The Story Of… How Gun Turned Word Up Into A Mega Hit

Cameo’s “Word Up!” was already a proven hit by the time Gun got hold of it.

Released in 1986, Larry Blackmon and Tomi Jenkins’ funk juggernaut reached No. 3 in the UK and embedded itself deeply enough in pop culture to become one of those songs everyone seems to know, whether they mean to or not.

The beat was too strong, the hook too obvious, and the attitude too flexible to stay in one lane forever — but nobody expected that a Scottish hard rock band would make it their own.

Arriving in late 1994, Gun’s powerful version of Word Up featured on their third album, Swagger, and did far more than give them a hit single. It catapulted the band into a different commercial tier entirely, and in hindsight — it helped set in motion the chain of events that would later pull the band apart.

Why This Song?

Interestingly, this wasn’t simply a rock band making an ironic, novelty choice.

Lead guitarist Giuliano “Jools” Gizzi explains that Gun’s musical tastes already stretched well beyond traditional hard rock during the early ’90s. Alongside the likes of AC/DC and the usual guitar-driven influences, there was a shared love of rap, dance music, Prince and Parliament.

That meant Cameo’s original version never felt alien to them.

If anything, it felt like a song with the same kind of energy that Gun had previously flirted with on earlier tracks such as Dance and Money (Everybody Loves Her).

“As much as we loved bands like AC/DC, Mark and I also enjoy listening to rap and dance. We knew that this song by Cameo had already achieved a fair level of chart success back in 1986, but when we heard it in a club setting towards the end of 1992 it sounded like a whole different beast, it was incredible.”

– Giuliano Gizzi

The Rehearsal That Changed Everything

The story really begins in rehearsals.

Jools says he and Rankin first knocked together a rough rock version of Word Up simply to help get themselves in the zone. At this stage it was less “future single” and more “something fun to play around with”.

But once the guitars kicked in, all sets of eyebrows in the room were raised.

“We drafted up a rock version of the song which we could use in rehearsal to get in the zone, and it just came alive! I mentioned to Chris Sheldon (producer) that it sounds like Metallica doing rap music, and then we kept making the chords and the drums heavier from there, trying to lean in on that joke. We had planned to move on to our main recording session after that, but Chris called us into the booth to listen back to Word Up, and we were just like… oh, that’s cool! So we decided to cut a proper version of it for Swagger, and to this day, we are very happy with the sound Chris managed to capture on it.”

– Giuliano Gizzi

Got A Weird Thing To Tell Ya

When Gun’s cover of Word Up was released as a single in the summer of 1994, it moved fast.

MTV slid into the song into heavy rotation, and the situation quickly snowballed for the Scottish rockers. It peaked at No. 8 on the UK Singles Chart — a clear leap beyond their previous best-charting material — and remained on the chart for an impressive seven weeks.

That is what made Word Up so significant. It didn’t just give Gun another strong single — their ninth to land inside the Top 75 so far — it changed the scale of the band’s life almost overnight: bigger crowds, bigger visibility, bigger expectations.

For a while, they were exactly where most rock bands spend their whole career trying to get.

Jools remembers the impact in more human terms:

“It just goes to show you how one song can change everything. Suddenly all of our venues were sold out — everywhere! — and our lives became quite surreal. I remember meeting Pamela Anderson in a hotel lobby and she said she loves Word Up. I thought, “How did this go from a rehearsal studio in wet Glasgow to Pamela Anderson’s Walkman?” (laughs). It was a crazy time. If we’d actually written the track and not just covered it, I’d probably be talking to you from Miami beach today (laughs).”

– Giuliano Gizzi

Larry Blackmon’s Verdict

There is always one awkward question hanging over any cover version that becomes this successful: what did the person who wrote the original think of it?

After all, the original artist is fully within their rights to dislike what somebody else has done with their creation.

Jools tells us that none of the members of Gun knew Larry Blackmon personally prior to recording their version of Word Up, but once the song began receiving radio airplay in the USA he got in touch with A&M Records to pass on his approval for the unique twist they’d put on his work.

It’s hard to ask for much more than that.

“It was written by a man called Larry Blackmon. None of us knew him, nor had we ever met him. Our record label phoned us on the day the song got released Stateside to inform us that he gave our version solid praise, which was nice of him to do.”

– Giuliano Gizzi

The Hidden Cost of a Mega-Hit

Unfortunately, this story doesn’t have a happy ending.

Because for all the success Word Up brought Gun, it also seems to have pushed them toward the decision that eventually broke the original band.

While collecting ideas for the eventual follow-up to Swagger, the band decided they wanted to build upon the energy of Word Up by drilling further into the groove and crossover ambition.

“We all loved rap music, especially Prince and Parliament. That’s why it never bothered us that Word Up has kinda unusual lyrics. It didn’t need to be some deeper meaning — and fans enjoyed it, because they sang it back to us.

So when we decided to make our fourth album we tried to explore more of that “rock you can dance to” kind of vibe.” Our goal was to create a record similar to Listen Like Thieves by INXS. We wanted that groove to go with our heavy guitars, I think it would’ve sounded great. We even brought in Andrew Farriss (INXS keyboardist) to produce the album, but everything went horribly wrong. That record is still a sore subject for me to talk about.“

– Giuliano Gizzi

From Word Up to 0141 632 6326

Unfortunately for Gizzi, the album he thought they were making never came to fruition.

He insists that the early demo tapes for their 1997 effort still sounded like Gun — and that you could hear them stretching their musical appeal while keeping their hard rock identity.

However, the trouble began when they handed those demo tapes over to Andrew Farriss. Uninterested in treading familiar sonic ground, the producer began disassembling the demos until they no longer resembled the plan at all.

This process eventually became 0141 632 6326, the ill-fated 1997 follow-up that abandoned much of the band’s signature sound, confused fans with an unwanted rebrand, and ultimately drove a wedge between Mark Rankin and the Gizzi brothers that lasted for more than ten years.

“I hated it. I wanted us to go back to Scotland and make a proper rock album. But Andrew and Mark were so sure of themselves, and they had the full backing of the label, so I swallowed my pride and persevered. It’s a decision I still regret today.”

– Giuliano Gizzi

The Song Survived The Fallout

Thankfully, Word Up outlasted the drama it created.

Gun successfully returned in 2012 — minus Mark Rankin — and released a string of well-received records to right the wrongs that ill-fated fourth album. And by Jools’ account, they have been extra careful to retain full control of their music so that the mistakes of the late-’90s can never be repeated.

And, of course, they still find room in the setlist for Word Up.

“We’re really happy to be back. Mark didn’t want to return but he gave us his blessing, which meant a lot. Dante becoming our singer has been a fantastic because he brings a totally different style that gives new life to our old songs when we play them live. I’m really proud of the records we’ve released since 2012, but we still love the old stuff — including Word Up. The first time we played it after all those years , oh man, it just felt amazing. The hairs on my arms were standing up, I loved it.”

– Giuliano Gizzi

The Final Word on Word Up

Plenty of cover versions are fun for five minutes and then disappear into history.

Gun’s take on Word Up is far more than that. It took an already great funk song, located the heavy-rock version hiding inside it, and created an audio monster that their more illustrious US rivals had every right to be envious of.

Its success may have temporarily set Gun on a darker path, but it also gave them the biggest song of their career — and a cover version that still belongs to them.

>> The Story of Word Up is part of our Gun series.