Circus Collector's Issue, 1994 (1984 Crue Article)

This Circus Magazine Collector's Issue was published in early 1994 and features classic interviews from the 1960s to the 1990s. Motley joins such illustrious company as Led Zeppelin, Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix. This would have been published before the band released their self-titled record with new vocalist John Corabi. The table of contents blurb says

"Til death do they party. It's 1984 and the gates of hell have opened siccing Nikki, Vince and their pack of wacks on a shocked music scene."

Richard Hogan's article, "Motley Crue: Glad To Be Bad," begins by telling us that everyone (except the Rock magazines) seem to be putting the Crue down. Hogan says that MTV Host J. J. Jackson recently reported that Vince punched out a female patron at The Rainbow Bar and Grill when she objected to his Marine outfit (Paul Miles' Chronological Crue page has this happening at The Troubadour in January of 1982). Jackson drops the script and surmises to the camera that Vince may not have been so tough if the objector was an actual Marine!

J. J. Jackson

This video of Nikki and Vince on MTV talking to host Martha Quinn comes from January-February 1984, after the Shout at The Devil album and the premier video "Looks That Kill" had been released. At around three minutes and thirty seconds Martha says that just a few weeks back Vince was in the news regarding the assault. Vince says that it was a man he hit, not a woman  ("You know, everyone in Hollywood looks like a woman  . . . I hit somebody but it wasn't a girl"). This is one of the many stories that never made it to "The Dirt" book or movie.

The Circus interview is likely from December, 1983 when the Crue were in Massachusetts rehearsing for their opening slot on the Ozzy Osbourne Bark At The Moon tour in 1984. Nikki and Vince illustrate their violent and wild temperaments with stories of a recent (Nikki) car crash and a (Vince) Halloween incarceration. "We are extremists," explains Nikki. The band members and their current ages are shared as well as the circumstances of the making of their independently-released Too Fast For Love back in 1981. 

Motley were going out of their way to gain notoriety in these years and the Metal magazines ate it up and shared the debauched details. The above video clip also shows that the band was singled out by the PMRC. Nikki's x-rated groupie stories in the pages of the magazines would land the band in hot water soon after this interview and 1984 would end with the death of Razzle Dingley of the group Hanoi Rocks at the hands of drunk driver, Vince Neil.

The Motley Crue drama played out in real time in these years. Fans devoured these popular rags to hear news of their Rock God heroes and to get images for their teenybopper shrines. Circus Magazine almost exclusively featured live shots of the bands on tour. The mixture of video channels, Rock magazines with articles and posters and LPs or cassettes blaring the music was a heady mixture.



Above is the Classified page (for some more flavour of the age) and an ad that reminds us when this Circus was published: 1994. Motley were about to release the self-titled album with new singer John Corabi and Vince was a semi-successful solo artist. This back page ad for Gibson Guitars shows Mr. Neil with two members of his band. He is still playing solo shows today. Vince would get back with Motley by 1996-1997 when the magic of the 1984 years was long gone. That a movie biography of the band would be released in 2019 is a testament to the strength of the music and the allure of the notoriety of the group in the 1980s.

More Rock Magazines to come at The Sleaze Patrol Files!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Classic Rock Magazine Polls #3: 1989-1990

Motley's two & a half year hiatus from releasing new music meant that a whole lotta upstarts jumped into the limelight. By 1989, bands like Warrant & Skid Row & Poison came to define what has become popularly known as 'Hair Metal'. Motley were always a Glam band in the mold of 1970s pioneers like Alice Cooper, New York Dolls & Kiss, but with the emergence of 1980s Hard Rock, Glam got a new look and a new cast of characters. In those two & a half years, a highly successful breed of bands would emerge & threaten to topple the Crue from atop the Hard Rock heap.

 In 1989 Hard Rock was still big business & Motley released Dr. Feelgood unto a world which had already heard Guns N' Roses, Cinderella, Poison, Skid Row, Warrant &, in a different vein, Metallica (as can be seen by their placing in many of the poll categories). And although songs like 'Dr. Feelgood' & 'Kickstart My Heart' are powerful examples of 1980s Hard Rock at its finest, the Crue were not offering anything overly revolutionary or new. In a way, it was the first time in their career they could be said to have been overt followers of trends in Hard Rock. 

Despite this tough competition, Motley fares out well in this Circus Magazine poll for the year 1989 (published in the February 1990 edition), winning the coveted top spots: 'Band Of The Year' & 'Album Of The Year' for Dr. Feelgood. Vince hadn't won the 'Lead Vocalist Of The Year' for two polls running but was happy to comment on Motley's other wins in the article above. He talks about the band's success despite not much radio or video play & remarks how the band's audience has expanded to include younger & more general Rock fans (a trend that two years later would make Metallica the world's biggest Rock band). Vince congratulates Skid Row on their success & once again remarks on the different nature of Motley & Bon Jovi.

Sharon Liveten catches up with Nikki while the Crue are rollin' on the Feelgood tour in 1989-90. The Sixxster is in high spirits & discusses the bass guitar (he won 'Best Bassist') & laughs that the band also won 'Comeback Of The Year', insisting the Crue were assured of their success with Dr. Feelgood all along. Tommy also won 'Best Drummer' (again) but we do not get a feature on the Motley basher.

Circus printed a chart of all the Reader's Poll winners from 1984 to 1989 & Motley's dominance & popularity in those years is surprising. They certainly were not as successful or as popular as bands like Bon Jovi, Def Leppard or AC/DC, so why were they the darlings of so many of these teeny-bopper Metal & Hard Rock magazines? Was there something more personal & intense about the Motleys?

 

Tommy & Nikki sound politely impressed when Metal Edge Magazine Editor Gerri Miller presents them with plaques for their wins in the 1990 Reader's Choice Awards. The duo often won in their respective categories, a testament to their talent (Tommy) & their popularity. MORE Magazine Poll Awards to come at the Sleaze Patrol Files!!

Girls, Girls, Girls Part 7

 Let’s drop ourselves into the year 1987: in a way, the band’s most infamous year, the year of heroin overdoses & tour derailments, all detailed in the 21st century Motley tomes THE DIRT & Nikki’s THE HEROIN DIARIES.

We’re going to look at two separate Motley articles/interviews from Circus Magazine in the years 1987-1988.

 ‘Motley Crue ‘87: Huge triumphs, small disappointments’ sums up the year as the band’s most successful & doesn’t seem to be privy to some of the late developments. The unfortunate Rolling Stone Magazine cover story is mentioned as is Nikki’s book of short stories. This is a very early reference to a book that wouldn’t get published until 20 years later under the title, ‘The Heroin Diaries.’

One of the great things about these classic old articles & interviews is we get to hear candid details about the Crue’s lives during their most successful years. The above Circus Magazine interview with Vince is chock full of information & anecdotes about the Motley’s world in early 1988. Adrianne Stone speaks to Vince after his first visit to Hawaii. Motley had just cancelled their European tour in late 1987 & the article addresses all the speculation about the affair. Vince deflects the drug allegations & insists exhaustion & the economy kept the Crue home in the States. He discusses rehearsals for the next record & blasts MTV for banning several of the videos from the Girls, Girls, Girls album promising that the band would never cooperate with the network again (that turned out not to be true). Vince then regales the interviewer with a tale of speeding in one of his new vehicles, revealing he had just purchased a Lamborghini & a Porsche because he couldn’t make up his mind which one he wanted! The interview ends with a mention of Guns N’ Roses’ success & their friendship with Vince & the gang & Vince’s nuptials to Sharise Ruddell.

Theatre Of Crue, 1985-1986

The Theatre Of Pain era brings back so many memories for this Cruehead. I remember sitting in class & hearing some kid, probably skipping school, walking through the school yard with a stereo blasting ‘Smoking In the Boys Room’ in about 1985. The Crue hit the big time with this record. ‘Smokin’’ & ‘Home Sweet Home’ were tunes that appealed to a broader audience & Hard Rock/Heavy Metal music was a more popular genre after all the pioneer work of bands like the Crue, Quiet Riot, Twisted Sister, Iron Maiden & Ozzy Osbourne.
 

But Theatre is mostly regarded as a misstep these days, with Nikki leading the pack in calling out the records’ weaknesses. It’s hard to disagree. Songs like ‘Fight For Your Rights’, ‘Raise Your Hands To Rock’, ‘Tonight (We Need A Lover)’ do sound like filler (& certainly touched with the dated Twisted Sister anthemic, mid ‘80s production value).
 

For those of us who grew up with the Crue in the ‘80s, Theatre Of Pain is the bastard fuck-up that you love as much for its highlights as its low-lights. Opinions vary but I’ve always loved the ‘filler’ tunes on the record. The opening track, ‘City Boy Blues’ introduces the world to the Crue of the next two records with their more mainstream, bluesy, Aerosmith-influenced hard rock. It’s a groovy tune with a great lyric . . . Nikki sets the urban scene in an almost poetic intro.

Fireflies . . . & dog fights . . . Running hot in the heat . . . Street noise . . . another bribe . . . things too hard to believe, so head out!
 

My heart’s in the country, my feet in the city with you . . . Well my friends were eating sushi talking bad about you-know-who-who-who . . . My tongue was talking riddles but I just can’t seem to find the clue . . . So I take a swig of whiskey & I jump into the saddle with you-you-you . . . & I just can’t seem to break the shackles of the City Boy Blues . . .  
 

Another verse & then a nice breakdown before the solo with some particularly choice words from the Sixxster:

Don’t look to Jesus to change your seasons, it’s the American Dream . . . Sold out gypsies, roads of stone . . . can’t seem to find no peace, so head out!
 

Vince’s car accident in 1984 that resulted in the death of Hanoi Rocks drummer Nicolas ‘Razzle’ Dingley cast a pall over Motley operations & spirit in these years. After the controversies of Shout At the Devil, Theatre represents a creative revision that also reflects where the band was heading musically. Too Fast & Shout are the odd men out as far Crue’s ‘80s sound . . . Too Fast with its power pop punk & proto-Sunset Strip Rock N’ Roll & Shout with it’s Heavy Metal/Satanic/Violent/Gang/S&M overtones. Theatre has most in common with Dr. Feelgood, to my ears. Both are obvious attempts at garnering more of the generic hard rock audience of the times.
 

 

It’s a turn to more hard rockin’ sounds but the Metal flavour is still there in some of the songs.
 

While Shout At the Devil lives on & has become a classic album that still wins fans, Theatre Of Pain remains a record of its time. A product of sudden & overwhelming success & overkill . . . & the effects of indulgence. 1985!