Essential Rock Stories: Mötley Crüe

We're back with another edition of Essential Rock Stories, this time with a tale from the early days of 1980's rock legends Mötley Crüe!

While anyone that was around in the 80's heard the recognizable strains of "Girls Girls Girls" hundreds of times on the radio, the group has largely been relegated to classic rock playlists and "remember them?" retrospectives since the late 90's. Consisting of lead singer Vince Neil, guitarist Mick Mars, bassist Nikki Sixx, and drummer Tommy Lee, Mötley Crüe rose to fame in the early 80's by bringing a heavy metal sound and wild stage antics to clubs along the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. The group recently experienced a resurgence of notoriety in 2019 with the release of "The Dirt," a Netflix film focusing on their early Sunset Strip days as well as the ouster of Vince Neil that threatened to sink the group for good in the 90's. This has brought forth a new awareness of the band's music and story, especially the 1989 hit single "Kickstart My Heart." While the most salacious stories involving this famous quartet are featured in "The Dirt," some of their casual or newest fans may not know that the group very nearly disintegrated before ever reaching stardom.

Thanks to "The Dirt," many fans are now familiar with the group at the height of their popularity in the mid-80's. The band was thoroughly enjoying all the perks of a lavish rock and roll lifestyle, but also living with extreme drug and alcohol addictions that threatened to destroy each member. These addictions, as they did in almost every other band of the 60's-80's, led to endless debauchery in hotel rooms, tour buses, and backstage dressing rooms. Mötley Crüe's madcap adventures across the globe involved tragic car crashes, trips to the brink of death courtesy of heroin, and enough interpersonal drama to fill thousands of memoirs. Unlike many "inspired by a true story" adaptations, much of what was depicted in "The Dirt" didn't have to be exaggerated at all!

One thing's for sure: Mötley Crüe has never been unfamiliar with in-fighting among members, especially when the group was just getting off the ground in the early 80's. Each of the four musicians had tried for years to make it big on the Sunset Strip club scene, playing in small groups that never seemed to expand past Los Angeles. So it's safe to say that in 1981 as these four men came together on yet another project, each one brought years of personal and professional baggage that couldn't help but bleed into their new venture.

While their off-stage antics helped the group gain notoriety, these same antics also threatened to destroy the success they worked so hard to achieve. In 1981 as they were gaining local fame around LA, Nikki Sixx was reportedly growing tired of Vince Neil's behavior. Neil was showing up late to rehearsal, allowing drugs and alcohol to affect his behavior, and being an all around pain to work with. Most notably, Sixx was frustrated with Neil's ego which came to a head when Neil refused to wear a Santa suit for a Christmas show in late 1981. While the refusal alone was frustrating for the rest of the band that had not yet been playing together one full year, Sixx was doubly offended since he was the one that made the Santa suit!

Reaching his boiling point with Neil, Sixx decided that anyone in the band was replaceable: even the lead singer. Sixx began to search for another unique voice that would easily handle their hard and fast lyrics, and decided that Stephen Pearcy of Ratt best fit their style and sound. At this time Pearcy was just months away from hiring what would become the core lineup of Ratt, so he was hesitant to step away from his own project into another established group. It's hard to picture a time when a musician would be hesitant to join Mötley Crüe for fear of the band failing, but that's just what Stephen Pearcy did. Who knows what Mötley Crüe (or Ratt's) futures would have been like if Pearcy had accepted!

What Mötley Crüe song do you love to rock out to? Let me know, and drop me a suggestion of a song or story I should cover next! And if you're hungry for more stories, check out the first installment of Essential Rock Stories here where I cover Jackson Browne's first big hit: