Eddie Trunk talks about his favorite hard rock live albums.

Eddie Trunk didn't go to the prom. The 42-year-old hair metal DJ had no girlfriends in high school, didn't party with the hip kids and was ceaselessly mocked for his devotion to bands like Iron Maiden and Kiss.

"There was nothing more uncool than being a Kiss fan back then," Trunk said recently at the Q104.3 studios in midtown Manhattan, just before taping his nationally syndicated radio show "Friday Night Rocks." "A lot of people claimed to like stoner type stuff like Santana and Neil Young and Yes to get into the parties and be cool. But I put a picture of Kiss on my notebook and in my locker, and these people wanted to crucify me for that. They thought I was out of my mind."

Nowadays, Kiss are bona fide legends and Trunk is living his dream. As the host of nationally syndicated rock shows on terrestrial and satellite radio, he's still supporting bands that cause the cool kids to roll their eyes. (You know who you are, Extreme and Poison.) But his unwillingness to conform has made him a celebrity in his own right, and he boasts legions of die-hard devotees across the country. Hundreds of thousands of MGD shot-gunners and pick-up truck drivers -- not to mention sheepish hipsters -- depend on him for their radio fix.

Trunk's terrestrial show serves up deep cuts of '70s and '80s hard rock, glam rock and good-old fashioned heavy metal. Beamed on tape delay around the country to bastions of good taste like Willmar, Minn. and Yakima, Wash., it first airs live on Q104.3, Friday nights from 11 p.m. to 2 in the morning.

"This is the only place in New York where people can hear this kind of music," Trunk said. "Even major major artists like Iron Maiden, who could come into town and sell out Madison Square Garden, there is no outlet in New York City for their music except for my show." Trunk doesn't so much spin the music as live it. His cell phone contacts list includes rockers like Rob Zombie and Rob Halford (of Judas Priest), and he goes bowling with Kiss founding member Ace Frehley. Oddly enough, he's also best buddies with Oakland Athletics slugger Mike Piazza, with whom he used to host a show on XM satellite radio.

As convivial in person as he is on the air, he doesn't have an ounce of snobbery in him (as his musical taste would indicate). His everyman demeanor is part of the reason he scores interviews with reclusive icons.

In 2006 he was paid a rare studio visit by Guns N' Roses front man Axl Rose, who announced the band's long-awaited "Chinese Democracy" record would be released before the end of last year. (No such luck.)

"Sometimes I have to kind of pinch myself," Trunk said. The girthy DJ lives with his wife and kids in Morris County, N.J. Showing up to work in a bright orange Mets t-shirt and shorts, it's obvious he still doesn't care what others think. He's carried this attitude since high school, when his idea of a good time was working at the record store in the mall.

He dropped out of community college and began hanging around the offices of New Jersey hard rock outpost WDHA. "I didn't get paid a penny," he recalled. "I just hung around the station and kind of found my way onto the air." He later worked for heavy metal label Megaforce, then-home of Metallica and Anthrax. Though his devotion won him the title of vice president when he was only 25, he was unable to convince higher-ups to sign future multi-platinum sensation White Lion. ("When The Children Cry," anyone?) But Trunk befriended the band's members, and after the release of their major label debut, "Pride," they presented him with a gold record. Though White Lion and their tight-pantsed brethren have long since fallen off the Billboard charts, Trunk says he was amazed when a recent interview with the band's estranged guitarist, Vito Bratta, caused overwhelming fan reaction on the Internet. "It was unbelievable. That style of music was beat to hell throughout the '90s. Critically, commercially, it was just hammered," he noted, citing Bon Jovi -- who overhauled their image and sound -- as the only hair metal act to make it through the '90s unscathed.

But against the odds, hair metal may be due for resurgence, Trunk continued. He pointed to the success of Rocklahoma, a metal-centric July music festival held in Pryor, Okla. Featuring bands like Quiet Riot, Slaughter and, yes, White Lion, it drew nearly 100,000 hard rocking souls. Trunk, the event's emcee, had to miss his radio show the following week because he lost his voice. Satellite radio may ultimately prove metal's saving grace. Sirius has a channel called "Hair Nation," and "Eddie Trunk Live" airs Mondays on XM from 6 to 10 p.m., Eastern time.

If you ask Trunk, such outlets for the music are long overdue. "Those artists sold millions of records. If you were twenty in 1987, you're about my age now, and that's the music that you embraced in your prime time of listening to music," he said. Though he stopped short of predicting hair metal will dominate the charts like it once did, he's optimistic it will at least gain some much-needed respect. "What's happened is it's become an entire generation's classic rock," he said, sounding, just briefly, like the unlikely musical tastemaker he is.

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Hear Eddie Trunk talk about his favorite hard rock live albums:

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Ben Westhoff is a writer in New York.

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