Take Adler, for example. With his long hair and beard, he is easily recognizable--especially after widespread gossip-rag coverage of his relationship with former "O.C." darling Mischa Barton. It doesn't hurt that his father is legendary producer Lou Adler (The Mamas and the Papas). Cicso Adler did a little knob turning himself with Mickey Avalon's "Jane Fonda," and he recently teamed up with the Black Eyed Peas' Will.I.Am as well as Lil John. Also in their pocket is drummer Alex "Orbi" Orbison's lineage: he is the son of the iconic Roy Orbison.

Then why is Whitestarr, the subject of VH1's "The Rock Life," the most recognizable rock band you don't know? Probably thanks to the paparazzi.

"I think it helped awareness but I think it's hurt our credibility," Adler said during a recent band interview with LiveDaily in Scottsdale, AZ.

"I think it's unfair. It gives people a reason to second-guess us. If we didn't have that, they may not have ever heard of us. But at least they would have just found our music. That's all we do. I'm sorry if there was a hot girl at the bar and I talked to her. Any publicity is good publicity, that's what they always say," he added.

Now, Whitestarr is hoping to get into fans' good graces with the album "Fillith Tillith," its first for VH1 Classics records, due in stores Aug. 28, as well as "The Rock Life." The show airs 10:30 p.m. ET Mondays.

Earlier this summer, the straight-up rock-'n'-roll band toured with The Pretenders, ZZ Top and The Stray Cats. They'll spend the rest of the summer on stage opening for Alice Cooper [ tickets ]. Adler said it's an honor to open for such classic artists.

"We look at it as they're passing the torch," Adler said. "Chrissie Hynde from The Pretenders sat there and watched the whole show and told us she was blown away. Now we can keep going because if [she] told us we were horrible, we might stop."

Added guitarist Rainbow Jeramy, "She'd probably tell us if we were horrible. She seems like the no-kidding-around type."

Adler sees "Fillith Tillilth" as the band's second and last chance to make it. Whitestarr was initially signed to Atlantic Records, Adler said, but never released an album on the label.

"I think they didn't know what to do with a rock-'n'-roll band at the time. It's still not even completely back. Urban hip-hop was everything in the world at that point. We went out on the Kid Rock tour, and they wouldn't even give us tour support. We didn't even get a phone call. We were out there hustling our asses off."

When the tour wrapped up, the label encouraged Whitestarr to go into the studio and continue to record songs. However, the band--which also includes bassist Damon Webb and dancer Tony Potato--had other ideas.

"We were like, 'No. We want this record released or let us out of our contract.' We celebrated the day we got out of that contract. It's just been a long run. It's a tough business. In a way, I think it was good. We feel like, funnily enough, veterans of the business side of things, at least," Adler said.

The break allowed Whitestarr's members to grow as artists and "really find ourselves musically and really realize who we are," Adler explained. "Once you know who you are, then you can present yourself to people the proper way."

Orbison--a third-generation musician--said that his motto is "work hard, play hard," a sentiment he earned partially from his father.

"The main thing he passed on to me was, like they say in boxing, if you want to be a champion, train like one," Orbison said. "My brother asked him, 'How come my voice sounds this way and your voice sounds that way?' He goes, 'Well, how much are you practicing?' My brother's like, 'Three or four hours a day.' He said, 'That's it right there. I do eight hours a day.' I practice my ass off. I flunked out of high school practicing so much."

But Adler and Orbison do not see the importance of their lineage.

"We don't advertise that. Parents are just people who had kids. Hopefully, they passed some stuff to us. We [Orbison and Adler] just sort of blended together. We met at parties. It's not like we met at a parent-teacher conference."

Rainbow Jeramy added, "If you dig up the real past of Cisco or any of us, you'll see that most of our time we spend in the studio. If you do your history, we've written songs for a lot of different artists. We live, eat and breathe music."

"We're musicians first, rock star second. That's what I'd like people to realize," Adler said.