Rhap Session: Mötley Crüe

by Jen Guyre

Mötley Crüe has thrived for two and half decades of pure, uncut decadence. Now, Vince Neil, Nikki Sixx, Mick Mars and Tommy Lee have returned with Saints of Los Angeles, their first album of new material in 11 years, and a namesake summer tour Crüefest. Rhapsody caught up with Vince Neil, while at home in L.A., to find out about the inaugural fest, their autobiographical album, and what's on the horizon for "the world's most notorious rock band."   

On the new album
All the songs are based on our lives -- based on stories in [band autobiography] The Dirt. And it’s in chronological order. If you listen to the first song, which is “Face Down in the Dirt,” where we’re just a bunch of punks and we’re playing The Whiskey (there’s a song called “Down at the Whiskey”). Then we get signed and it’s called “Welcome to the Machine” -- “The Machine” is the record business. Then “Chicks = Trouble,” that’s self-explanatory. The last song’s “Goin' Out Swingin'” and it’s actually cool for the fans who read the book. They can go, “Oh yeah, I remember this story. I know that.” So, it’s kind of a neat thing that we’ve done what we have never done before. We haven’t put out an album in 11 years ... so it was about time to put out a record and it just kind of happened that way. It wasn’t a planned out thing ... and it worked out great.

On sonic style and songwriting
We sound like Mötley Crüe. We could do a blues record and we would sound like Mötley Crüe. Just with technology now, with the things you have at your disposal with recording, you can do a lot you couldn’t do 11 years ago. So, the sound is modern just because of that, but the way we approach the songs is just same old Mötley Crüe. Pretty much, all the songs were written by Nikki and a couple other guys. I just came and sang the songs. I don’t know which songs Mick participated on but all his solos are his. It was mainly Nikki and like three other guys, so there’s four songwriters on all the songs.

On the title Saints of Los Angeles
When we were playing, we were the kings of L.A. We were the biggest band in L.A. and people looked up to us and we were the saints. We couldn’t do any wrong. The song is just about us playing. But every band gets exploited and that’s the nature of the business. That’s what it’s all about.

On the music industry
We own our own record company so we don’t have to deal with that crap anymore. But you have guys that are running record companies that are businessmen. They don’t know anything about the streets. They don’t know what people listen to. They just go into different fads. That’s why everything right now is little girls singing. That’s the big thing. And it’s like, "Wow, man, when’s this going to stop?" It’s Disney -- their record company has kind of taken over the world. That’s pretty sad. But it happens with everything. It happened when Nirvana came out and grunge metal. All of a sudden, everybody sounded just like it, and then only three bands stuck around. Everybody else was one-hit wonders. Same thing when we started out with the glam, if that’s what people say it was. Nobody else is around anymore. It’s us and Bon Jovi. That’s about it.

On the digital world
It’s a cool thing to get more exposure. I think it’s a lot tougher for younger bands because there’s so many ways to get exposure that you’re just one of a thousand now, rather than if you got signed, then you’re like one of maybe a hundred that a record company’s pushing. But then again, it’s easier to get recognition because you have so many ways to do it -- there’s YouTube and MySpace and all these places where people go to check out new things. So, it’s easy, but it’s tougher.

On Crüefest
We just got tired of playing other people’s festivals and we decided, "Why don’t we do something like that?" Something that will go on every year, like Ozzfest? And do the rock 'n' roll lifestyle. Unlike Ozzfest, where they have a lot of new bands that no one’s every heard of, we want to make sure that when people go to our festival, there’s bands that people know and new bands that might have just had a hit record. So instead of standing around and going, “Who the f*ck are these guys?” you go, “Oh, yeah, I know these guys. This is a great song.” Buckcherry, those guys have been our friends for a long time. And Papa Roach actually opened up for us in Europe last year on the Carnival of Sins tour. We were actually just lucky that these guys were available this summer, so it was like, “Let’s go out and play.” We’re in some rehearsals right now getting the show together. We leave July 1. Ready to rock.

On the movie adaptation of The Dirt 
It’s Hollywood. It’s on, it’s off, it’s on, it’s off. We had okayed the script; it had gotten that far. It was greenlighted by Paramount and they attached David Fincher who had directed Se7en and a bunch of great movies. He was going to direct it and then they pulled him off the project to go do something else, and then there’s a big change at Paramount studios and we just kind of got lost in the shuffle. This is one thing in our lives we have absolutely no control over and I’m sure it will be made. When? I just don’t know.

On Dr. Feelgood’s
My club in Palm Beach [is] a great rock club right in downtown, and West Palm is kind of dying out. When you think of Palm Beach, you think of old retirees, and it’s cool it just brought some life back to downtown. It’s a lot of fun. We have a stage for live bands and play a lot of great music, and we have pole dancers and four bars in there. And it’s all rock 'n' roll. And what’s great is that our first show of the tour is in West Palm Beach, so it’s cool to be able to have a little party over at my club.

On the band’s relationship
We’re just friends just like always. The press makes more out of incidents that we’ve had in the last 10 years than the band does. People just don’t realize that. They fail to acknowledge that we’ve been together for almost 30 years. Me and Tommy went to high school together for God’s sake. And when you deal with people that many years, you’re going to have fights. We’re a family. You fight with your brothers? Absolutely. It happens, but people just want to keep it going and going. And it’s like, “Oh my God. Knock it off.”

On Mötley Crüe’s legacy
I think when you go to see a Mötley Crüe show, you know you’re going to get a great show. You know you’re going to have fun. You’re going to be singing along with a lot of great songs, and I think that’s kind of it. I think we have a good place in rock 'n' roll history. We started something in the '80s that defined the '80s, and that's the cool thing. You wouldn’t call the Stones a '60s band. Or you wouldn’t call U2 an 8'0s band. We’re the guys that just never go away, whether you like us or not. But at our concerts, it’s not just the people that grew up with us. It’s their kids and their kids’ friends. You look out in the audience and there’s the 40-year-olds that grew up with us and there’s also the 14-year-olds out there with Shout at the Devil T-shirts on. And that’s pretty cool.

Comments

[Ken Pierce]

The advance reports on this album seem promising, so I am looking forward to it kicking some ass. Great article.

[Jenny]

Awesome work Jen!!! You are my fun reading material when I take breaks at work!

[Rocket]

The Crue is back and better than EVER!!!

[lia]

this article is very well written.

[Marko]

I like the ending, it shows that this band is something and it has influenced many of us. Long live Mötley!

[terry turman]

i am one of those 40 year old "80"'s gal pal fan of the band. Have been to alot of the crue shows and now i take my 18 year old daughter. She loves you guys! Keep kickin ass boys!!1