After years of chaos, Motley Crue still no "Saints"

By Christa Titus

NEW YORK (Billboard) - When author Neil Strauss first met Motley Crue, the scene could have been ripped right from "The Dirt," the 2001 band autobiography he co-wrote with the group that became a New York Times best seller.

"It was at a show in Phoenix, and the very first time I met them, (drummer) Tommy (Lee) was handcuffed backstage," Strauss recalls with a laugh. "Tommy Lee was literally handcuffed wearing these little leather kind of shorts that he wears and nothing else, and I just thought that was the ultimate way to meet Motley Crue."

Such craziness is what made Strauss want to chronicle the legendary rock band.

"Motley Crue is not just a rock band," he says. "Motley Crue is larger than the individual members. What it stands for is bigger than the music and the band itself."

As one of the most notorious groups in history, the Los Angeles quartet has defied the odds when it comes to professional and personal survival, experiencing -- and creating -- as much turmoil as it has success.

On June 24, Motley Crue wrote the next chapter in its larger-than-life story with the release of "Saints of Los Angeles." The Motley Records/Eleven Seven Music release, the first studio album in 11 years from the band's original lineup, debuted at No. 4 with sales of 99,000 copies. The set offers a classic Crue vibe and echoes the tumultuous history recounted in "Dirt."

On July 1, the band opened Crue Fest, a 40-plus-city summer tour, sharing the bill with hitmakers Buckcherry, Papa Roach, Trapt and Sixx: AM, the side project of Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx. It's expected to be one of the summer's best-selling rock festivals.

GANG OF FOUR

For 27 years and with 50 million records sold, according to the band's management, Tenth Street Entertainment, Motley Crue has always done things its own outrageous way, battling everyone, including itself, to do it.

"It's really simple," Sixx says of the group's life of extremes. "It's who we are. We're dysfunctional human beings that ended up in a gang."

The gang's impact stretches from when it ruled the '80s Sunset Strip and unwittingly helped pioneer the glam metal genre that spawned dozens of wannabe acts, to its subsequent influence on two decades of performers, spanning the spectrum from Marilyn Manson to Buckcherry.

Motley is rock royalty with two generations of subjects: its original fans, and those fans' children, who have been exposed to the band though their parents, channels like VH1 Classic and Fuse, and such videogames as "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band." (The new album's title single sold five times as many copies as downloads via "Rock Band" in its first week of release in April as it sold via conventional channels. The single has hit No. 7 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.)

Fan ties nurtured Motley even before the group first appalled critics and parents with its controversial 1982 album, "Shout at the Devil." The record is just one of many battles Motley has fought, and won, against the establishment.

"We know what we're doing is real," Sixx says. "For some reason, everyone wants to bet against us, every single time. And the fans want to vote for us. And there's the rub, right there."

TAKING IT TO THE STREETS