Chronological Crue - The History of Motley Crue in 2002

4/1/02
Nikki Sixx begins his new year by getting a vasectomy and thus ending the chances of any more Sixx kids.

11/1/02
Vince Neil presents the Female Performer of the Year Award with Dasha and Julia Ann at the 2002 Adult Video News Awards ceremony held at the Venetian Grand Ballroom in Las Vegas. Czech beauty Nikita Denise is announced the winner.

15/1/02
Tommy Lee confirms the title to his next album due for release on May 21 this year through MCA Records will be called Never A Dull Moment; an obvious reference to his personal life. Recent rumours suggest the upcoming Methods of Mayhem album will not be released under that name but instead under the name of Tommy Lee himself.

Responding to rumours, Nikki’s wife Donna confirms that Mötley’s replacement drummer, Samantha Maloney of Hole, was one of her husband’s many infidelities during the band’s summer 2000 Maximum Rock tour.

16/1/02
Tommy’s girlfriend Mayté Garcia makes a guest appearance at the end of the track Ashamed on his forthcoming album. The song also features a forty-piece orchestra recorded in A&M Studios, as well as Chino from the Deftones singing the second verse. Tommy is also assisting Mayté with the recording of her own songs, which are likely to surface at the end of the year.

23/1/02
As they tour behind their All Killer No Filler album, Canadian punk rockers Sum 41 are joined on stage by Tommy during their Los Angeles concert at the Hollywood Palladium.

31/1/02
Nikki plays bass on a song called Into The Black on the new solo album from former Southgang and Marvelous 3 front-man Butch Walker; the singer’s first under his new deal with Arista Records. Nikki also says the paperback version of The Dirt is coming out in April and a DVD Greatest Hits package is being readied for a mid-year release. Nikki now has stars tattooed across the knuckles on his fists by visiting Japanese tattoo artist Miyazo.

1/2/02
Hold Me Down is chosen as the first single to be released from Tommy’s upcoming solo record. The single is likely to hit radio next month.

3/2/02
Mötley Crüe is set to have a song included on the soundtrack of the movie Spun, featuring actor Mickey Rourke. Other artists appearing on the soundtrack due for release later in the year include SilverGinger 5, Ozzy Osbourne and former Smashing Pumpkin Billy Corgan.

8/2/02
As a birthday present, Vince’s girlfriend Lia takes him to the Playboy bunny ranch and takes pictures of him with all the different girls he makes out with.

15/2/02
Actress Ursula Karven and television producer James Veres file a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court accusing Tommy of failing to provide proper supervision of their four-year-old Daniel Veres, who drowned in Tommy’s swimming pool during his son’s birthday party ten months ago. The lawsuit charges Tommy with general negligence, negligent supervision, wrongful death and premises liability, which would hold Tommy responsible for whatever happens on his property. They are seeking reimbursement for medical care, funeral expenses, loss of earnings as a result of the incident, and punitive damages for their pain and suffering. Tommy has thirty days in which to file a response.

21/2/02
James Michael says Nikki plays some bass on his new album nearing completion, as well as producing a couple of tracks on it. James co-penned many songs on Mötley Crüe’s last album New Tattoo and he has been writing with Nikki quite a bit recently.

25/2/02
Tommy holds auditions for a new guitar player in his touring band. Methods of Mayhem drummer Stephen Perkins assists with the auditions but he is to be replaced, as he will be writing and recording with his old band Jane’s Addiction. Marty O’Brien is still the bass player. John Corabi auditions but doesn’t get the role as they pick a guy J3 from New Jersey, who is a friend of Tommy’s production manager. J3 sent Tommy two CDs of him doing three Methods of Mayhem songs and three new ones that he totally re-recorded, performing drums, guitar and vocals on them. Tommy was very impressed by the work that went into it, showing how much he wanted the gig.

26/2/02
Tommy auditions drummers and chooses former Stuck Mojo and Skrape drummer Will Hunt from Florida, who will replace Stephen Perkins as his touring drummer. Bassist Marty O’Brien knew Will from Skrape and suggested he should audition. Tommy says he chose Will after he hit a cymbal hard with two hands during the audition. The self-titled Mötley Crüe album is his favourite drumming album of all time.

1/3/02
Nikki writes a song at his home studio called Going Under with Tantric vocalist Hugo Ferreira. The song may end up on a Tantric release following their demo being laid down. Meanwhile James Michael and Nikki continue to work together on songs.

7/3/02
A Malibu judge rules that Tommy no longer needs supervised probation, following his assault on former wife Pamela Anderson four years ago and his subsequent jail time. He still must complete more than two hundred hours of community service.

9/3/02
Tommy and Vince participate in the world’s only rock’n’roll golf tournament called Fairway to Heaven, which teams stars of music and golf as they drive for show and putt for dough. The two-day eighth annual tournament, held on the challenging Blue Monster course at The Doral Golf Resort & Spa in Miami, benefits the VH1 Save the Music Foundation. Other musicians to participate include Alice Cooper, Bon Jovi’s Tico Torres, Meat Loaf, Backstreet Boys’ AJ McLean and Brian Littrell, Hootie & The Blowfish, Poison’s Bret Michaels, Queensryche’s Geoff Tate and Michael Wilton, Judd Nelson, Dweezil Zappa, and Lisa Loeb.

A few weeks ago, Vince was reportedly having lunch at a private club in Beverly Hills when Tommy came in with a friend who was a member. It was a total surprise to both of them and they ended up shaking hands and talking for a while, with Vince later remarking that he had not really talked to Tommy in a year or two.

14/3/02
Nikki says he hears that Tantric’s label Maverick Records loves the song he recently wrote with their singer Hugo and the track may make their next album. The song he wrote for Meat Loaf will be a single, as will the track he wrote for Overseer with Coal Chamber. He says he also sent a song off to Aerosmith the other day for their consideration, and says offers to do another record with his side project band 58 keep pouring in.

Tommy put a copy of his new Never A Dull Moment CD in Nikki’s letterbox during the week, of which Nikki says it is a great rock CD. Tommy is also set to make a cameo appearance in Moby’s new video for the first single We Are All Made of Stars from his new album titled 18, set for release in May.

15/3/02
Responding to a false news report, Nikki confirms he was not shot dead outside a Los Angeles recording studio.

20/3/02
Pamela Anderson says she has contracted the potentially fatal liver disease Hepatitis C by sharing a tattoo needle with her former husband Tommy, saying he never disclosed to her that he carried the disease during their marriage. Many people view the statement as another ploy in her child custody battle with Tommy, who is said to have been tested negative for the disease. Hepatitis C, the most serious form of Hepatitis, is a virus contracted primarily through the sharing of contaminated intravenous needles that ultimately leads to liver failure and death in twenty percent of cases. Up to forty six percent of Hepatitis patients can be successfully treated with recent advances in medication administered for the disease.

The backstabbing escalates when Pamela files a report with the Malibu sheriff’s department, claiming one of her sons started exposing himself at home after watching his father do it. The District Attorney refuses to press charges for lack of evidence of her child abuse and child molestation allegations against Tommy.

Meanwhile, the first single Hold Me Down from Tommy’s Never A Dull Moment starts gaining radio airplay.

24/3/02
Nikki says Mötley is on track to come back swinging from their hiatus in the summer of 2003. He says he will play bass on the Heidi Crisis album this week, the band of his recent song-writing partner-in-crime James Michael.

26/3/02
At 8:30pm Randy Castillo passes away in his sleep at his Los Angeles home from a form of cancer called squamous cell carcinoma. After being diagnosed in May 2000, Randy worked through aggressive radiation treatment and chemotherapy and appeared to have beaten the disease. While working with ex-Alice in Chains and Ozzy Osbourne bassist Mike Inez on a new band, his neck suddenly became sore and swollen about six weeks ago. Ten days ago, he was re-admitted into Cedars-Sinai Hospital, before being sent home yesterday. Randy is survived by his mother and four sisters, and will be sadly missed and fondly remembered forever.

29/3/02
Tommy completes the shooting of a video for the first single Hold Me Down off his forthcoming solo CD at a movie studio in Hollywood with director Dean Karr, whose previous work includes videos by Filter, Ozzy Osbourne, Deftones and Godsmack. The video is scheduled for completion by mid-April and features Tommy sky-high, flying a balloon through a forest with a troop of floaters from Cirque de Soleil.

30/3/02
The memorial service of drummer Randy Castillo is held in the Old North Church at Forest Lawn Mortuary in Hollywood Hills, California. Nikki and Vince are among Randy’s many musician friends in attendance. Nikki puts his skull ring in Randy’s casket, as they both had the same ring but it wasn’t on Randy’s finger.

3/4/02
Tommy kicks off a week-long promotional tour of radio stations to promote his upcoming Never A Dull Moment album and first single Hold Me Down, which is moving up into the Top 10 on rock radio charts. He wrote the song on his OzzFest tour bus with his Methods of Mayhem guitarist Kai, after feeling trapped by having to constantly report his movements to his probation officer and believing these types of feelings have a universal theme. While Tommy covers three cities per day, his band continues to rehearse without him in a Burbank studio, where Dwight Yoakim occupies the neighbouring room.

4/4/02
Tommy says on radio that he said to Nikki that he should join him on stage when he plays in Los Angeles on his forthcoming tour. He also says John has played him some of his solo tunes over the phone and they are great – very Beatles-esque. Tommy’s new album, which he has poured a year of his life into, will be dedicated to his father who recently passed away. Former wife Heather Locklear called him recently to see how he’s doing in regard Pamela Anderson’s Hepatitis C claims and said she was sorry he’s going through such rough treatment from her. Tommy works out five days a week and recently underwent a full 3D body scan and physical a couple of months ago that proved his clean bill of health. He is still completing his community service requirements by planting trees in the Hollywood and Santa Monica hills with an organisation called The Tree People. Tommy also says he would love to see his favourite actor Johnny Depp play his character in the Mötley Crüe movie based on their best-selling book The Dirt, after a deal has now been structured with MTV Films and Paramount films for its production.

Randy’s body is brought back to Albuquerque where a private service is held at Fitzgerald & Son Funeral Directors. The pallbearers of his rock/metal-look coffin are Paul Blazek, George Vento, Dave Martin, Brandon Wagner, Mike Inez, Phil Sousson, J.R. Sainz, Jeremy Carr and Whitey. Randy is interred in a wall, on the top and at the front behind a simple marble slab bearing his name and dates, in a very bright and airy chapel of the Mausoleum at Mt. Calvary Cemetery.

8/4/02
Tommy gives a gift to his new drummer Will Hunt: the drum set that he used to record and tour behind the self-titled Mötley Crüe album from 1994. Tommy also gives his bass player Marty O’Brien the gong-cymbal road case from the Shout at the Devil tour as a gift.

9/4/02
A petition is filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court by Tommy seeking primary physical custody of his two sons, stating ex-wife Pamela recently filed “frivolous” reports with the Department of Children and Family Services alleging “serious misconduct” by Tommy, triggered when his son Brandon accidentally “scraped his face on the side of the Jacuzzi while playing” with him, before happily continuing to play within five minutes. Tommy also contends that Pam is now trying to use this incident in a bid to exclude him from his children as well as delaying a custody evaluation.

18/4/02
Tommy says the intro by his two young sons Brandon and Dylan at the start of the song People So Strange came about when they visited him while his new album was being mixed at Lakehouse. When Chino from the Deftones heard the song Ashamed one night, he said he wanted to sing on it, so his second verse vocals were recorded. Similarly, Brandon and Mike from Incubus recorded their contribution to the track Blue after loving it the night they went to Tommy’s house for a beer while recording their Morning View album eight minutes away in Malibu. Tommy says his former Methods of Mayhem guitarist Kai has gone back to his old Canadian band Noise Therapy, after they secured a record deal. He also says that last he heard TiLo was working on some hip-hop music.

24/4/02
Nikki tells Chronological Crue that he is planning to get the original Crüe line-up back together for one last world tour next year or the year after. A super-group with him on bass could be possible when his Mötley days are over, at the suggestion of manager Allen Kovac.

29/4/02
A Memorial Benefit For Randy Castillo concert organised by Phil Soussan is held at the Key Club in West Hollywood with all proceeds from the sold-out event going to charity. Bernard Fowler, Richie Kotzen, Brian Tichy and Carmine Rojas kick off the night’s music before Phil Soussan, Steve Lukather, Kenny Aronoff and Simon Phillips play one of Randy’s favourite songs; a Jimi Hendrix tune. Other players include Ronnie Montrose with Chuck Wright, and members of Nickel Bag and Ball. Randy’s Azul band members also play, along with some of his friends from New Mexico who perform a Native American drum chant for Randy. Guns N’ Roses members Slash, Duff and Matt Sorum play a set with Joshua Todd and Keith Nelson from Buckcherry, before Steven Tyler from Aerosmith joins them for a rendition of Mama Kin, following some rapping from Cypress Hill’s Sen Dog on Paradise City. After videos of Randy form an emotional backdrop, a group drum session with all the drummers in attendance closes out the special evening. John is the only Mötley Crüe member, past or present, to be in attendance.

Nikki has been spending a lot of time in the recording studio, having just completed work on Faith Hill’s single for her upcoming fifth album Cry. He is now penning her a second song, as well as a single for her husband of six years Tim McGraw, before he commences working with the harder-edged Saliva on music for their sophomore effort on Universal Music. Nikki has also been working on a song called Beautiful Girl about his young daughter Frankie-Jean. He gives one of his signature series Gibson Blackbird bass guitars to Tommy’s bass player Marty O’Brien.

30/4/02
A Guns N’ Roses tribute album from Deadline Records is released featuring John singing Used To Love Her and Patience. The late Randy Castillo performed the drum tracks on all songs, while Kyle Kyle played bass. Tracii Guns and Gilby Clarke perform all guitar tracks.

2/5/02
Vince hosts the sixth annual Skylar Neil Memorial Golf Tournament at the Malibu Country Club. Porn star Jenna Jameson is amongst the guests while Internet sex queen Danni Ashe from Danni’s Hard Drive hosts the live auction.

Vince’s girlfriend Lia Gerardini joins him on the day. Adopted at birth and raised by an Italian family in Pleasanton, California, Lia was into Mötley during high school and had a poster of Vince on her wall. When she met Vince after his third divorce, he had filed for bankruptcy.

6/5/02
Tommy tells Canadian rock magazine BW&BK that Nikki has asked him to do a farewell tour but he says he can’t see that happening from his own creative level and because of his personal relationship with Vince, which is cordial to each other’s face but they really don’t like each other at all. Tommy is also annoyed with Nikki misleading fans and taking liberties by stating the Crüe will perform a farewell tour when he has not said that he will do it.

8/5/02
Mötley Crüe’s live DVD called Lewd, Crüed & Tattooed is certified Gold status having now sold over fifty thousand copies in the U.S. since its release almost ten months ago.

10/5/02
The teen comedy movie The New Guy premieres in cinemas and features a cameo appearance by Tommy. Other artists making cameos include Henry Rollins, Gene Simmons, Vanilla Ice and pro-skater Tony Hawk.

15/5/02
Tommy’s Never A Dull Moment CD is released in Japan with two bonus tracks: an instrumental Drum Jam, and the version of New Skin from his Methods of Mayhem album that was used for the video clip that does not feature the rapping of Kid Rock.

17/5/02
Vince kicks off his summer solo tour schedule after returning from holidays in Hawaii by performing in a very cold St. Louis with Tesla, Skid Row and Jackyl on the Rock Never Stops Tour. Vince’s thirty-minute-set contains none of his solo songs, instead comprising Mötley hits Kickstart My Heart, Knock ‘Em Dead Kid, Red Hot, Piece Of Your Action, Girls Girls Girls, Same Ol’ Situation, Looks That Kill, Dr. Feelgood and Home Sweet Home. The twenty-one-thousand-seat capacity venue is only twelve percent full.

Nikki spends time at southern California’s beautiful Lake Arrowhead, composing with other songwriters from publishers Warner-Chappell.

18/5/02
Tommy posts a message on AOL telling fans that the large amount of recently-cancelled solo tour dates will be re-scheduled due to a new potential TV show in the works.

19/5/02
Tommy plays his first show in support of his new solo album in front of ten thousand people during the mid-afternoon at WAAF’s Big Field Day in Brockton, Massachusetts sharing the bill with Static X, Puddle of Mudd and Earshot. Godsmack front-man Sully Erna introduces Tommy on stage, telling the crowd he woke up at 4:30am to fly to Boston just so he could introduce Tommy to the fans of the radio station that helped break Godsmack. As the VH1 cameras tape his every move, Tommy’s half-hour-set comprises an even mix of songs from his Methods of Mayhem album as well as Never A Dull Moment. He tells the crowd from the stage that when he comes through Boston next time he will be playing some old Crüe music as part of his solo set list. The event marks the first live show with Tommy for his guitarist J3 and drummer Will Hunt. Tommy plans on playing prototypes of his Schecter signature guitar line at shows on the tour. The guitar will look similar to a Gibson Explorer with small strippers carved into the guitar’s neck.

20/5/02
On the Rockline radio show with VH1 filming him in the studio, Tommy says he loves the Crüe and misses them but he is having a great time now doing his own thing. He says Nikki is currently holidaying with wife Donna in Bora Bora, Tahiti while Tommy’s band has been working on a radically updated cover of Shout at the Devil to be included in their set list. While his spinning drum kit from the 1987-88 Girls, Girls, Girls tour was melted down so the aluminium framework could be recycled into other equipment, he does have a new trick up his sleeve that he could perform in larger arenas, financial and fan support permitting. For his upcoming tour he will perform a rhythmic-tribal solo while his girlfriend Mayté dances on stage, as well as playing golf during time-off as a customary form of relaxation. Tommy also says he would like to do another Methods of Mayhem album at some point with a huge amount of guest stars, simply as a creative free-for-all.

21/5/02
The second post-Crüe CD from Tommy Lee titled Never A Dull Moment is released on MCA Records. Co-produced by Tommy, he also performs guitars, vocals and drums on the songs, with the majority of the album containing drum loops and programming in verses but real drums in the choruses. Human beat-box Rahzel from The Roots contributes to the song Body Architects while Face To Face was written with several egotistical musical business people in mind. Tommy says he wrote the song Blue after feeling down when his father passed away the week of the New York September 11 tragedy. Gibson sent him a Chet Atkins guitar and he wrote the song in ten minutes with it. The album also features a modern cover version of David Bowie’s song Fame, which was originally penned by Bowie with John Lennon. The final track called Mr. Shitty is a message left on Tommy’s answering machine in the wee small hours by friend Travis when he was heavily intoxicated after flying in from Florida for Tommy’s birthday party.

22/5/02
Record producer Tom Werman files a lawsuit in the California Superior Court against the Crüe and their record company Beyond Music, saying they have “deliberately, persistently, and repeatedly breached” his agreement with the band by purposely withholding financial statements and monies owed to him for his work on the Shout at the Devil, Theatre of Pain, and Girls, Girls, Girls albums. He also seeks money he believes is owed from selected tracks off these albums that were included on the 1998 Greatest Hits release, as well as any film and TV-licensing deals involving his work. His suit seeks damages in excess of $400,000, plus interest, attorney’s fees, and court costs.

Tommy performs Hold Me Down live on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He also guests on the Loveline radio show on KROQ in Los Angeles and tells the story of how he smashed his $200,000 Ferrari Testerossa on Coldwater Canyon when he lost control in a wet patch on the road while rushing to merge in front of another car after leaving the studio two years ago and it has been in an auto body repair shop ever since. He also says he has been talking with networks about a new Tommy Lee reality TV show believed to be in the vein of The Osbournes, but he can’t say any more about it as the deal’s not done yet. This follows reports that former wife Pamela Anderson and her fiancé Kid Rock were negotiating for their own The Osbournes-style reality show with MTV. Fox News reports Tommy wants to call the show Never A Dull Moment and instead of being set in a house, it will follow him on the road, the hotel, the bus, the massage parlour; wherever he goes.

23/5/02
Vince becomes an uncle for the third time as his sister Valerie gives birth to Tyler James at 7:58am. He weighs 8lbs 14oz and measures 20.5” long. Val is married to Guy and has been a licensed daycare provider for the past couple of years to allow her to be with her young children as much as possible.

24/5/02
The June 4 edition of the National Enquirer hits news-stands containing an article titled ‘Playboy Playmate Tells All. My 10 Years of Abuse at Hands of Mötley Crüe Rocker.’ Vince’s former wife Heidi Mark alleges that Vince first started abusing her three months into their relationship and continued to pull her hair, slap her, and punch her at times over the course of their relationship, including one time when he hit her so hard he broke her breast implant. She also alleges that he got up from the table in a Beverly Hills restaurant once and side kicked her karate-style in the stomach for no reason. Heidi also says Vince cheated on her the day of the funeral of his young daughter Skylar in August 1995. Vince’s lawyer says the allegations are outrageous and defamatory, adding that Heidi is the abusive one with the bad temper and has frequently thrown many objects at Vince during their years together.

25/5/02
Nikki says he is in his creative song-writing zone again, which is right where he wants to be. In his desire to have downtime from Mötley, he feels he forgot he needed the creative outlet to feed his soul and has subsequently enjoyed the opportunity to compose with a lot of new writers lately. Next month he’ll be going to Nashville to write, along with Florida and Atlanta, and will also start a weekly writer’s jam season at his home studio. He says country star Tim McGraw is rumoured to be interested in recording a version of the Crüe classic Home Sweet Home.

29/5/02
Tommy’s Never A Dull Moment album debuts at number thirty nine on the Billboard chart with sales of 28,689 copies.

4/6/02
Vince joins Poison on stage at The Joint in the Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel. C.C. De Ville starts playing the opening riff to Live Wire before they break into the Kiss classic Rock N Roll All Nite. Vince alternates lead vocals during the verses with Bret Michaels and forgets some of the lines in the second verse, remembering to look at them on his hand too late. After Vince leaves the stage, CC plays the riff to Too Fast For Love to the crowd.

6/6/02
Nikki’s friend and former Ratt guitarist Robbinson (Robbin) Lance Crosby peacefully passes away at home in Hollywood, California at 11:15am, aged forty one. Paramedics on the scene give the preliminary cause of death as a heart attack. A year ago Robbin announced he had been suffering from full-blown AIDS after being diagnosed with the HIV virus back in 1994, blaming his condition on an old heroin habit. Nikki lived with Robbin during 1984 and they holidayed together later that year when Vince had his tragic car accident. He also taught Nikki how to use needles the previous year and was shooting heroin with Nikki the night he almost died from an overdose in 1987. Commenting on the loss Nikki says, “The rock’n’roll band in heaven is sure getting bad ass.”

11/6/02
Rolling Stone magazine reports that camera crews are set up in Tommy’s Malibu home and are filming his almost every move for a VH1 reality TV show in a similar vein to MTV’s show The Osbournes, which gained the highest rating on U.S. cable television ever last month as almost eight million viewers tuned in.

Nikki and Donna attend the west-coast launch party for the debut issue of Gene Simmons’ Tongue magazine at Barfly in Hollywood. Nikki says he has written a song called Let’s Get It Together for possible inclusion on the next Backstreet Boys album. Other partygoers include James Michael, Lit, Paul Stanley, Hugh Hefner and Playboy bunnies, Fran Drescher, Ron Jeremy, and Pamela Des Barres. Bruce Kulick also attends and says Nikki agreed to be in his book currently being penned. Bruce also says a DVD/VHS tape of his band Union with John is still being worked on and will definitely be out this year.

Artillery Music releases a compilation CD titled Wildside – Tribute to Mötley Crüe that contains new thuggish, aggressive cover versions of ten Mötley classics, including Kickstart My Heart by Hookers & 8 Balls featuring WASP members Mike Duda and Stet Howland. The album is dedicated to the memory of Randy Castillo.

17/6/02
As a guest on the syndicated Rockline radio show to help promote his summer solo concerts as part of the Rock Never Stops tour, a very intoxicated Vince is kicked off the air after not being able to string his sentences together from the strip bar in which he was being broadcast from.

19/6/02
During a radio interview in Kansas City, LA Guns guitarist Tracii Guns says he is collaborating with Nikki on an as-yet-undisclosed musical project.

29/6/02
Ten competition winners from around the U.S.A. fly on a private 757 airplane with Tommy from Los Angeles to Las Vegas for his concert at the House of Blues in the Mandalay Bay Casino. The winners also watch Tommy and his band sound-check in the afternoon prior to the show, which includes Tommy hitting the skins for a while.

30/6/02
Nikki says the U.S. version of Mötley Crüe’s box set is now being finalised and is currently called Addicted, with packaging taking on the shape of a huge pill bottle. He says he is finally building a home rehearsal and writing studio that he feels should be the start of some great jam sessions and song writing. He confirms he is thinking of starting a new band as it doesn’t look like the rest of the original Mötley members are going to be on stage together anytime soon, but warns it is not the demise of Mötley Crüe. Nikki says he has been hanging out with Mick Mars a lot recently and says he is doing much better and feels it is grossly exaggerated how ill he is.

3/7/02
The personal manager for Vince has filed a breach of contract lawsuit against the group’s management firm Left Bank, suing over a dispute with his Mötley Crüe earnings.

4/7/02
Tommy plays a set at the eleven-day Summerfest in Milwaukee. Former Alice in Chains guitarist and now solo artist Jerry Cantrell invites Tommy to play Man in the Box with him, much to the delight of the huge crowd. Tommy and his band then head back to the stage they are about to play on. Right as they are about to begin, Ted Nugent grabs a guitar and plays the National Anthem before introducing Tommy and his band to the crowd. Tommy now wears a white zoot suit with a red hat, looking like a pimp, while performing Fame 02 on stage during the tour.

7/7/02
Vince plans on recording a forthcoming as yet un-announced show at The Whisky A Go-Go in Hollywood for a live CD and DVD release.

9/7/02
Former Marvelous 3 front-man Butch Walker releases his first solo album titled Left of Self-Centered on Arista Records, which features Nikki playing bass on the track Into The Black. Butch also uses umlauts on the album cover logo as a tip of the hat to Mötley Crüe.

10/7/02
Schecter announces plans to debut the new Tommy Lee Artist Model guitar with stripper girl inlay at the Summer NAMM Show in Nashville. VH1 recently filmed Tommy seeing his design for the first time at Schecter’s new Burbank facility, which will be shown on the forthcoming reality TV show called Tommy Lee Road Show.

11/7/02
Nikki will soon collaborate with Drowning Pool and Orgy on new songs. The song Let’s Get It Together that he wrote for possible inclusion on the next Backstreet Boys album was turned down by the teen-pop outfit who felt it wasn’t quite right for them. His contribution to the new Saliva album in the form of Rest in Pieces is expected to be included on their forthcoming album currently being recorded.

John has formed a new band called Zen Lunatic with Bulletboys drummer Jimmy D’Anda on drums and Revel 8 bass player Steve Bruno on bass. The trio has been writing and recording “in-your-face, kick-ass, rock’n’roll” at Klown Records in Santa Monica, California that is owned by Bruno. Their debut is expected to be recorded by the end of the year. Nickelback manager John Greenberg is reportedly on board for the ride.

16/7/02
Nikki and wife Donna D’Errico announce they are developing a new television sitcom called The Blonde and The Rock Star, which they plan to produce in conjunction with veteran executive producers Mark Sennett and Alan Jacobs. Centered around a divorced rock god with two kids who falls in love with a beautiful, blonde single mum who happens to be the judge presiding over his court case, Nikki says the show’s concept is loosely based on their own lives, having found a lot of humour in situations arising from having an oddly-blended family, coupled with dealings within their respective careers and the stereotypes that go along with them.. The show clearly illustrates the concept of ‘opposites attract’ when the two fall in love despite the fact all they have in common is that they are both single parents. A series of hilarious events takes place when the couple’s opposite worlds collide.

25/7/02
Vince has his performance at The Whisky A Go-Go on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip recorded for a future DVD and live CD release.

The New York Post reports that Tommy and girlfriend Mayté have emailed some of their friends to say they are engaged, however Tommy’s publicist Beth Katz denies it and says, “They are wonderfully in love, living together and have a wonderful relationship. They are working on Mayté’s new album and will perform in New York next Tuesday at The World.”

29/7/02
While on a family vacation in Kona, Hawaii before taking his kids to see the volcanic lava flow, Nikki says he watched and enjoyed the VH1 special on Mötley Crüe’s early days called Driven that premiered last week. Nikki will head to Chicago after his holiday for the first Tattoo the Earth event of the year, of which he is a part-owner.

31/7/02
Basketball superstar Dennis Rodman joins Vince on stage during Looks That Kill at his Anaheim concert, and helps out on the chorus before dropping his mike. He then picks Vince up in a bear hug and curls him like weights during the last song Dr. Feelgood.

1/8/02
A leftover track from Tommy’s Never A Dull Moment recording sessions called Orgasm Nation is set to be included in the documentary film Strip Notes, in which actress Daryl Hannah went underground for a month and danced in wigs and actually lived the life of a stripper for thirty days for her role. Another of Tommy’s unreleased tracks will be used in the forthcoming Pauly Shore movie You’ll Never Wiez In This Town Again, in which Tommy also makes a cameo appearance.

2/8/02
Tommy confirms he is engaged to Mayté Garcia but says he’s not going to rush into marriage this time, unlike his previous four-day courtship before marrying Pamela Anderson. Mayté, a Puerto Rican and former wife of Prince, currently dances on stage with Tommy touring in support of Never A Dull Moment. She also performed an impromptu routine on a table top at a Welcome To New York party at club Lotus last week attended by former Crüe manager Doc McGhee, Creed members, Sebastian Bach and former MTV VJ Jesse Camp.

4/8/02
Nikki is billed as a Special Guest at the Tattoo the Earth event in Chicago over the weekend where he signs autographs and chats with fans while promoting JVC products. Nikki is a part-owner of the touring event.

7/8/02
A warrant for Vince’s arrest on misdemeanour battery charges is issued by police in Beverly Hills, stemming from an incident just after midnight on April 28 this year involving forty-seven-year-old record producer Michael Schuman, who accuses Vince of taunting him outside the Rainbow in West Hollywood and then punching him numerous times in the face, knocking him to the ground so hard that his elbow was fractured. Schuman’s spokeswoman quotes witnesses as saying Vince got out of his red Rolls Royce sedan and assaulted Schuman without provocation, and Schuman does not know Vince professionally or personally. Vince’s management issues a statement saying, “Vince Neil has fully cooperated with the L.A. County investigators. We believe that the charges against him are ridiculous and that he will be fully exonerated.” If convicted, he would face a maximum of six months in jail and a $2,000 fine. Schuman’s attorney says there was a delay in prosecuting the case because Vince no longer lives in the area and detectives were unable to locate him.

13/8/02
Tommy attends the Los Angeles County Courthouse for a further custody hearing resulting from his divorce to Pamela Anderson. Tommy requests through his lawyer Lance Spiegel to have the media barred from the courtroom to “protect his children’s feelings.” Tommy and Pam don’t exchange even a single glance at each other during the hearing, before Pam is whisked out of court through a back entrance and Tommy refuses to make any comment outside the courtroom.

14/8/02
Nikki’s forthcoming song-writing collaboration with fast-rising Dallas quintet Drowning Pool is now unlikely to proceed, as the band’s singer Dave Williams is found dead on his band’s OzzFest tour bus. Nikki meanwhile confirms that Mötley Crüe has now officially signed a deal to turn its autobiography The Dirt into a film. He says he would like Brad Pitt to play his character, while his wife Donna D’Errico laughs.

The second single from Tommy’s Never A Dull Moment album will be Ashamed.

15/8/02
On the seventh anniversary on his young daughter’s passing, Vince walks off stage less than ten minutes into his performance at Levelz nightclub in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. After playing a couple of Mötley songs he becomes irate when the crowd of around two hundred and fifty don’t sing the lyrics to one of his solo songs, so he calls the crowd a bunch of losers amongst other obscenities before leaving in his tour bus. The club offers a refund of the $25 ticket price and the club manager says he may lose money on the show, since it cost $12,000 to hire Vince.

17/8/02
Tommy’s bassist Marty O’Brien says they will join the main stage line-up of OzzFest in a few days in Denver to play the final shows of that tour. They will then fly out to play various rock radio festivals during September before hopefully starting a new leg of a headlining tour in October. The OzzFest slot will be as a replacement for Drowning Pool.

23/8/02
Vince’s manager Burt Stein says Vince will return to the Steamboat Springs nightclub Levelz for another performance, after walking off stage last week when someone apparently threw something on stage. Stein says Vince felt threatened and left after performing about three songs.

27/8/02
The bands touring on the Metal Edge Rock Fest tour travel through Columbus, Ohio where they take time out to see the Rock Never Stops concert at Promowest Pavilion. This gives former Mötley front-man and current Ratt guitarist John Corabi the opportunity to catch up with his fellow Union band-mates, since they are Vince’s current rhythm section. John also makes a point of catching up with Vince before the show and is escorted onto his tour bus where they hug and chat for around twenty minutes.

29/8/02
The anticipated VH1 reality show on Tommy is dropped, with two one-hour specials set to air at some point in time instead. Whilst no official reason is provided, it seems the recent influx of celebrity reality shows on TV like The Osbournes was the main factor behind the decision.

31/8/02
Tommy plays OzzFest in San Bernardino, California in front of a sold-out crowd of fifty thousand – by far the biggest audience of the circuit every year. Nikki watches Tommy’s set from the side of the main stage with wife Donna and says, “He was really good. His band is awesome. I’m proud of him.” They all hang out at the huge End of OzzFest Party after the concert where the bands, crew and guests indulge in food and drinks all night in a giant tent with a DJ, lighting, and strippers dancing over two stages.

3/9/02
Nikki says he has recently been knee-deep in getting all the T’s crossed and I’s dotted with Paramount Pictures and MTV Films for the upcoming Mötley Crüe movie, planned to be released in late-2003 or early-2004 along with a soundtrack CD and a Mötley farewell tour, assuming all goes well.

Nikki says his new band is a cross between Shout at the Devil-era Crüe, Appetite for Destruction-era Guns N’ Roses, Soundgarden and Jane’s Addiction. Joining Nikki on bass is Tracii Guns from LA Guns on guitar, Adema drummer Kris Kohls, an un-named second guitarist, and a South Carolinian named London LeGrand on lead vocals, who Nikki says is one of the best singers he’s ever heard, comparing his sound to a prodigy of Ian Gillian and old-school Axl Rose. He also sees the irony in the fact his band before Mötley was called London. Nikki has been finishing demos at his home studio with London as preparation to start rehearsals with his new band in three weeks when Tracii and Kris return from their current tours. He has also started training and boxing again, foreseeing some local Californian live shows ahead for his new band in a few months.

Nikki has also entered into a partnership with Dragonfly Clothing for his own line featuring his tattoos as the artwork basis on button-up styled shirts. The line is called N.SIXX and was unveiled to trade buyers last week at The Magic Show in Las Vegas.

8/9/02
Tommy plays the final OzzFest show in Dallas, the hometown of recently deceased Drowning Pool singer Dave Williams, whose mother comes on board the tour bus to tell Tommy and his band that if there was anyone out there that Dave would want to take over his OzzFest slot it would be Tommy since he was a huge Mötley Crüe fan. Home Sweet Home was played at his funeral.

As his new single Ashamed gets radio airplay, the band has secured eight forthcoming dates in support of Aerosmith. Tommy says he will start working on his own biographical book soon as well.

9/9/02
Tracii Guns says he has been writing and recording new songs everyday on his tour bus for his new band with Nikki, called Cockstar. The previously un-named second guitarist is current LA Guns bassist Adam Hamilton, who will also handle keyboard duties as the band prepares to start rehearsing in a week’s time in Hollywood.

12/9/02
Music producer Michael Shuman files a $1 million lawsuit in the Los Angeles Superior Court against Vince for battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligence, following an alleged fight at the Rainbow Bar & Grill in Los Angeles shortly after midnight on April 28 that resulted in a fractured elbow and damage to Shuman’s mouth and teeth. The lawsuit also names the Rainbow and its owner Mario Maglieri as defendants.

18/9/02
Cockstar rehearses together for the first time with a day of getting to know each other, by working on a couple of new songs and some Crüe songs. John joins on guitar them for a jam. Tracii Guns says he sounded great and they will be checking out a few other guitar players over the next few weeks, while Adam Hamilton helps out until the band secures a permanent second guitarist.

22/9/02
Nikki says Cockstar put together six new songs during their rehearsals last week and he felt the same kind of magic he felt when Mötley first rehearsed back in 1981. He says John filled-in nicely with his relentless sarcasm, smoking cigarettes, voice from hell, ideas for days, and nothing but sheer cool on rhythm guitar.

23/9/02
VH1 premieres Tommy Lee: The Naked Truth, which features footage of an uncomfortable meeting of Tommy and Vince in Las Vegas earlier this year.

26/9/02
Cockstar prepares to start recording six new songs next week, titled I Got A Gun (And Nothing To Say), You’ll Only Get So Far, Dogs Of Hollywood, Set The Fire, Smell’s A Revolution and Natural Born Killers. Nikki says the band has had two offers from major labels already but they are a bit gun-shy of majors, since they want the right company to win them over. John is set to play guitar and sing backing vocals on the recording. Earlier in the day, Nikki filmed a guest host appearance on a VH1 show called Graveside Groupies, centered on people who collect items from dead rock stars.

27/9/02
Vince’s lawyer Sara Kaplan enters a not guilty plea for him at the Beverly Hills courthouse for his misdemeanor battery charge following an alleged attack on a record producer Michael Schuman outside the Rainbow. A pre-trial hearing is set for November 19.

Vince is also set to be a cast member of the upcoming Warner Bros reality series called The Surreal Life, along with rapper MC Hammer, Emmanuel Lewis of the 1980s sitcom Webster, Mindy Cohn from The Facts of Life, and former Baywatch babe and Playboy Miss April 2000 Brande Roderick. The show, produced by Brass Ring Productions and Mindless Entertainment, will follow the notorious pop culture figures as they move into a San Fernando Valley house for two weeks and have their lives taped round-the-clock to produce six episodes set to air mid-season.

29/9/02
After attending a Playboy party at the Palms the night before, Vince queues in one of two lines of airline passengers going through the security checkpoint at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas at about 6am. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that he jumped over to the speedier line and separated a couple who appeared to be in their seventies. When the elderly man tried to move past him in an effort to catch up to his wife ahead, Vince shoved him toward his wife. On board the Dallas-bound American Airlines 7am flight, Vince sipped on a cocktail in first class before takeoff.

1/10/02
The lawyers for Tommy and his ex-wife Pamela tell Superior Court Judge Lee Smalley Edmon that the couple are close to an agreement on custody of their two sons. Tommy’s lawyer Lance Spiegel says the agreement will probably be signed by next Monday, as the judge warns that if the deal isn’t completed by then, she will declare a mistrial.

2/10/02
John will record lead vocals on the track It’s Just My Life on the forthcoming Bruce Kulick solo release, currently with the working title of Transformer. Another former Union member and current Vince Neil drummer Brent Fitz will perform all drumming duties on the twelve tracks.

After much industry speculation, Robbie Williams and EMI Records announce a groundbreaking record deal. Robbie wears a Shout at the Devil-era Mötley Crüe t-shirt during the press conference in London announcing the $80 million deal, arguably the biggest deal in music history. Robbie has sold over twenty million albums worldwide to date, including nearly ten million albums in the U.K. alone where each of his previous releases have charted at number one.

3/10/02
Celebrating his fortieth birthday, Tommy says he and former wife Pamela have now settled on a fifty-fifty joint custody agreement of their two sons Brandon and Dylan, after Pamela filed for full custody last year.

Later in the evening, Mayté throws a surprise fortieth birthday party for Tommy in the Japanese Garden of Truth at his Malibu mansion. Transformed into an outdoor sushi restaurant, she leads a blind-folded Tommy into the area before they dine with his closest friends on sushi alongside his koi pond, as he has dreamt of doing for a long time.

4/10/02
Cockstar changes its name to Motordog as Nikki says too many industry outlets were very uncomfortable with the name and they didn’t want any roadblocks to the music. Fans can look forward to some music being available to hear online soon as the band will be finished in the studio in a few days.

5/10/02
Tracii Guns says this is by far the best music and band he has ever been in, as Motordog finishes recording the vocals on one song yesterday. He feels the new name Motordog is not as cool as Cockstar and they are considering Motordevil as well, both names he came up with. He says Nikki really likes the names Motordog and Motordevil and the band have everything it takes to get media, including MTV airplay.

Vince and girlfriend Lia attend the Joe & Gavin Maloof’s Celebrity Roast event at the Palms Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Vince is scheduled to perform at the same venue in a week where Wayne Newton is rumoured to join Vince on stage as a special guest.

8/10/02
Tommy spends time in Illinois filming an episode of the new VH1 Rock the House show, hosted by former Top of the Pops host Lisa Snowdon. The new weekly half-hour VH1 reality series sees some of America’s biggest music fans receiving the shock of their lives and getting to live inside the ultimate music collectible; a room redecorated by their favourite artist. The unsuspecting fan Brent Claudin not only has a surprise visit by Tommy, but he receives a fantasy makeover of his room by Tommy with his own signature style. Tommy gives Brent many gifts, including a guitar, drum kit, all kinds of autographs, pictures, an amp, a Starbucks espresso machine, a new leather couch, a Sony CD player, a Sony Plasma Flatscreen TV, and even some jewellery out of his pierced nipple.

10/10/02
As they have a photo shoot for a forthcoming cover and fifteen-page layout in Japan’s Burrn magazine, Nikki says his new band has finally decided on Brides of Destruction for their name, suggested by his Crüehead friend Dano.

Stemming from his conviction on spousal abuse charges, Tommy proposes a tour of U.S. military bases around the world to Superior Court Judge Lawrence Mira during a probation hearing. Such a tour could see him released from probation prior to his May 2003 expiration date, and it may also satisfy his remaining two hundred and thirty seven hours of community service. Tommy is scheduled to return to court for a hearing on April 10 next year, when the judge will have the option to release him from probation.

11/10/02
Tommy is set to play his first show in Korea later this month and will stay in the country for a few days following, as the Pentagon has set up a meet-and-greet with him for the U.S. troops stationed in the region.

Brides of Destruction is set to finish two more songs this coming week having now completed mixing the tracks I’ve Got A Gun and Natural Born Killers. Nikki says things are quiet on the Mötley front for now, but Mick is also getting some musicians together to start jamming with as well.

14/10/02
Vince plays a concert to radio station-invited guests-only at the Rain nightclub within the Palms Hotel/Casino in Las Vegas. Former Guns N’ Roses member Gilby Clarke kicks off the night with his solo band and is joined by original Gunners drummer Steven Adler on the Bob Dylan classic Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door. Robin Leach from Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous then takes the stage to rev up the crowd and introduce Vince. Towards the end of Vince’s set, Quiet Riot vocalist Kevin DuBrow joins the stage, along with venue owner George Maloof and Gilby’s band, for some cover versions of classics from Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones. During Girls, Girls, Girls a bunch of very scantily-clad women come on stage and flash, ass-spank and simulate oral sex to further entertain the crowd.

15/10/02
Tommy and Caroline Murphy present the Model Of The Year Award to Karolina Kurkova at the VH1/ Vogue Fashion Awards 2002 at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

21/10/02
Nikki says Tracii Guns and Steve Bruno mastered the four Brides of Destruction songs last night, that were recently made available to fans as an online download sample, as they prepare to meet with record labels soon. He also says that his wife’s spa business has changed its name to ZENSPA and is now set to open on November 15.

Vince and six celebrities move into a house in the Hollywood Hills for ten days as production begins on the new Warner Bros half-hour comedy/reality series The Surreal Life. Action is set to take place in the house and on trips to various locations around Southern California. While the roommates can come and go as they please, they’ll be required to interact with each other, share bedrooms and bathrooms, do household chores, go grocery shopping, and prepare meals together. Their real-life drama will be captured on camera during an around-the-clock shooting schedule. A six-episode order for the series is confirmed.

23/10/02
MCA Records and Tommy Lee part company following completion of his contract for two album releases. MCA is said to be disappointed with the sales performance of his recent Never A Dull Moment CD, which has sold fewer than one hundred and forty thousand copies in the U.S. Tommy is said to be shopping around for a new record deal.

26/10/02
Tommy performs at the Eerie Taiji People Festival (ETP-FEST 2002) at the Jamsil Olympic Stadium in Seoul, South Korea. The concert is recorded for a broadcast on Korean television, and Tommy’s bassist Marty O’Brien says it was probably the coolest show he has ever played and he has never seen so many people jumping up and down at the same time in his life. Others on the bill include Skrape (featuring Tommy Lee’s drummer Will Hunt) and Diablo.

29/10/02
The soundtrack to the video game Grand Theft Auto Vice City is released and features Mötley Crüe’s Too Young To Fall In Love on the Volume 1 V-Rock CD, which is also part of a box set representing all the radio stations in the game itself.

31/10/02
Brides of Destruction replaces drummer Kris Kohls with Scot Coogan, formerly of the bands Ednaswap, Otep, and Antenna, as well as having played with Paul Gilbert and Sinéad O’Connor. Kohls has decided to focus on his band Adema who are preparing to release their second album. Scot doesn’t show up on the first day of rehearsals.

2/11/02
In the wee hours of the morning as melodies run through his head, Nikki says he rehearsed all last week with Brides of Destruction as they got to know new drummer Scot. He says the forthcoming week is all about more songs as they start taking up meetings with record labels and meeting producers later in the week. Nikki also says the band’s logo has been designed by No Fear’s Erik Castillas, who also drew the caricature on Mötley’s Greatest Hits album.

4/11/02
Tommy celebrates the wild thirty-third birthday of Puff Daddy. He flies with Mayté, Scott Humphrey and hundreds of other guests on two chartered 747 jets. The four-day party begins on the flight and they touch down ten hours later in Morocco, before going to a hotel in a bunch of Mercedes limos. They spend time at a lake riding camels, Jet Skis, four-wheelers and horses, while another day they go to a huge open-air market where Tommy’s finger gets bitten by a monkey.

10/11/02
Vince participates as a celebrity musician at the Rock n’ Roll Fantasy Camp over five days and four nights in Los Angeles. Other celebrity participants include Nils Lofgren of the E Street Band, Mark Rivera and Liberty Devitto of Billy Joel’s band, Tommy Shaw of Styx, Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad, Carmine Appice, George Thorogood, Bret Michaels of Poison, Jack Blades, Eric Burdon and Sheila E.

12/11/02
Saliva’s second album Back Into Your System is released. Produced by Bob Marlette who produced the last Union album, the hard rocking album includes the track Rest in Pieces written by Nikki and James Michael.

19/11/02
A tribute DVD to late Drowning Pool front-man Dave Williams titled Sinema is released through Wind-Up Records. Sinema includes rare performance footage of Drowning Pool performing a cover of Mötley Crüe’s Shout at the Devil as well as an appearance by Vince and many other metal stars.

21/11/02
Nikki has been using a five-string Warwick bass for his recording with Brides of Destruction. He says there’s talk of Warwick making him a Gibson Thunderbird shape in a five-string and an iron cross bass as well.

30/11/02
There is progression in the wrongful death and negligence lawsuit filed against Tommy, by the parents of the young boy who drowned during his son Brandon’s fifth birthday party. A court-ordered mediation that was to begin at the end of this month has reportedly fallen through, clearing the way for the lawsuit to proceed to trial phase. Superior Court Judge Richard Neidorf decides that the case should be heard before a jury, setting a trial date of April 2. Actress Ursula Karven and television producer James Veres claim that Tommy failed to provide proper supervision for their four-year-old son Daniel and are demanding at least one million dollars from him as reimbursement for medical care, funeral expenses, loss of earnings as a result of the incident, and punitive damages for their pain and suffering. Tommy’s attorney Philip Weiss says the parents knew the conditions that existed at Tommy’s home for their child who had no swimming experience. The parents did not sue the nanny or the babysitter who oversaw the care of the child that day and Weiss says the parents’ effort to seek monetary recovery under the circumstances is inappropriate and unwarranted.

1/12/02
Vince will be the special guest judge on Playboy TV’s Night Calls 411 at The Hedonism exotic adult resort. Playboy playmates Crystal Knight and Kitana Baker along with porn star Tera Patrick will be searching for the Valentine Vixen of 2003. The event is to be aired on Valentines Day on Playboy TV.

3/12/02
Rumours of a Mötley Crüe reunion for one last farewell tour next year before putting the band to rest have recently started to gain momentum. Negotiations are said to be in the early stages, with no plans for the band to record a new studio album.

9/12/02
Brides of Destruction announces their first live performances will be two Californian shows in support of Mudvayne and Taproot this weekend. As a last-minute addition to the bill, the band will play a thirty-minute set to start the concert.

Vince’s pre-trial motions hearing at the Beverly Hills Superior Court for the misdemeanor battery charge against him is postponed until Boxing Day, at which point a trial date is expected to be set.

11/12/02
U.S. District judge Dean Pregerson orders the Seattle-based Internet Entertainment Group to pay Tommy and his ex-wife Pamela US$741,000 in damages as their share of profits, after the company sold their stolen 1996 honeymoon sexual escapades home-video on video cassette and DVD, which went on to become one of the most-sold sex videos worldwide. A previous court hearing ruled that they had lost the right to try to ban publication of the video as they had spoken explicitly about it on radio. The now-divorced couple started legal action in 1998 seeking damages for invasion of privacy and copyright breaches and there have already been a number of settlements in the case.

Vince attends the Hard Rock Hotel’s Billboard awards after-party along with members of Creed, Toby Keith, and the X girls of the Aladdin’s topless revue.

13/12/02
Tommy attends the opening party of the world’s largest strip club, the seventy-one-thousand-square-foot Sapphire Gentlemen’s Club in Las Vegas, with his fiancée Mayté. The $30 million complex boasts four stages, marble bathrooms, lavish decor, a steakhouse and up to eight hundred strippers on busy nights. Others in attendance include Dave Navarro and fiancée Carmen Electra, Puddle Of Mudd’s Wes Scantlin, Slash, Billy Duffy from The Cult, Nico, and Rachael Hunter.

14/12/02
Brides of Destruction, featuring Nikki and John, plays their first-ever show at the Ventura Theater, Ventura in support of Mudvayne and Taproot. They include versions of Mötley’s Shout at the Devil and Live Wire to end their entertaining thirty-minute set that kicked off with a version of the LA Guns song Hellraiser’s Ball, then three new songs I Don’t Care, Right Before You Crack and Brace Yourself. Nikki says the songs they first demoed and sampled to fans don’t really fit as well with the new ones.

15/12/02
The Los Angeles Times reports Tommy has put his Malibu home up for sale as he and fiancée Mayté want to buy a house together in the Los Angeles area. Tommy bought the house in 1995 and it has since seen many ups and downs including having an infamous video tape stolen during renovations, the recording of his music in the home studio, his arrest for spousal abuse, and the accidental drowning in his pool. The house was built in 1991 on nearly two and a half acres behind gates, has six bedrooms and four bathrooms in about 7,400 square feet. There is also a media room, a three-car garage and an elevator. It is listed for the purchase price of $3 million.

16/12/02
David Weeks, the lawyer who represented Tommy and Pamela in their sex-tape lawsuit against Internet Entertainment Group, calls the recent ruling granting them a total of $1,481,786 amounting to the profit on sales of the tape, as only a moral victory. They are unlikely to collect any money at all from the ruling as the President and Founder of IEG, Seth Warshavsky, is reportedly on the run in Thailand, avoiding angry creditors and federal investigators who want to speak with him.

18/12/02
Nikki says the first Brides of Destruction show went really well and by their third song there was a mosh pit that grew and grew. They videoed the show and may release a couple of clips online for fans. The band will now take a break until January 3 when they’ll demo more new songs before playing seven to ten shows later in the month and early in February. They then plan to record an album live off-the-floor rather than having it polished too much in the studio.

31/12/02
Vince performs at Jaguar’s Strip Club in Las Vegas with Slaughter’s Jeff Blando on guitar and Alan Vine from Impotent Sea Snakes on bass, reportedly due to him falling out with Brent Woods and Jamie Hunting. Original Guns N’ Roses drummer Steven Adler joins Vince and Kevin DuBrow from Quiet Riot on stage to close out the set with versions of Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love and ZZ Top’s Tush. Reports soon surface that Vince punched his fiancée Lia Gerardini in the face in front of many people before evading police by leaving the venue through a back door. Lia is said to have punched Vince in the face with a closed fist first as he came off stage, after local strippers were hanging off him during his performance, much to her anger. The couple was reportedly very wasted.

Earlier in the day Allen Kovac files an arbitration lawsuit in the Los Angeles Superior Court alleging that his business partner Jeffrey Sydney, President, COO, CFO, Secretary, Counsel, and part-owner of Left Bank Records and Left Bank Management, manipulated and defrauded him by using the businesses’ governing agreements to engage in numerous fraudulent activities, including inflating the label’s profitability in an unsuccessful sales bid to BMG, voiding a distribution deal with Universal Music and Video Distribution, and maintaining excessively-high overhead costs. The suit also says Sydney’s actions were an attempt to “avoid community property implications” in a separate divorce action with his wife. Kovac is seeking undetermined damages and claims losses of more than $7 million. Both Left Bank Records (Beyond Music) and Left Bank Management went into receivership days earlier with all staff being made redundant, but being invited to join a new company being started by Kovac. As a result of the closure, the band itself now owns the Mötley Crüe catalog.

Tommy spends New Years Eve at home with his boys, his sister Athena and her children, and Mayté and her parents. After they eat dinner and it approaches midnight, having the consent of her father, Tommy asks Mayté to marry him. She is thrilled.

On with the show