The Official Motley Crue Magazine - A Metal Edge Special, April 1987 - Part 1

Metal Edge was the equivalent of a teenybopper mag for Hard Rock & Metal fans in the mid to late 1980s. Crue were a big part of their bread & butter & I think editor Gerri Miller's favourite band, so most issues had a Crue pin-up or article or something of interest. I bought a Metal Edge once because it had a small news item about the release of Dr. Feelgood! I will be uploading A LOT of Crue stuff from Metal Edge at this blog so stick around.

This Motley mag was one of the first publications to print photos of the boys in their fancy new Ray Brown-designed Girls costumes which are pretty ridiculous-looking today but were being described in some of the articles as ‘street-wise’ & ‘tougher’ than their pink & sequins outfits for the Theatre of Pain album. I read Nikki Sixx's Heroin Diaries which is roughly about this period of his life & I couldn't help noticing that the book mostly printed earlier Crue pics, from 1982-84 when they wore more leather & looked a lot more tough & hardcore . . . but I don't think a single one of these photos with the Ray Brown designed costumes made it!

The magazine was an exclusive on new information regarding Motley's forthcoming fourth album, "Girls, Girls, Girls". The hype was real: the album went to #2 on the charts! This with three singles that, is some way, were all banned on certain channels or radio stations. MuchMusic and MTV were not much interested in playing the lead single's video, about as old fashioned Male fantasy as you could get . . . but, actually, more honest and fun, in a way, than all those goofy, posturing sexual videos by many more video artists in the 1980s. Motley are usually saved by a heart-on-sleeve honesty and legitimate Rock Star cool factor. No one would air "You're All I Need" although I did see it on the late night Friday Night Videos sometime in late 1987 and it was confusingly violent and real-seeming.