THE DARKNESS - HAWKINS: 'LANGE SAID TONE IT DOWN, SO WE CAMPED IT UP'

THE DARKNESS frontman JUSTIN HAWKINS was so incensed when legendary music producer ROBERT 'MUTT' LANGE suggested they tone down their flamboyant rock to break America, he decided to record the campest album he could.

The British rockers met with Lange - famed for producing classic albums for AC/DC and DEF LEPPARD and, more recently, for his wife SHANIA TWAIN - to discuss recording their second disc ONE WAY TICKET TO HELL AND BACK.

But Hawkins was appalled when Lange asked for a songwriting credit and then suggested ways to appeal to the US marketplace.

He says, "We had one dinner with him, and before he'd even heard a note of what we'd written, he insisted on having a writing credit.

"But what he said to us was the thing that we have to eliminate about ourselves in order to break America - which is the least of our concerns - is to 'take away any ambiguity' as to what we are and really dumb down.

"The crux of his argument was: we're too gay, and we really needed to get our balls out and make this sound like a rock album.

"But when people are telling you you're too sophisticated and you need to dumb down, the first thing you say is, 'Let's be more gay!'

"I want to be massive in America on our terms."