Motley Crue Tickets

The ultimate bad boys of rock, Motley Crue were formed in 1980 in Los Angeles by Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee, who soon recruited Lee's former school friend, Vince Neil, and guitarist, Mick Mars, into the fold, and released their first single, “Stick To Your Guns/Toast of The Town” on their own record label, Leathur Records. Their first album, Too Fast For Love (1981), was supported by a Canadian tour, plus some promos in the clubs of L.A., and they were signed by Elektra Records in early 1982, who re-released the album with bigger marketing, and also sent the boys back north for their Cruesing Through Canada Tour '82, during which Lee famously threw a TV set out of an Edmonton hotel window, which got them banned from the city for life, but cemented their names into rock history.

The band's loudness, wild costumes, and even wilder antics on and off stage, brought them to the attention of the newly-formed MTV, in 1984, who began playing their heavy glam metal videos on rotation, and helped add to the band's reputation for excess, which increased sales of their 1980s albums. Also in 1984, Neil was drunk at the wheel when his car crashed, killing his passenger, Hanoi Rocks drummer, Razzle Dingley. Neil served 18 days in jail for drunk-driving. In 1987, Sixx nearly died from a heroin overdose, and was only saved by a paramedic who restarted his heart with adrenalin. At the end of the 1980s, the band realised that they had to clean themselves up in order to survive, and they all found sobriety, for a time, helped by the success of their fifth album, Dr Feelgood (1989), which was nominated for a Grammy. A compilation album, Decade of Decadence, was released in 1991, while the band worked on new material, but Vince Neil quit in 1992 and Motley Crue declined with him – their brand of glam metal no longer fashionable, thanks to the rise of grunge and alternative rock.

Throughout the 1990s, success eluded the band, despite replacing Neil with ex-Angora vocalist, John Corabi. Neil rejoined the Crue in 1997 and they released Generation Swine, but the album was not a commercial success, and the band decided to leave Elektra and set up on their own again, creating Motley Records. When their separate rights and ownership deal with Elektra also expired, in 1998, the band became one of the first groups to entirely own their own catalogue, and in 1999 released Crucial Crue, a digitally remastered collection of demos, live tracks and previously unreleased songs. Tommy Lee left the band in 1999 to pursue solo projects, amidst increasing friction with Neil, and was replaced by Randy Castillo. New Tattoo (2000) was supported by a stadium tour, but the album sold poorly, and the band went their separate ways for a while.

In 2005, the band reformed for a reunion tour and released the compilation album, Red, White & Crue, followed by the Route Of All Evil Tour in 2006, with fellow rockers, Aerosmith. Their ninth studio album, Saints of Los Angeles (2008), was Grammy-nominated, and the group also made a guest appearance on the season finale of TV show Bones in 2009. Their seminal album, Dr Feelgood, was re-released the same year.

Motley Crue celebrated the 30^th anniversary of their first album release in 2011, by co-headlining a summer tour with Poison and New York Dolls, before announcing a UK tour with Def Leppard and Steel Panther, beginning in December 2011.