Nikki & Vince On The Phone: Thanks Yo You From MÖTLEY CRÜE
As their first album in over two years, Girls, Girls, Girls, clearly headed for the top after only two weeks in the record stores, Vince Neil, Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee and Mick Mars were, quite simply, freaking out! Except for Bruce Springsteen, nothing like this has ever happened to a rock ’n’ roll act in the entire history of the record industry.
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Nikki & Vince On The Phone: Thanks Yo You From MÖTLEY CRÜE
FEATURES
Judy Wieder
As their first album in over two years, Girls, Girls, Girls, clearly headed for the top after only two weeks in the record stores, Vince Neil, Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee and Mick Mars were, quite simply, freaking out! Except for Bruce Springsteen, nothing like this has ever happened to a rock ’n’ roll act in the entire history of the record industry. Now, on the eve of their triumphant world tour, the boys in the Crue were biting down into their gargantuan success and coming up with the distinct flavor of gratitude. Yes, you heard right. The so-called sultans of sleaze are capable of running into the streets and kissing their fans with astonishing sincerity. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You did this! You waited for us! You made us #1 in the world!”
They’re also capable of calling their old friends on the phone and—in an endearing orgy of overstatement—thanking them for hanging in over the years, for believing in them, and for sharing in their spectacular return to rock ’n’ roll superstardom. Here are the highlights of two such calls from lyricist/bassist Nikki Sixx and co-writer/vocalist Vince Neil.
VINCE: “Can you believe this?! We debuted on the album charts at #5! Us! The bad boys doing the bad-boy-boogie! I can hardly hold still. Someone said we might have a #1 single, too. Boy, would I love that! Judy, you gotta tell them. You gotta tell them all: thank you. All the kids buying Girls, Girls, Girls—we can’t believe it. They’re rushing the stores. It’s so wonderful. Yaaaaahhhhh!”
NIKKI: “I’m, like, on the edge of my seat. I see these kids on the streets and they tell me the album is good and I swear to you I want to tell them: ‘You did this! It’s you! You made all this happen.’ You can’t take it away from us. We worked hard over the years and we never, ever sold out. We’ve been loyal to all our fans. We’ve always been loyal to the fans. And now look what they’re doing for us! I’m so glad for this tour. We’re leaving for the world in a few days, and we're going to give it all back to the kids. I know some critics are saying that the success of Girls, Girls, Girls makes Motley Crue a safe, establishment rock act with big cars and big homes. Well, they can go screw themselves! If you want to find Nikki Sixx when he’s not onstage, go look for him on the streets, hanging out with the kids, sharing a beer and a sandwich, ’cause that’s where I’ll be, man. You’ll never find me with a bodyguard, or erecting huge statues of myself all around my swimming pool. I’m on the streets, where I belong!”
VINCE: “I am so ready for this tour I cannot tell you! I even sold my L.A. home to go on the road again. I’m that ready! My house is vacant anyway, so I sold it and said: ‘Man, just get me out of here.’ I’m feeling healthy right now, raring to go. This band is so together. We’ve always been like brothers, and you stick by your brothers. We’re also best friends. In a lot of bands some of the guys are just more or less treated like side musicians. Not Motley! In this band everybody is treated like an equal.”
NIKKI: ‘‘On this tour we’re going to be using a private jet. It'll be a little easier on the band. We have background singers, the Nasty Habits, travelling with us as well. The crew will travel on four tour buses. The band uses the jet because then we can get to each town in time to do some interviews, radio, TV, contests and—best of all—meet the kids. If you travel by bus, by the time you get there you’re trashed. Travelling by jet will give us a little bit of extra pep.”
VINCE: ‘‘This private jet we’re using is really something! It’s a big plane with all kinds of things on board. We even have our own private stewardess! It’s got Couches, a bedroom... hee, hee, hee...
I mean everything! On our first tour we actually tried using a plane. It was our manager’s eight-seater and we had some scary times on it. This is a whole different thing.”
NIKKI: ‘‘We’re having a huge, successful single and album. But all of a sudden it hits me: we don’t sound like Toto or REO Speedwagon. We’re flaunting our anti-establishment attitude right in the face of conservative America and we’re getting away with it! We’re getting away with it because it’s fun! The kids know that. Alice Cooper was fun! The Rolling Stones were fun! MOTLEY CRUE IS FUN! Just because some people still can’t figure that out, who cares? Let the kids teach them! God, how I love those kids!!”
