basic backstage amenities, some rock bands have become famous over the years for including ridiculous or extravagant demands in their riders.

Roseleen: You're Vince. Vince Vincente. And I knew I was in love with you the moment I saw you. I was sixteen. Just a normal kid growing up in Arcadia.

Lucifer: Arcadia. Sounds beautiful.
Roseleen: I was watching Headbangers Ball and the "Bloody Messiah" video came on. And I- it was your voice, and your hair, and your eyes. It was everything. You were everything. And even when people made fun me, younger girls at work, shredding on my Ladyheart tattoos and saying you were a joke. I never stopped loving you and never will.

Headbangers Ball was a program on MTV that showed heavy metal music videos. It ran from 1987-1995.

In this context, Roseleen is referring to Arcadia a city in Los Angeles County east of Hollywood and downtown Los Angeles. Lucifer may have it confused with Arcadia, the region of Greece that according to legend was the home of the god Pan. Arcadia also refers to a Greek idea of utopia based on pastoralism and harmony with nature, named after the aforementioned region.

Roseleen carves Vince Vincente's name on her chest with a knife. One Slayer fan famously carved the band's name into his skin, on the inside of his forearm. Slayer's music and albums often reference Satanic imagery, and Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman once said, "We read a lot from the Satanic bible" for publicity, as lead guitarist Kerry King is an avowed atheist and singer/bass player Tom Araya is a practicing Catholic.

Vincente Manager: Okay, we're building a aura of mystery and exclusivity with tonight's show. Undisclosed location, small select audience. It's as much about who doesn't get a ticket as who does. This could push your social media profile to Kimye levels.

"Kimye" is the coupling portmanteau of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian.

Dean: We're the brothers that rock together. We're like the American Oasis.

Oasis was an English rock band which was formed around two brothers, Liam and Noel Gallagher, who were infamous for their public fights.

The Ladyheart bass drum and the shirts at the merchandise stand refer to a possible album title "Theatre of Mercy." This may be a play off of Mötley Crüe's third album Theatre of Pain, which includes one of their signature songs "Home Sweet Home." In the episode, Sam makes repeated references to Ladyheart's third album, though he never says the album title. Mötley Crüe's second album is titled "Shout at the Devil."

Ladyheart Member: Have you seen that crowd? Man, I have not seen an audience this hype since we headlined Monsters of Rock in '91. And the girls. Perfect age.

Monsters of Rock was an annual hard rock music festival held in Castle Donington, England. On the bill in 1991: AC/DC, Metallica, Mötley Crüe, Queensrÿche and The Black Crowes. Songs by AC/DC and Queensrÿche have been played in previous episodes of Supernatural.

AC/DC have been falsely accused of being a Satanic band, though two of their most popular songs are "Highway to Hell" and "Hell's Bells," both featured on previous episodes of Supernatural. One rumor was that the band's name stood for "After Christ/Devil Comes" or "Anti-Christ/Devil's Children."

Lucifer: Castiel. Took you long enough. You bring the rest of the Little Rascals?

Crowley: Just me.
Lucifer: Spanky.

The Little Rascals, also known as "Our Gang," was a series of American short comedy films produced between 1922 and 1944 (and occasionally revived since on TV or in movies) about a group of poor neighborhood children and their adventures.

George "Spanky" McFarland was one of the best-known members of the extensive and ever-changing cast.

Lucifer: Clever girls.

A reference to the famous scene from Jurassic Park.

Lucifer attacking Castiel and Crowley with a guitar is a reference to the long record of rock stars using guitars as weapons. Noel Gallagher, for example, alleged in a lawsuit that his brother Liam attacked him with a guitar. (In this episode, Sam and Dean pretend to be brothers in a rock band that they describe as "the American Oasis") One of the most famous instances was Keith Richards attacking a fan who rushed the stage at a Rolling Stones show.

Dean: Rock is dead.

"Rock Is Dead" is the name of a song by Marilyn Manson, who is a fan of Anton LeVey, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Aleister Crowley. He is a member of the Church of Satan, his breakthrough album was titled Antichrist Superstar, and his upcoming album is titled SAY10. (Say the title out loud if you haven't figured it out.)

Minutiae

The Ladyheart song "Bloody Messiah" was co-written by composer Jay Gruska and writer Robert Berens. This is not the first time that a writer has co-written music for the show. Former writer Ben Edlund co-wrote the "Ghostfacers Theme" in 3.13 Ghostfacers with Christopher Lennertz and former showrunner Jeremy Carver co-wrote "Together (The Supernatural Sitcom Theme)" alongside Jay Gruska for 5.08 Changing Channels.

Dean: Alright, 450 miles to LA The land of gridlock, Botox, overtaxing, underachieving, smell of sweaty desperation. I mean you can't breathe, beaches are toxic. You got dudes in skinny jeans wearing sunglasses inside. Image-obsessed narcissists. I do like the yoga pants though. When's the last time we were in LA? Was it ten years ago, doing a vengeful spirit? Man, seems like forever ago. Doesn't it?

Sam and Dean traveled to Los Angeles to fight a vengeful spirit ten years ago in 2.18_Hollywood_Babylon. Dean let his opinion be known regarding people who wear sunglasses indoors in 9.05 Dog Dean Afternoon, that opinion being that they are douchebags.

When Dean is playing Words with Friends with Mary, the letters at the bottom of his screen can be rearranged to spell Lucifer. Dean's username in the game is 67Impala327 which is a reference to the 1967 Impala and her 327 cubic inch four-block V8 engine. Mary's name is mothermary1983. 1983 is the year Sam was born, and the year Mary died.

When Castiel calls Dean, his name appears on Dean's phone spelled as "Cass," thus re-igniting the age-old argument: is it Cas or Cass?.

This episode shows that Dean is somewhat proficient at the guitar.

Legendary bluesman Robert Johnson was rumored to have sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for his guitar-playing ability, a myth which is the subject of 2.08 Crossroad Blues. Lucifer was not able to get a crash course in guitar playing for this episode to write songs and perform with Ladyheart, but he wasn't the Crossroads Demon that made the deal with Johnson.

Sides, Scripts & Transcripts

• 12.07 Rock Never Dies (transcript)

Promotion

• Synopsis via KSiteTV
• Promo