Mötley Crüe bow out with final world tour
The glam-metal band are on their final tour and they're not coming round again. However, there is a loophole
Nikki Sixx is sitting on his tour bus talking up his Uno game. "I'll play anyone in Uno and crush them," says Mötley Crüe's bassist. This from a guy who was once declared dead after a heroin overdose, before being revived by an adrenaline shot and writing a song about the whole experience (the Crüe's Kickstart My Heart).
"When you're young, you drink all night, f*** a thousand chicks and snort as much blow as you want," says the 55-year-old Sixx. "I'm sober now. I have the desire to conquer more things."
Mötley Crüe are on their final tour, a string of mostly arena dates that will wrap up some time next year. After splitting in the 1990s, the original Crüe line-up reunited in 2005 for a series of huge tours, defying those who saw them as hair-metal has-beens. But a few years ago, Sixx decided it was time to think of an exit strategy. "No one wants to hobble off into the sunset," he says. "We wanted to blaze off with our guns above our heads."
I’ll play anyone in Uno and crush them. I’m sober now. I have the desire to conquer more things
As plans came together for a farewell tour, promoters wondered if it was a gimmick - after all, bands such as the Who and Kiss said goodbye only to eventually hit the road again. To eliminate all doubts, Mötley Crüe had lawyers draw up a "cessation of touring agreement", which the band signed in January at a press conference announcing the tour.
"The only loophole is if all four members agreed to break the contract," says Sixx. "There is no amount of money that would ever make me do it again. We'd have so much egg on our face."
The group's show is over-the-top even by Crüe standards: flames shoot out of Sixx's bass during Shout at the Devil, two barely dressed women undulate onstage and, in one of the most extreme stunts in arena-rock history, Tommy Lee's drum kit elevates to the ceiling and travels on a track across the venue, spinning in loops as he pounds out a solo. Dubbed the Crüecifly, the apparatus is Lee's lifelong dream. "It has been a little scary," says Lee, 51. "The highest point is about 55 feet [16 metres] in the air [and] that thing sends me upside down."
Sixteen of the typical 19 songs in the set come from their 1980s heyday. "If you see Aerosmith, you want to hear them play Walk This Way," says guitarist Mick Mars. "People want to hear your hits."