Chronological Crue - The History of Motley Crue in 2005

1/1/05
Following their impressive performance on The Tonight Show on New Year’s Eve, Mötley Crüe issues a press release saying that after the initial twenty five tour dates were announced at their Los Angeles press conference on December 6, fans in markets where dates had yet to be announced took to the Internet with ‘Bring The Crüe’ campaigns. Thousands of fans, using online petitions and the support of local radio stations, pleaded with Mötley Crüe to bring their show to them. At last count, campaigns had been launched in over thirty cities in North America. According to Billboard magazine, 2004 was the touring industry’s worst year in history. Despite that, Mötley is seeing great success as it is now number one on Pollstar’s Top 50 Tours list, proving the Crüe is the hottest ticket around. Allen Kovac, CEO of Tenth Street Entertainment – Mötley Crüe’s management company – says, “As soon as the initial tickets went on sale for the tour, we got offers for seventy more cities… but we can only schedule twenty five North American shows because of our European schedule, so Mötley Crüe has let the fans decide where they are going.”

VH1 unveils their first New Year, New You transformation on New Year’s Day with the premiere of Remaking – a series of specials dedicated to improving the careers and lives of artists through various forms of transformation. Mötley Crüe front-man Vince Neil is the first artist that ‘faces the music’ on VH1’s Remaking: Vince Neil. The hour-long special shows footage of Vince undergoing a facelift, working out with a personal trainer and most importantly, kicking his drinking habit. Following his physical transformation, Vince then teams up with some of the music industry’s top producers to record a new single Promise Me. Vince’s nine-and-a-half hours in the hands of his plastic surgeon Dr. Frank Ryan last year included a brow-lift, upper-lower eyes, partial face-lift, cheek implants, nose job, and jaw-line sculpturing.

Meanwhile Tracii Guns says Brides of Destruction has acquired a new black-haired, tattooed bassist who is one hundred percent approved by the current band members and Nikki Sixx. The band will start rehearsals in two days before commencing recording on February 1 for a June release. Two Californian live shows on March 2 and 3 are set and the band expects to hit the road as soon as the record is released or shortly before.

2/1/05
Prior to their reunion press conference a month ago, the four members of Mötley Crüe were interviewed by Metal Edge magazine for a cover story about their upcoming reunion tour. Tommy Lee told the magazine it was strange when the four original members finally met in a room together again, and seeing Mick Mars was really freaking him out. “We’re all supporting him, and we’re all being buds, but it looks painful. I don’t know what to say. It’s quite a shocker, actually.” Mick says his excruciatingly painful Ankylosing Spondylitis disease has now gone up to his brain stem and into his throat. He has one vocal cord working and the other is dead, with a team of doctors trying to figure out how to get it back so he can have a full voice again. “It gets to your hands, it gets in your elbows, it gets in your knees, any place there are joints. It starts in the hips, and that’s why I had the one replaced and need to do another one. It has nothing to do with age – you could be seventeen or eighteen years old and have it, and what happens is, they need to cut it out, or it goes through your whole body. It’s really rough for me being out on the road, it’s rough keeping up with the schedule. It’s rough enough for a healthy guy, but I weigh a hundred and twelve pounds and I’m not fully recovered yet, and I’ve done all this stuff already that’s really wearing me down faster than I can heal.” When asked why he thinks Mötley Crüe is getting back together right now, Mick says, “Greed. Not on my part. And I won’t say on everyone else’s part, but there is greed around me. There’s greed in everything, though, not just this. It’s everywhere.” Tommy says he didn’t play on the band’s cover version of The Rolling Stones’ Street Fighting Man, thinking Josh Freese from A Perfect Circle did. He says he did play on If I Die Tomorrow, another track called Liar, and Sick Love Song, which was his preference for the band’s first single.

4/1/05
Vince chats online with fans at MSN and says the set-list will be the hits but they’re going to do a lot of old, very obscure stuff that hasn’t really been heard before like Too Fast For Love. While the band is currently focused on the tour, Vince says if they all decide to put out another album at the end of the tour dates, then they will, but they are just taking it piece by piece and not making any promises. If a band member decides not to continue, then that will be it, but if they all decide to keep going then hopefully there will be another full-length album. The band is reviewing the first scripts for the Mötley movie that they received a couple of weeks ago, and Vince expects the movie will probably be out sometime in 2006.

The Federal Communications Commission has received complaints about Mötley Crüe’s use of profanity just after midnight during their New Year’s Eve appearance on The Tonight Show and is beginning a preliminary probe, but it’s likely little will come of it. In a ruling issued last March, the FCC said the F-word should never be used on over-the-air radio or television programs when it’s likely children will be listening. The ruling does not apply to the hours between 10pm and 6am, generally considered a ‘safe harbour’ for rougher language and the commission has said that it will take complaints about language in those hours on a case-by-case basis. A spokeswoman for the Crüe says it was an off-the-cuff remark and not done intentionally to test broadcast rules. It seems unlikely the NBC network will face any financial fallout from the slip-up.

5/1/05
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that Vince and his fiancée Lia Gerardini were spotted getting tattoos at Hart & Huntington Tattoo Parlour at the Palms in Las Vegas ahead of their marriage this Sunday.

7/1/05
As the current featured artist on Sessions@AOL, four Mötley Crüe tracks performed exclusively for AOL on December 15 last year are broadcast live over the Internet. A band interview is also made available, along with If I Die Tomorrow, Dr. Feelgood, Wild Side, and Girls, Girls, Girls.

9/1/05
Vince marries Lia Gerardini at the Four Seasons hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. The marriage is the fourth for Vince and the second for thirty-seven-year-old Lia. Rap star MC Hammer conducts the wedding ceremony, after he and Vince struck up a friendship during their participation in the first series of VH1 reality TV show The Surreal Life in 2002. Ordained as a minister last year, MC Hammer announces, “It’s Hammer time!” as he escorts Vince down the aisle in front of a celebrity crowd that includes Tommy, Nikki, Dennis Rodman, Playboy playmate Brande Roderick, Palms owner George Maloof, Baywatch co-creator Michael Berk, former Britney Spears manager Larry Rudolph, and Miami Dolphins quarterback Jay Fiedler. Vince’s personal manager Burt Stein stands-in as best man after his intended best man Randy Kubota was hospitalised with serious injuries when found in a drainage ditch after he left a party at Vince’s home two days ago. While details of the accident are still a mystery, he had apparently been pushed out of a car. Some ugly, drunken words exchanged at the wdding causes Vince to not be on speaking terms with his parents for at least five years. The newlyweds head to Miami, Florida for their honeymoon.

11/1/05
Participating in an online MSN Chat session, Nikki says that as they have been talking about what they want to do visually with the concerts, they’ve decided to nail it down to a two-hour set, with a different encore part of the show. He says, “People have always said that Mötley Crüe is a rock and roll circus in a dark, demented, and unhealthy way. So I guess you can say we’re taking the circus on the road.” When asked of the chances of hearing any songs off the band’s self-titled album with John Corabi, Nikki says it might be disrespectful to play any, even though they haven’t really talked about it. The band is excited at talk of capturing footage during the first leg of the tour for a future live DVD with the original line-up.

Former Jane’s Addiction and Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Dave Navarro records a guest appearance for the new Tommy Lee solo album with producer Scott Humphrey. Butch Walker collaborated with Tommy on a track titled Good Times while Andrew McMahon from Something Corporate guests on the track Hello Again. Tommy says everyone who hears it says, ‘That’s the one!’ He’s trying to complete the album for a release that coincides with the airing of his NBC reality show, to strategically capitalise on its anticipated ten-million viewership.

21/1/05
Jeff Zucker, president of the NBC Universal Television Group, tells a meeting of the Television Critics Association that Mötley Crüe will not appear on NBC again because of Vince’s use of an obscenity when wishing Tommy a happy New Year in the midst of performing Girls, Girls Girls on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

23/1/05
Commenting upon hearing a preview of Mötley Crüe’s new track Sick Love Song, Tracii Guns says, “I wasn’t sure if Mötley was puttin’ this song out or not. I haven’t really heard it yet. Nikki, James Michael and I wrote that song. I am surprised, because Tommy didn’t want me involved. Someone just actually emailed me and said that song was Tommy’s favorite out of the new songs (what a f@ckin’ weirdo).” Brides of Destruction announces that former Amen bassist Scott Sorry will replace Nikki in the band, and Ginger from The Wildhearts will join as a second guitarist. After his arrival from England today, Ginger will assist the rest of the group as they complete the song-writing process for their next album before entering the studio on February 1 to begin recording the new CD with titles including White Trash, White Horse, Blown Away, Dead Man’s Ruin, Brotherhood and Criminal.

24/1/05
Mötley Crüe Inc. authorises the formation of Red, White & Crüe Inc. this month, for the purpose of operating the band’s forthcoming touring activity. Nikki and Mick are shareholders in the company and control the entity. All four band members act as employees and/or agents of the entity, which controls touring revenue and accounts for costs and expenses.

As the Crüe’s rock’n’roll circus prepares to hit the road, Nikki says it’s so cool to be playing songs Mötley hasn’t played in years, and also never played live at all. He says rehearsals are sounding and looking really good, with the show at this point being bigger than that of the Dr. Feelgood tour. The lights are being programmed, the drum solo is being built, the freaks are hired and are working on their stunts, and the special pyro effects are being practiced. Nikki says it’s time to bring the freak show back to rock’n’roll and he, Vince, Tommy and Mick can’t wait to bring it to your town.

25/1/05
Tommy says he’ll be playing three drum kits on this tour – one main one that’s acoustic and electronic and two other drum sets that he cannot say what they are yet. He’s rehearsing with Mötley in the evening and working on finishing his solo album during the day. When asked who he would like to play his character in the forthcoming Mötley movie The Dirt, he says his preference would be Johnny Depp because he knows him and, “he’s a big music fan and he plays guitar and sings. Being so well-connected to music he’d do a great job, I just love that guy. He’d be my dream guy to play me.”

Meanwhile Korn is set to include their version of Mötley Crüe’s Shout at the Devil on their forthcoming covers album titled Korn Kovers, along with other covers of songs by Prince, Psychedelic Furs, Public Enemy, Faith No More, Nine Inch Nails, Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne.

29/1/05
John Corabi and Union perform their first show in over four years at the Kiss Japan Expo held at Takadanobaba Club Phase in Tokyo, Japan. With Eric Singer replacing Brent Fitz on drums, the two shows over two days are Union’s first-ever performances in Japan.

1/2/05
Mötley Crüe releases a new career-spanning greatest hits anthology titled Red, White & Crüe with three brand-new tracks, including the single If I Die Tomorrow, a cover of the Rolling Stones song Street Fighting Man, and Sick Love Song. The Japanese version includes the bonus track I’m A Liar (That’s The Truth).

Mick says he has been busy re-learning songs he hasn’t played in twenty years as the band rehearses their show and Circus de Soleil-style acrobats and fire-breathers practice. When asked who he would like to play his character in the movie of The Dirt he says Colin Farrell because he’s better looking.

Tommy has signed a contract with Zildjian and now plays their cymbals exclusively, using a mixture of As, Ks and Zs for the upcoming Mötley Crüe tour.

8/2/05
Robbie Mantooth files a lawsuit in a Los Angeles court, suing her former boyfriend Mick for $10 million in palimony, accusing him of reneging on a promise to take care of her for life. Mantooth says in the lawsuit that she met Mick in 1990 and the two became lovers. She says she gave up her career as a documentary filmmaker and moved into his Malibu home with him, after Mick promised her repeatedly that he would always provide for her financially and that the couple had agreed to divide all their property if they split up. Mantooth says Mick has denied there was any oral agreement between them and has given her no financial support since their relationship ended in December 2004, so she is now asking a judge to award her half of Mick’s property, as well as monthly support and damages.

9/2/05
According to data compiled by Nielsen SoundScan, Mötley Crüe’s two-CD ‘greatest hits’ collection Red, White & Crüe moved 90,305 units in the U.S.A. during its first week to debut at number six on the Billboard charts. However, Mötley Crüe storms the Canadian charts with Red, White & Crüe debuting at number two with sales of 11,800, just behind The Game’s The Documentary (11,900), which narrowly holds onto the top spot for a third-straight week.

Tommy’s upcoming solo album is said to also feature guest appearances by Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, Velvet Revolver’s Slash, Dave Navarro, members of Good Charlotte, and former Backstreet Boy Nick Carter. Tommy worked on a song called Making Me Crazy when he was dating Pink, but since getting back with her former boyfriend she refuses to work on the track further, or authorise use her original vocal track.

The coveted opening slot for each show on Mötley Crüe’s ‘Red, White, and Crüe 2005...Better Live Than Dead’ tour will be a twenty-minute animated movie called Disaster!, directed by Roy Wood who was part of the team behind MTV’s Celebrity Death Match. Hand-picked by Nikki, who knows the filmmakers; the claymation film features the band and is a parody of action films like Twister and Armageddon.

Nikki receives some good news when a Los Angeles Superior Court jury reaches a verdict in his favour and awards $600,000 for the commercial use of his likeness without his permission. The jury also awards interest, expert witness costs, and attorneys’ fees in the settlement, which will boost the judgement’s total award to approximately $1 million. With his wife accompanying him in court, Nikki took the stand in his case against Vans Inc., the sneaker and lifestyle company that owns a majority interest in the annual Vans Warped tour and was recently acquired by Greensboro-based Vanity Fair Corp. The jury found that photos of Nikki and pro-skater Tony Trujillo from a San Francisco Skater of the Year award ceremony organised by Thrasher magazine and sponsored by Vans, were used by the company without his permission as part of a national ad campaign for Trujillo’s signature shoe line. The photo appeared in eight mainstream publications, including Revolver, Maxim, Stuff, FHM, Blender and Alternative Press with the caption, “Live Fast, Die Young,” which bore a said resemblance to the title of Mötley Crüe’s first album Too Fast for Love. The image was also used for online advertising and for point-of-purchase retail displays at skate parks around the U.S. The lawsuit also noted Nikki had his own clothing line, N.Sixx by Dragonfly, targeting the same youth market as Vans. Nikki’s attorneys Caroline Mankey and Skip Miller of the L.A. firm of Christensen, Miller, Fink, Jacobs, Glaser, Weil and Shapiro LLP say, “This outcome will hopefully deter other large companies from trying to get away with appropriating artists’ images without securing proper permission and offering compensation.”

On the same day that Nikki makes his stand in court, Vince is forced to revisit his bitter divorce from his third wife Heidi Mark in the same Los Angeles courthouse.

14/2/05
Mötley Crüe plays a Valentine’s Day Red, White & Crüe tour warm-up show in Puerto Rico’s capital San Juan. Performing in front of the capacity eighteen-thousand-strong crowd with a scaled-down set and production, the band opens with Shout at the Devil ‘97 and rocks through many songs from the band’s first two albums early in the set. Once Nikki smashes his bass at the end of Kickstart My Heart, the band winds-up the show with an encore of Anarchy in the U.K. With the full-blown staging and other performers en-route to Fort Lauderdale, Florida for the opening show in three days, Tommy tells Launch that his traditional drum kit stunt during his solo will be fittingly outrageous, “I guess I can honestly say this is hands-down one of the most dangerous ones.”

17/2/05
The ‘Red, White & Crüe 2005...Better Live Than Dead’ tour officially kicks off at the Office Depot Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The original members play more than twenty songs over more than two hours, including On With The Show as the third song of the night, plus a medley of Glitter and Without You turning into Home Sweet Home. The stage is setup underneath a huge red and white-striped big top circus tent and throughout the show girls in leather g-strings fly around in the air across the stage as the band plays. Contortionists, fire-breathers and evil clowns run around adding to the carnival atmosphere. A midget named Mighty Mike dressed in black leathers takes a spin around the stage on a tiny motorcycle before Tommy, Vince and Nikki ride their custom-made choppers on stage at the start of Girls, Girls, Girls. With kaleidoscopic images filling the big screens as he plays electronic beats, Tommy is strapped into a trapeze harness by three dancing girls and flies in the air from one side of the stage to the other during his drum solo. He plays each of the additional two drum kits stationed thirty-feet high in the ceiling, including an oil barrel, trash can and other metallic objects by hitting, kicking and stomping on them with all parts of his body to keep the rhythm going. Vince wears a Miami Dolphins #69 jersey with Neil on the back for a couple of songs during the show. He also slips and falls down during Primal Scream, cutting his thumb. Nikki performs a short industrial-style solo on bass and keyboards, but there is no solo from Mick, who impresses the crowd throughout the night with his tight fret-work and guitar sound. Sick Love Song is played live for the first time. A huge amount of pyro is used throughout the show that includes two short intermissions and one encore at the end, comprising covers Helter Skelter and Anarchy in the U.K., to close the loudest show on earth.

21/2/05
Red, White & Crüe is the second-highest debuting album on the ARIA official Australian music chart, landing at number twenty six. Only Rod Stewart, who is currently on tour in Australia, debuts higher at number fourteen

22/2/05
In an interview with Wisconsin Music, Nikki says the claymation movie being used as an intro to the band’s live show will be coming to theatres. Claymation versions of the Mötley men play a concert in the movie and they have done voiceovers for their characters. Nikki says each band member has their own bus on this tour, not because they don’t get along with each other as people have assumed, but just so they each have their own space. Both Tommy and Nikki have recording studios built into their buses. After the Crüe tour, Nikki says he will not be going back to the Brides of Destruction as originally planned. Following recent public comments from Tracii Guns, Nikki says, “He talked out of court, and he said very derogative things, and it’s not OK. Friends don’t do that to each other.” Andy McCoy from Hanoi Rocks recently claimed that certain events in The Dirt are “pure lies” to which Nikki responds, “You’ve got a has-been that never was, just f@ckin’ grabbing at straws to get attention. Andy, no matter how much you talk about Mötley Crüe, your band still isn’t gonna make it! Figure it out!”

23/2/05
On stage at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Nikki tells the thirteen thousand fans in attendance that their show was the first of the tour to sell-out in less than three minutes, and the band’s Red, White & Crüe release has now gone Platinum in Canada. The band’s first single If I Die Tomorrow continues to climb America’s Billboard mainstream rock chart, reaching number four. Tommy plays the show with a clown-white painted face for the first time.

1/3/05
Vince tells Launch Radio Networks that the band has made their changes to the movie script of The Dirt and they’re now in the changing-the-script stage before casting and pre-production begins, so he feels the movie probably won’t be out until late next year as Hollywood works so slowly. Vince also visits the New York City studios of Fuse TV’s Daily Download and guests on the show.

The March issue of Blender magazine says Vince will soon inaugurate a range of fine wines from his own Napa Valley vineyard, before launching his own burger chain called Wild Side Café. He is also a prime investor in the infamous anti-hangover pill RU-21.

2/3/05
Mötley Crüe announces an additional fifty-seven North American concerts on Howard Stern’s nationally syndicated morning radio show, as all members except Tommy join Howard as guests on the show. The new dates under the Carnival of Sin tour banner will start on July 26 in Los Angeles after the band’s European tour, and will run through until October 16 in Sioux City, Iowa. Nine shows into an initial fifty-date North American tour, the Crüe is doing sellout or near-sellout business. In a blockbuster that few in the industry saw coming, the reunited Mötley Crüe will end up playing well over a hundred dates in 2005. For the first month of the summer run, shows will include some festival-style amphitheatre and arena dates with special guests, fellow Island/IDJ recording artists Sum 41, The Exies and some of the hottest new rock bands in select cities to be announced. Following the North American dates, the band plans to play Southeast Asia, Australia and Japan.

Later in the day, Mötley Crüe members ring the day’s closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Wall Street with Viacom Inc’s Investor Relations Executive Vice President Marty Shea, which is broadcast on CNBC. A new TV show called Fabulous Life Of: Mötley Crüe premieres on VH1 later in the night.

3/3/05
Tommy enters the set of Regis & Kelly on the shoulders of touring midget Mighty Mike, as he and Nikki guest on the popular ABC morning TV show. Tommy also sports a black eye after one of his drum sticks hit him in the eye when he lost sight of it in the strobe lights after tossing it high during a recent concert. Mötley Crüe then performs a sold-out show at the famous Madison Square Garden in New York City in the evening.

9/3/05
Red, White & Crüe moves up six spots on the Billboard 200 to number thirty five, after selling over thirty thousand units during the last week, increasing the album’s U.S.-based sales total to just over two hundred and twenty five thousand copies. The Mötley anthology CD is the number two Hard Rock Soundscan Album.

Rob Zombie says Tommy has contributed drums to some of his instrumental tracks recorded to date, as he tries to finish the unnamed album he’s been working on for over a year. Zombie is currently writing lyrics and expects to tour this summer, reportedly as part of Ozzfest, following for a summer release of the new album. Others to contribute include Josh Freese, Wes Borland and John 5.

10/3/05
During an interview with a Detroit radio station, Nikki confirms the Crüe has commenced work on material for a new studio album. Asked if plans exist to release a new CD, Nikki says, “Absolutely. We’re gonna do a new record. We’re writing it out here [on the road], which is kind of like how Shout at the Devil was written. It was written while we were playing all the time, and we were looking for stuff that worked for us live. And that’s the kind of stuff that we’re gonna be writing more of. Sick Love Song is probably a good example of where we’re heading. There’ll be a wide variety of stuff, as usual.”

11/3/05
Real Estate agents Denise & Cory Marks successfully sell Tommy’s home, fetching $2,475,000 for the estate. Nestled in the hills of Malibu at 31341 Mulholland Highway, the magnificent six-bedroom and six-bath spacious Mediterranean villa covers 7,462 square feet, sitting on over two-and-a-half acres of land. The home was where Tommy’s children were born and where much of his infamous home-video was shot.

Talking about his personal fly-on-the-wall view of drug addiction book The Heroin Diaries, which is expected to be released towards the end of the year, Nikki says, “Giving something back is important. I have a huge passion for kids, runaway kids, kids from dysfunctional families, kids that are strung-out on drugs and it’s great for me to able to tie this book in, and to feel passionate about it – passionate like when I first started making music.” Nikki is currently working on setting up a new charity foundation to assist kids in need.

15/3/05
According to Signatures Network, the company responsible for Mötley Crüe’s licensing and tour merchandising, the band is running up the highest merchandising sales in the company’s history, averaging more than $10 per head for the first week of shows on the Better Live Than Dead tour. Signatures Network has created a broad line of vintage and current Mötley Crüe merchandise for the tour, with top-selling products including Mötley Crüe panties, a giant Crüe foam finger, bottle opener, vintage Trunk t-shirts and the band’s traditional black shirts and posters. Also selling well are Platinum Ticket Packages, which allow fans to meet and take photos with the band throughout the tour. Limited to twenty five fans per concert, the packages have sold out at every show.

16/3/05
Handleman Company announces it has entered into an agreement with Tommy to be the exclusive distributor of his new solo album Tommyland: The Ride, scheduled to be released in August. Launching a new distribution model, the deal marks the first time Tommy will release an album without using the traditional major label infrastructure, and the first time that Handleman will act as the sole distributor for a major recording artist. Tommy says, “From the very beginning, I wanted to do something different with this record, something groundbreaking.” This direct relationship between Tommy and Handleman will streamline the supply chain and allow the album to be offered at an attractive cost to consumers, while enabling retailers to achieve a fair profit margin. To complement its sales capabilities, Handleman Company has also partnered with a third-party sales consultant firm, Rocket Science LLC, to handle sales solicitation, retail marketing and retail account interaction activities for the album. Tommyland: The Ride will feature guest performances by such established artists as Chad Kroeger of Nickelback, Carl Bell of Fuel, Deryck Whibley of Sum 41, Butch Walker, Joel Madden of Good Charlotte, and Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys. The album will be released to coincide with Tommy’s new NBC reality series Tommy Lee Goes to College coming this summer.

18/3/05
McFarlane Toys says the Mötley Crüe deluxe boxed set of action figures they released late last year was extremely popular and it has now become hard to find. They have decided to release each of the band members in a single-pack clamshell, only available at Spencer Gifts stores in July. Each figure pack, which are the same Shout at the Devil figures originally released in the deluxe box, will contain its own instrument plus a small portion of Tommy’s full drum kit. A new Mötley Crüe boxed set is expected to be released in November.

20/3/05
As Mötley rocks The Joint, the concert venue at The Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas, the casino honours the Crüe by featuring the band on limited-edition casino chips. The $5 and $25 chips are legal tender at all Hard Rock gaming tables. The band is set to perform again at the same venue in a week’s time.

23/3/05
Nikki brings his fourteen-year-old son Gunner out on stage to jam on guitar with the Crüe during Helter Skelter at The Forum in Los Angeles. By his Dad’s side, Vince and Mick come over frequently to jam with him as the crowd goes wild. During the show, Nikki says the band plans on locking themselves in a studio to record a brand-new album before they commence their Carnival of Sins tour. Mötley is also presented with Platinum album awards for sales of Red, White & Crüe. Tommy’s children also attend the show with their mother Pamela Anderson.

24/3/05
Tommy tells MTV that his upcoming solo album Tommyland: The Ride is, “the best thing I’ve ever done! People will be like, ‘Is that f@cking Tommy?’ It’s like an event record. This is more like my last record than the Methods of Mayhem record, which was all over the place. This one is right down the middle, it’s not so hybrid. It has rock, pop, everything.” The album will be released to coincide with Tommy’s NBC reality show Tommy Lee Goes to College, which has been bumped up from a summer replacement to a fall show, due to the positive feedback. The show’s theme song will be Good Times, featuring Dave Navarro on acoustic guitar and producer/singer Butch Walker on the choruses. The album’s likely first single is a track called Tired, with Good Charlotte’s Joel Madden on the chorus and Sum 41’s Deryck Whibley and Dave Navarro on guitar. Joel dropped by the studio and laid down his chorus vocals within fifteen minutes before catching a flight to Europe.

8/4/05
As Mötley Crüe and its touring party attempt to cross the Canadian-U.S. border after their Winnipeg show en-route to Grand Forks, the band’s resident little person, emcee and fire-breather Mighty Mike is detained by authorities. The band is forced to enter the U.S. without Mike, who gets transported to Edmonton where he is expected to remain for up to seven days before being allowed to return to the tour. Vince says, “This could set U.S.-Canadian relations back a couple of weeks,” while Tommy says, “It’s no ‘big’ deal, hopefully Mighty Mike will grow from this experience. We hope he’ll be back with us in a ‘little’ while. The Crüe will be seeking the assistance of the local little people at the next tour dates until Mighty Mike can rejoin the tour.

13/4/05
During a phone interview with an Illinois radio station, Vince says concert footage will be shot within the next week for a new Mötley Crüe live DVD.

14/4/05
Tommy says he got his seven-year-old son Dylan a PA system for his birthday; he’s got a little band called The Termites with his eight-year-old brother Brandon. “They had some friends over and they were taking turns jamming and making the craziest racket you ever heard in your life. I had a little tear in my eye.” Tommy says they are also doing karate, soccer, football, and baseball.

During an interview with Folio Weekly, Mick says, “I haven’t been laid in over five years. That’s the truth. I don’t pick up a lot of girls. I’m just totally dedicated to my music and my guitar, and if I happen to get lucky, then that’s good, too. I’m saving myself for the right girl. I have higher expectations from the person I want to be with than just a relationship [based on sex].” When asked if this might be his last tour, he says, “I don’t know where this stuff is taking me. I’m going to keep going as long as I can, of course.”

18/4/05
Tommy says the script for The Dirt movie is done. “We’re just interviewing different directors and at some point we’ll make a decision and then the thing will get greenlit, start casting and shoot it.” He also talks about his collaboration with Backstreet Boy Nick Carter, “It’s interesting how we met: Nick was working on a solo record and he contacted my manager and wanted to have a meeting with me ‘cause he was looking for some heavier music. So I met the guy and he was absolutely nothing that you would imagine with him being a Backstreet Boy. Once we met, we got along immediately. So we worked together and I said, ‘I actually have a couple of songs that might be perfect for you.’ I played him some stuff and he sang on it and killed it. One of the songs actually wound up on my record because he got together with the Backstreet Boys and he put a hold on his solo project. So the song’s actually on my record. It’s called Say Goodbye and it’s f@ckin’ beautiful. Kind of a weird collaboration, but it’s interesting.”

The melodic guitar riff in the verse was written by Tommy in 1990 as he tried to work it into some Motley music. He then tried another lyric over the riff during his Methods of Mayhem days but it still didn’t sit comfortably. Nick’s version of the song for his record had his lead vocal, but this version for Tommy’s album is reworked with Andrew Macmahon and just has Nick’s doing background vocals behind Tommy.

19/4/05
Mötley Crüe’s forthcoming show at the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids on April 27 will be filmed for distribution on TV as well as DVD this fall. Clear Channel Entertainment, who is promoting the concert, will produce and distribute the TV show and the DVD on their home-video label, Clear Channel Entertainment Home-video, from Clear Channel Entertainment TV. Award-winning director Hamish Hamilton, who has previously shot concerts by U2, Madonna and Peter Gabriel, will helm the shoot, capturing the original Mötley line-up playing their biggest hits in a three-ring circus of freaks under a huge big-top set, including a fire-breathing midget, sultry acrobats, flying drum kits and enough pyro to light up a small city. Crüe management says, “The level of interest among distributors was unprecedented,” while Clear Channel Entertainment TV’s Senior Vice President Steve Sterling says they are, “excited to be working with Mötley Crüe and Tenth Street Entertainment for the worldwide distribution of this incredible show via digital cinema, TV, DVD and other visual mediums, especially with the Crüe taking the world by storm as they are now.” The DVD will be distributed to retail in the U.S. by Ventura Home-video.

20/4/05
Along with Rammstein, Judas Priest, Mastodon and Slipknot, Mötley Crüe is nominated for the 2005 Metal Hammer Golden Gods Best Live Band award, with the winner to be announced at the London Astoria on June 13. This nomination in the U.K.’s most prestigious rock and metal awards is voted for by the public and readers of Metal Hammer magazine.

After winning a radio station’s Mötley Matrimony contest from more than a hundred and fifty entrants wishing to renew their vows or exchange them for the first time, forty-three-year-old Duane Trump marries twenty-nine-year-old Michelle McGee on stage at the Veterans Memorial Arena right before Mötley Crüe hits the stage for their show. Not only did Trump win a unique Mötley wedding in front of over-five-thousand in Jacksonville Florida, the couple’s prize also includes a honeymoon to Orlando, dinner for two, and tickets to a theme park.

21/4/05
Vince says the Crüe will definitely release new music in the not-too-distant future. “We are going to put out another studio album. Then we’ll take a little time off, and then we’ll probably tour in support of that album.”

23/4/05
Towards the end of Mötley Crüe’s performance of Kickstart My Heart at Portland’s Cumberland County Civic Center, the arena’s fire alarms are set off by the pyro. As they are about to begin their encore songs, alarms beep and small lights come on while ushers begin to force people out of their seats to evacuate the building. A voice on the PA instructs attendees to “evacuate the building” over and over but since the house lights don’t go on, many fans decide to stay in their seats. A third of the crowd watches the band’s final encore songs as the rest see fire trucks arriving once they get outside. After the final song of the night, Tommy and Vince stay on stage to joke with the crowd about leaving and also come down from the stage to shake hands with some of the crowd. Earlier in the evening Vince played a few beats at Tommy’s drum kit, while he was busy filming the ladies lifting their tops down front of house. Vince continues to make this a little feature of future shows.

25/4/05
Mötley Crüe is joining efforts to find a Baltimore-area woman missing since March 6, when she failed to meet friends for the band’s concert in Washington. Tracey Gardner-Tetso of Rosedale was reported missing by her husband after she didn’t meet friends at the Red, White & Crüe Tour 2005 show at the MCI Center. The band will match an earlier reward of upto $10,000 to increase publicity about the woman’s disappearance. The earlier reward was offered by the Victims’ Rights Foundation of Gaithersburg, Metro Crime Stoppers and Aggregate Industries, where Gardner-Tetso worked as a dispatcher. Nikki says, “We hope our involvement helps bring more attention to this case, and anyone with information will step forward.”

27/4/05
The failure of audience members to hear a fire alarm at a recent Mötley Crüe concert has forced Maine’s Cumberland County Civic Center to review its emergency procedures. The Crüe was finishing its show last Saturday when about eighty security guards and police officers began politely asking spectators to leave the building. Right at the end of Kickstart My Heart, four pyrotechnic ‘concussion bombs’ sent up a smoke cloud that drifted through the auditorium. Smoke detectors in the arena didn’t go off because they’re programmed to differentiate various threats, but a stairwell door was left open, allowing stage smoke to reach a separate detector and trigger an alarm. Jay Kelley, a fire prevention officer with the Portland Fire Department, was at the Mötley Crüe show. While it turned out to be a false alarm, he discussed the issue with the manager of the civic center a few days after the event.

Mötley Crüe’s involvement in the disappearance case of Tracey Gardner-Tetso has raised significant interest from national media. The band has paid to have the thirty-two-year-old Rosedale woman’s photo distributed on news wires, and the TV show America’s Most Wanted may feature the story. It’s exactly the result the band wanted, after learning she failed to meet friends at the Mötley Crüe concert at MCI Center in Washington on March 6 and has not been seen since. A friend bought her tickets as a birthday present and her supervisor at work says, “Tracey loves rock and roll and loves Mötley Crüe. She would not have missed it for the world.” The Crüe was about to go on stage in Portland last Saturday night when Nikki checked his email and read a message telling him about a fan from Baltimore County who was last seen on her way to a concert by one of her favorite bands – Mötley Crüe. Nikki says, “I showed it to the band and we were like, ‘we’ve gotta do something.’ We knew a $10,000 reward had been put up, and we decided to match that. But what we really could do was get it national exposure. It’s lit a fire. I know there are a lot of people who are very motivated. Everyone’s pitching in and it’s good karma and hopefully we’ll find her alive.” Gardner-Tetso is described as white, five-foot-four tall, one hundred and thirty pounds, with long blonde hair and blue eyes. Her last outgoing cell phone call was about 3pm on March 6 and friends who tried to call her later that night said her phone had been turned off. Authorities have launched an investigation but have not said whether they believe it was foul play. Police say there is a record of Gardner-Tetso’s car passing through the southbound tube of the Harbor Tunnel about 8pm that same evening, before it was found abandoned on March 17 in the parking lot of a Glen Burnie area Days Inn, where her husband and family has since been focusing search efforts. Mötley will be returning to the Washington area on August 13 for a show at Nissan Pavilion and Nikki hopes to see Tracey there, “We’ll save two tickets for her in the front row. They’re in her name at Will Call. We hope she picks them up.” If anyone has information about Tracey Gardner-Tetso, they are urged to call Baltimore police at +1 410-307-2020.

3/5/05
The four Mötley Crüe band members attend the MTV Networks UpFront event at Madison Square Gardens in New York City. Others to attend include Usher, Jessica Simpson, Caprice Bourret, Pepa of Salt-n-Pepa, and Mariah Carey.

4/5/05
Actress Tara Reid was recently spotted at the Hudson Hotel looking very cozy with Tommy, sipping watermelon martinis that were whipped up only after the busboy was commanded to buy a watermelon. The couple was then spotted later mixing it up with Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake and Joe Francis at Butter. Reid hooked up with Tommy in Las Vegas and traveled with Mötley Crüe to their show in Loveland, Colorado.

5/5/05
Vince hosts the invite-only ninth annual 2005 Skylar Neil Memorial Golf Tournament on Cinco de Mayo at the Malibu Country Club. A live auction and awards ceremony at the Clubhouse follows the golf, hosted by Tiffany Granath and Juli Ashton of Playboy TV’s Night Calls. Vince and the T.J. Martell Foundation held an eBay auction featuring a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for one lucky winner – who bid $1350 – and three guests to play golf at the event.

6/5/05
Vince commissions a big rich Cabernet Sauvignon named ‘Vince’ from Adler Fels Winery in Santa Rosa California for national U.S. distribution. The wine is a blend of seven fine Napa Valley Cabernets and has a suggested retail price of $20 for the initial five hundred cases produced.

7/5/05
When an unplanned F-word from System of a Down during their performance of BYOB on NBC’s Saturday Night Live slips through the censors, it creates a heap of press snippets for Mötley Crüe by mentioning that Vince also swore during an NBC New Year’s Eve telecast.

9/5/05
Mötley Crüe’s tour of Australia is officially announced. The band is set to play four shows early in December with the Grammy-award winning Motörhead as special guest, and red-hot upcoming Aussie band The Casanovas in support. Tommy makes a promo visit to Sydney completing a hectic media interview schedule to launch the band’s first visit to Australian shores in fifteen years.

10/5/05
As the VIP guest for Australia’s Jack Awards 2005 at Sydney’s Seymour Centre, Tommy presents the award for Best Live Drummer to Kram of Spiderbait and Best Live Band award to Eskimo Joe. The Jack Daniels sponsored awards recognise the best live music in Australia, based on more than a hundred thousand public votes cast at the Jack Awards website. Tommy gets into the spirit of the event by taking two water pistols filled with Jack onto the stage and squirting them at the audience.

11/5/05
VH1 announces a video clip for Mötley Crüe’s Sick Love Song will be added to their rotation beginning May 16.

12/5/05
During an interview on KROQ’s popular Kevin and Bean morning show, Nikki and Vince premiere the band’s new single Sick Love Song and announce Mötley Crüe will be the special guest closing act at the annual KROQ Weenie Roast at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine, California on May 21. Other groups on the show include Audioslave, Foo Fighters, Hot Hot Heat, Interpol, Jimmy Eat World, The Killers, My Chemical Romance, MxPx, Queens of the Stone Age, Mars Volta, Alkaline Trio, Bloc Party, The Bravery, Dead 60s, and Transplants. Long-time station Program Director Kevin Weatherly says, “There’s no denying Mötley Crüe’s massive appeal and influence. They are rock icons in Los Angeles and across the nation. KROQ listeners always expect the unexpected and they have been known to embrace certain bands outside the conventional alt-rock boundaries. KROQ was the first radio station to ever play Mötley Crüe, and it only took us twenty years to convince them to play the Weenie Roast. I know the other bands are psyched to be sharing the stage with the band that knows how to bring it, Mötley Crüe.”

Nikki attends the Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of The Sith Premiere to benefit Artists for a New South Africa Charity at Mann’s Village Theatre in Westwood, California with wife Donna D’Errico and son Rhyan.

13/5/05
Nikki and Donna attend the 2005 Covenant with Youth Gala event at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Other celebrities to attend include Beau Bridges, Buzz Aldrin, Stan Lee, Tito Ortiz, and William Shatner.

14/5/05
Tommy and Nikki guest on an episode of the FOX TV show America’s Most Wanted in hope that someone will come forward with information about missing Mötley Crüe fan, Tracey Gardner-Tetso.

Hard Rock president Kevin Kelly confirms that Vince and the Hard Rock Hotel are teaming up on a motorcycle-café concept as part of a $1 billion expansion.

15/5/05
During an in-depth interview with Metal-Rules.com, John Corabi provides some insights into recent events in his life. He says his marriage to Layla Dawn in 2001 didn’t work out and he is now divorced. Even though he organised for his girlfriend to attend the current Mötley Crüe tour, he says he did not want to go, partly-fuelled by disappointment that they didn’t return his many phone calls prior to the tour when he wanted to wish them all the best.

While he doesn’t have any issues with Tommy or Nikki, he says his Union band-mate Bruce Kulick passed on an email message from Nikki the other week saying, “Tell Corabi I’m sorry about the Brides and he was right about everything.” John speaks out on the reason for his departure from Brides of Destruction as being directly attributed to Tracii Guns, with whom he does not get along with and feels that he tries too hard to be cool. When John joined the Brides he spoke with Nikki at length, who said he really wanted him to contribute to the song-writing but in time John felt he started to get pushed aside. He was then basically told that they didn’t need him to write at all, which he did not like. After listening to the record he soon found himself scratching his head at the mix-match of the songs’ direction. He felt the best song on the record was the song that Nikki wrote with outside writers for somebody else called Life that drummer Scot Coogan sings. This didn’t make sense to John as he was concerned with the impression being left, as band members were also touting front-man London to be the next big rock star. He feels that stating his case rubbed Tracii up the wrong way. As John sat at his phone thinking about the goodbye call he needed to make, Tracii called him and said, “Listen dude, we got to let you go, I hope you’re not upset.” John said he left on good terms but apparently Tracii still has an issue with him. On departing, he told Nikki that there were going to be some egos involved and now Nikki has also departed the band after a run-in with Tracii.

When asked if he still gets royalties from his work with Mötley Crüe, John says he is not a very good businessman so his manager is currently seeking an accounting from the record companies involved with his past recordings, as he hasn’t received anything from the Crüe’s CD and DVD products featuring his work that have been released since he parted with them almost a decade ago. Looking to the future, John will be touring this summer as the hired guitarist in Ratt. When that tour is over he wants to continue work on his solo album, saying he’s been talking with Billy Duffy about writing and working on some songs. He wants Jeff Blando to be involved in it, and Jerry Cantrell may also help out. His autobiography being written with Jake Brown is also nearing publication.

16/5/05
While enjoying his Australian holiday at Hayman Island on the Great Barrier Reef after duties at the Jack Awards, Tommy asks two off-duty staff members back to his hotel room for drinks during his Queensland stay. Apparently the hotel has a rule forbidding staff from fraternising with guests and Tommy was unaware that socialising with them could get them sacked. As a result of the partying, the two female staff members were dismissed from their hotel jobs and asked to leave the island resort. Tommy also leaves the hotel and stays on the Airlie Beach mainland in the Whitsundays before heading back to Los Angeles today.

17/5/05
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that a historic forty-week deal that would put Mötley Crüe into the Aladdin/Planet Hollywood showroom as resident headliners is being finalised. Clear Channel Entertainment and Planet Hollywood, the Aladdin’s new owners, are planning an announcement later this year. As the band members currently enjoy being one of the most successful tours of 2005, each would get a reported $10 million, a made-over showroom to play in and a role in Planet Hollywood’s grand opening next summer. Vince has told friends the new showroom will feature flying motorcycles and dancers on stripper water poles.

Meanwhile, the world unveiling and premier tasting of Vince Vineyards – Vince’s brand new private label wine from Napa Valley – takes place in the Pussycat Doll Lounge at Pure Nightclub in Las Vegas. The beautiful Pussycat Dolls perform specially selected numbers throughout the party and the event serves as the entree to a live midnight performance of Girls, Girls, Girls by Vince alongside the Pussycat Dolls dance troupe.

20/5/05
Johnny Knoxville of MTV Jackass fame has agreed to play the character of Nikki Sixx in the movie adaptation of the band’s best-selling autobiography The Dirt.

Tommy is excited by the prospect of recording a brand-new album with the band, and already has plenty of new material in mind, saying, “Nikki and I both have portable recording studios and I’ve got hours of material running through my brain. When we’re in road mode there is always down time to get ideas out and I do have a few ideas that sound to me like they will make killer Mötley music, so yeah, let’s bring it on and get a record done.”

Vince says the creation of Vince Vineyards is a joint partnership with notable wine & spirits veteran Russ Dale. The two primary partners are joined by legendary music agent Burt Stein and plan on producing and releasing a variety of fine wines, food-related products and a future winery project. Vince Vineyards will release its first two wines to the public this spring. The first release is a 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon, a gorgeous blend of seven different Napa Cabernets, plus a 2003 Sonoma Chardonnay, produced by renowned winemaker Harry Parducci. The wines are being manufactured by entrepreneur John Ott, who recently purchased Adler Fels Winery. Vince says, “I have enjoyed great wine for most of my life and wanted to create something other wine lovers could experience and appreciate. Our first two releases are both amazing wines and I can’t imagine enjoying fresh seafood or grilled steak with anything else.” Based in San Francisco, Vince Vineyards wines will be available in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Nashville and New York, with national U.S. distribution to follow soon after.

Vince also smashes reports of tension between band members, blaming Duran Duran for fuelling the rumours. He says, “We’ve had some crap thrown at us recently because we opted to travel on four separate tour buses that must mean we hate each other, which is bullshit. If you could afford to do it every band in the f@cking world would! I read this thing where those f@ckheads in Duran Duran were like, ‘we all travel together and that’s the only way to tour and it just shows how f@cked up Mötley Crüe is.’ I was like, ‘Who the f@ck are you to tell us how f@cked up we are?”

21/5/05
Mötley Crüe headlines the KROQ Weenie Roast at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Irvine, taking the stage after Foo Fighters, Audioslave, The Killers, Queens of the Stone Age, Interpol, Jimmy Eat World, and others. The Crüe proved to be heroes to many of the rockers on the bill but their set is plagued by technical difficulties and perhaps a few too many shots of Jägermeister during their show-closing set. Playing the Weenie Roast for the first time, they come out all fire and brimstone with early fave Shout at the Devil, but Vince seems to forget most of the verses. Nikki and Mick, the sober Crüe members, keep the show going through a seriously rough Live Wire, during which Vince has problems with his in-ear monitor and misses most of his cues. Later, Tommy has issues with his drum set-up, inspiring him to throw a cowbell into the crowd and give the one-finger salute to a tech. Before their first song, Tommy could be heard complaining of the feedback coming through their earpieces. The devoted who stick around are treated to some serious pyro for Wild Side and Kickstart My Heart but there is no encore and no Home Sweet Home. Technical issues aside, many fans berate Vince online for a poor vocal performance, apparently due to intoxication.

During Foo Fighters’ set right before the Crüe’s performance, front-man Dave Grohl leaves the stage at one point and ventures out into the crowd. He climbs aboard some equipment and plays his guitar to the crowd. Grohl’s guitar tech later posts some pictures on his website and comments, “That’s Dave standing on the Motley Crew mixing console out in the crowd... Nathan (our light guy) told me that their sound guy was yelling at him to get off... hehe. I love it when Dave does this shit.”

Earlier on the main stage, Nikki watched Queens of the Stone Age from the side with the Offspring’s Noodles, and Buckcherry singer Josh Todd. “I love Queens,” Nikki said afterward, while his teenage son Gunner stood nearby. “My little Mini-Me. He flew in on a chopper today. All his favourite bands are here. And Tara Reid just told him he’s hot. My wife’s gonna kick my ass. ‘What are you doing to him?”

MuchMoreMusic TV show Listed compiles a list of The 20 Baddest Boys in music with Tommy at number one followed by Eminem, Gene Simmons, 50 Cent, Liam Gallagher, Jim Morrison, Axl Rose, Keith Richards, Johnny Rotten, and Snoop Dogg.

22/5/05
When asked what he reads on tour, Nikki says, “I am a CNN junkie, Court TV junkie; I am also a newspaper junkie. For me, it’s interesting. And anything that feeds my brain is good for song-writing, so between Hustler magazine and USA Today, I get my fill. I actually ask the audience different headline things. Recently, it’s been: Michael Jackson, innocent or guilty? It’s amazing hearing twenty thousand people all say ‘guilty’ in unison.” Nikki also says he can’t live without his computer on tour, as well as his iPod and iTalk that plugs in on top of the iPod to turn it into a recorder. “I record little ideas on my acoustic guitar, and then when I plug in my iPod into my computer, it updates it. Then when I get home I open up the files and I start writing songs.”

Mötley Crüe’s assistant tour manager Jack Carson explains some items on the band’s backstage rider, “We very specifically have things like Kraft mayonnaise, we very specifically have Grey Poupon Dijon mustard, we have a twelve-foot long boa constrictor; it has an asterisk next to it that says, ‘Please check with your local FDA authorities to see if this is acceptable.’ And it continues down the list of soy dream milk substitute, Skippy creamy peanut butter and... a submachine gun. We have yet to see the snake, machete, or the submachine gun.”

24/5/05
Mötley Crüe Inc. files a lawsuit in the Central District Court of California against NBC, claiming the network violated the group’s free-speech rights and weakened its sales by banning it from appearing on the television network after Vince used an expletive on the air when wishing Tommy “a Happy F@cking New Year” in a December 31 appearance on The Tonight Show. The band is requesting a ruling that NBC’s ban is unconstitutional, a court order forcing the network to lift it, and unspecified financial damages tied to the band’s reduced media exposure. Mötley Crüe claims they are being “singled out, censored and punished” by NBC and been made a scapegoat by banning them from further appearances, saying that when singer John Mayer uttered the F-word two weeks after Vince did, he was not banned. The lawsuit says Vince had not been aware that his statement was being broadcast, but in any event, the live broadcast took place during late-night hours when federal prohibitions on indecent material have not traditionally been applied. Three weeks later, Jeff Zucker of NBC told a meeting of television critics that “Mötley Crüe will not be back on NBC.” He said that the New Year’s Eve edition of The Tonight Show would be broadcast on a five-second delay going forward. As a result, the band says a previously-planned appearance on NBC’s Last Call With Carson Daly was called off. The band also says it was barred from appearing on other network programs, including Late Night With Conan O’Brien. The suit says, “NBC’s censorship has caused harm to the band. At the time the ban was announced, Mötley Crüe was just weeks away from releasing a new album and commencing a worldwide reunion tour to support the album release. Critical to the success of an album release and supporting tour is media coverage. NBC’s censorship caused Mötley Crüe to lose substantial exposure from critical media sources, which negatively impacted on sales of Mötley Crüe concert tickets, albums and merchandise, and interfered with the band’s ability to secure optimal concert bookings, sponsorships and co-branding relationships”. The lawsuit says the network added insult to injury by promoting a summer reality series months later featuring Tommy. The Crüe feels they have been hard done by and “this ban by NBC constitutes governmentally-pressured censorship and violates the law the same as if the government itself had ordered the censorship. It also is self-serving and profit-driven, to protect NBC’s license and treasury from FCC sanctions”. The suit points out that when U2’s Bono said “f@ck” in a live broadcast on NBC’s Golden Globes in 2003 he was not banned, but following Janet Jackson’s now-famous ‘wardrobe malfunction’ aired during CBS’s Super Bowl 2003, the FCC and Bush Administration “began unprecedented and aggressive regulatory activity, resulting in the imposition of a record $7.9 million in fines in 2004 against various broadcasters including Viacom, Fox and Infinity”. No dollar figure for damages is mentioned in the action and Mötley Crüe Inc. is requesting a trial by jury.

One hundred copies of Tryin’ to be Me, the first single off Tommy’s upcoming solo release, Tommyland: The Ride, were reportedly stolen last Friday and were being sold on eBay until Monday, when authorities had the items removed from the Internet auction site. The CDs were apparently taken from a drop shipment at FedEx going to New Jersey that was opened and all contents were stolen.

30/5/05
A television documentary titled VH1 (Inside)Out: Resurrecting Mötley Crüe premieres, giving an uncensored, unflinching, and brutally honest look at ‘a heavy metal miracle’ in the making. Documenting the reunion of the band members, it shows private band meetings, intimate interviews, top secret rehearsals, recording sessions, photo shoots, and all the behind the scenes drama you’d expect when Tommy, Vince, Nikki and Mick decide to get back in a room together again. The show is executive produced by George Moll and produced/directed by Alex Castino.

3/6/05
As Mötley Crüe plays the first of their European festival concerts at Rock am Ring in Germany, Vince and Tommy guest on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross on the U.K.’s BBC One. The humourous show was taped earlier in the week when Tommy and Nikki flew over to Britain from Germany for some media commitments. The show aired footage of the band members getting into a bit of trouble at customs when departing Germany’s Cologne airport for London, as the already heavily-pierced Tommy was wearing bondage trousers covered with zips and safety pins. Rather than remove his pants and all his piercings that kept setting off the metal detectors, Tommy decided to climb onto the conveyer belt and got himself X-rayed.

Seemingly keen to repair his damaged relationship with Nikki, Tracii Guns says Nikki emailed him from Europe today and suggested Runaway Brides as the title of the new album from Brides of Destruction, the first release since Nikki left the band. Tracii says the band is going to run with it.

8/6/05
VH1 acquires rights to the six episodes of NBC’s upcoming reality series Tommy Lee Goes to College and is set to run the first episode on cable just three days after the broadcast premiere scheduled for August 16, with two back-to-back episodes to air on NBC.

13/6/05
Tommy makes a cameo appearance in Missy Elliot’s new video Lose Control, coming in about three minutes into the song and doing some wire work to fly around and dance with Missy.

14/6/05
Following their run of European festival slots, Mötley Crüe plays the first of their six U.K. shows at Glasgow’s S.E.C.C in Scotland with seminal punk band Killing Joke in support. The custom chopper bikes and flying drum solo are omitted from the show, but lead dancer Jozie Di Maria still performs on stage with aerialists Alecia Schultze and Brandy Wirtz.

16/06/05
In a meeting set-up by America’s TV Guide magazine, Tommy joined Paris Hilton’s mother Kathy at the posh Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles recently to toast the odd couple’s upcoming summer reality shows I Want to Be a Hilton and Tommy Lee Goes to College. Tommy confesses his manners are far from perfect but was given an etiquette lesson, including tips on how to drink tea, eat finger sandwiches and make toasts.

Meanwhile, Live 8 promoter Harvey Goldsmith says he has turned down sixty five bands who wanted to perform at the concert in London’s Hyde Park on July 2 including Mötley Crüe, Status Quo, Meatloaf, and chart-toppers Peter Kay and Tony Christie, saying we simply don’t have room for them.

21/6/05
During a press conference at Toronto’s Mod Club, it is announced that Mötley Crüe will be one of at least nineteen bands to perform at a Canadian Live 8 concert in Barrie, Ontario to help bring awareness to world poverty. Hosted by Dan Aykroyd and Tom Green, the concert will also feature Bryan Adams, Deep Purple, Simple Plan, Our Lady Peace, and The Tragically Hip. Michael Cohl, the Canadian concert organiser and the Rolling Stones manager, says “It promises to be a great show, but we have to remember that we’re coming together to urge the government to cancel the debt and improve aid and trade.” Ticket holders will also see satellite feeds from other simultaneous Live 8 concerts across the globe, which will feature an unprecedented line-up of stars including a reunited Pink Floyd, Sir Paul McCartney, U2, Madonna, Robbie Williams, Andrea Bocelli, Jamiroquai, Mariah Carey, The Who, Elton John, Bon Jovi, Dido, REM, Sting, Placebo, Faith Hill, The Cure, Duran Duran, Velvet Revolver, Destiny’s Child, Coldplay, Dave Matthews Band, P. Diddy, Crosby Stills & Nash, Joss Stone, Jay-Z, Green Day, Annie Lennox, and Stevie Wonder.

24/6/05
Johnny Grant, chairman of the Walk of Fame Committee of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, announces that Mötley Crüe is among the entertainers in motion pictures, television, radio, live theatre, and recording that have been selected to receive stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The list of 2006 honourees also includes Steve Martin, Charlize Theron, Annette Bening, Matthew Broderick, Holly Hunter, William Hurt and Nathan Lane – all chosen from hundreds of nominations to the committee at a meeting held June 20, and ratified by the Chamber’s Board of Directors. Mötley Crüe now joins other legends of music to have received stars including The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, David Bowie, Garth Brooks, James Brown, Ray Charles, Alice Cooper, Bing Crosby, Jimi Hendrix, Elton John, Kiss, Liberace, Bob Marley, Ozzy Osbourne, Elvis Presley, Queen, Frank Sinatra, The Supremes, and Stevie Wonder. Nikki later says, “We like the fact that it wasn’t something that we bought and paid for. You see a lot of actors and actresses get one right around the time of their big premieres. It was something that happened because people voted for us.”

28/6/05
The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) recently updated their list of all-time, top-selling music artists in the United States, and report Mötley Crüe ranks at position 84. Based on the cumulative album sales totals, the most popular heavy metal/hard rock artists in the U.S. are (sales totals are in millions): #3 Led Zeppelin 107.5, #10 AC/DC 66, #11 Aerosmith 65.5, #18 Metallica 57, #19 Van Halen 56.5, #38 Guns ‘N Roses 36.5, #45 Def Leppard 33, #50 Queen 31.5, #59 Ozzy Osbourne 28.3, #72 Nirvana 25, #74 Rush 24.5, #84 Mötley Crüe 22.5, #102 Jimi Hendrix 20.5, #109 Kiss 19, #116 Smashing Pumpkins 18.3, #118 Kid Rock 18, #123 Stone Temple Pilots 17.5, #140 Limp Bizkit 16, #149 Linkin Park 15.5, #152 Black Sabbath 15, #158 Korn 14.5, #162 Ted Nugent 14, #181 Poison 13, and #197 Whitesnake 12.

29/6/05
Vancouver-based 604 Records announces they have entered into an agreement with Tommy for the Canadian release of his new solo album Tommyland: The Ride, as they prepare for distribution through Universal Music Canada on August 9. As part-owner of the record label, Nickelback front-man Chad Kroeger says, “I have been a big fan of Tommy and Mötley Crüe for many years, and never dreamt that I would get to write a song with Tommy, let alone release his album on my label. Everyone at 604 Records is thrilled to have the opportunity to work with an artist of Tommy’s stature.”

30/6/05
Tommy, Dave Navarro and international spinning sensation DJ Paul Oakenfold host the grand opening of their Los Angeles bar/dining lounge Rokbar Hollywood at 1710 Las Palmas Boulevard (the former site of Bar Deluxe). Pamela Anderson attends with Tommy while Dave’s wife Carmen Electra joins him.

2/7/05
Mötley Crüe plays Live 8 at Park Place in Barrie, Ontario, Canada in front of a capacity thirty-five-thousand-strong crowd about an hour north of Toronto. The band is among the performers at the nine Live 8 concerts held simultaneously around the world to pressure leaders of the wealthy G8 nations to increase aid to Africa. Mick first enters the stage around 6pm, ripping a short solo to lead into Kickstart My Heart. Without the eye candy displayed on their headlining tour, the band then plays Home Sweet Home and Dr. Feelgood to finish. Tommy plays with July 6 written across his chest in black ink – the date when eight world leaders meeting in Scotland will be presented with a workable plan to double aid, drop debt and make trade laws fair to stop thirty thousand children dying needlessly of extreme poverty every single day. The Canadian leg of the landmark event is hosted by Tom Green and Dan Aykroyd and includes performances by Bryan Adams, Tragically Hip, Simple Plan, Jet, Our Lady Peace, Deep Purple, Gordon Lightfoot, DMC, Tom Cochrane and others, before being closed out by Neil Young.

5/7/05
After playing Live 8, Nikki spends some vacation time at Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida with his family, where he rides on Thunder Mountain at the Magic Kingdom. Tommy heads to Hawaii where he holidays with his two sons and their mother Pamela Anderson where their hugging and kissing sparks more talk of a romance rekindled. Pamela says of her wonderful family trip, “The kids love it there – good times! Brandon took his first scuba dive in the ocean after training for a few days in the pool; it was a great father/son experience. Dylan and I played on the beach. It was nice to have the family together; we don’t spend much time with Tommy. It was fun, more fun than difficult!”

6/7/05
Tommy is said to have been threatened by armed guards in Croatia last week after the owner of a local club felt that Tommy’s DJing/percussion performance at the club fell short of expectations. At the launch of a new tennis centre, Subliminal Records head-honcho Erick Morillo was DJing with Tommy on percussion at a party attended by tennis great John McEnroe and the rich and famous locals. According to a local spokesman, the owner of the club didn’t appreciate Tommy’s performance, saying, “The owner didn’t think Tommy played long enough, and just wasn’t into it,” the spokesman said. “Suddenly, on their way to the after-party, Tommy was surrounded by Croatian armed heavies, and Erick, sizing up the situation, urged pal Tommy to leave with him immediately on his private-charter plane.” With armed heavies demanding a return fee from Tommy, they were promised a cheque in the mail before leaving on a plane back to Ibiza where Tommy and guests apparently enjoyed extensive after-party celebrations.

8/7/05
Dave Grohl takes a swipe at the Crüe for using backing tracks when they perform live. He says of his band Foo Fighters, “We don’t try to play perfect, like on the record. We don’t use backing tracks. That’s kind of a crutch other bands have up their sleeve. I’d rather sound awful and have the chance to change things at a whim than sound like Linkin Park or Mötley Crüe because of today’s technology. They feel naked when it comes to playing live.”

Meanwhile, the Recording Industry Association of America officially certifies Mötley’s Red, White & Crüe as Platinum, for shipments in excess of half-a-million copies. Even though the double-anthology was not officially certified Platinum until this month, the band was previously presented with their Platinum awards back in March prior to their performance at The Forum in California.

11/7/05
Tommy shoots the first video clip for his new solo CD, to the song Good Times.

12/7/05
An advertisement for Red, White & Crüe is part of a new business model being implemented by video game developers FunCom, where non-subscribers see ads woven into the Anarchy Online game while a subscription provides an ad-free experience. Massive Inc. officially announced the network early last month, and have forty titles lined-up to include the in-game ads from top publishers like Atari, EA, Eidos and Ubisoft.

14/7/05
Pollstar says Mötley’s Red, White & Crüe 2005...Better Live Than Dead tour was the sixth highest-grossing tour of the first half of 2005, grossing a total of $21.3 million over the course of four-and-a-half months, placing behind: 1. U2 ($48.4m), 2. Celine Dion ($43.9m), 3. Kenny Chesney ($35.0m), 4. Elton John ($31.7m), 5. Eagles ($28.0m). The Crüe had the lowest average ticket price for any of the artists that placed in the Top 10; the only average under $50.

15/7/05
As work on Mötley’s first-ever live DVD featuring all original members continues, it is revealed that the release scheduled for October 4 this year will be a special double-disc DVD titled Carnival of Sins and touted to feature footage from the band’s concert in Grand Rapids, Michigan earlier this year, along with behind-the-scenes footage, in-depth interviews, a Claymation film, music videos and more. Nikki says, “We shot it in high-def, we had eighteen cameras, and it has a lot of the behind-the-scenes, putting together of the show.” Nikki also says the band is looking forward to creating some new songs but surrenders, “It won’t be this year. We’re definitely going back to do an album. The hard part is finding the time. This tour keeps adding dates and adding dates, so it’s hard to pinpoint when people ask, ‘When are you going into the studio?’ The only thing you can say is ‘When the tour ends.’ We don’t know when it will end yet. It’s more important to have a great record than to rush getting it out. It’s important for us to put a great record out.”

19/7/05
Pamela Anderson is reportedly set to wed Tommy for a third time after Tommy apparently proposed to her at Las Vegas’ Palms Hotel & Casino. Pamela was spotted wearing a big diamond ring on her finger this week. A source told the New York Post that, “He got her a black diamond with two grey diamonds on the side.” After Pamela said yes, they flew on the Palm’s private jet back to L.A. – but they crossed out the ‘l’ on the side of the jet so it said ‘Pam’s.’ The couple then shacked up at the Mondrian for the weekend. Despite Pamela’s agent denying the news, the couple has reportedly told friends the wedding would take place “this week”. The pair first wed on a Cancun beach in February 1995 after meeting at a New Year’s Eve party just weeks earlier, but divorced a year later. They then remarried eighteen months after that, only to divorce again in 1998.

20/7/05
Pamela says there is absolutely no truth to the talk of her marrying Tommy for a third time saying, “I have two beautiful children with Tommy and I will continue to be close friends and supportive of him.” Tommy tells Entertainment Tonight that he and Pam are taking things slow and denies having proposed to her.

22/7/05
Back in 1981, a young Mötley Crüe sold an incredible twenty thousand copies of their Leathür Records independent debut album Too Fast For Love before it was picked up by Elektra Records and remixed. The original mix has been unavailable on vinyl for over twenty years…until now, thanks to Universal Records. Lovingly reproduced, sonically and visually, Too Fast For Love returns on the twelve-inch black vinyl that captured a million Crüe fans. As a special added-bonus, a re-production of the Stick To Your Guns/ Toast Of The Town seven-inch single is included in every album. The Too Fast For Love original Leathür LP and seven-inch are released today as a special-run limited to five thousand individually-numbered copies.

24/7/05
The Crüe kicks-off their Carnival of Sins Tour 2005 at the World Arena in Colorado Springs with a warm-up concert billed as An Evening with Mötley Crüe, before they are supported on tour by Sum 41, The Exies, and Silvertide commencing in two days time at Irvine, California.

25/7/05
During his featured guest spot on the nationally-syndicated radio show Rockline, Tommy says Mötley Crüe has been invited to open up for The Rolling Stones for four shows in big cities later this year. The Crüe recently tipped their hat to The Stones with a cover version of their song Street Fighting Man on the Platinum-selling Red, White & Crüe anthology.

27/7/05
Clear Channel is spending $1.5 million to $3 million on the production for Mötley Crüe’s Carnival of Sins DVD, shooting concerts in high-definition video. The DVD will retail for US$24.98 and also includes a bonus disc, comprised of interviews, a documentary and a clay animation film. To boost sales of its first music DVD, Clear Channel will be hyping Carnival of Sins on big screens at venues where Mötley Crüe will be performing. The company unveiled its DVD strategy at VSDA 2004. Parent Clear Channel Entertainment operates and promotes concerts at about one hundred and forty different venues and presents about thirty two thousand events a year. DVD coupons are expected to be packed inside Mötley Crüe concert ticket packs. There also are plans for a hundred radio stations, under parent Clear Channel Communications, to promote the DVD by driving listeners to check out disc clips as well as online. Apple music service iTunes is offering a podcast that features preview sound-bites from the Carnival of Sins DVD.

Nikki is the special guest on Alice Cooper’s radio show Nights with Alice Cooper. The program is a classic-rock format and is nationally syndicated on the United Stations network.

30/7/05
The fifth annual Jägermeister Crüefest Hollywood is held at the Whisky A Go-Go and features Neil Wharton’s Rock N Roll Junkies – a Mötley Crüe tribute band fronted by Vince’s son.

5/8/05
Steamhammer/SPV announces the exclusive signing of Tommy Lee for the European territories release of Tommyland: The Ride. Steamhammer/SPV also announces that they will release the album at a low-budget rate at the artist’s request. “I wanted to get great new music to my fans without charging them fifteen or sixteen bucks for a CD. And SPV/Steamhammer is helping me do that, so I couldn’t be happier,” says Tommy.

8/8/05
Tommy plays Good Times on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on NBC with his backing band that includes Marty O’Brien and guitarist Phil-X of Powder and The Drills, who also wrote the track Tired on Tommy’s new album.

9/8/05
The next solo album from Tommy titled Tommyland: The Ride is released and once again features an array of guests, including Butch Walker and Dave Navarro on Good Times, Andrew McMahon of Something Corporate on Hello Again and I Need You, Chad Kroeger of Nickelback on Trying To Be Me, Carl Bell of Fuel on Sister Mary (a song he had largely written but didn’t make sense for Fuel to use), Joel Madden of Good Charlotte on Tired (with fun-poking lyrics, “Tommy got tired of Pamela, Puffy got tired of Jennifer [Lopez], Ben [Affleck] did too.”), Dirty Harry on Makin’ Me Crazy (after Pink would not authorise use of her original vocals), and Nick Carter of Backstreet Boys on Say Goodbye. Tommy attends an afternoon in-store appearance at Vintage Vinyl in St. Louis before Mötley Crüe’s show at UMB Bank Pavilion later in the evening.

12/8/05
After an in-store appearance at Best Buy in New York, Tommy guests on NBC’s Late Night with Conan O’Brien and at one point during the interview he licks the cheeks of Conan and guest Eva Langoria.

14/8/05
Tommy performs on the Comedy Channel’s Celebrity Roast of Pamela Anderson, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. Tommy begins his roast with, “I’m here to honour my loving, beautiful, sexy, blonde, ex-wife tonight. Unfortunately, Heather Locklear couldn’t be here tonight, so we’re roasting Pam instead.”

16/8/05
The Tommy Lee Goes to College reality TV show premieres on NBC with two episodes back-to-back. According to Nielsen Media Research, the show rates third in its 8pm timeslot, drawing 5.2 million viewers to finish behind the CBS reality series Big Brother 6 (8.7 million) and a repeat of Jim Belushi’s sitcom According to Jim (ABC) with 6.4 million viewers. It also beat the season finale of I Want to Be a Hilton, which NBC aired last week in the 8-9pm timeslot. Viewership of Tommy’s new show increased with its second episode aired at 8:30pm, drawing 6.1 million viewers and trailing Big Brother 6 and ABC’s repeat of Rodney Carrington’s sitcom Rodney (6.5 million). It also did well in the demographic that matters to the networks: the advertising-friendly ages of eighteen to forty nine where it came in second (4 million) behind Big Brother with 4.5 million viewers in the demographic. Overall, both of Tommy’s episodes did better than Fox’s 2005 Teen Choice Awards (4.8 million) and a repeat of the Gilmore Girls (2.8 million) on The WB.

18/8/05
Tommy’s new album opens at a disappointing number sixty two on the Billboard 200 chart with sales of sixteen thousand copies.

19/8/05
Nikki launches Running Wild in the Night – a fundraising initiative for Covenant House that provides services in twenty one cities to homeless and runaway youths, including advocacy, health care, education, vocational preparation, drug abuse treatment and prevention programs, legal services, recreation, transitional living programs, street and community outreach and aftercare. “Having experienced life as a runaway myself, I wanted to do something to help kids put in this position through no fault of their own,” says Nikki, who admits that music was perhaps the single most important factor in saving him from that situation. “I want to raise awareness and funds for Covenant House and to create a creative arts program, starting with an emphasis on music, to enable Covenant House to help young people discover and nurture their talents like I did through music.” Nikki will launch Running Wild in the Night by auctioning off a custom, personalised Harley Davidson motorcycle online and teaming up with outside manufacturers to donate musical instruments, musical software and computer equipment to Covenant House creative arts programs designed to promote healing and growth for homeless and displaced young people. Nikki is also planning to donate a percentage of proceeds from his recent lawsuit victory with Vans Corporation, as well as a portion of proceeds from his forthcoming book The Heroin Diaries, which chronicles his struggles with drug addiction. “A lot of kids on the streets are addicted to drugs, I know what it’s like, and I know they can help themselves by finding a Covenant House in their area,” says Nikki. “This cause is obviously near and dear to my heart, and I’m hoping that my efforts will enable even one homeless or runaway kid to achieve what I have in life. Saving the life of one kid who grows up and has a child of his or her own who could be the person who cures cancer or AIDS – there is no way to know how far the reach can go.”

20/8/05
Nikki says he and his wife Donna are getting a huge warehouse and turning it into their creative command centre, consisting of a rehearsal room, recording studio, areas for Donna to work on acting, and room for both of their painting and photography interests. There will also be video editing bays and meeting rooms. Nikki says Donna is preparing for roles in two movies, while he is writing tons of music.

21/8/05
As one that never wants to follow the same format that’s been done over and over before, Nikki looks for a new idea for the release of his forthcoming book The Heroin Diaries. He plans to simultaneously release a soundtrack of original music based on the book, along with a movie shot for each song that will tell the book’s story, either as a life of its own or forming a movie of the book when played all together. So whilst touring with Mötley and writing new music for the Crüe’s next album, Nikki has written half the songs for the huge book project, of which Tommy said reminds him of Pink Floyd’s The Wall meets Alice in Wonderland gone bad. Not wanting to rush the creative project, Nikki is hoping to shoot the movies during January and expects a July 2006 release in a perfect world.

22/8/05
Tommy introduces Cheap Trick on stage during their concert at The Docks in Toronto, Canada with Alice Cooper.

23/8/05
A video segment on Canadian Idol shows Tommy meeting with the contestants and giving them some guidance.

24/8/05
Mick says “There is a new album in the works, but we’re taking our time on it. For me, I would like to see like a Sgt. Peppers, an Electric Ladyland, something really outstanding and new. I have a zillion ideas and I’m sure Nikki and Tommy and Vince do, as well. We just haven’t sat down and started working together yet, because the tour’s been so extensive.” The band will be on tour in North America until October 16, before heading to Japan in November for six gigs, followed by another six in Australia in December. Starting in February, they’ll be working America over for the third time in a year, hitting smaller cities, followed by another round of European dates and, if things go according to plan, a South American run – by which point, it will be May 2006. “That’s the time to start doing a new record,” Nikki tells MTV. “If you look at the history of the band, from the first record on, we’ve always done something fresh.” But more than anything else though, Nikki says he wants to avoid falling into the pattern that’s ruined so many other veteran bands: rock and roll flaccidity. “I don’t want to be part of that trend where bands that have been around for more than twenty years become mellow. Even with U2, a band I respect, everything has this older, mellower feel to it. You hear that in a lot of rock bands. I don’t mind having ballads and medium-tempo songs — I just hope we never become a bunch of pussies.”

Commenting on Pamela Anderson’s decision to record a duet with Bryan Adams for inclusion on his forthcoming Anthology album, Tommy says he knows from experience she has never had aspirations to be a singer and believes her singing debut on the track When You’re Gone will need to be enhanced by studio tinkering. “To tell you the truth, I never heard her sing, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use the technical magic world of recording studios to make her sound good.”

28/8/05
Mötley Crüe plays their last show with Sum 41, Silvertide and The Exies on board at Riverbend Amphitheater in Cincinnati, Ohio. Before heading home to spend a day with his family before more touring, Nikki says he is really tired as he and Tommy started and finished a song they wrote with Scott Stevens and David Walsh from The Exies earlier in the day, heading straight into the studio to cut a demo without sleep.

One night during the tour, Tommy curiously clips a jogger’s odometer onto his shoe and after playing the two-and-a-half hour concert it displays a distance reading of thirteen miles; drumming night after night on tour keeps him in great shape.

29/8/05
Tommy performs Good Times on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live.

10/9/05
Mötley Crüe participates in ReAct Now: Music & Relief, a four-hour concert TV special airing commercial-free and simultaneously across all of MTV Networks to benefit the Hurricane Katrina relief campaign. From the CMT Studios in Nashville, they perform a magical version of Home Sweet Home with Chester Bennington from Linkin Park sharing vocals with Vince, backed with strings, a choir, and other musicians. To benefit victims of the largest natural disaster in U.S. history, more than fifty musical acts from every genre come together for the show. The artists deliver emotional performances and urge viewers to do whatever they can to help the hundreds of thousands displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

They all head to a recording studio later in the day with everybody in tow to properly record the version of Home Sweet Home for a single to be released to raise more money to assist the people of New Orleans. The single is produced by Desmond Child.

11/9/05
While in Nashville, Tommy films a cameo appearance in the new video clip XXL from country-rocker Keith Anderson, off his album Three Chord Country and American Rock & Roll. In one scene, Tommy is surrounded by glamorous nurses and takes on an Obstetrics and Gynecology role, delivering a baby boy as he lip-syncs, ‘Oh, mama, he’s a XXL.’

13/9/05
The final episode of Tommy Lee Goes to College airs and is watched by almost four and a half million viewers in the U.S.A. The episode features Tommy taking final exams and celebrating afterwards with a party at the Rococo Theatre.

16/9/05
Five songs into the Crüe’s concert at Philips Arena in Atlanta, Vince falls while singing Live Wire and crawls off to the side of stage as the band finishes the song instrumentally. They then go into their planned ten-minute intermission, which turns into more than thirty minutes before the circus tent curtain rises as Nikki, Mick and Tommy walk on stage without their motorcycles. Nikki and Tommy address the audience and tell them that Vince is on the way to the emergency room and ask for everyone to remain calm, promising to come back to Atlanta and honour the tickets with another concert, or provide a full-refund if preferred. News services soon run incorrect stories stating that it has been confirmed that Vince broke his leg during the show.

17/9/05
Virginia State’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control is investigating whether the Verizon Wireless Virginia Beach Amphitheater violated its license during their Mötley Crüe concert last week, as they look into a complaint that a band member carried a video camera through the audience and encouraged women to flash their breasts for show on large projection screens. Under state law, any establishment that allows lewd, obscene or indecent pictures on its premises can have its ABC license suspended or revoked.

18/9/05
Nikki says Vince’s left leg completely gave out as he performed in Atlanta, feeling a snap or like he had been hit with something extremely heavy in the calf. Paramedics backstage said he probably tore something in his calf and he needed to go to the hospital right away. Wanting to go back on stage but unable to even stand and in a great deal of pain, Vince was finally rushed to Piedmont Hospital for assessment and treatment. Doctors report that he tore the medial portion of his calf muscle, but it’s not as bad as it could be. Usually these types of injuries take upto six weeks to heal but Vince feels he will be able to continue to perform without jumping around, ensuring no shows will be cancelled. He is expected to make a full and quick recovery, according to his doctors, who nevertheless urge him to take some time off. The band intends to return to Atlanta to make-up the show.

27/9/05
During a press conference, Mötley Crüe announces that they will donate one hundred percent of proceeds from a specially-recorded rendition of their song Home Sweet Home with Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington to the hurricane relief efforts of Mercy Corps and the American Red Cross. The track is available exclusively on iTunes from today and will soon be carried by all other major digital music services in the U.S., including eMusic, Napster, MSN, Real/Rhapsody, and Yahoo!/Musicmatch. The single will also be distributed through leading mobile phone companies, spanning over two hundred global services. A specially-produced music video for the single makes its exclusive debut on AOL Music’s First View program for twenty four hours before screening on all major music television outlets. Though the sentiment applies to all areas affected by the hurricane, the music video focuses primarily on New Orleans. A CD single release is planned for the song for traditional retail outlets and will include an exclusive behind-the-scenes ‘making of’ documentary. Mötley Crüe joined forces with Chester Bennington of Linkin Park on September 10 in Nashville for a live performance of the Crüe’s hit single Home Sweet Home, which aired as part of the MTV/VH1/CMT React Now Music + Relief initiative dedicated to the survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Following their performance, the band and Chester went into Nashville’s famed Oceanway Studios to record this new studio version of the classic hit with Grammy-winning producer Desmond Child and a full, twenty-six-person gospel choir and twenty-five-piece string orchestra.

Nikki says, “Chester was originally scheduled to play the benefit concert in Los Angeles but when he heard what we were doing he wanted to help with this song and video and chose to do his performance in Nashville with us. Chester is a real artist that will be making a difference for a long time. This song, both musically and lyrically, relates to many of the things that are happening now, as the hardest hit areas set out to rebuild.” Chester says, “Considering they had a show the night before and then another the night after, it’s a testament to how awesome a rock band Mötley Crüe is and how much this cause means to them. The chance to perform with these guys for such a great cause is something really special. Hopefully, people will embrace it in the way it was intended. The song really does fit the sentiment and something special happened when we pulled it together. Everyone felt as if they were doing something really important.”

New Orleans has a special meaning for Vince since it’s where he first proposed to his wife Lia. “It happened right on Bourbon Street and to see what’s happened there is just terrible. I can’t believe it.” Tommy says, “We tend to be desensitised by the non-stop media coverage of the relief effort, thinking there’s nothing more we can do. We’re just happy to have a song and a video that keeps the awareness of how monumental this task is and that we have to keep trying to do everything we can to help.”

2/10/05
Nikki says they are currently meeting with movie directors for the silver-screen version of their autobiography The Dirt. David Fincher (Seven, Fight Club, Panic Room) was set to be the director but Paramount needed him to do a huge movie and wanted the Crüe to wait. Nikki assures the movie “will get made, and it will get made right. The project has to be gritty.”

Drummers Tommy Lee and Phil Collins have donated autographed drum sticks to a new People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals campaign against fast-food chain KFC. The drum sticks will be auctioned to raise funds for Peta’s Kentucky Fried Cruelty campaign to stop the company allegedly abusing chickens at factory farms.

9/10/05
At Sacred Center Tattoo in Las Vegas, Nikki and wife Donna D’Errico get matching tattoos of rosary beads wrapped around their left ankles with its cross on their feet.

12/10/05
Tommy is burned when a pyrotechnics explosion goes wrong during Mötley’s concert in Casper, Wyoming. He suffers minor burns on his arms and face while suspended thirty feet above the stage during his drum solo. Tommy plays one more song after he is hurt towards the end of the show, but the band then cuts the performance short so he can go to the hospital where he receives treatment as an outpatient. Tommy is expected to fully recover and no Crüe shows will be cancelled.

16/10/05
Mötley Crüe plays the last show of their North American Carnival of Sins Tour at the Tyson Center in Sioux City, Iowa. Tommy says he is recovering from his recent pyro mishap, “I’m getting better. I have first- and second-degree burns on my arms, singed hair, eye lashes, face, etc. Every day I get better and thank God I’m home tonight! Home for a few weeks then Japan, Australia, Hawaii.”

20/10/05
Tommy attends the fashion parade of designer Sheri Bodell at Smashbox Studios in Culver City, California as part of Mercedes-Benz Spring 2006 L.A. Fashion Week. His producer Scott Humphrey joins him, along with Mike Einziger of Incubus and Dean Karr, who directed Tommy’s Hold Me Down video clip.

25/10/05
Mötley Crüe releases Carnival of Sins – their first-ever concert DVD with original members on Clear Channel Entertainment Home-video. This double-disc DVD features footage from a concert in Grand Rapids, Michigan, along with behind-the-scenes footage, in-depth interviews, a Claymation film, music videos and more.

30/10/05
Mötley Crüe plays with The Rolling Stones at Key Arena in Seattle.

Nikki is excited about going on a photographic journey through Cambodia and Thailand between the Japanese and Australian Mötley Crüe shows. He’ll be travelling with Paul Brown and they hope Ross Halfin, who knows the ins and outs of both countries from many visits, will also join them. Nikki hoped wife Donna would be able to make the trip but she will be shooting a movie instead. They will be hiking into the jungle and very mobile a lot of the time during their trip.

2/11/05
Mötley Crüe plays the last of their two shows with The Rolling Stones in Portland. Feeling they played well tonight with the band firing on all cylinders, Nikki says, “Backstage we were all hanging out and Mick Jagger told me that he and Charlie Watts watched the whole show. He told me no support band has ever gotten their crowd up on their feet the way we did. It looks like we will be supporting them for some more shows in Europe next year.”

5/11/05
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton tours the Palms’ N9NE Steakhouse kitchen in Las Vegas. Spotted among the Clinton party on their visit to the restaurant is Vince, former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, Hollywood producer Steve Bing, billionaires Ron Burkle and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, and baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson.

8/11/05
Limp Bizkit’s Greatest Hits is released by Geffen records and includes Bittersuite Home, a ‘mash-up’ track of Mötley Crüe’s Home Sweet Home and the Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony.

9/11/05
Tommy performs a DJ set at Medicine Bar in London, England to raise money for the U.K.’s Our World, Our Say charity, who is campaigning to raise awareness of and oppose the ID Cards Bill & the National Identity Register, which is being pushed through the British parliament right now. Tommy also guests on the Frank Skinner ITV show alongside Ozzy Osbourne and Kevin Bacon, talking about his solo album and new single Good Times, plus his reality TV show that starts soon on England’s E4. He later attends the birthday party of Ozzy’s son Jack with DJ Aero.

11/11/05
Vince hosts the Off the Strip charity poker event at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas. Players who bought into the $540 No Limit Hold ‘Em event face a serious distraction by the all-star collection of dancers in attendance from the hottest Vegas clubs as they vie for a $50,000 prize pool. Proceeds for the event go to the T.J Martell Foundation via the Skylar Neil Foundation.

Meanwhile Nikki says he has found hours of footage of the band throughout their career that he hopes to turn into a movie. Currently building a video editing facility at his Los Angeles home, Nikki is stunned by what he has discovered and hints it may not be appropriate for public viewing, telling Rolling Stone magazine, “I found, like, thirty tapes! One was called Mick Pissing on an Old Lady’s Leg in Italy and another Robbing Grave in England.”

14/11/05
A special cinema screening of Mötley’s Carnival of Sins DVD takes place in select movie theatres in each state of Australia. Tickets to the one-off event were only available to competition winners.

19/11/05
Prior to Mötley Crüe playing Tokyo as the first of their six shows in Japan, Nikki says they decided to have support in Japan for the first-time-ever and invited Buckcherry along for the ride. Doors open at 3pm and the Crüe plays their one-hundred-and-fifty-minute show. Nikki says, “It’s weird finishing your show so early and to be walking the streets by 8pm.” He also thanks everybody who bid on his personal items that recently raised thousands of dollars at auction for his Running Wild in the Night charity, helping the kids at all the Covenant Houses across America.

Jack Carson steps-up to take over from Allan Zullo as the band’s tour manager.

20/11/05
From the thirty-sixth floor of his Tokyo hotel room, Nikki says his wife Donna is in Los Angeles setting up lighting in the photography area of their studio, while packing lenses and cameras and getting ready to leave for Cambodia in a few days where she will take photos and film a documentary of their journey through jungles. She plans on editing it all together with Final Cut Pro software back at their studio, after returning from London where she will be starting a new movie while Nikki is still on tour.

21/11/05
Tommy has reportedly had all copies of his Tommyland: The Ride album destined for Britain stolen in a heist in Germany. Thieves turned up to the storage warehouse in Germany in a transit van disguised as the official exporters in the early hours, offloading thousands of copies of the CD. All the missing records are expected to worm their way onto the black market. A spokesperson for the Mötley Crüe drummer says the theft has not affected the album’s release, which hits the U.K. shelves today.

25/11/05
As part of their European tour, Union plays a benefit concert in Frankfurt, Germany with proceeds from the event going to children suffering from cancer in that country.

3/12/05
Following a press conference at the InterContinental Hotel the previous day, Mötley Crüe plays their first Australian concert in fifteen years at Sydney’s Superdome. Nikki dedicates their performance of Red Hot to Chronological Crue’s Paul Miles, standing front-row-centre witnessing his first live Crüe concert.

9/12/05
Nikki visits the grave of former AC/DC front-man Bon Scott at Fremantle Cemetery outside Perth. Nikki says, “We all flew in from Adelaide (Motörhead too) and went straight from the airport to the graveyard. I went with Paul Miles, Jozie and [personal security guard] Kimo. Bon really was an original. Rest in Peace.”

10/12/05
At the Blackjack festival in Perth, Mötley Crüe winds-up the last of their six Australian concerts with Motörhead, who joins them on stage for an encore of Anarchy In The U.K. Nikki says he and Lemmy “made a promise to spend more hang time in Los Angeles and I intend on keeping my end of the bargain.” After a backstage cake to celebrate Nikki’s forty seventh birthday, the band prepares to head to Hawaii for one show on the way back to the U.S. Nikki flies via Hong Kong to catch up with his wife Donna on her way to London.

14/12/05
Backstage at Blaisdell Arena prior to Mötley Crüe’s Honolulu concert in front of 4,343 fans, Tommy welcomes teen actor Mickey as a guest in his dressing room, who will be seen on the big screen in Paris Hilton’s next film Pledge This.

16/12/05
Tommy emcees the Miracle on State Street 7 concert featuring Alanis Morisette, Ben Folds and The Fray. After the show at the Chicago Theatre, Tommy brings Alanis with him over to LePassage, where he cranks the big beats with DJ Paul Blair. Club owner Billy Dec is spotted hanging out in the DJ booth.

With the band members now back in Los Angeles, they meet with their managers around this time to discuss the Mötley Crüe’s future plans and agree to put a further two years aside to devote themselves to the band, planning to play more dates in 2006 than they did this year. They agree to set-up a rehearsal room at venues during the tour next year for the band to work on songwriting, as well as providing mini-studios on the band’s buses. They agree to Bob Rock producing and that he should periodically come out on the road to hear progress and offer suggestions on the new album’s direction. Proceeds from a future Carnival of Sins live CD will be used to self-fund the recording of the new studio album, to ensure they own the masters and can release it themselves or shop it to a major record label. They also discuss commitment of the band members and the need to be fully available, instead of working on solo projects, so they can best execute their plans for the new studio album and increased touring.

19/12/05
Tommy and Pamela Anderson dine at Sushi Roko in West Hollywood, having watched the NBA basketball game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Houston Rockets together yesterday. After dinner, they go to the Key Club in West Hollywood where Tommy joins hair-metal cover band Metal Skool on stage, drumming along to Girls, Girls, Girls while Pamela dances around a stripper pole in a sexy Santa outfit as she douses herself with water. A drunken Pamela is carried out at the end of the night as Tommy holds her up and helps her into a vehicle as paparazzi take photos.

22/12/05
During an interview with Detroit’s WRIF 101.1 FM, Nikki says the Crüe will commence the songwriting/demoing process for their new studio album on May 1 next year with producer Bob Rock. “We go back out on tour in February. We tour into the first week of April. May 1 we start writing and rehearsals for the new music, probably demoing stuff up. We’re doing the new album with Bob Rock. And then when it’s ready, we’re gonna cut it. Our intention is to make the greatest record we’ve ever made. With that being said, we also believe that if we over think it, it will lose its rawness, so we wanna get in there and just terrorise the music and then just get it on tape. That’s the idea, but that’s more of in a perfect world. We are very excited about making a new record. I think new music is so important.”

23/12/05
Forty-year-old Craig Titus – Vince’s former Personal Trainer who helped him lose twenty pounds as part of VH1’s Remaking: Vince Neil special – is arrested for murder with his wife Kelly Ryan in Stoughton, Massachusetts as fugitives in the slaying of a woman whose body was found two weeks ago in Ryan’s burned-out luxury car abandoned off a remote desert highway.

24/12/05
Tommy Lee, Pamela Anderson, Kelsey Grammer, Brooke Burke, Lisa Rinna, David Carradine, Gary Busey, Oliver Stone, and David Charvet are amongst the stars at the Malibu home of John Paul DeJoria, CEO and co-founder of John Paul Mitchell Haircare Systems, during his annual party to thank movie, television and music star friends and his co-workers for their charitable work.

25/12/05
Nikki’s family celebrates Christmas early this year as his wife Donna and son Rhyan take a special mother/son Christmas trip in Cambodia. Nikki says, “I’m excited for them, yet it somehow feels sad to be in a somewhat empty house on X-mas. It’s just me and Frankie here until tomorrow when Gunner, Storm and Decker come back from their mother’s. I wanted to wish all of you a very happy holiday and thank you for a great year. There has been a lot of money raised through the auctions for Running Wild in the Night and that means the world to me and the kids at Covenant House. I hope you get everything you want this holiday and at least everything you need.”

30/12/05
Mötley Crüe will be honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this coming January 25 in front of the Musician’s Institute in Hollywood, California. The band is among a number of entertainers in motion pictures, television, radio, live theater, and recording that were selected in June 2005 to receive stars on the Walk of Fame by the Walk of Fame Committee of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. These individuals were chosen from among hundreds of nominations to the committee at a meeting held June 20, and ratified by the Chamber’s Board of Directors. With the assistance of her daughters, Crüehead Liz Gannon was instrumental in nominating Mötley Crüe for a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The Crüe ends 2005 among the top twenty in North American concert sales receipts, according to concert industry trade magazine Pollstar. The Rolling Stones’ tour led all other concert tours in 2005 with US$162 million in gross receipts and an average ticket price of $133.98, followed by U2, Celine Dion, Paul McCartney, Eagles, Elton John, Kenny Chesney, Dave Matthews Band, Neil Diamond, and Jimmy Buffet rounding out the top ten. Mötley comes in eleventh with US$39.9 million in gross receipts. The Crüe’s average ticket price of $46.48 is the cheapest in the list before Green Day in twelfth place with a $38.07 average ticket price. Each member of Mötley Crüe nets around $3 million for the year.

31/12/05
Mötley Crüe celebrates New Year’s Eve with a concert at The Palace of Auburn Hills in Detroit. During the show, Tommy is escorted onto the main floor to an area just in front of the mixing desks where he is connected and lifted above the crowd to play his flying drum solo, before being led back to the stage for Same Ol’ Situation and the titty cam, which runs to just a few minutes before midnight. The band members then hand out champagne to people on the floor before everyone in front of the stage is sprayed with champagne as thousands of balloons and streamers fall from the ceiling. The band then plays a version of U2’s New Years Day that was learnt in several run-throughs during their forty-five-minute sound-check before the show. Following the encore of Anarchy in the U.K., Tommy and Vince give out bottles of champagne to fans while Nikki splatters the seven-thousand-eight-hundred-strong audience with buckets of fake blood. Mick is then pulled off stage by an over-exuberant female fan and is rushed backstage for medical attention. The Crüe caps off an amazing comeback year and looks forward to fresh challenges, achievements and dramas in 2006.

On with the show