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MP3.com Bio:

With a gritty reputation that was arguably equaled only by Guns N' Roses, Mötley Crüe's infamous antics made them a force to be reckoned with in the '80s. As one of the first and most influential hair metal bands of the '80s, Mötley Crüe had a series of hit albums, the biggest and most noteworthy being 1989's Dr. Feelgood. The band continued to court controversy into the next decade, even when their recording career took a downturn through a series of well-publicized mishaps and run-ins with the law. Mötley Crüe's beginning can be traced back to 1981, when bassist Nikki Sixx (born Frank Ferrana) and drummer "Tommy Lee" Bass decided to leave the bands they were in at the time and pursue a new project together. Bob "Mick Mars" Deal was hired to play guitar and "Vince Neil" Wharton was added as vocalist. The band went through several name changes before Mars presented them with Mottley Krue, recalling a time when his previous band was described as a "motley looking crew." After agreeing on this name and altering the spelling somewhat, the newly formed group began to play at local clubs and soon became cult favorites, known for their unique stage theatrics.

The band soon met up with Allan Coffman, who financed their first album, Too Fast for Love, on their own small, independent Lethur Records label; the record sold a surprising 20,000 copies. After signing to Elektra Records, the band released Shout at the Devil in 1983, which featured the hit video "Looks That Kill." The record went platinum, but the band's success was temporarily brought to a halt when Neil was involved in a deadly automobile accident on August 12. Driving under the influence of alcohol, Neil crashed into another car, killing his good friend and passenger Nicholas Dingley of Hanoi Rocks; the other victims emerged with broken bones and brain damage. Neil was found guilty of vehicular manslaughter and driving while intoxicated, and was incarcerated for 30 days in 1985, in addition to performing community service and paying a large cash settlement. By the time Neil had been sentenced, however, the band's newest record, Theatre of Pain, had already been released and soared up the charts, making the band stars and producing their first Top 40 hit with a cover of Brownsville Station's "Smokin' in the Boys' Room."

After a short hiatus, the band regrouped with Neil to film a music video for "Home Sweet Home"; the first hit power ballad to be aired on MTV, it became their most requested music video for four months straight. A 44-minute home video cassette, Uncensored, was released in 1986, containing rare live footage and interviews; meanwhile, Lee married actress Heather Locklear. A year later, Mötley Crüe released their fourth album, Girls Girls Girls. The uncensored video for the popular title track was immediately banned from television, not airing until a slightly cleaned-up version was released. The group finally embarked on their own tour, but the European dates were canceled when Sixx suffered a drug overdose and nearly lost his life. Over the next year, all four members sought out drug rehabilitation and Mötley Crüe remained out of the spotlight. They returned, clean and sober, in 1989 with Dr. Feelgood, which hit number one on the Billboard charts due to the strong singles "Kickstart My Heart," "Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)," "Without You," and the infamous title-track, which became their first Top Ten single.

After another worldwide tour, they released a compilation album, Decade of Decadence, in 1991. The album opened at number two, and a home video of the same name was released shortly afterwards. The group created their own record label, Mötley Records, and signed a new contract with Elektra for $25 million. Unfortunately by this time, the music industry that made them famous was beginning to change, and the pressure to keep pace with the times began to take its toll on the bandmembers' camaraderie. In 1992, sessions for Mötley Crüe's next album turned ugly, and Neil was fired and replaced with vocalist John Corabi, formerly of the Scream. The 1994 product was Mötley Crüe, which peaked at number seven in the U.S. and eventually went gold, but was ultimately a commercial disappointment (as was a supporting tour). In early 1997, Corabi was fired and Neil rehired for the much-hyped Generation Swine. (Corabi resurfaced alongside former Kiss guitarist Bruce Kulick in the group Union.) Though Generation Swine opened at number four, it was sharply criticized and fell off the charts before long. In 1998, the band released Greatest Hits, but shortly after the supporting tour, Lee was arrested for spousal abuse against wife Pamela Anderson and sentenced to jail time for most of the year. Meanwhile, the group's deal with Elektra fell apart, and Mötley Records switched its affiliation to the Beyond label, with the band acquiring the rights to its back catalog.

After numerous bitter encounters with Neil, Tommy Lee left the band in 1999 to form Methods of Mayhem, who released their self-titled debut late that year; he was replaced with Ozzy Osbourne drummer Randy Castillo. That year, the revamped Crüe issued remastered editions of all their studio albums (complete with bonus tracks) plus the rarities collection Supersonic and Demonic Relics. An album of all new material, New Tattoo, appeared in the summer of 2000. Also in 2000, Sixx found time to launch a side project, 58. On the eve of the Crüe's tour in support of New Tattoo, Castillo was stricken with an undisclosed illness and sat out the tour to recuperate. Instead of canceling the tour, the Crüe temporarily enlisted Hole drummer (and lifelong Crüe fan) Samantha Maloney.

In May of 2001, the band issued an over-the-top, tell-all biography, The Dirt (which even included input from former drummer Lee), that quickly became a best-seller. Around the same time, Neil embarked on a brief solo tour of U.S. clubs and looked for a new solo record deal, but remained adamant that he was still a member of Motley Crüe. Sixx used the downtime to write material for other bands, including Tantric, Meatloaf, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, and James Michael. Sadly, Castillo passed away in the spring of 2002, and the band announced their hiatus would probably last into the next year. Sixx also began talking about reuniting the original lineup for a farewell tour, but Tommy Lee quickly went to the press and told them that his relationship with Vince Neil was simply too poor for that to happen. Controversy surrounded the band again as former producer Tom Werman sued the band for unpaid royalties, Neil's former wife Heidi Mark publicly accused him of physical abuse, and Neil was kicked off a nationally syndicated radio show for being too drunk to maintain an interview. Tour drummer Samantha Maloney was also mixed up in things as Sixx decided to write a mean-spirited posting on his website in retaliation for the public acknowledgement of a feud between her and his wife due to his infidelity during their 2000 tour. Rumors of a reunion continued to swirl during 2003-04, even as Mötley Crüe members stayed busy with individual projects. Both Tommy Lee and Vince Neil participated in celebrity shows, Lee as the focus of a half-hour show on NBC featuring the rock star attending college classes and Neil in the first season of The Surreal Life. Sixx toured and released an album with his new band, Brides of Destruction. The reunion rumors finally came true in late 2004 when the four original members announced dates for a full tour in 2005, their first in more than six years. The tour coincided with the February release of the band’s double-disc greatest hits collection, Red, White & Crüe. ~ Barry Weber & Greg Prato, All Music Guide

posted by: thecrue at 18:57 | link | comments (1) |

MÖTLEY CRÜE received the 2,301st star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame yesterday in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the band's founding.

Band members Tommy Lee, Mick Mars, Vince Neil and Nikki Sixx attended the late-morning ceremony in front of the Musicians Institute.

"We're across the street from the Erotica Museum and Frederick‘s of Hollywood. This is a perfect place for us to be," bassist Sixx told an estimated 600 screaming fans.


Speaking to Launch, Sixx said the band is thrilled with the honor. "Listen, it's nice to be recognized for your work," he said. "We are from Hollywood. You know that's where we started. It's where we played our first gigs. In a sense it's kind of fitting. You know we fit in there with all the dead movie stars."

posted by: thecrue at 21:23 | link | comments |

Let's hear it for excess. We're not talking about the double-double in your coffee kind of excess. We're talking real excess, a regular rock 'n' roll orgy of excess.

That's what Motley Crue promised for their Carnival of Sins show last night at Copps Coliseum. And that's exactly what Motley Crue delivered.

We're talking pyrotechnics burning straight up to hell (excuse me, but both the band and the 7,000 fans at the show probably have trouble with directions). Yeah, hellfire hot enough to singe the tattoos off drummer Tommy Lee's naked arms. And walls of smoke shooting from the stage, enough to cloak not only the band, but the entire front third of the audience as well.

We're talking Hollywood metal madness -- midgets on leashes, ladies with whips, soft porn on the screens and similulated sex on the stage, lots of it. There was a scantily clad girl spinning from a trapeze over Tommy Lee's head, another on her knees licking guitarist Mick Mars' leather and three more in stiletto thigh-highs sliding down ladders next to Nikki Sixx's bass. Lead singer Vince Neil had three of his own dressed in white starched nursey costumes treating Dr. Feelgood's lovesick heart.

We're talking about Girls, Girls, Girls -- that Motley Crue anthem to '80s Hollywood excess. It was the opener for the second set. Sixx and Lee drove out onto the stage on gleaming chrome choppers -- the sort a Hells Angel would die for -- as Mars' machine gun guitar attacked the crowd and a veritable avalanche of F-words poured from Neil's mouth.

And then there was Lee, beating the skins with the force of a pile driver, stopping only to urge the audience, in no uncertain terms to blow the roof off the place. (It's probably worth checking this morning to make sure it's still in place). He had already earned their favour by climbing off his circus platform, running to the apron of the stage and challenging the beefy security guards at the apron of the stage to pick on him instead of the over-indulged audience.

It was all topped by an orgy of sound. Backed by a wall of speakers stacked four high across the rear of the stage, the Motley Crue sound packs a punch that hits you in the chest and makes you fight to stay standing. The true shocker last night was its clarity. Through all the multi-megawatts, you could actually pick out Sixx's melody, Neil's falsetto scream and Mars' flash solos.

All this was supposed to be some kind of bizarre nostalgia trip. It's been almost 20 years since the height of Motley Crue's evil reign.

This tour, which has been filling concert halls around the world for almost a year, is really just an elaborate greatest hits tour. Many of the fans were out to relive their adolescence. This was the band they cut their teeth on. Some even brought their school-age children (what were they thinking?).

But there was also a younger element present, teens and twentysomethings pining for an era of excess they never had a chance to experience. Oh, dear.

posted by: thecrue at 21:08 | link | comments |

It's a common bit of small talk to ask an artist on the road how his current tour is going. In the case of Mötley Crüe - a quartet for whom just about everything exists on a larger scale -- it's far from idle chatter.

After all, the 1980s glam-metal icons reunited last year after more than two decades of drama. And even some fans were skeptical that the decadent, sometimes deeply divided band could keep it together on the road, no matter how good the money was.

But the band's current "Carnival of Sins" tour, which will bring its old hits to the Charleston Civic Center Sunday, has been so successful that the foursome now is thinking about the future, instead of its infamous past.

Frontman Vince Neil -- who

described the reunion a year ago as possibly the band's last go-round -- said this is not the first of many farewell tours, a la fellow rockers KISS.

"It's great to have that kind of option," he says with a laugh. "But we don't plan on going away any time soon. We're having a great time, and we're already looking forward to making a new album when this tour is over. Then we tour the new record, and it starts all over again."

The normality of the statement belies the obstacles that have apparently been overcome to make it possible.

For starters, there's the often-acrimonious relationship between Neil and drummer Tommy Lee, who left the band for several years after an airport altercation with the singer. And both men expressed doubts last year that guitarist Mick Mars, who has struggled for decades with ankylosing spondylitis, a degenerative bone disease, would be able to withstand the rigors of the road.

That, says the 45-year-old Neil, is not currently a concern.

"Mick's healthy. We've done 180-something shows over the past year, and he's moving more, he's playing better than he has a long time. It's great that people ask about him, but if he wasn't doing good, we wouldn't be out on tour."

As for his reconciliation with Lee, "We're great friends. I mean, you gotta remember, me and Tommy have been friends for 30 years. We went to high school together. I slept in his bedroom at his parents' house," he says, recalling the band's Hollywood roots in the late '70s.

"We're brothers, and brothers are gonna argue. But then the press just likes to overdo it a little bit."

That's an understandable temptation when it's presented with the Crue's soap-opera lives, which were made for reality TV before there was such a medium.

Most of the details were laid bare in "The Dirt," a 2001 memoir that chronicled the band's highs -- both artistic and chemical -- and lows -- such as bassist Nikki Sixx's multiple overdoses; Lee's jail sentence for assaulting ex-wife Pamela Anderson; Neil's involvement in a 1984 drunk driving accident that killed Hanoi Rocks drummer Razzle and left two others brain-damaged; and the death of his daughter Skylar to cancer.

"We did it to be honest and true to the fans," Neil says of the book, written by the band with journalist Neil Strauss, and now being adapted for film. "You can't sugarcoat this kind of lifestyle. It is what it is."
It took its toll on Neil's health as well, although he insists his makeover last year on a VH-1 reality show, which included $70,000 worth of plastic surgery, didn't really have that much effect on the current tour.
"It just basically got me in shape."

While the band's tours are no longer the teetotaling affairs that occurred after Neil rejoined the group in 1997, following his unhappy departure five years earlier, the pleasures of the road are slightly more mundane these days.

Neil, married for the fourth time in 2005, now relishes digging into the band's back catalog for nuggets like "On With the Show," off the debut "Too Fast For Love," which launched the heavily made-up quartet from the Sunset Strip towards stardom in 1981.

"We never even played it live, except in the clubs, when that was all the material that we had," remembers Neil. "It's a treat -- it's a lot of fun to sing that one again."

But even songs from "Theater of Pain," the 1985 effort the group has largely disavowed, have been exhumed to please the fans.

So will news of the new album; recording is set to begin with producer Bob Rock this summer.

And after that, the band plans a short European tour with one of the few acts larger than themselves: the Rolling Stones, for whom they opened a couple of shows last year.

"It was very cool, but very humbling to go out and be an opening act again," says Neil, adding with a chuckle, "And when you're with the Stones, you're an opening act for sure."

posted by: thecrue at 21:05 | link | comments |

Irish concert promoters Aiken Promotions have confirmed that MÖTLEY CRÜE will **NOT** be supporting GUNS N' ROSES on June 9 at the RDS Arena in Dublin, Ireland, despite previous reports to the contrary. "I'm afraid the radio ads will still have MÖTLEY CRÜE as playing as they were produced before they had decided to cancel the date," reads a new e-mail message sent out by an Aiken representative. "There are new radio ads being produced that will not have MÖTLEY CRÜE included. As I hope you can appreciate we had just found out yesterday evening so promotion is still in the process. Sorry for any confusion caused."

posted by: thecrue at 21:03 | link | comments |