Oh-Oh To the Top We Are HIP-HOP!! 2 Live Crue, 1988-1989

 

Motley went through an odd phase in 1988-1989. The loss of all those chemicals & alcohol vapors musta set them off because they flirted with rap music.

Nikki interviews from the time had him dropping titles to songs they were demoing  & even song lyrics to some of the tunes [Go HERE to read more]. There was an air of experimentation in the days leading up to Dr. Feelgood  & some of the demos survive.

‘Say Yeah’ is a rocker with a Rap-like verse & a breakdown in which we get to hear Tommy Lee, for the first time, show his hip-hop heart & Rap

‘Get out, out of my face

Get the fuck out of my face

Get out, outta my face

I’ll call you on your game’

Dr. Feelgood was almost called ‘Monstrous’ & there survives a short demo of the song which features lines rapped by Nikki & Vince!

Nikki: ‘People in glass houses shouldn’t throw rocks’

Vince: ‘People marked ‘Stupid’ shouldn’t talk’

Nikki: ‘And People in a maze, you’re always lost’

Vince: ‘I get sick at the state of Rock!’

Wow, that’s some bad Hip-Hop. Luckily, this was just a phase Nikki was going through & none of this stuff made it to Feelgood. Tommy’s affair with Rap & techno would strike up big time in the 1990s & continues to this day.

The song ‘Dr. Feelgood’ has a groove & a lyric that naturally lends itself to a Hip-Hop interpretation (see just that with Mr. Mick Mars on guitar HERE) & somehow, Motley seems to have hooked up with then-infamous Rap band 2 Live Crew. Both bands were sleazy, sexist & the Crew/Crue connection proved too obvious & the Rap band recorded a version of ‘Dr. Feelgood’ ( titled “Crew To Crue”) with Vince singing a new chorus. This was the lead-off tune on a 2 Live Crew compilation. I first heard of this unlikely collaboration back in the day when my local TV Guide listed that Motley & Crew were the musical guests on an episode of the Arsenio Hall show. That meeting never happened & I was always mystified by the pairing & didn’t hear this track until almost 20 years later. It wasn’t quite worth the wait but it adds another dimension to the truly motley career of these chaps. Warning: this one gets a little vulgar.

From the All Music Review by Bradley Torreano:

. . . This showcases songs that were either on movie soundtracks or recorded to be on movie soundtracks. This explains the hilarious "Crew to Crüe," a duet with Motley Crue that was meant to capitalize on both groups' media exposure during 1989/1990. Slated for inclusion on the Juice soundtrack, the tensions between the two groups led to its disappearance. Hearing Vince Neil sing "Hanging with the homeboys/We're gonna have some fun tonight" is priceless, making for a wonderful camp moment to kick off the disc.

The Case Of Vince Neil VS. Axl Rose

(left click images to enlarge & READ)

There may be no way to find out if the above story from a now-unknown-to-me magazine is completely factual but it was an early gossip piece item about an infamous chapter in the Motley biography. Paul Miles at Chronological Crue gives us more details:

September 5/89
Mötley presents the award for Best Heavy Metal Album at the MTV Music Video Awards at the Universal Amphitheatre in Universal City, California. While the rest of the Crüe waits in limos outside the event, Vince waits backstage while Guns N’ Roses plays with Tom Petty. Vince then decks guitarist Izzy Stradlin’ with a punch in the face as he comes off stage, as payback for recently hitting on then kicking his wife at the Cathouse. Mötley’s security chief drags Vince away and as they are about to leave the building, Axl Rose tells Vince he is going to kill him. When Vince encourages him to bring it on, Axl walks away.

This is the start of a feud between the two bands. Axl Rose starts to say in the press that Vince sucker-punched Izzy and he has been insulting Guns N’ Roses for years. Vince feels betrayed after showing Axl vocal tricks to help him out, while they supported Mötley on the Girls, Girls, Girls tour. Axl challenges Vince by sending at least six messages to fight at places like Tower Records in Los Angeles, or on the boardwalk at Venice Beach, but Axl never shows up. Meanwhile Izzy calls Vince and apologizes for his behaviour.
Still angry at the incident and the way Axl has handled it via the press, Vince responds on MTV, telling Axl to name the place and time. He proposes a Monday night fight at the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles. Eddie Van Halen and Sammy Hagar from Van Halen say they’ll put up the money to stage the fight at New York’s Madison Square Gardens. No fight eventuates and Vince’s offer still stands to this day.

I think Paul’s version of the story is greatly informed by how the incident is described in the Crue’s bio ‘The Dirt’ & paints a mostly Vince-friendly picture. Of course, the world would find out in the oncoming years how big of a douche Axl Rose could be (just ask his former Guns N’ Roses band mates) & I think that Vince was in the right on this one. If Izzy actually did that to Sharise, he deserved a punch in the face & more!

The Hard Rock & mainstream media had a field day with this story & both Vince & Axl spoke to the folks at Powerline magazine about the beef they had with each other.

 

 

Vince can’t help mention Motley’s other enemy of 1989: Bon Jovi! Vince sounds pretty reasonable here. Now read what Axl has to say about the event . . . & about his fight with David Bowie . . . & how big of a dick Mick Jagger is . . . hmmm, I see a pattern here. The extent to which he is violently threatening fighting/killing Vince & how he then subsequently handled it are very telling of the kind of person Axl Rose was.

Here’s a few videos that feature interview clips with Axl in 1990 and then Vince in 1991. Axl mouths off about fighting Vince and then Vince uses an MTV interview about the Crue to challenge Axl to a fight! I’m biased but I don’t agree that Axl would have beat our Vinnie. Axl proved to be all fire and no flame. Everyone else in 1991 thought the more famous and more violent-seeming Axl a shoe-in. We'll never know.

Vince Neil and Wife Sharise Ruddell in 1987

[Updated, 2017] I just found this funny audio/video of a very angry Vince talking to a knuckle-head interviewer about his dislike of Axl in a Fall 1991 interview for the Decade of Decadence album. Great stuff!

On The Cover Of The Metal Edge

 

It was no Rolling Stone but Metal Edge Magazine was the big time for some of the more popular Hard Rock & Metal acts of the 1980s. (The Crue were featured on the cover of Rock’s most prestigious magazine way back in 1987 . . . I could never get my hands on a copy though & 25 years later I’ve yet to have seen or read the contents).

Metal Edge’s Editor was Gerri Miller & she created a kind of Teen Beat format for Hard Rock & Metal acts (see comparison below).

By the early 1990s  you could tell that the Motleys were increasingly disinterested in being featured in this teeny-bopper magazine. Motley also got less of the bigger shots on the cover & even Metallica started getting more print.

Although Metal Edge was geared more towards the femmes everyone read it & it always featured the latest, most high quality photos.The walls of the Sleaze Patrol Files are heavily decorated with these classic pin-ups & centerfolds!

Vince Neil Part 5: Decade of Vinnie

 

Too Fast For Love (1981-1982)

Shout At The Devil (1983-1984)

Theater Of Pain (1985-1986)

Girls, Girls, Girls (1987)

Dr. Feelgood (1989-1990)

Decade Of Decadence (1991)