To
get a sense of where Motley were at this time, let's go back just a few
months to October, 1991 in Canada where Mick and Nikki were doing
a publicity junket for the new Crue retrospective Decade Of Decadence. I recorded a bunch of stuff from their day at Much Music and Musique Plus
(Canadian English and French video music channels in the 1980s-1990s). The video below has Nikki talking about the future sounds of Motley.
What folks don't always remember is that Motley were about to enter a
slightly more progressive, heavy and experimental phase of music with or without Vince. Even
before Dr. Feelgood came out in late 1989, Nikki was talking about experimenting with the Motley sound. They flirted with Rap music on a few demos that never passed the demo stage. The albums Motley Crue (1994, without Vince) and Generation Swine (1997, with Vince) show us, in compromised settings, what some of the new Motley music sounded like just before Vince quit/was fired from the band. The keyboard, experimental music Nikki, Mick and Tommy were writing that Vince didn't like became the foundation of the sound fans would hear on Motley Crue with John Corabi on vocals. Motley started jamming with John only a week after Vince was fired.
The following two interviews with Nikki and Vince for Hit Parader Magazine have the soon-to-be-parted band mates talking about the bond between the members and how it was never going to end . . . almost like they're over-compensating for conflicted feelings.
I heard the news at school the day it was announced. A kid came up to me in the hallway and laughed, 'Hey man, Vince got kicked out of Motley!' I remember walking home and tuning into Much Music waiting to hear the confirmation ... and it came. February 14th the band issued a press release about the parting. Here's footage of the Vince MTV interview mentioned in the Metal Edge notice, above. We're going back to the week of February the 18th in our Crue history books.
Lonn M. Friend is the talking head in this second video. He was the editor of Rip Magazine and it sounds like he was talking to Nikki and is sharing some of what was said about the parting. MTV talked to Vince on the phone in the ensuing days and a camera crue [cough -ed.] caught up with him in Long Beach on April 12th where he was racing (and crashed twice).
Nikki, Mick and Tommy held a band meeting on February 11th and voted Vince out. The Crue told the world about it that Friday, on Valentines Day, and then remained quiet while Vince did a huge publicity response, appearing and being reported on a wide variety of television entertainment shows. We'll share more TV clips of Vinnie trying to process the firing and more magazine articles from the vaults.
The following two interviews with Nikki and Vince for Hit Parader Magazine have the soon-to-be-parted band mates talking about the bond between the members and how it was never going to end . . . almost like they're over-compensating for conflicted feelings.
I heard the news at school the day it was announced. A kid came up to me in the hallway and laughed, 'Hey man, Vince got kicked out of Motley!' I remember walking home and tuning into Much Music waiting to hear the confirmation ... and it came. February 14th the band issued a press release about the parting. Here's footage of the Vince MTV interview mentioned in the Metal Edge notice, above. We're going back to the week of February the 18th in our Crue history books.
Lonn M. Friend is the talking head in this second video. He was the editor of Rip Magazine and it sounds like he was talking to Nikki and is sharing some of what was said about the parting. MTV talked to Vince on the phone in the ensuing days and a camera crue [cough -ed.] caught up with him in Long Beach on April 12th where he was racing (and crashed twice).
Nikki, Mick and Tommy held a band meeting on February 11th and voted Vince out. The Crue told the world about it that Friday, on Valentines Day, and then remained quiet while Vince did a huge publicity response, appearing and being reported on a wide variety of television entertainment shows. We'll share more TV clips of Vinnie trying to process the firing and more magazine articles from the vaults.
Motley "remained quiet while Vince did a huge publicity response"? True, but it paints the wrong picture. Motley's announcement was wrapped in a huge lie. They wouldn't take responsibility for firing him so they blamed it on racing and drinking, then clammed up, leaving Vince to do tons of damage control.
ReplyDeleteThere's a 1994 issue of Kerrang magazine where Nikki tried to hide how premeditated Vince's firing was, but then he went on to contradict himself by saying that he was having negative feelings about Vince's singing for a long time. Nikki resented having to write sex songs just to appease Vince.
Delete