Chronological Crue - The History of Motley Crue in 1992

1/92
Mötley Crüe's Home Sweet Home ‘91 Remix enters the U.K. charts at #27 while a possible European tour for February or March is touted, dependent on the success of the single. Elektra tells Mötley their upcoming U.S. Summer tour will be the biggest on the circuit, which is the last thing the road-weary Crüe really wants to hear.

early '92
A Decade of Decadence home-video is released containing promo clips spanning the Crüe’s career, along with interviews and backstage footage. No different version of Primal Scream with naked women is included, nor is a video clip for Angela as previously conceptualised by Nikki Sixx.

Mötley works with computer programmer Tim Byers to develop a CD-Rom project titled Digital Decadence. The application’s interface is broken down by each album to give users quick access to viewing song video clips. It also includes virtual backstage passes to the show, so fans can watch from behind the scenes. A distributor is not sourced and the project terminates, remaining unreleased.

Mötley is sued for the second time by a fan claiming to have suffered hearing loss after attending a Crüe concert. Twenty-five-year-old Clifford Goldberg of New York says the band and promoter were negligent in failing to monitor sound levels during the show and he sues for seven million dollars to recompense his hearing loss.

8/2/92
Vince Neil celebrates his birthday at The Roxy. He spends time with actor Robert Patrick, best known for his role in Terminator 2, and they talk with a girl named Lenay before Vince's wife Sharise hits him in the nose with a glass. Vince and Sharise are ejected from the club after Vince slashes the manager in the face with a bottle he smashes during the wild brawl that ensues. The club owners consider pressing drunk and disorderly or vandalism charges against him.

11/2/92
Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee and Mick Mars drive for over two hours through one of the worst flash-flood storms Los Angeles has seen this century – so bad that Governor Pete Wilson declared a state of emergency and urged everyone to remain indoors. They wait over four hours for Vince to also arrive at rehearsals before they have new tour manager Mike Amato send a fax to Vince at his Simi Valley home, since his phone line only gives the busy signal when they try to reach him. The longer they wait, the more irate they become.

Vince calls the studio and argues with Nikki, not really wanting to attend due to the weather. As they wait for him to come to the studio, someone says they saw him out, drunk with a girl at three in the morning. Upon Vince's arrival, they tell him during an argument that they are thinking of getting a new lead singer. Vince says the new album is stupid and disapproves of keyboards being used, before storming out of the studio, feeling he has been fired. Nikki feels he quit the band, and the point remains an interesting debate for many years. The pressures of non-stop album recording and touring has worn the band down and certainly fuelled the split.

12/2/92
Tommy, Mick and band management attend a meeting at Nikki’s house. The band is discouraged from getting rid of their vocalist, bearing the status of their new $25 million record deal in mind. A unanimous vote seals Vince’s fate and he is out of the band after Tommy and Nikki have grown too tired of his behaviour. Manager Doug Thaler reluctantly calls Vince and tells him the rest of the band doesn’t want him around and he’s not to speak with any of them.

14/2/92
There’s no love lost this Valentine’s Day as Mötley issues an official statement on Vince’s departure stating, “Race car driving has become a priority in Neil’s life, and he’s dedicated much of his time and energy to it. The Crüe’s relationship to Vince began to deteriorate because his band-mates felt he didn’t share their determination and passion for music. Vince was the only Crüe member who didn’t regularly participate in the song writing process.”

Lead singer of The Scream, John Corabi, reads a Spin magazine interview with Nikki who says he has been listening to and loving their debut album. John calls the office of Mötley manager Doug Thaler intending to thank Nikki for the plug. He is also keen to have Nikki write some songs with him for The Scream’s sophomore album. John doesn’t speak with Doug, as ironically, he is on the phone with Nikki who is asking to get in touch with John. 

Ten minutes later as John is about to leave his home for the final show of The Scream’s tour with Dangerous Toys, Nikki and Tommy call him from Nikki’s car phone in confidence. Nikki tells him about Vince’s departure and asks him to audition after the weekend, to which John agrees.

John features as the rhythm guitarist in Sass Jordan's current video for her song Make You a Believer, along with Kelly Nichols from LA Guns.

15/2/92
Vince goes to Hawaii with porn star Savannah, where they stay up for four days straight on pills, alcohol, heroin and cocaine at the Maui Hilton before she has convulsions after overdosing. An ambulance is called and she goes to hospital. By the time Vince arrives at the hospital, Savannah is released, so they return to the Hilton and find their bags are at the front desk. After being kicked out, they check in to the Four Seasons Maui and continue partying.

17/2/92
John Corabi meets the Crüe at a Burbank studio to audition. Being largely unfamiliar with Mötley’s music having not owned a Crüe album, John is also aware of the difference in voices between him and Vince Neil. He tells a receptive Nikki on the phone the previous night that he doesn’t really want to sing Girls, Girls, Girls. As he enters the studio, the band is jamming on the Jimi Hendrix song Angel. They begin the audition by playing the cover songs in the Crüe’s repertoire: Helter Skelter first, followed by Jailhouse Rock and Smokin’ In The Boys Room. After giving John lyric sheets they jam on Dr. Feelgood and Don’t Go Away Mad. John feels comfortable that he gets along well with the members and notices Tommy instantly likes the heavier sound, due to Corabi’s deeper voice. John is asked back the following day to jam with them again.

18/2/92
Kik Tracee front-man Stephen Shareaux jams with Mötley, before John Corabi auditions with Mötley again, this time in front of Doug Thaler, Chuck Shapiro and band lawyer David Rudich. When the management team leaves, Tommy and John are keen to jam on some other songs. John asks if he can use one of Mick’s guitars before they start jamming on Jazz Gillum’s blues classic Reefer Head Woman, which Aerosmith covered on their Night in the Ruts album. They are impressed that John can play so well and love the fuller sound it gives them. John then shows them a riff he came up with back when he was in Angora and they start turning it into a song that becomes Hammered. They then work on an acoustic piece that soon becomes the introduction in Misunderstood. John sings some of Nikki’s new lyrics for a song called Loveshine before going to the bathroom. On his return, Tommy tells John that he is the new front-man for Mötley Crüe, while Nikki says he has to remain quiet about it until legal issues are dealt with. John has never seen the Crüe live in concert before but celebrates once he arrives home by drinking two bottles of Dom Perignon with four friends and his wife, after they have them chilled on anticipation of the news.

19/2/92
After rumours circulate that his excessive drinking caused the split, Vince issues a statement saying he didn’t like the musical direction for the new album. “I wasn’t fired for drinking and I didn’t leave the band to pursue auto-racing, although it’s been a hobby of mine for the past seven years. But it’s never interfered with my music. Music has always been top priority in my life. It is true, however, that I didn’t share the same enthusiasm for the band’s new musical direction.” Vince is yet to drive in his first professional auto race.

On his return from Hawaii, Vince checks himself into the Tucson rehab clinic he has previously attended, where Savannah sends him a different pornographic picture of herself every day until Vince is caught with them. When Vince gets out of rehab, he finds Savannah is dating someone else. He leaves wife Sharise and daughter Sklyar and moves to Las Vegas, where he lives on the third hole at the Desert Inn Country Club for a short while.

The Crüe sends John and his wife Valerie two crystal vases with two dozen roses to welcome them into the Mötley family. Mick often calls John by his surname, Corabi. This soon morphs into Crab, which sticks as his new nickname.

2/3/92
Mötley Crüe's first manager Allan Coffman dies at 48 years of age, succumbing to a brain tumour that medical professionals deemed inoperable. He is buried in Greenwood Memorial Cemetery in Grass Valley, California.

3/92
With no official word publicly on who the new Mötley lead singer will be, those rumoured to fit the bill include John Corabi, Marq Torien of the Bulletboys, David Lee Roth, and Ratt’s Stephen Pearcy. More than twenty years later, Sebastian Bach of Skid Row says he was asked to join the band, but declined.

After hooking up with a new manager Bruce Bird, Vince writes the song You’re Invited, But Your Friend Can’t Come with Jack Blades and Tommy Shaw from Damn Yankees in twenty minutes, for the Disney Organisation’s movie Encino Man. Michael Cartellone plays drums on the track that is recorded at Rumbo Recorders and The Record Plant. With the assistance of his attorney, Vince signs a $4 million record deal with Warner Brothers, with a $2 million advance. He also lives in the Hollywood Hills home of Brat Pack actor and sex symbol Rob Lowe, after befriending him at the weekly sobriety for celebrities meetings that they attend. Lowe has recently split from his wife Sheryl Berkoff after a video-taped sex scandal with a sixteen-year-old girl in his Paris hotel room in 1989 hits the tabloids. Vince and Rob spend many nights on the town together, picking up rock groupies at the Rainbow and actresses at huge film parties.

29/3/92
Vince races in the celebrity race as a lead up to the Australian Indy Car Grand Prix. Vince and his co-driver Bruno Lucarelli are put out of the Ford Celebrity Challenge when another car swipes Vince’s tail end, shoving him into a concrete barrier.

5/4/92
Vince makes his professional auto racing debut in the first of twelve races in the 1992 Firestone Indy Lights Championship season, held at Phoenix International Raceway in Arizona. For P.I.G. Racing, he starts in grid position fourteen and finishes the race twelfth at the end of the seventy-five-mile race. Coached by his Irish teammate Tommy Byrne, Vince has also been taking lessons from famous racing drivers Al Unser Jr. and Michael Andretti, as he works towards his long-term goal of racing in the Indy 500.

5/92
You’re Invited, But Your Friend Can’t Come is released by Vince, backed with another song from the Encino Man soundtrack by T-Ride called Luxury Cruiser. Vince and his solo band perform the song live on the MTV Movie Awards.

7/92
John continues writing and rehearsing with the Crüe five days a week at Audible Sound in Burbank, although nothing is official yet. He brings a song called Driftaway to the Mötley table, which he had previously written when he was in The Scream. While the band works on and contributes to all songs in their own ways, John and Nikki work together on every lyric. They plan to have the new album titled ‘Til Death Do Us Part finished by the end of the year, ready to match a release from Vince.

One night all the Mötley Crüe band members go to Sunset Strip Tattoo and get some new tattoos saying ‘Til Death Do Us Part. Tommy gets his around the bottom of his leg above his ankle by Mike, Mick gets his on his left upper arm by Kobo, while Nikki and John have it tattooed on the back of their left upper legs with 92 after it by Eric Blair. Greg James from Sunset Strip Tattoo designs an amazing album cover image depicting a death tarot card that is not used for the final cover, or any other purpose.

Vince moves out of Rob Lowe’s house and into the Bel Age Hotel on North San Vicente Boulevard, West Hollywood, where he also stores his three Ferraris, Harley Davidson and Rolls Royce. Along with some friends, he buys into the up-market Bar One up the road from his hotel, which houses a five-star restaurant, a bar and dance floor. Here he meets and dines with many Hollywood celebrities, including Sylvester Stallone and Christie Turlington. He soon dates star of Beverley Hills 90210, Shannen Doherty.

8/92
Vince wants his friend and former Cinderella drummer Fred Coury to work with him but he is busy with his band Arcade, also featuring Stephen Pearcy from Ratt. Billy Idol hears Vince is looking for a guitarist and mentions it to his former axe man Steve Stevens, who gets in touch with Vince through their mutual friend, clothing designer Ray Brown. After the demise of the Atomic Playboys, Stevens is now recording in Jerusalem Slim with former Hanoi Rocks vocalist Mike Monroe. Issues soon come to a head with Monroe and Stevens leaves him to join Vince; the second time Mike Monroe’s band has split up because of Vince. Vince then enters the Record Plant studios, with renowned Bad Company and The Baby’s producer Ron Nevison at the helm.

On rhythm guitar in the Vince Neil Band is long-time Crüe fan and bassist of nine years Robbie Crane, who came on the recommendation from Vince’s brother-in-law Gary Ruddell. Born and raised in Hollywood, twenty-four-year-old Robbie first saw the Crüe in concert at the Starwood when he sneaked out of his parents’ home when he was thirteen. His dad owns a tyre shop and his mum is a housewife. Most of his family plays instruments but Robbie is the only one who pursues it professionally. He was Bobby Dall’s bass tech on Poison’s Look What the Cat Dragged In tour, and he was a boom-mike operator on porn movies. His previous bands include New Haven with Tim Kelly of Slaughter, Tuff with whom he did some demos, and he rehearsed briefly with Lynch Mob. The first time he plays guitar in a band, or on stage with a band, is during the video shoot for the You’re Invited But Your Friend Can’t Come video clip. Kris Lord plays lead guitar in the clip.

Phil Soussan plays bass for the Vince Neil Band having previously been Ozzy Osbourne’s bassist during 1986 and 1987. Former Mötley back-up singer Donna McDaniel helps out with additional background vocals.

21/8/92
Nikki spends some time in Jamaica where he smokes lots of pot and drinks magic mushroom tea as the rest of the band works on guitar tracks. Sobriety challenges him again.

9/92
Former Enuff Z’Nuff drummer Vikki Foxx officially joins the Vince Neil Band after guesting in the video for You’re Invited, But Your Friend Can’t Come, followed by a live performance with them at the MTV Movie Awards earlier in the year. Raised in Brookfield, Illinois, he once played in a Chicago band with Life, Sex & Death’s front-man Stanley. Vikki records his drum tracks for the upcoming album in seven days. While laying down the drum tracks in the studio, Vince's manager Bruce Bird dies suddenly from a brain aneurism. A mutual friend in Burt Stein offers to help out until Vince finds a new manager, but continues on after they bond.

John is set upon by three Mexicans on his way home from the store to get milk. They steal the jewellery from his neck after hitting him in the back of his head with a gun and stabbing him multiple times in his back and hand with a screwdriver. Mötley loans John and Valerie money to move from their one-bedroom house in a dangerous neighbourhood to the safer suburb of Thousand Oaks. They also give him a brand new Harley Davidson so the band can all ride together. With John spending more time with the other Mötley members, his relationship with wife Valerie deteriorates, made harder by their five-year-old son Ian Karac Corabi being diagnosed with diabetes.

4/9/92
Vince's former girlfriend Leah Graham, whom he was dating when Mötley Crüe formed, dies after being stabbed to death in Covina. The thirty-eight-year-old suffers cardiac arrest brought on by her sixty-six stab wounds, allegedly inflicted as a result of a drug deal gone bad. Her six-year-old son and fifteen-year-old daughter then live with Leah's parents in Colorado.

27/9/92
John Corabi signs a contract to legally become a member of Mötley Crüe. He is to receive $300,000 for work on the forthcoming album, $5,000 per week plus all expenses paid whilst on tour, and $2,000 per week at other times. He is also to receive twenty five percent of the publishers’ and writers’ share of all songs composed whilst he is in the band. The contract states that new negotiations are to be drawn up following his first tour with the band.

10/92
Vince issues a lawsuit against Mötley seeking five million dollars in damages and twenty five percent of profits from all future albums, as well as his re-instatement into the band. Vince purchases the licensing rights to Hawaiian Tropic swimwear, adding it to his Xposure swimwear label that he reportedly designs, distributes and manufactures.

Mick helps his wife Emi Canyn form her own band called Alice ‘N Thunderland. He buys them Marshall stacks, cabinets for bass player Mitch Laney, a new kit for drummer Jeff Dennis, a flying V guitar for Chet Thompson, as well as studio time. Mick also buys a beach condo in Marina del Ray that Emi moves into. John moves into the guest house of Mick’s home as he separates from wife Valerie.

11/92
Bob Rock flies down to Los Angeles to meet with the band at Tommy’s house to discuss their ideas for the new album. Upon arrival, he is horrified to see Tommy and Nikki under the weather after a night of binging on cocaine, alcohol and pot. Rock informs rehab specialist Bob Timmons of the incident, which turns out to be another one-off occurrence. Nikki and Tommy commit to sobriety again as the band tries to match the success of Dr. Feelgood by heading to Vancouver to commence recording the new album with Bob.

13/11/92
A Sega Genesis pinball game called Crüeball is released with three Mötley tracks featured on it in midi format: Home Sweet Home, Dr. Feelgood and Live Wire. It also features Allister Fiend on the cover and throughout the game’s bonus levels.

5/12/92
While in Canada, the Crüe has a two-hour photo shoot at the Ross Bay Cemetery in Victoria. Photos from the session are used to generate further interest in the band through rock magazine articles.

12/92
In their efforts to stay sober and healthy, the Mötley band members not only stay away from drugs and alcohol, but red meat, cigarettes and caffeine as well. They take vitamin pills and work out with a trainer in the mornings.

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