Chronological Crue - The History of Motley Crue in 1990

early 90
Nikki Sixx talks of publishing a book of his poetry, probably titled The Education of Rebellion, which is said to contain the lyrics of all Mötley Crüe songs, along with forty to fifty other original pieces. He buys an Apple Mac computer for the word processing of his poems.

There is talk of Mick Mars doing a jazz fusion solo album, as well as talk that Mötley Crüe will be the special guests on a Kiss and Aerosmith co-headlining summer stadium tour.

John Corabi helps form The Scream, a band brought together when Racer X disbands after drummer Scott Travis joins Judas Priest. Hollywood Records sign them after only playing two gigs. Corabi is under the guidance of vocal coach Ron Anderson.

11/1/90
Jim Dandy from the band Black Oak Arkansas joins Mötley on stage for their rendition of Jailhouse Rock in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

15/1/90
A video for the forthcoming Without You single is filmed on location in the Galveston Opera House in Texas, following the Crüe’s Houston concert. A jaguar named Czar from a local animal shelter for big cats called The Exotic Cat Refuge and Wildlife Orphanage is featured in the video. It is the first Mötley Crüe to be video directed by Blanche White and produced by Sharon Oreck, as the Crüe move away from Wayne Isham’s direction. It’s later voted 1989’s #1 Most Requested Video on MTV.

22/2/90
In the Best Hard Rock Performance category of the 32nd Annual Grammy Awards, Mötley Crüe's Dr Feelgood is beaten by Living Colour's Cult of Personality. Other nominees are Aerosmith for Love In An Elevator, Guns N' Roses for G N' R Lies, and Great White for Once Bitten, Twice Shy.

12/3/90
Without You is released as a single with Slice Of Your Pie on the flip-side. It spends the most amount of time in the charts of any Crüe single to date, reaching #8 in its seventeen-week stint and becoming Mötley’s second Top Ten hit. The track was written by Nikki about Tommy and wife Heather Locklear. Slice Of Your Pie previously had working titles of Slice Of The Night and Slice Of Your Life, with its lyrics being about a night stalker killing people. Vince Neil plays harmonica on this track.

21/3/90
Dr. Feelgood goes triple-Platinum having now sold over three million copies in the U.S. alone, while Mötley continues playing arena after arena. The monotonous and exhaustive touring by the band, now in a sober state, sees them finding other ways to amuse themselves. Dressed in all sorts of fetish and fantasy clothing, females backstage entertain the Crüe with a variety of acts fit for the raunchiest of circuses.

25/3/90
Tommy Lee is once again charged with indecent exposure after mooning the crowd to complete his drum solo in Augusta, Georgia. He is arrested on the spot and the band is not allowed to finish their set. A policeman walks onto the stage and announces that the show is over, only to be pelted with rubbish by the angry crowd who then pursue refunds. Tommy is fined $1,647 and Mötley Crüe is banned from playing in the city ever again.

7/4/90
At the end of his flying drum solo in New Haven, Connecticut, Tommy descends as usual on his bungee rope but has a feeling his roadie will not pull the brake on it in time. He panics and lets go of the rope to reach his foot strap, turning him upside down. When the rope’s brake is pulled on his twenty-foot plummet, Tommy’s head cracks into the head of a person in the audience, before he hits the ground head-first and blacks out. He gets taken to Yale-New Haven Hospital in an ambulance for overnight observation of his concussion, which not only signals the end of this show, but forces the cancellation of another show.

10/4/90
In Binghamton, New York, Mötley resumes playing to arenas again following Tommy’s concussion. He now descends much slower on his rope at the end of his solo before stopping four times as far away from the crowd than before. It takes Tommy some time to overcome his fear.

A lawsuit is filed in the Allen Superior Court in Indiana by security guard Mark Elrod against Vince Neil and Mötley Crüe, claiming he was hit in the back of the head after Vince hurled a cowbell off the front of the stage while he was working at the band’s Fort Wayne Memorial Coliseum concert on March 21st. The suit claims $25,000 in battery damages for personal injuries sustained including concussion, bruising, swelling and continual headaches, as well as punitive damages to be determined at a jury trial. He also claims medical expenses and loss of income.

27/4/90
Mötley Crüe plays their first of five east coast Australian shows at the National Tennis Centre in Melbourne, before the tour heads to Japan. Nikki asks Doug Thaler about progress on his poetry book and begins berating him for not making a deal happen. Thaler only has a few sheets of old lyrics and feels it’s not enough to take around to publishers anyway. While in Australia, Vince takes a side-step on his sobriety path.

5/90
A second printing of Revolutionary Comics Inc.’s publication called Rock’n’roll Comic - Mötley Crüe is released with a revised cover. This printing comes about after Mötley Crüe’s licensing company, Great Southern, takes legal action against Revolutionary Comics Inc. following the first printing of the comic book released last October. The lawsuit is settled and the comic company turns over 15,000 remaining stock copies that were burned. The door opens for this second printing to be published when Mötley Crüe switch licensing companies.

8/5/90
Mötley plays their first Dr. Feelgood show in Japan at Osaka’s Jo-Hall. Tommy’s parents and wife Heather spend time with him in Japan, while Vince brings his golf clubs along and spends time on some Japanese courses. This time it’s Nikki who breaks his sobriety.

16/5/90
After the final third sold-out night at the Budokan in Tokyo to end the Japanese tour, a bachelor party for Nikki is held at a Tokyo disco. Two female strippers are invited as special guests. Nikki is engaged to marry his girlfriend Brandi Brandt. Mick Mars and Mötley backup singer Emi Canyn are also now engaged to be married.

19/5/90
MTV debuts their Rockumentary on Mötley Crüe, promoted with a campaign titled Thë Nïght öf ä Thöusänd Ümläuts. Following its premiere, they play an hour of Crüe videos then Tommy and Vince host a 4-hour Decade of Metal Marathon on MTV Headbanger's Ball with Riki Rachtman.

20/5/90
Nikki Sixx marries Brandi Brandt in Hawaii. After being the October ‘87 Playboy playmate, she also graced the cover of the August ‘89 and March ‘90 issues. The band takes a break from touring for a couple of weeks while in Hawaii. Tommy goes with Vince to a strip club on the island and downs a tray of glowing test tube shooters with Girls, Girls, Girls playing over the sound system, as he also breaks his sobriety. The next day in the band dressing room, Tommy confesses to Mick and Nikki that he regretfully got drunk at a club the night before, while Vince doesn’t say a word about him being drunk there as well.

28/5/90
The Don’t Go Away Mad single is released and has Rattlesnake Shake on Side B; two songs written together on the same day late in October 1988. It reaches #19 in sixteen weeks on the Billboard charts. The video for the single is once again directed by Blanche White and produced by Sharon Oreck. It shows Vince leaving New York City to join his band-mates in Los Angeles for rehearsal. Nikki and Tommy shave the sides of their heads, which starts a hairstyle trend that bands like Metallica follow. After the video shoot, Vince takes Sebastian Bach to Newark Airport in his limo to show him the band's private Dr. Feelgood Lear Jet. On the way to the airport, they trade leather tour jackets, with Sebastian getting Vince's that he wore in the video shoot.

30/5/90
The Adventures of Ford Fairlane debuts at movie theatres and stars Vince Neil. Randy Castillo acts as the drummer in Vince’s band, Black Plague.

Vince really wants to have a baby with Sharise, since his ex-wife Beth has limited his contact with their daughter Little Beth (Elizabeth) since she split from him.

6/90
In Toronto, Canada, Mötley is presented with triple-Platinum awards for sales of Dr. Feelgood, as they are also inducted into Skyplace’s Walk of Fame.

mid ‘90
Vince captains the Rockers softball team as part of the T.J. Martell Charity Rock’n’roll Weekend in Los Angeles, which raises more than $200,000 for cancer, leukemia and AIDS research.

6/8/90
The Dr. Feelgood tour comes to an end in Arizona. Mötley Crüe has played to over two million people in fourteen countries during the last twelve months. The tour cost $325,000 a week to keep running, and each band member walks away with over $8 million clean after commissions.

Tour Manager, Rich Fischer puts together an offshore boat racing team with Vince Neil to occupy them now that the tour is over.

20/8/90
With the continued success of Dr. Feelgood, Same Ol’ Situation is released as a single just eight days away from the anniversary of the album’s release, making it to #78 on the charts over nine weeks. If Time For Change was chosen as the B-side, every song on the album (except the less than one minute intro track) would have seen itself included on a single. Wild Side is chosen instead. Time For Change features producer Bob Rock on bass, with Nikki on organ and piano.

The Same Ol’ Situation video was shot live during the two-day outdoor Stars and Guitars concert at Alpine Valley Music Theatre in Wisconsin and Pine Knob Music Theatre in Detroit, Michigan. Vince swings a camera over the crowd on a bungee rope, while a camera mounted in a clear beach ball is tossed around the crowd, capturing interesting angles of footage. The video sees the Crüe return to the expert direction of Wayne Isham again. The helicopter featured in the video that the Crüe land in is the exact one that crashes near East Troy, Wisconsin on the 27th August killing guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan and four others. Vince takes an interest in helicopters and begins flying lessons.

6/9/90
Don’t Go Away Mad is performed live on the MTV Awards. This marks the first time that the Crüe plays a song live on TV.

10/9/90
Nikki attends an AA meeting and ends up leading it. He meets Steve Perry from Journey, actor Rob Lowe and, best of all, Harry Nilsson, who recently moved into a Hidden Hills home near him.

19/9/90
Mick marries Crüe back-up singer Emi Canyn, who also has her own band called She-Rock. It’s his second marriage.

13/11/90
The 31-minute home-video called Dr. Feelgood - The Videos is released, featuring all the promotional video clips from the band’s number one album. Further interview footage is included on the tape, directed by Jean Pellerin and produced by Ben Whittaker for The Foundry.

12/90
The Crüe begins working on material for a Best Of style compilation album titled Decade of Decadence, due for release in June next year to celebrate ten years together. Nikki now has a sixteen-track studio installed in his 15,000 square foot home that is full of white marble, which he dubs his Scarface Mansion. Outside, there is a forty-by-forty-foot custom-built tiled pool in the shape of a vagina, with hot tub and in-pool bar. It’s said to cost forty-thousand dollars per month for upkeep of the home and seperate Chauffeur residence.

On with the show