History Mötley Crüe

Mötley Crüe was formed in 1981, in Los Angeles, by bassist Nikki Sixx and drummer Tommy Lee. They would soon find guitarist Mick Mars through a classified ad which stated simply: Loud, rude, aggressive guitarist available. Singer Vince Neil would be the last to join, whom Tommy had known in high school. They would go on to become the most infamous band of the 80's.

Later in 1981 they would release their first album, Too Fast For Love, on their own Leathür Records, which sold over 20,000 copies. This caught the attention of Elektra Records, who would sign the band and release their second album in 1983, Shout At The Devil. Elektra would also remix and re-release Too Fast For Love, chopping off the intro to the title track and dropping Stick To Your Guns altogether. They would release Theatre Of Pain in 1985, Girls, Girls, Girls in 1987, Dr. Feelgood in 1989, embarking on sold out tours for each one. In 1991 they would release Decade Of Decadence, a best hits compilation with a few new tracks.

If February 1992 Vince Neil would leave the band, to be replaced by John Corabi (The Scream). They would release the self-titled Mötley Crüe in 1994, which sold in disappointing numbers. Vince would return for 1997's Generation Swine, which again sold in poor volume. The band would leave Elektra records, to form their own Mötley Records, bringing with them ownership of all their master recordings. A band in control of its own publishing and masters is something very rare in the recording industry. They would release remastered versions of all their albums to date in 1999, each one containing bonus tracks of previously unreleased material from that era. That year would also see a new album, New Tattoo, selling less than 150,000 copies, and tension between Vince and Tommy would cause the latter to leave the band.

Tommy would put together the band Methods Of Mayhem and record an album with them. It was released late in 1999, and solo albums were released in 2002 and 2005. He starred in a reality TV show which followed him to college in 2005, too.

With Mötley Crüe essentially finished, 2000 would see Nikki Sixx start a rap-rock band called 58 and release a single and album that year. Then in 2002 he would start putting together Brides Of Destruction, and release two albums with them in 2004 and 2005.

Near the end of 2004 the unthinkable happened...reunion! Nobody thought it would ever happen, but the time spent apart was apparently enough of a cooling-off period to make reconciliation a possibility. They would go into the studio to record a few new tracks for 2005's compilation, Red, White and Crüe, which was released in February. They would embark on their Carnival Of Sins tour that same month, quickly selling out shows. They would release a concert DVD later that year of their stop in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

January 26th, 2006, rock's most infamous bad boys celebrated their 25th anniversary with a star on Hollywood's Walk Of Fame! They're slated to go back into the studio in May of 2006 with long-time producer Bob Rock to begin work on a new album.

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