by Toby Goldstein

"You can be in a pissed-off mood when you wake up in the morning, yellin' at everybody - nothing's going right - but the second you're walking down that corridor to that stage and the crowd gets louder and louder as you're getting nearer to the audience, you transform, man. You forget everything. You become part of the audience. And that's where the secret is in performing, you know?" Overjoyed to hear the news that Motley Crue had topped the 1985 Circus Magazine Readers' Poll in an astounding 11 categories, ebullient lead singer Vince Neil revealed the magic of Motley Crue. The good side of California's bad boys, often ignored by their critics, has always been their ability to shake every audience to the rafters. By the spring of 1984, Motley Crue were firmly established as headliners from Boston to Burbank. Fans across America were obviously ready to be Crue-cified: tickets for the band's two shows at New York's Beacon Theater vanished in, count 'em, 15 minutes. Things offstage were heating up, too, as a building animosity between the Crue and fellow Los Angeles rockers Quiet Riot threatened to escalate into fisticuffs. As band biographer Dante Bonutto reported, Nikki had a few thin bones to pick with QR's Kevin DuBrow. "He said that we suck, that we're posers and that we'd never sell a record," Sixx said irately. Proved wrong on at least the last point by over two million folks busily buying Shout at the Devil, DuBrow eventually apologized. Harder to explain away was Motley Crue's fast-growing reputation as Womanizers of the World, Drinkers Deluxe, and all-around General Sleaze Buckets. And in this private arena, the land of backstage bacchanalia and hotel room hysteria, the band seemed only too happy to wallow in both the facts and the rumors. Yes, Vince Neil acknowledged, the group did have a rating system for girls: "Ten points for a centerfold-type chick, one point for a good-looking chick and five demerits for an ugly one." "We are Motley Crue twenty-four hours a day," Nikki said once, "whether I'm on the beach or in the back of somebody's car with some slut." Parents and authority figures' worst suspicions about the Crue's nasty habits were confirmed when a San Antonio, Texas radio station ran a contest asking its listeners to write letters detailing what they would do to meet Motley Crue. The results were enough to fry the airwaves, and so horrified Esquire columnist Bob Greene (who'd emerged relatively unscathed from touring with Alice Cooper a decade earlier) that he printed the responses for all to gape at. One kid, fergoshsakes, said he'd offer them his hot-blooded mother! While controversy brewed at home, Motley Crue jetted away for their first European tour. During the summer of 1984, they played at the renowned Castle Donnington metal festival, then blasted through the fall in support of AC/DC, Iron Maiden and Van Halen. Because of their successful Eurotour, release of the band's third album, originally set for January 1985, had to be postponed. Instead, American fans were presented with the first Motley Crue picture disc, an EP featuring their "Motley-ized" version of "Helter Skelter."

Clearly, 1984 had been a major breakthrough year for the group. When the 1984 Circus poll winners were announced, the young upstarts had placed in the top three of 10 categories, and scored first in five, including best album. Everyone felt that Motley Crue would become certified superstars once their third album saw light. Their trusted producer, Tom Werman, enthused about the band's improved abilities. "There's much more confidence, much more authenticity, they know much more about their instruments and how to get them to sound good in the studio." High hopes, indeed, but hopes which unexpectedly swerved away from fulfillment. When they toured, Motley Crue worked hard, and when they had time off, Motley Crue liked to play hard. Vince Neil made no secret of his like for drink, bragging at one point to Village Voice/People free lancer Deborah Frost that he might put away a case of beer and half a fifth of gin on a day off. No one knows, or will say, how heavily Vince was partying on December 8, 1984, when various members of the Crue and Finnish glitter-metal band Hanoi Rocks got together in Neil's home base of Redondo Beach, California. What is known is that at approximately 6:30 p.m., Neil lost control of his 1972 Ford Pantera and swerved into the opposing lane of traffic, hitting two other cars. Vince sustained a few cracked ribs and cuts, but his passenger, Hanoi Rocks' 24-year-old drummer, Nicholas "Razzle" Dingley, was killed, and two young passengers in a Volkswagen suffered severe injuries, including brain damage.

Some music industry executives and fellow musicians speculated that the tragedy may have occurred because the band felt obliged to live up to the outrageous stories circulating about them, but everyone in the group was deeply shook up by the accident. Vince was arraigned on January 9, 1985, but, as is common in legal proceedings, his fate was not decided until almost another year had passed. In September, he pleaded guilty to one charge each of vehicular manslaughter and drunk driving. A very fortunate man when all things are considered (he could have been jailed for eight years), Vince Neil Wharton spent a month in prison in the spring of 1986, made several million dollars in restitution to the injured parties, and received five years probation. The bleached blond singer was additionally ordered to perform 200 hours of community service work and took time on the Crue's 1985 tour to visit many young people being treated in drug and alcohol clinics. "I don't preach to them," Vince said at the time. "It's not like I'm in an auditorium and I'm standing up there talking. I know kids will be drinking and doing drugs 'cause most kids do. That's a fact of life right now. And I just try to tell them, 'when you drink, don't drive.'"

Fortunately, among all the uncertainty over their future, the consensus among Motley Crue was to finish their third album, now called Theatre of Pain, and make it the best record possible. And if it were their last, so be it. Mick Mars and Tommy Lee happily pointed out that the band's growing experience was leading them to a better product. "We're talking twelve hours versus two or three months," said the guitarist, comparing studio time spent on their debut single to that used on their new LP. "The band is not going in a new direction but a better one," declared the lanky drummer. This album would even include a ballad, "Home Sweet Home," with "the full tear-jerk session" ending. But the first single, issued in June 1985, surprised many people, since it was a cover version of Brownsville Station's rock chestnut, "Smokin' in the Boys Room." Nikki recalled, "We decided to record it after just one rehearsal. I guess that indicates how this band has progressed. And it sounds very live without being sloppy. You hear every note." "Smokin'" became Motley Crue's first Top 20 single, was a heavily requested video on MTV for months, and won the 1985 Circus poll for best single and best video.

With a cover and stage concept described by Nikki as "very European - the balconies, court jesters, red costumes, black and white jester's pants," Theatre of Pain reached double platinum as Motley Crue commenced a worldwide headlining tour that covered the second half of 1985. They plowed through opening dates in Japan and came home to America with a setup that Vince described as a "fifty dollar show for a ten dollar ticket."' After more than four years of building a band that wanted to be taken seriously, the members of Motley Crue found great satisfaction in headlining the U.S. top venues, including Madison Square Garden and the L.A. Forum, the latter as a drug treatment center benefit. "I feel very confident," Nikki affirmed. "Because we're loyal to our fans, they're gonna stay loyal to us. And loyal in the fact that we continue to stay together like the Stones, and we continue to pump out good rock & roll-not any type of fashion loyalty." Loyalty to Motley Crue resulted in a veritable sweep when the 1985 Circus readers' poll was tallied. Every member of the band topped the list for his instrument, the group scored first in LPs, video and live performance, and of course, Motley Crue was named Best Group of the Year. Keeping the Motley momentum swinging, the Crue started 1986 with a return trip to Europe for six weeks of headlining dates. Following the tour, Nikki and Tommy immediately began work on new songs that might turn up on the fourth album. Clearing away the past, Vince served his jail term; on a happier note, Tommy Lee became a household name to supermarket checkout regulars when, in May, he married Dynasty bad girl Heather Locklear. By summertime, producer Tom Werman began checking out several of America's top studios and currently, the band are hard at work recording Girls, Girls, Girls, now scheduled for early 1987 release. But Motley Crue will never settle for being an all work, no play kind of band, especially when a musical house party is on tap. Recently, the entire group joined members of Ratt, Kiss, Dio, Giuffria and King Kobra to jam with Autograph at the Roxy. As Nikki Sixx once explained about performing, "We're in it for the music, for the show, and for the entertainment... We're simply offering something to the fans that hasn't ever been offered before-a combination of looks, sound, songs, street-sense lyrics, enthusiasm and personality, and it's not contrived, and that's the best part."'