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Night Ranger guitarist Brad Gillis can still rock in America.

But his neck aches just a little bit more the next morning.

"I still give 110 percent on stage, and so does the rest of the band," he said in a telephone interview. "But we're a little older now. Age is starting to hit us. In the '80s, we had a lot of parties after the show. Lots of women. The whole sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll thing. But today, we basically just have a cocktail or two in the hotel bar to wind down after a show."

The group, whose hits include pop metal classics such as "Sister Christian," "Don't Tell Me You Love Me" and "Sentimental Street," will open for fellow '80s rockers Journey Friday at the Greensboro Coliseum.

Night Ranger's current tour, which will also include gigs with Styx and REO Speedwagon later in the fall, is its first prolonged road outing in more than 20 years.

"We've mainly been weekend warriors, which means we fly out on Thursday or Friday, play Friday, Saturday and Sunday and be home Monday," the 52-year-old Gillis said. "But with this tour, a lot of shows are during the week, so we have to gear up and be away from home a little more than usual. And that probably means being on a bus for a month straight."

Along with Gillis, the band consists of original members Kelly Keagy on drums and lead vocals and Jack Blades on bass and new members Christian Cullen on keyboards and Joel Hoekstra on guitar.

The group was formed in the late 1970s by Gillis, Keagy and Blades, former members of San Francisco Bay Area funk outfit Rubicon. They scored their first hit with "(You Can Still) Rock in America" in 1983. The following year, power ballad "Sister Christian" reached No. 5 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart.

"Boom, everything took off after that," Gillis said. "We went from opening status to headliner. I'll never forget pulling into LaCrosse, Wisconsin, in 1984 on our tour bus, seeing the big coliseum and looking at the marquee -- 'Night Ranger, Sold Out.' "

The song, which Keagy wrote as a lament about his little sister Christine growing up too fast, was heard years later in the film "Boogie Nights." A cassette of it is playing as the movie's main character (Mark Wahlberg as adult film actor Dirk Diggler) is being chased by a gun-wielding drug dealer.

"The song is really so different from what was in that scene, but it seemed to fit," Gillis said. "That movie was pretty wild and crazy in the first place, but to have a big drug deal going on and then this big drug dealer putting on 'Sister Christian' and playing air drums and singing along ---- it brought chills."

The group broke up in 1989 but came back together again in the mid-'90s. They have put out several albums since, the latest of which, "Hole in the Sun," was released last year.

One of the biggest challenges for classic rock bands these days, Gillis said, is getting radio airplay for their newer material. But he said they still manage to garner many new fans.

"A lot of kids come to the shows with their parents," he said. "They may start out being snobbish like, 'Oh, that's just old '80s rock.' But then all of sudden they get into it. They dig it. And they realize the '80s were a great era for music. It was fun. It was positive. Everything was about letting your hair down and rocking and having a good time."

Contact Robert C. Lopez at 691-5091 or robert.lopez@news-record.com