Motley Crue, the famous American pop-metal band, can be appreciated in one of two ways. The first, is to listen to the band’s music, and this is usually the least popular. The second, and much more glamorous, is to read/listen to the non-canonical mythology of Motley Crue’s Head PR and bassist Nikki Sixx.
Myself and everyone at Alt77 think we are above this kind of bitterness. But open up any rock music forum, and you’ll notice that Motley Crue is actively hated nowadays. Has it always been this way? And why are these feelings so intense?
Let’s get into the nitty-gritty. Unlike Motley Crue’s band members, I will not be making any stories up as I go along.
Stealing a Name
Some rockstars get sick of playing the hits. Some even get sick of telling the same old touring stories. Not Nikki Sixx or Tommy Lee. They love a good Motley Crue tale. Truthfulness is usually a detail.
One truly defining story, the trustworthiness of which we can nearly be sure, involves Nikki Sixx picking up his first guitar. And, by picking up, I mean taking it and running out of the music store. But why a guitar? I thought Sixx was a bass player.
Well, so did he. But his ambition never quite matched his ability. Somewhere in the late 70s, Nikki Sixx distracted a store clerk, put the instrument in his case and went to tell his friends. He never realized bass guitars had fewer strings.
It wasn’t the first or last thing Sixx would help himself to. His stage name itself, an improvement on Frank Carlton Serafino Feranna Jr., was mindlessly stolen from a fellow musician, Jeff Nicholson. Sixx boasts he took the name as if it owed to him. Still, he toyed with calling himself Nikki London or Nikki Nine. Fortunately, all were equally as juvenile.
All the Pomp of Aerosmith Without the Musical Ability?
Nikki Sixx landed in Los Angeles in his teenage years. He wanted to start a band and knew exactly what he needed – people who looked the part… and one guy who could play.
That was an ideal strategy as post-Van Halen L.A. was filled with either guitar players who could tap notes with their toes, or talentless hacks with great hair-dos.
To his credit, Sixx had used his previous band engagement to learn which of the two had a greater chance of success. He’d played and been fired by Blackie Lawless from a band called Sister. He’d started and lost interest in a band called London. Both played KISS-like songs with a great dedication to big hair and platform shoes.
The stage was set. Sixx went out into the world and recruited two scene kids, Tommy Lee and Vince Neil. The first could sing, and the latter looked like David Lee Roth. So, Sixx asked Lee to play drums and Neil to be the lead singer.
Musical proficiency had been hardly a factor up to this point, so Sixx had to find someone who could tune guitars and play the songs. In a stroke of massive good luck, he found guitarist Mick Mars, a veteran of the L.A. scene.
Sixx pleaded with Mars on a bent knee. The guitarist showed little interest in the music or the personalities of his future bandmates. But with little else going on, he agreed to take on the gig, provided it proved financially viable enough so that he could procure food for his many cats.
What do early demos of Motley Crue tell us they sounded like? Well, it’s a terrible version of Aerosmith. But this is what most L.A. bands who couldn’t competently rip off Van Halen songs sounded like.
Nikki Sixx’s Vision
But Nikki Sixx was a man with a vision. It was based on a three-prong attack that he called “Songs, Show and Sex.”
First, Motley Crue needed songs. Sixx would write them and share exactly none of the royalties with the others. Originality would’ve just slowed them down. And, with Sixx, never above a bit of thievery, took massive inspiration from songs by Billy Squire, Judas Priest and old favourites Aerosmith. Now, that’s settled!
Next, Sixx played his trump card. He needed a show and knew where to get it. KISS had been an obsession of Sixx and Blackie Lawless ever since the days of Sister. What if he could do their show? KISS was certainly not hanging out in the clubs Crue was going to be playing and couldn’t much object.
Finally, he told the stunned band members they could reach their true objective, their holy grail – non-stop parties. This sounded pretty good to Tommy Lee and Vince Neil.
“The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band”, by far Motley Crue’s greatest work, says that Lee could drink up to two gallons of vodka a day and that Neil had begun nursing a cocaine habit ever since high school when he used to sniff the white powder through a pen in class.
Setting the Hair Metal Scene on Fire and Endangering Men, Women and Children
Nikki Sixx was true to this word. There would be orgies and money being thrown in every direction. There would be drunkenness and employed lackeys there to pick up the mess.
And despite logic or common sense, there would be musical triumphs as well. The “Too Fast for Love” album made Motley Crue noteworthy. “Shout at the Devil” made them successful. And “Dr. Feelgood” turned them into globally recognized rock stars.
It was a good thing that Sixx had got all that much better at playing bass from the old days when he couldn’t tell one apart from a different instrument, right? Not exactly. Many allege that Sixx didn’t actually play the bass guitar on some Motley Crue recordings. Other haters suggest that Nikki Sixx doesn’t quite play live.
That may have been an inspiration to his bandmates, as we will soon see.
Motley Crue’s Victims
But there were casualties along the way. No, not the boys in the Crue. Massive drug or alcohol consumption seemed to shake them. And accidents left them unscathed.
Others weren’t as lucky. On December 8th 1984, a highly intoxicated Vince Neil, out on a beer run, crashed his car. Razzle Dingley, drummer for the excellent Finnish band Hanoi Rocks, was in the passenger seat. He was killed. Two other people were permanently injured. Neil avoided jail time.
There were also family members and associates who suffered. Motley Crue conquered throughout the 1980s like an army setting out to pillage, rape and destroy. For example, Tommy Lee was famously married to actress Pamela Anderson. In 1998, he was charged with spousal abuse. In the 2000s, he had public, physical altercations with his and Anderson’s son Brandon.
Truthfully, few of the people who worked with Motley Crue have kind words about them. But we’ll get to that soon.
Does Motley Crue Lipsync and Play to a Track?
Yes, they do.
You’d think that this would upset fans forking over hundreds of dollars to see their heroes play live. However, for the most part, the Milli Vanilli-accusations have not deterred enthusiasts of the band.
It all started with videos of Vince Neil panting, stopping to draw a breath, while he could still be heard singing. Strange. Still, this was obviously a major improvement on the state of Neil’s recent singing ability. The 2024 version of “Kickstart My Heart” is a real treat.
In another online video, Tommy Lee is seen getting late to his drum set, before his drum parts could already be heard loud and clear. I mean, playing to a click track is one way to ensure the band keeps the right tempo.
But it hasn’t helped out Nikki Sixx. The man has acquired the magical ability of playing his bass guitar without touching it. Well, at least he can now distinguish a bass from a guitar if he ever wants to steal one again.
As for accusations about Mick Mars’ lack of mental lucidity, none of it has been proven. Numerous videos of his last tour with the band show him competently playing, even improvising, on his guitar solos.
Would Nikki Sixx Stab an Old Pal in the Back?
Being asked to join Motley Crue might sound like a dream for the average musician. But that’s not what the people who have been part of the organization will tell you.
When Vince Neil departed the band in 1992, his former colleagues opted to refer to him from then onward as “Vince Meal.” Sympathy for the challenges of weight control wasn’t exactly on the cards.
Replacing Neil was The Scream’s John Corabi, a highly talented and enthusiastic recruit. With alternative rock having essentially bankrupted the Motley Crue business model, the band was desperate to jump on the grunge bandwagon. Corabi was told that he would helm this band revolution.
But when the album “Generation Swine” failed commercially, Corabi was demoted to playing guitar and “Vince Meal” was asked back into the band. Corabi was eventually ousted from the band entirely and all but erased from the history of the group.
Still, they would never do that to one of the founding members, right? And, surely not to Mick Mars, the best musician in the band, the guy who’d carried the group live, and a man dealing with a serious health condition?
No, that’s exactly what they’d do. In 2023, they sacked Mick Mars, eventually replacing him with horror-rock specialist John 5.
The band alleged that Mars could no longer remember the songs and perform them. Mars argued that he was being gaslighted and that he was the only member of the band who actually knew the songs and how to play them. Mick Mars sued the band in 2023.
Haters Will Hate, but the Crue Is Laughing All the Way to the Bank
Motley Crue loves free publicity. By 2014, the band’s profile was dimming. So, Nikki Sixx decided to end it all.
Sixx announced that Motley Crue was going to retire after one last hurrah. What about the people who didn’t believe him? Well, Sixx, Neil, Lee and Mars are gentlemen of their word. They would sign a contract and hold it up for the world to see.
And, so it was. Motley Crue signed a “Cessation Of Touring Agreement” in front of the cameras. People were excited about the prospect of never seeing the hair-metal group ever again, and tour ticket sales were back to their previous levels. The band was back on the hog.
It didn’t even matter that Motley Crue was accused of lipsyncing on stage, that some of them were overweight, or that Lee’s elaborate drum rollercoaster broke down on the final night of the tour. The Crue was going away, and that was a reason to celebrate.
Only that they didn’t. After the 2004 tour was over, Motley Crue was back touring as if nothing had happened. Thankfully, they made no new music. Until 2024…
Motley Crue and the AI Revolution
By 2024, everyone and your grandma knew about AI taking over the world, and Chat GPT magically turned the illiterate into wonderful writers. This must’ve been music to Nikki Sixx’s ears.
Having signed up for a new guitarist, John 5, and needing to prove that The Crue was most certainly moving forward without Mars, the band released two new songs in 2024. These are titled “Fight For Your Right” and “Dogs of War.”
The abysmal quality of the songs was on par with expectations. But something else stuck out.
Those familiar with the level of imbecility of AI-produced text noticed similarities with the style of the lyrics to “Fight For Your Right” and “Dogs of War.” Sixx had stolen from Aerosmith and now was using AI-generated text to steal from himself? Probably, but it’s hard to prove.
The mess of a music video for “Dogs of War,” also AI-generated, didn’t much help Motley Crue’s cause.
What’s the Honest Legacy of Motley Crue?
As a party band.
Noel Gallagher says, rather optimistically, that people only remember how you made them feel. If that’s the case, the many who’ve attended shows by Motley Crue will remember feeling euphoric… if they can, indeed, remember anything at all.
But will that be enough for them to play their records once in a while? Nostalgia is a funny thing. Milli Vanilli is currently on tour.
And, let’s be honest. Some of Motley Crue’s early records are of interest to 80s pop-metal enthusiasts. But, just like their arch enemies, RATT, those who will vouch for Motley Crue are those who’ve seen them live and are of their generation.
What about all the people they hurt and doublecrossed along the way? “It’s also how the West was won,” Nikki Sixx might respond. From the Spaniards to the Pilgrims, North American winners have always used any means to get ahead.
Nikki Sixx and his Motley Crue personnel weren’t formidable musicians, trustworthy sources of information, or graceful winners. By hook or by crook, they took what they wanted. That’s enough to absolutely love or totally hate them. It’s just a shame they didn’t write more good songs, though.
But if Motley Crue lipsyncs, writes new songs using AI, and replaces original members, do we even need a Motley Crue? Might as well generate your own Motley Crue song using Chat-GPT and send in a check to Nikki Sixx. He’ll be sure to enjoy it.