Rockers on an Anti-Drug ‘Stairway’ : Pop music: New album features contemporary versions of songs associated with artists whose deaths were believed to have been linked to drug abuse.

“Stairway to Heaven/Highway to Hell” is the provocative title of a new hard-rock album that parents and fans can finally agree upon as worthwhile.

Instead of promoting a hedonistic life style--the frequent charge of parents who object to hard-rock and heavy-metal music, this album serves as a reminder of the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse.

The PolyGram release features several of today’s hottest rock acts--including Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, Cinderella, Ozzy Osbourne and Skid Row--offering their own versions of songs associated with artists whose deaths were believed to have been aggravated or caused by substance abuse. Among them: Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Elvis Presley and the Sex Pistols’ Sid Vicious.

To make sure the warning isn’t missed, the album’s liner notes contain a much longer list of artists whose deaths were believed to have been abuse-related as well as an 800-number for a 24-hour drug help line. The cover is a ghoulish drawing of a skeleton playing a guitar.

It all adds up to a guaranteed best seller, especially at Christmastime. At least, that’s what everyone involved with the project thought at the beginning.

After all, the latest albums by Bon Jovi, Motley Crue and Skid Row alone have sold almost 10 million copies. And if the teen-age fans of these bands don’t buy the new album, parents--comforted by the anti-drug message--might be tempted to slip one under the Christmas tree for their kids.

Surprisingly, however, “Stairway”--a charity effort developed in association with the Make a Difference Foundation--is languishing in record stores. Where visions of 500,000 to 1 million sales by Christmas once seemed reasonable, the album will be lucky to pass the 200,000 mark by Monday. It was resting unceremoniously last week at No. 100 on the U.S. sales charts.

The apparent problem: timing.

“There’s no question about it,” Jim Urie, senior vice president of marketing for PolyGram Records in New York, said. “This is a record that on paper looked like it would be gigantic and it so far is less than gigantic. The problem is it got into the stores so late.

“The album was tied to (August’s Moscow Music Peace Festival) and the original plan was for it to come out the week before the concert so that it would benefit from all the publicity surrounding the event. But the music just didn’t get completed in time.”

“We wound up releasing the album almost four months after the concert--when the (project) isn’t on people’s minds and the album has to compete in the stores with all the superstar albums out there.”

But Urie believes that “Stairway” may have a strong second life after Christmas.

He is counting on an MTV showing Christmas Eve of a two-hour special drawn from the Moscow Music Peace Festival to help draw attention to the collection. “I think it has a chance to explode (commercially) after the holidays,” Urie said this week. “It should go gold for sure (500,000 copies) and platinum (1 million) is not an unreasonable long-term goal.”

Joe Chesire, a Raleigh, N.C. attorney who oversees the Make a Difference Foundation, is disappointed that sales haven’t been stronger. But he, too, is optimistic about the album’s chances after the MTV special, which will air Sunday at 6 p.m.

The foundation, which works with rock stars and professional athletes to spread an anti-drug message, sponsored the Moscow Music Peace Festival and is slated to receive approximately $2 in donated artist royalties for every album sold.

Chesire said the delay in the album’s release was caused by the complexity of the project. “The Moscow festival ended up being such an incredible task, far greater then we ever thought it would be and there just wasn’t time to get everything done in time for the record to come out earlier.”

The album and the concert were organized by Doc McGhee, who manages several of the bands on the Moscow bill, including Bon Jovi, the Scorpions and Skid Row. Motley Crue was also a McGhee client at the time, but is no longer represented by him.

McGhee, executive producer of the “Stairway” album, started the Make a Difference Foundation with a $250,000 contribution in 1988 as part of the community service provision of a probation order given him after he pleaded guilty in U.S. District court to “aiding and abetting” in the distribution of an estimated 40,000 pounds of marijuana in 1982.

(McGhee is currently one of more than 150 defendants in a separate Louisiana trial involving an alleged conspiracy to import 1.28 million pounds of marijuana into the country between 1982 and 1984. The rock manager has pleaded not guilty in this case, according to Chesire, who is also McGhee’s attorney).

Besides studio versions of such rock standards as the Sex Pistols’ “Holidays in the Sun” (performed by Skid Row), Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back in Town” (by Bon Jovi) and Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” (by Osbourne), the album features live jams from the Moscow concerts on tunes associated with Elvis Presley (“Hound Dog”) and Led Zeppelin (“Rock and Roll”).

The latter jam featured drummer Jason Bonham, the 23-year-old son of Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, who died in 1980 of a heart attack reportedly brought on by excessive drinking.

In an interview at the festival, young Bonham--whose own debut album is currently No. 40 on the Billboard sales charts--said he hopes the “Stairway” album helps discourage substance abuse. “When someone listens to all that great music, it may make them stop and realize what we’ve lost to drugs,” he said

LIVE ACTION: Dr. John has postponed concerts scheduled for Trancas in Malibu on Tuesday and the Strand in Redondo Beach on Thursday after collapsing from exhaustion on stage in Tucson this week. The Strand date has been rescheduled for Feb. 22. Tickets for the original date will be honored, and refunds are available at point of purchase. . . .

Little Richard will headline a New Year’s Eve show at the Palm Springs Convention Center. . . . The Palace has added the Call on Jan. 10 and Pretty Boy Floyd on Jan. 12. . . . The Circle Jerks will be at the Country Club on Jan. 20. . . . Coming to McCabe’s: Exene Cervenka (Jan. 20), the Grapes of Wrath (Jan. 26), John Stewart (Jan. 28), Jim Carroll (Feb. 9) and Doc Watson (Feb. 10).