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It was 20 years ago that Hanoi Rocks drummer, Nicholas “Razzle” Dingley was killed in that infamous car accident with Motley Crue’s Vince Neil behind the wheel.  That heady blow to the band combined with some pre-existing internal problems caused the demise of Hanoi Rocks.  Yet somehow two decades of pain, death, and a lot of growing up led the two founding members of Hanoi Rocks back together again.

“I never expected this to happen again and I never expected to be using the name Hanoi Rocks again.  But I considered the possibility of a rebirth as opposed to a reunion – which I would never do,” said Michael Monroe in an unfeigned conversation with Sass.

“I’ve been [performing] solo all this time.  But doing this with Hanoi Rocks again feels great because we’re connecting in a different way than we ever did before.  I think the song writing and everything has evolved so much that it’s exciting to see what we can accomplish together now.”

The reformation of this band was first made possible in 2001 at the Scandinavian record release party for the Hanoi Rock box set.

“I saw Andy [McCoy] in a different light, something had changed in him.  Maybe it had to do with him falling off a third-story balcony and almost killing himself.  It’s a miracle that he’s alive, let alone that he can walk.”

Monroe describes McCoy’s accident:  “He turned around – someone called his name, he wasn’t even drunk or anything.  He was leaning on a railing that broke.  He fell – he was hanging for a while but it was raining and he let go and he fell three stories.  Most people would not survive that kind of fall.  The way he landed was the reason he survived and why he didn’t become paralyzed, but his legs were in like hundreds of pieces and had to be reconstructed.  He had a lot of extensive surgery and he was in a wheelchair for awhile and then some crutches and now he’s not even limping, it’s amazing.”

“He changed.  And it made me think that he wasn’t just telling me that he’s clean which he used to do in the past [and], which means that he’s not.  I could see that he got his shit together.  I figured it would be fun to play with him and we jammed later on that night and then we did this Hanoi revisited gig which was just Hanoi songs.”

“Then I ended up working with him on new songs because of everything that happened to me at that time.  In 2001 my wife of 15 years passed away unexpectedly.”

Monroe goes on about Hanoi Rocks’ rebirth:  “So we kept working and working and doing the studio, and more and more stuff, and we went into the studio and it sounded like Hanoi Rocks.  [We thought] it would be a shame not to have people hear this stuff, and we had the name and everything from the beginning.  So the path we started, the two of us, from the beginning when we met in ’77 and we started planning the band – just the two of us – and we were the core of the band.  So now I just came to the conclusion that it just was reborn and it happened by chance, like the best things in life usually.”

“I’d stopped looking for a band at that point, I said I’ll just be Michael Monroe – a solo artist.  I tried for a long time [to put together a new band] but sometimes when you stop looking for something it finds you,” Monroe chuckled.

"Sometimes when you stop looking for something it finds you."

The pride and joy of Hanoi Rock’s rebirth is their new album Twelve Shots On The Rocks on Liquor And Poker Music, which has just gone Platinum in Hanoi Rocks’ home country, Finland.  Monroe is thrilled with the ample positive feedback he's received.

"Very good reviews!  Very receptive, I'm pleasantly surprised.  People really like it; I think they like this kind of guitar rock and roll.  The musical style is very different, I think, from a lot of bands.  And we just do our thing."

The losses that Monroe has suffered, from Razzle’s death to having to have one of his cats put to sleep as well (“I love cats, I’m a cat person,” Monroe adds), he’s definitely had more than his share of heartache.  But the passing of Monroe’s first wife was the most difficult to endure.

“It was a big shock.  It’s the worse thing that I could imagine that could happen.  I didn’t think I was going to survive for a year or two.  But I’ve regained my will to live and I’ve remarried.  [She’s] helped me to regain my will to live.  I’m happy now.”

“I don’t need any more character building, you know what I mean?  I used to say if anybody tells me ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you strong,’ I’m going to kill them,” he laughs.

“It’s something you live with and never totally recover from.  But I try to take it and put it to creative use without getting too self-indulgent – put it into song.”

A prime example of this is the song off the new album, "In My Darkest Moment," written about the passing of his wife.

“It’s very emotional.  It’s sort of like taken the place of "Million Miles Away" that we did when Razzle died.”

Never very involved with the song writing in the past Monroe says Hanoi Rocks' Two Steps From The Move was the first of their releases that Monroe actually liked every cut on.

"There was always a song or two that I had to skip.  Two Steps From The Move was the first one I could listen to all the way through.”

“A lot of people love those records but for me, that’s just my opinion.  Now I’m more involved in the writing, you know over the years as a solo artist and Andy’s learned to respect that and now we have like a real honest, 50/50 relationship in terms of writing and we’re connecting in a way that we never did before.  We talk about everything and we’ve gotten to know each other in a new way.”

Both performing, and the song writing process, for Monroe, just keep getting better and better.

“It’s easier, yeah, with the experience and the knowledge, you know what you’re doing so it’s easier and more fun.  You see better results and it’s not like you’re going on with blinders and the light at the end of the tunnel is just another on coming train,” he chuckles.

“I think we just evolved – both of us, me and Andy – as performers and song writers, players and musicians, in every way.  And as people, we’ve grown a lot and that’s why it’s interesting and exciting to see what we can accomplish now.  This band is the strongest live, and we’ve mastered the studio now too.  I think the album is a good representation of the band, but live is the thing.  If you see us live that’s when you really get it.  If you don’t get it by then – you don’t get it.”

Though Hanoi Rocks is widely credited as the founders of glam rock and is considered the influence for bands like Cinderella, Poison, and Motley Crue, Monroe doesn’t exactly concur.

“We were told that we were a musical influence to a lot of bands and they connect us to the 80’s hair metal artists, but I think the music speaks for itself.  Musically we’re much different than that.  I would just hate to be lumped into one category like that.  I hate categories anyway, we defy categories.”

“That’s one of the best things about glam is that you can’t really put it into a category.  Our attempt was, of course, to go to glam.  We grew up on those bands like Slade, The Faces, Mott the Hoople, some of our favorite bands.  But I think Little Richard was the original glam [artist].  It’s ironic that it’s called glam rock because there’s nothing glamorous about rock and roll,” laughs Monroe.

As Michael Monroe and Sass were saying goodbye, Monroe added, “Scratch your cats behind the ear for me.”

"I don't need any more character building" (photo from metalrules.com)
 

   Hanoi Rocks Official Website: www.hanoirocks.com
Tooting Bec Press: www.tootingbecpress.com
   Liquor and Poker Music: www.liquorandpokermusic.com
   Tree House Animal Foundation: www.treehouseanimals.org
   The McCoy’s Show (Andy McCoy’s reality TV show in Finland): www.mtv3.fi/mccoys
 

   Email Sass at: [email protected]