Source:
https://scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3002780/motley-crues-rock-star-excesses-and-wild-life-captured
Lifestyle/ Entertainment

Motley Crue’s rock-star excesses and wild life captured in Netflix’s ‘The Dirt’

  • Whether it was partying with Ozzy Osbourne or snorting cocaine off drum kits, the US rock band lived the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle to the limit
  • Band member Nikki Sixx was even declared dead for two minutes after a heroin overdose

Partying with Ozzy Osbourne, snorting cocaine off drum kits and having sex backstage with groupies mid-show.

These are just a few of Motley Crue’s wild antics depicted in their biopic The Dirt, which charts the band’s meteoric rise to fame in the 1980s. But was the rock-star life really as outrageous as it looks in the movie, which hit Netflix in the US on Friday?

“Even more so,” says lead singer Vince Neil, 58. “We were young kids and crazy and wanted to live for that excess. I think they capture it in the film without going completely overboard on it.”

The Dirt is based on Motley Crue’s collective 2001 autobiography of the same name, and stars rapper Machine Gun Kelly as drummer Tommy Lee, Douglas Booth as bassist Nikki Sixx, Daniel Webber as Neil, and Game of Thrones’ Iwan Rheon as guitarist Mick Mars.

MTV Films bought rights to the book in 2006, but the movie lingered in development for more than a decade: changing production companies and directors, and losing original star including Liam Hemsworth. Before Jackass director Jeff Tremaine came aboard and Netflix saved the project in 2017, “we were attached to some different companies that did not necessarily see it the way we did”, says Sixx, 60. “They were worried about ratings and fitting into the landscape, but we stood our ground. We wanted to be able to tell the story honestly from that era.”

But sharing their truth wasn’t always easy. While the first half of The Dirt is a booze-soaked, music-filled romp through their greatest hits including Looks That Kill and Home Sweet Home, the two-hour movie takes a darker turn as the rockers’ bad habits start to catch up with them. In December 1987, Sixx was declared dead for two minutes after a heroin overdose, and went to rehab soon after with his bandmates.

The cast of Netflix’s The Dirt as Motley Crue.
The cast of Netflix’s The Dirt as Motley Crue.

“I was doing a little over US$1,000 a day in heroin, and then probably the same in cocaine and alcohol,” Sixx says. “I was in a downward spiral, and was eventually going to end up dead or bankrupt. And that was hard to watch in the film.” Neil also had to relive his share of pain: the movie shows his 1984 drink-driving accident that killed Hanoi Rocks drummer Nicholas “Razzle” Dingley and seriously injured two others. He spent 15 days in jail and received five years probation.

“It was rough for everybody after that accident,” Neil says. “I tried to stay sober for a few years, but it’s tough when there’s no support system around you. They were still doing coke and drinking and carrying on, and I just couldn’t be a part of it.”

The movie reaches its dramatic climax with Neil’s firing from Motley Crue in 1992, only for his bandmates to rally behind him in 1995 when his four-year-old daughter, Skylar, died of cancer. He rejoined the group in 1997. The scenes of him and Skylar in hospital “really brought back those feelings from back then,” Neil says. “It’s been a long time and those feelings are still there. I got emotional while I was watching it and it was just so sad.”

Motley Crue lead singer Vince Neil in 2018.
Motley Crue lead singer Vince Neil in 2018.

Both bandmates insist there have been no talks of another album from Motley Crue, who played their farewell tour in 2015. But they did reunite in the studio recently to record four new songs for soundtrack of The Dirt, which felt just “like riding a bicycle,” Sixx says.

“It’s been almost 40 years with these three guys,” he says. “We know everything about each other. I’ve known Mick and Tommy and Vince longer than anybody on Earth. … So there’s a bond between us that is unbreakable. Even if we’re fighting, it’s unbreakable.”