Content Warning: addiction and dependence, drug culture
Dr. Feelgood, Kickstart My Heart, Same Ol’ Situation, Livewire, and my personal favorite…Shout At The Devil.
I have heard a few Motley Crue songs I didn’t like, but they are one of my favorite ’80s metal bands. Hair metal was crazy, not gonna lie. Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Dokken, Ratt, Guns N Roses, Warrant, Whitesnake, Aerosmith, Twisted Sister… I could go on forever.
The point is, all of these bands were crazy. Ozzy literally bit the head off of a real live bat onstage (granted he didn’t think it was real.) The drugs mixed with the booze, toxic masculinity, money, lack of restrictions, and groupies shouldn’t have made the band that much wilder than the rest of the popular hair metal bands of the ’80s; but these guys went nuts.
One time Sixx dared Ozzy to snort a trail of ants… and he did it. These guys were the baddest of the bad. And while there were a lot of bad times for the band, the things they did were memorable.
To watch my idol play guitar in his prime? No brainer. I can just see it now… leather pants, fishnet sleeves, leather jackets, hair that’ll catch fire if a lit match is twenty feet away. I’d be jamming backstage cheering on Tommy Lee while he’s drumming spinning in the roll cage. Or watching Vince be almost attacked by groupies onstage. Or idolizing Mick Mars as he does complex guitar solos while scoffing at his immature bandmates.
Sure, there were some bad times, really bad times. Like when Razzle died, or Vince’s daughter died from cancer, when Nikki overdosed and everyone thought they were going to lose him forever, and my personal favorite (sarcasm) the band replaced Vince with Corabi. Thank goodness it wasn’t for long because it wasn’t working. Finally, they (with Vince not Corabi) made amends and started playing together. They got sober over and over again and it didn’t seem to work. But, after Vince came back, sobriety seemed to stick for them, and they continued to perform until their last show in 2015.
Since the ‘80s, rock hasn’t really been the same. In the ‘90s, grunge was all the rage. Self hatred, deprecation, and broodiness seems to be the style of millennials. Because the last time they were happy was the nineties. Early 2000’s was about more of the same thing from the nineties but mixed with a bit of screaming and pop. Now, we mix Ozzy with Post Malone.
The glory days are behind us.
