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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Synopsis

The episode opens with two teens invoking Lucifer. The teens had been using a fossilized feather from Lucifer’s original angel wings to try and summon him. Surprisingly Lucifer manifests as Vince who uses the fossil to heal his vessel to last as he likes this one!

The usual duo Dean (Jensen Ackles) and Sam (Jared Padalecki) are looking for Lucifer to put him back into the cage. The uncomfortable duo of Crowley (Mark Sheppard) and Cas (Misha Collins) are doing the same.

They suspect the rock star Vince is actually Lucifer, who is revelling in being famous. They’re off to LA, where Vince is making his comeback and signing a new contract. Crowley happens to know the manager of Vince’s new label and pays him a visit. To find out Vince’s whereabouts, Crowley intimidates him into telling him if Vince is truly making a come back and he is!

Vince’s band wonders what’s up with Vince because he isn’t too enthusiastic about recording music for someone making a comeback after 20+ years. He drops a hint when he says that it’s not about the music it’s about the adoration, and the worship, humans have always loved to put someone/something ahead of themselves to worship, love and adore. He tells them that God isn’t cutting it these days and he’s obsessed with fame and doesn’t care for his role as “the Devil”.

So both pairs of hunters go to check out Vince’s hotel room. What they stumble upon is a typical rock and roll mess. However there are reference books on how to be famous and about rock star bios as if Vince doesn’t know.

Lucifer AKA Vince is entertaining a long time fan that he ignored in the past. He’s enjoying making the woman explained her adoration food For him and asks her to demonstrate to what links she’s willing to go for him to which she replies anything. He then asks her would you bleed for me? She promptly starts carving up her chest.

All four go to talk to the woman in the hospital, they asked her if Lucifer forced her to cut herself. She maintains she wanted to and defends Lucifer saying that he must’ve had a reason. All she cares about attending the concert.

Lucifer who is talking to one of his record promoters, says that he wants new blood, new fans not the old diehards because if "you’re not gaining followers you’re losing them."

Crowley shows up at the label owners office trying to intimidate the location of the concert out of them. The limo carrying Vincent, his band and his promoters pulls up. The PR lady is are you excited about the social media buzz about Vince, But Tommy is upset that Vince hasn’t shown up to record any new music. Vince's response to the record label owner threat of “I own you” use is to have him stabbed himself in the neck with a pen. Tommy who Cas spoke with ends up texting out of guilt the location of the concert.

The club fills up with fans, and Lucifer is delighted at their devotion and adoration. Meantime the 4 heroes are looking to take the devil down, and prevent a bloodbath. Cas nobly volunteers to distract Lucifer while the boys try and save the crowd. Sam is worried as he knows Lucifer all too well and doesn’t want his friend to sacrifice himself. It is it this point that Crowley begrudgingly says he’ll also provide a distraction.

Right before the event Vince snaps the necks two of his band members and informs Tommy, the person who informed Cas about the concert, that he is cutting the deadweight and going solo. Cas and Crowley show up and Vince beats them quite badly and kills Tommy.

Sam and Dean join the crowd and look for an opportunity to save them. The music starts as lights dim, Sam aptly notices an emergency fire switch and pulls it. The crowd barely notices. Dean fires a gun at the ceiling and screams he’s got a gun. People start fleeing as Sam holds the door open. Lucifer closes the doors trapping the heroes. Lucifer says he could easily and all four of them but said he would rather have them witness the destruction of Gods’ creation.

Sam asks Lucifer why is he doing all of this he’s forgiven God. Lucifer answers that God forsook him yet again running off with his sister. Because God doesn’t care about him or the boys. Vince’s vessel is decayed, Lucifer exits saying it’s only onward and upward for him.

A badly beaten Crowley and Cas are assessing the situation with the brothers. Dean is cautiously optimistic, while Sam states that they didn't save everyone and are just losing slowly.

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.

Russell: How you been, huh? Health? Family? Hell?
Crowley: Doesn't matter, don't care, and been better.

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, uh, rainbow wig and leopard prints.

Sam: Rainbow wig? What? You know what? I'm done apologizing. Lucifer possessed Vince Vincente. This is Vince Vincente's music, so listening to it is research.

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!

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: Onwards 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 Meditation technique, and became a guru to many celebrities, most 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 and founder of Def Jam Records.

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 Justin Bieber, 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.

Vince's 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."

When Tommy texts Castiel, he is shown to be texting "Agent Beyoncé." Beyoncé is a famous singer and also the alias Castiel previously used when speaking with Tommy.

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: Yeah, you got a little something, uh, right there. I mean, face it, 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.)

All four members of Ladyheart are killed/die in this episode. In doing so, Ladyheart become one of the few bands (albeit fictional) to have all of its original members die -- the others being The Jimi Hendrix Experience and The Ramones.

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 and performed 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: All right, 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" (as evidenced by Crowley wearing sunglasses indoors in the episode).

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.
The phrase "Mother Mary" appears in the lyrics to The Beatles "Let It Be." In 5.13 The Song Remains The Same, Dean reveals she used to sing The Beatles "Hey Jude" -- her favorite Beatles song -- to him as a child.

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