by Ben Liemer

When you're a rock star and you've trashed all the finest hotel rooms, had all the fun throwing TV sets out 17th-story windows, spent the evening with your wildest, most curvaceous fantasy, collected your platinum plaques and toured all over the world, what's left? What's left when all your dreams are ready to come crashing down at your feet, when your supernova threatens to burn out? This is the reality Motley Crue has had to face up to. Vince Neil's tragic car accident had repercussions as serious for the Crue as those Keith Moon's death held for the Who, or as Keith Richards' 1977 heroin bust in Toronto had for the Rolling Stones-it threatened the very existence of the band. But like those classic groups, the Motleys picked themselves up, dusted themselves off, and in 1985 have come roaring back to the limelight with a crunching new album, Theater of Pain, tentatively due for release in June on Elektra Records.

Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee, Mick Mars and Vince Neil apparently have a lot of pride. While they're down, they're not out. Neil's pre-trial hearing, at which a judge will determine whether he must stand trial, has been postponed yet again - this time until June 6, which gives the band sufficient time to complete the album, shoot at least one video and ready plans for a new metal assault. The pentagrammed rockers were working with engineer Duane Baron (W.A.S.P., Quiet Riot) and mega-platinum producer Tom Werman when Circus Magazine caught up with an enthusiastic Tommy Lee in New York City, comfortably settled in his managers' office. Meanwhile, back in California, guitarist Mick Mars and bassist Nikki Sixx were placing their axe licks over Lee's recently completed drum tracks. Mars, despite his psychotic stage manner, proved to be a soft spoken, rather private man who slowly warmed to speaking about his pride and joy, his music. At press time, no clear choice for a Motley single had yet emerged, though "Raise Your Hands to Rock", "Keep Your Eye on the Money" and "Use It or Lose It" were top contenders. Mars also seemed to like another track, "City Boy Blues."

The first question on everybody's mind is, will Motley Crue tour?

Tommy: Of course. We are definitely going on the road. There's no possible chance that we wouldn't go out; make sure everyone knows that. We'll be going out somewhere around July 15th in the United States. Everything is fine now. After the tragedy a lot of things went down; we got megacalls at the office - "What's going on?" Everyone immediately thinks that it's over because of the accident. Nobody said that this was going to be easy, but we will be in your town.

Mick: Oh, man, I was ready in March. We have to finish the album and get the new stage together, get the new clothes and all the people together. It takes time.

Are you looking forward to playing live again?

Tommy: Get me on a tour bus. I'm there. I'm going crazy. We're [Lee and his co-manager] going to see Deep Purple tonight because the sound system that they're using is what we're gonna be using when we go out. I get bummed when I hear the crowd go "Yeah!" I just want to walk onstage and slap the guy [Ian Paice], take his sticks and start playing. It's not healthy when I see other shows.

How was working in the studio this time out? Was there a big difference between your first studio session for your initial single and the recording of "Theater of Pain?"

Mick: We're talking twelve hours versus two or three months. Before, we just got in there and did it in a take or two and ran out of time. Now, it's run a lot differently, with producers and such. I like it better because when you come out with a somewhat finished product and play it, you say, "Oh, that sounds like us." Even in demo. The cake's there with the icing on it. Before, some parts were cluttered up and you couldn't distinguish bass and guitar tracks. Now you can hear it.

Tommy: Obviously, it went a lot quicker because the band is more experienced now. Plus, it's not like we just went into the studio and recorded the songs. Some of the stuff we demo'd quite awhile back. So when we went in the studio, we just ripped 'em out. I did the drum tracks for the new album in four days. Back then, we used to get real out of it in the studio; we used to drink a lot. Not that we don't drink now, but we're taking this a lot more seriously.

All the heavy touring you've done has tightened the band and helped to make you better musicians. Will "Theater of Pain" be the album that makes fans and critics alike treat Motley Crue seriously as musicians and not just showmen?

Mick: I can't tell you how much faith I have in this album. It's going to open a lot of eyes as far as gaining the respect that we deserve. Because we really worked hard.

Tommy: This new album is incredible. The band is not going in a new direction, but a better one. Everybody's always fucked with us all the way through about not being serious. They think we'll be a rock & roll band for a couple of years and then we won't ever be heard of again. I love all the other albums, but this is gonna be the one. Maybe someday critics will go back and see some neat stuff on the first two albums.

What about Vince's claim that the album would be more blues-influenced?

Mick: Yeah, getting back to basics. Good, hard-driving, gut-level rock with a blues edge to it. More like Aerosmith's Rocks or Toys in the Attic.

Is it really true you're recording a ballad?

Tommy: It's called "'Home Sweet Home." Where we've rehearsed for the last two or three years, there's a grand piano. When the band leaves, I get on there and shred for awhile. I played when I was little - I was taking lessons from when I was five to ten years old. My parents made me play, but it got too difficult for me, plus I wanted to play drums. So I quit. Now I want to kill myself. I came up with this idea and said, "Sixx, man, check this out." He just flipped. Nikki sat down on the old piano bench with the acoustic and we wrote this beautiful ballad. The beginning is an intro with just piano and vocals. And I'm gonna play it live too, play the piano part, then there's this big power chord, and I'll run behind the drums. At the end, the song breaks down into the full tear jerk session. I'll jump back off the drums and end the song on piano.

Mick: Nikki does a bit of synthesizer work. It's different from what we've done before. I'll probably start out with acoustic guitar and switch to electric.

Why did you choose to cover the old Brownsville Station hit "Smokin' in the Boys' Room" instead of Mountain's "Mississippi Queen?"

Tommy: We never even got around to "Mississippi Queen," we just blew it out. For some reason when we kicked out "Smokin'"... you could just tell [that it worked]. Vince's vocal... it just sounded like us.

Mick: Vince came in and said, "I want to do 'Smokin' in the Boys' Room." I said, 'Vince, we already tried that- it's not good.' He said, 'Let's try it again.' We got the tapes and learned it - boom, it sounded great. We had to do some changes, but nothing radical where you wouldn't recognize it if you heard it. We Motley-ized it.

Nikki has said that the Crue never intended the makeup and clothes to stay the same. What new look will there be, if any?

Tommy: Everyone's doing the studs 'n' leather look and we're saying, "It's time to move on." You'll be lucky if you see one scrap of leather on us except boots. It's gonna be much more glam, more theatrical. The new stage show is real flashy, glammy, sparkly. More hair, more makeup, more over the top. Taking things to the limit one more time. Ha!

What about pentagrams? Will you continue using them in spite of all the criticism you've received?

Mick: I think we'll continue using pentagrams, but it will be more subtle.

We've talked about the future; and what about the past, your days playing in bands before the Crue?

Tommy: Suite 19 was a power trio that Greg Leon, a guy named Jack Kemp and I were in. Greg used to play in Dokken and DuBrow. We played a sold-out show at the Starwood in Hollywood and I thought I'd made it.

Mick: I was playing in chump bands; nobody recognized most of them. We played the Starwood, the Whiskey and the Troubadour, but we were just the Monday night act-the off night. We'd go, "Oh no, this is going nowhere." When I played in a Top 40 band, we played only two or three nights a week. In the old days it was, "God, how am I gonna eat today?" I hate those days, I hate to think about 'em. Now, just about anything I want, I can have.