Rock Power Magazine, Summer 1991

 

Mr. Sixx graces the cover of the British publication Rock Power Magazine in mid 1991.

Here is all the Crue content present in this issue including a gossip item about Vince going into rehab to deal with a drinking problem said to have been partly due the failure of his marriage with Sharise Ruddell. Motley's personal woes were always news in the Rock media of the day.

Tommy took part in the charity baseball game for the T. J. Martell Foundation in 1991. Lee and other Rock celebrities raised money for Lukemia research.

Nikki talks about the soon-to-be-released Decade of Decadence and the upcoming UK Monsters of Rock Festival performances. The next Motley record is discussed and is promised to be a more experimental Crue.

Vintage Motley Posters #2

Local record stores and even Canadian department stores like Towers and Zellers would sometime sell Crue posters in the 1980s. The 1991 Decade of Decadence era poster above show the Crue following the current trend of alternative, faux-punk, pre-grunge style. This was possibly their last big photo session before they would disband the original lineup in February, 1992.

The Theatre Of Pain era is a controversial and bitter-sweet one for old-school Crue fans. It was the end of their intense, two record debut explosion as a blood-thirsty metal-pop band. Theatre happened after that all crashed and burned with Vince's vehicular manslaughter charge. This was when the Crue got complicated and the music suffered. The band actually changed from here on in. They became more of a Hard Rock act in a classic 70s mold with a 1980s update.

The Theatre Of Pain style is so particular to 1985-1986. Glam Metal was born with Theatre no matter if others did it first: it was Motley's about-face in style that spoke to other Rock bands and you soon saw the emergence of a whole genre of music called Glam Metal and, later, Hair Metal. I got two copies of the poster above and below. This 1930s gangster session and theme was one of the more colourful and effective themed shoots. Every album or "look" has a series of photo sessions that Crueheads identify with the era. I remember when some of these images were first released to the public and I still closely identify these albums and years with the pin-ups and posters of the same eras.

This second copy of the poster has some Hostess Chips Motley stickers from 1987 decorating the bottom left-hand side.

Even more vintage Crue posters to come at the Sleaze Patrol Files!!

I've been inactive for years now but I still have more vintage Crue articles and images and collectibles to share and perhaps the Netflix movie of "The Dirt" will create more interest in the Crue in the oncoming years. I hope to post more in 2019.


Vintage Motley Posters #1 can be seen HERE

Mick Mars Part 4: Popular Unpopular, 1991

This is a great interview with Mick conducted by RIP Magazine's Editor-In-Chief, Lonn M. Friend in August 1991 when the Motley's were in England for the Monsters of Rock Festival.

Mick is a funny guy & displays a lot of the special charm he has through some (rare) interviews back in the day. He's also, clearly, a misanthrope & displays a general dislike for the human race! He's especially honest here with longtime friend, Friend, & talks about his co-members with a welcomed candor. He talks shop & tells us how some of his most classic riffs were written ('Girls, Girls, Girls': drunk as shit), details on how he & the Crue sobered up, his working relationship with then-wife & Nasty Habit, Emi Canyn & the future of Motley.

Motley Pin-Ups #1

Here's some random pin-ups from Motley's glory days. These were collected and plastered on my teenage walls as I moved from place to place and thirty years later I've somehow been able to keep most of them. You'll see that many of the images at the Sleaze Patrol Files have that vintage look: I taped, tacked, puttied, stapled and pasted these pics to my various bedroom walls from about ages 9-16.

Motley had three members who were regarded as sex symbols (Sorry, Mick!) and so many of the magazines provided content specifically for the female fan. I would reluctantly put up some of these pics but only if I didn't have something cooler to take their place!

Motley in 1987. This photo session was a popular one and I have posters, 4 page pull-outs, centerfolds and stickers of it. After the gonzo glam of the Theatre Of Pain era, the above style was described as "street." Sure thing, guys!

More stylized "street" or semi-Glam Rock look for the Motleys in the Dr. Feelgood years. After a very glammy album artwork photo session of the boys in straight jackets they toned down their on and off stage clothes to the point where they just kinda looked like Rocker dudes. The other difference is the sleeves of tattoos! An extreme lifestyle choice in 1988-89, not so much in the tattooed 21st century.

Come the Decade Of Decadence release in late 1991, the Motley's looked more and more straight and relaxed (minus Tommy's brief run in with a shaved head) and were destined to enter new phase of music that would add experimentation to their groovin' heavy Rock . . .

Motley Who?

 

So exactly WHO are Motley Crue? In 2015 they are bona fide Rock Legends with an impressive staying power and biz savvy. They are also an example of the tired nostalgia culture that has been a leading force in the music industry since the 1990s (& before). The band has never again achieved the artistic success that reached its peak in the early 1990s with 'Primal Scream' & the 1994 John Corabi album, nor did it ever duplicate the sheer power & honesty of their first two records. 

 

Motley have had several lives. Even within the first decade there are so many details; tragedies and songs about them, changes in appearance & style of music. A LOT happened from 1981-1991 in Crue land. Then there's the short-lived Corabi period. After that the middling years: Motley, completely irrelevant artistically, releasing clumsy new music & keeping their heads down, doing their work while the world moved on. 

The reason they are here today, to my mind, is because of the success of the 2001 Neil Strauss-penned bio, 'The Dirt'. It hit at just the right time, finding an audience rabid for 1980s raunch & hedonism sprinkled with enough pathos to turn the head of a Greek dramatist [cough, we'll work on that one later! .ed]. Known to us old-school Crueheads since the mid '80s, Motley's story is one of epic proportions that may or may not contain moments of exaggeration & hyperbole. Nonetheless, the book proved that, alongside a songbook that has aged better than many of their contemporaries', the Motley myth was more rich, more honest & more compelling than your average Classic Rock band.

 Although the music they made after 1994 is not essential listening it can sometimes be interesting & entertaining. Had the Brunette Three (Mick, Nik & Tom) picked a more 1990s-sounding singer to replace Vince (John Corabi was a Steven Tyler-styled vocalist) OR called the Corabi band anything other than Motley Crue I think we could have had a second band that would have continued until now, even alongside the Motley machine. I for one am a fan of the Motley Crue album from 1994 but I do think a slightly different handling of that whole situation (like not firing Vince at all but taking a break & doing a record with a different singer) could have made a much richer Motley legacy. Alas, it wasn't to be.

Nikki Sixx Part 7: Mid-Life Decadence, 1991

 

Nikki Sixx was a changed man in 1991. He had experienced 10 years of steadily increasing fame and success marked by brushes with death and drug addiction. Rock N’ Roll was experiencing a revolution as well. Motley’s ten year retrospective, Decade Of Decadence, was released at the first of October, 1991, a week after Nirvana’s seminal album Nevermind debuted. As early as 1988 Nikki was voicing a desire to take the Motley sound into new & more creative territories. Dr. Feelgood was mostly comprised of high-geared, hook-laden, Power Rock in a traditional & even cliché mode. After it’s unprecedented success Nikki’s reaction seems to have been to turn the Motley formula on its ear & match the breed of new ‘Alternative Rock’ & Metal bands in their creativity & intensity. He could sniff the stale formula of the Hair Metal bands that Motley epitomized in 1989 & wanted to take it to another place.

Nikki discusses the videos for ‘Primal Scream’ & ‘Anarchy In the U.K.’ ‘Primal’ is Motley at their anthemic best, a powerhouse groovy tune with a great video. The ‘Anarchy’ video is comprised of live clips from Motley’s sets at the 1991 Monsters Of Rock festival shows in Europe. The song is a misstep, in my opinion, an obvious & misguided attempt by the Crue to appear Punky & Hardcore. They play it fine, but who the fuck did they think they were covering the Pistols?!

Pamela Shaw of Hit Parader chats with Nikki a few weeks after the release of DOD & has him talking about the new music he’s writing with Mick Mars & the influence of bands like AC/DC, Pantera, Chili Peppers & Metallica. Aggressive, uncompromising, radio-unfriendly, Nikki continues to promise the Crue fans a new phase in the Motley sound. Some of this music found its way onto the 1994 Motley Crue record with vocalist John Corabi & in 1997 when Vince returned with Generation Swine. Nikki’s domestic life with newborn Gunner & wife Brandi Brandt is broached & we find out that Nikki had probably never changed his son’s diapers.

Another Hit Parader article from this period has the Sixxster sharing some interesting anecdotes. In the post’s first article Nikki discussed writing & recording with Alice Cooper for his Hey Stoopid record. In ‘A Look To The Future’ Nikki reveals that he & Mick were reluctant to work with Alice because of the involvement of pop-Hard Rock songwriter Jim Vallance whom Nikki regarded as a hack. There’s a sense that Nikki was trying to distance himself from the ‘Hair Metal’ scene. He compares some of the riffs he & Mick are writing to Slayer! [Motley Crue signed a $35 Million deal, NOT a $335 Million one as stated in the piece] .

Nikki is on a rant in the above Rip Magazine article written by Judy Weider. He explains the current writing process:

‘We’re not completing songs. We’re not completing lyrical ideas. What we’re doing is taking a bunch of riffs & figuring out how to hodgepodge them together & somehow make a vocal work. We want to be a lot more aggressive.’

Guitar Magazine gets a nice interview from Nikki who discusses his songwriting methods (he was using a Mac program in 1991) & his lyric writing process. Nikki also explains he & the Crue parted ways with producer Tom Werman after failing to record ‘Powerful Stuff’ for the Tom Cruise movie, Cocktail. [The tune was then picked up by The Fabulous Thunderbirds & they released it to some success]. I wonder where the Motley version is?!

More Sikki Nixx to come at The Sleaze Patrol Files!!

The Motleys Take A Bow

 

‘Take A bow ye pirates of sleaze! Your raping & pillaging ceased, bow before the hungry throngs who lap at your feet & cry for more!’

‘The Theatre Of Pain draws to a close, the fires subside & the bodies lay scattered amongst the ruins & carnage.’

The Sleaze Patrol Files offers up a video compilation of the band taking their bows before their rabid fans from 1984 to 1991.

The best example of the Motley exit would have to be the one director Wayne Isham filmed at the end of the ‘Home Sweet Home’ video. The band genuflects before their audience (we are watching them from behind) & each band member doubles back to exit backstage & signals a final good-bye to the camera. Nice stuff.