Motley Crue gears up for fest
So, who would have thought the band — bassist Nikki Sixx, guitarist Mick Mars, drummer Tommy Lee and vocalist Vince Neil — would be gearing up for its first touring music festival, Crue Fest.
Apparently not the band, Mars said during a teleconference with Sixx last month. "We just wanted to play music together when we started out. We didn't think about doing a festival.
"Back then it wouldn't have worked out anyway, unless it was a bigger band that asked us to be on it."
"The time seemed right for us now," Sixx said. "We wanted to find some like-minded bands and bring the music to the people."
With Ozzfest cutting back to a single show in Dallas in August, and the starting up of the Rockstar Mayhem tour, the field looked good for Crue Fest, Sixx said.
With the likes of Buckcherry, Papa Roach and Trapt, Sixx said the show is going to be a simple "rock show."
"We had more than 30 bands we looked at to join us," he said. "We chose these guys because they have good track records and have hit the radio with their sexy lead singers, loud guitars and snotty lyrics, just like us."
One band on the tour is Sixx's other band Sixx A.M., which released a soundtrack to Sixx's biography "Heroin Diaries."
"I was getting ready to do a tour with Sixx A.M., but this opportunity for Crue Fest came about and, since Motley Crue is my first priority, I trashed the tour and decided to work on this," Sixx said. "But the guys in the band told me I had to play with Sixx A.M. during Crue Fest. I really thought they'd be against it, but Tommy told me to do it and so did Vince and Mick."
The encouragement and support from the band members was very different in the 1990s when Tommy, Vince and Sixx were at each others' throats for one thing or another.
"A lot of time has passed since then," said Sixx about the intra-band conflicts. "And we've grown up quite a bit. We get along and we all are focused on Motley Crue and its future."
One major event leading up to Crue Fest was the release of the new Motley Crue CD, "Saints of Los Angeles," which hit the stores last month.
Recent comments
I like that Mick is flipping off the camera in the picture!
Ryan | July 25, 2008 at 1:34 p.m.
