in response to a March 1991 Hit Parader cover piece written by Secher in which the band's vocalist Axl Rose and Sebastian Bach of Skid Row were ostensibly interviewed together for the first time. However, it soon came to light that rather than the exclusive it claimed to be, the interview was instead merely a transcript of a telephone conversation between the two musicians and Howard Stern that had earlier been broadcast on Stern's popular radio-show. The pair, along with Rose's then-wife Erin Everly, had talked to Stern during a party at Rose's home, and some observers questioned whether it even constituted a true interview. Rose and Bach both claimed that Hit Parader editor Andy Secher was misleading his readers with such tactics. With the dramatic decline in the popularity of heavy metal in the 1990s, Hit Paraders monthly readership began a steady decline. Many observers have noted that everything changed almost overnight with the emergence of Nirvana and grunge music in 1991, and Secher agrees wholeheartedly with this conclusion. Of the magazine's 1970s and 1980s heyday, Secher has said "The stories are too many, and in some cases too wild, to be printed here." Speaking to the music website rockcritics.com in the early 2000s, Secher identified the magazine's target readership as "a young, male demographic … They want short, pithy interviews and features – along with BIG color photos. The formula is fairly basic." He also defended Hit Paraders championing of heavy metal, despite the disapproval the genre attracted from some music critics, saying: "I always sensed that people like Christgau had to justify their existence by promoting the artistic aesthetics of the rock form. I've never taken any of this that seriously. Hit Parader isn't the New York Times … it's a frikkin' fanzine, and proud to be exactly that." The magazine closed down following the publication of its December 2008 issue. During its years of operation, Hit Parader also published issues dedicated to "Top 100" lists, such as "Top 100 Metal Bands", "Top 100 Guitarists", "Top 100 Vocalists" and "Top 100 Bassists & Drummers". Rebirth as a production studio In 2020, entertainment industry veterans Matt Pinfield, Ash Avildsen, and Josh Bernstein purchased the rights to Hit Parader and resurrected it as a branded production company. The new Hit Parader was headquartered in the Panasonic building in Universal City with a mission statement to focus "on original content