Motley Crue: Going Out On 'Not'

Today's post is by our friend HIM.

Readers of BBG! are a fickle and passionate lot.  We squabble. But, most times, we make up. And, even when we don’t, we keep at it and keep posting . . . and squabbling.  

No subject in recent memory brought out as much passion and side-taking as Motley Crue’s final tour. We all know the sides that people took. We all know the jabs that people, myself included, made.   

Case in point: I argued that the whole PR nonsense of the Crue “going out on top” was just that, nonsense. It was as calculated as most of the recent music that they put out. It was sterile and devoid of real grit as, well, anything that the Crue had done in the last decade or so.  

Oh, the responses! Defenders bashed fair-weather fans. They overlooked the spectacle that was that final tour, spectacle that covered a host of sins that went on each and every night. Mind you, not sins in the classic “This is sleazy, so take it easy” sorta’ way. Bad singing. Mechanical performances. Stage gimmicks that seemed more energized—except when they weren’t—than the musicians on the same stage. 

So imagine my surprise when the conductor of this closer finally came out and said what I had been thinking. Nikki Sixx, in a recent Classic Rock interview teasing the band’s off-stage final show interview (to be released at a later date) had this to say about the as-yet-unseen discussion:  

“It’s interesting, because we talk about each other in a way that’s endearing – but not. We say where we’re really at. We talk about the drama and the pain of being in a band that has ceased to run on creativity, just on pure, mechanical motions.”  

I am not going to push this farther than it actually goes, even if it confirms what I already said. “Going out on top” is about creativity; it isn’t a mechanical act. Sixx knew that. So did the other members of the band. That we are getting a sense of where they might be headed suggests that the creative spark that once pushed the Crue to great heights is now better found in other bands and ventures.  

I also won’t begrudge those fans who bought into the hype. If they heard it differently and loved it all the same, who am I to judge? I’ve done that too. If they saw a band that didn’t really exist and found passion in their projections, that is all well and good. Again, I am guilty.  

All I say is this: when our idols are honest, we need to own up to our own lies. Even then, we can feel some comfort in knowing that, as fans, we are willing to put up with a lot because of the music we love. No amount of calculation can take our memories away from us.  

The Crue is dead. Long live the Crue!