Vince Neil and Tommy Lee Discuss New Era of Motley Crue with WMMR
The World’s Most Notorious Rock Band is entering a new era. Vince Neil and Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe checked in with Radio Sara on 93.3 WMMR Philadelphia to give us *the dirt* on new music, their current lineup and the band’s latest label partners.
“Dogs of War” was just released today (4/26) and the song has a modern polish over the classic Crüe sound. Hear the song in the official video below, which is an all-CGI clip that had major creative steering from the band through the lens of director Nick DenBoer.
So does a new track mean that a new album from Mötley Crüe will follow? A string of singles is more likely, Vince Neil tells MMR: “You put out 10, 11 songs (in an album) and half of the songs never get heard by anybody. And we figured if we do a couple songs at a time, we’d give it the full attention that it needs and put out singles. That’s what we want to do right now.”
Tommy Lee adds: “I think it’s cool. Because what’s going to happen here is you’re going to get more, more frequently. The albums take forever to kind of conceptually put together, to record, do all that stuff, (and) it could be several years between a release. Now we’ll just go in and record something and we’ll just put it right out.”
Earlier this week, the band announced their partnership with Big Machine Records, who released “Dogs of War” and will deliver Crüe’s upcoming singles for the foreseeable future.
With a new era comes growing pains, and the departure of longtime guitarist Mick Mars has caused a ripple of skepticism through the band’s fanbase. Mars retired from touring in 2022, but the following year he was dismissed from the band’s lineup entirely. The move came as a surprise to their fans and to the industry; Mars claimed he was boxed out of the band, and the other members have shown concern over his physical and mental health. A breakdown of Mick’s exit is here.
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Here’s the good news: the next guitarist to step up to the amp on Mötley Crüe’s stage is more than qualified for the job. John 5 joined the lineup last year, and his resume includes an extensive run with Rob Zombie, plus David Lee Roth, Rob Halford, and many collaborations with Crüe’s own bassist Nikki Sixx.
It’s clear that the guys are ecstatic to have John 5 on board. Tommy exclaims, “He’s the s***! He’s one of those guys that, stylistically, is capable of playing (anything). You could just go, ‘Dude, play me some blue grass mixed with some Beethoven’ and he will just play it… and above and beyond that, the guy’s a f***ng sweetheart. You can be an amazing musician, but if you’re an a**hole, none of it matters. He’s the sweetest guy and brings such a great new energy within us.”
Mötley Crüe are touring the festival circuit in North America this summer, and they’re kicking off a tour with a double-header in our area. They’ll be in Atlantic City at the Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena on Friday May 3rd and Saturday May 4th. Vince confirmed that at the first gig, fans will be treated to the LIVE DEBUT of the new song “Dogs of War,” telling Sara in the interview “Oh yeah, it’s there!”
MMR’s own Jacky Bam Bam will host our VIP pre-party and meet-and-greet with the band on the second night. Get tickets in info on MMR’s Official Concert Calendar.
Watch the full interview below, where Vince and Tommy revealed the deep Crüe cut that they miss playing live, plus their thoughts on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and at the end of the conversation, they comment on the most controversial topic of all…
FYI: Video contains NSFW language.
Watch the interview with Vince Neil and Tommy Lee of Motley Crue:
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