Chronological Crue - The History of Motley Crue in 2006

3/1/06
Responding to fans' concerns about his well-being after being pulled off stage at the end of Mötley Crüe’s New Year’s Eve concert in Detroit, Mick Mars says, “I'm fine, I am undamaged. I had a great time, and to the girl that pulled me in, I am not upset with her or mad. I hope she got my pick. See ya'll next time. Thanks for a very memorable New Year's evening.” Mick apparently leaned forward toward some fans (he says to give them a guitar pick) but the two fans, Karen Ann Sklar and Christine Bajaj, told Auburn Hills Police they saw him reaching out to them and thought he was trying to pull them on stage, maybe to go backstage. Witness reports vary: two bystanders back the women up, saying they didn't yank him, while a venue security officer thought they did. Although Mick asked for the police to be called, he declined to press criminal charges.

4/1/06
Nikki Sixx tells Launch Radio Networks that Mötley Crüe’s film adaptation of its autobiography is making significant progress. "The movie is getting some legs. The script's done. I mean, the people in Hollywood – the movie companies – are just freaking out over the script. They love it."

6/1/06
During an appearance on the Opie and Anthony show on XM Satellite Radio, Vince Neil says Mötley Crüe will be teaming up with Aerosmith for a co-headlining tour later in the year. The Crüe also plans to play several European mid-year dates with The Rolling Stones.

13/1/06
Documentary filmmaker Bruce Sinofsky, best known for his award-winning Metallica: Some Kind of Monster film, will turn his cameras on Tommy Lee this spring for an as-yet untitled film, currently in pre-production. Sinofsky believes few characters in rock are as 'colourful as Lee, and not just because of his tattoos.' The documentary seeks a candid glimpse behind the celebrity and tabloid personality into who Tommy really is, watching him interact with family, friends and business associates. Tommy says, "I'm honoured that Bruce is turning his cameras loose on me."

Former Mötley front-man John Corabi is to contribute an acoustic version of Home Sweet Home to a forthcoming Mötley Crüe tribute CD from Versailles Records, due for release next year. John will also record harmony vocals for Versailles artist One Bad Son on their version of Misunderstood for the release.

14/1/06
In an interview with Guitar World magazine, former Marilyn Manson guitarist John 5 says he wrote a song for Paul Stanley's solo album at his home with Desmond Child and then, "Desmond called me again to write a song with him and Nikki for Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell III."

17/1/06
The New York Post reports Tommy has been quietly dating twenty-year-old Vivid Video porn star Stefani Morgan after the pair met at an Adult Video News Awards after-party held at the Venetian in Las Vegas a few weeks ago.

19/1/06
New Line Cinema’s President of Music Paul Broucek announces that Tommy has recorded a cover version of Love Train to be featured in the upcoming film Final Destination 3, arriving in theatres on February 10. The tune is currently only available in the movie itself and can be heard as the end title song. The original version was released by the O'Jays on their 1972 album Back Stabbers, hitting number one on the pop and R&B charts en route to becoming a classic landmark song in the history of Philadelphia soul. Tommy says, “I've always loved the song and it was great being able to put my own darker spin on it for the movie."

25/1/06
Mötley Crüe is honoured with the 2301st star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 11:30am in front of the Musician's Institute at 6752 Hollywood Boulevard (east of Highland) in Hollywood, coinciding with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the band's founding. Nikki tells the six hundred fans in attendance, "We're across the street from the Erotica Museum and Frederick's of Hollywood. This is a perfect place for us to be."

28/1/06
Vince performs at the tenth annual Bay Point Schools Charity Gala called Puttin' on the Ritz at the Ritz-Carlton in Miami, Florida. Hosted by the charity’s founders, attorney Roy Black and wife Lea, the black-tie fundraising event gets spiced up when an inebriated Vince swaggers to the stage, spewing profanities at the high-powered crowd of South Beach denizens, judges and lawyers on the way. After attempting to lead his stunned audience in a spirited chant of f-words, Vince then struggles to remember the words to Dr. Feelgood and mumbles his way through the single song. Exiting the stage, he plants a kiss on drag diva Elaine Lancaster as he returns to his wife Lia at their table. Later in the night, he has a Ritz employee hook him up with an employee rate for a hotel room. When the hotel discovers the guest is not her step-brother, Vince is told he is never welcome back to the hotel.

1/2/06
Tommy flies to Arizona and watches Aerosmith from the side of the Glendale Arena stage where they play with Lenny Kravitz.

3/2/06
In Detroit for the Superbowl weekend, Tommy and his entourage go to Jenna Jameson's Vivid party before heading to Bleu where Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas hosts a party. They then move on to P. Diddy's party at the Elysium Lounge, before finishing their night out at the Blue Martini in neighbouring Birmingham.

4/2/06
Nikki thanks the winning bidders from auctions of his personal items that raises money for his Running Wild in the Night charity. His Harley Davidson sells for $21,000 to take the total raised to more than $60,000. As he prepares to head out on the road with Mötley Crüe again he says, “I hate leaving the family behind, since I never really had one. They’re the most important people in my life and to be away from them is hard, to say the least.”

After enjoying checking out some of Eminem's Shady Bowl Super Party at the State Theatre in Detroit, Tommy gets sucker-punched in the face by a local rapper as he leaves the building. Ignoring the one punch from out of nowhere, Tommy walks outside in the snow while two guys with video cameras encourage Tommy to hit them because they 'want to get paid.' Tommy tells them to get a job as he continues to Bleur where he DJs 'hard-ass breaks and electro' to a packed house for two hours with DJ Aero. Scheduled to then DJ at the Penthouse – Rockstar party at Vault, Tommy is a no-show due to security not being tight enough at the venue.

5/2/06
Tommy watches the Pittsburgh Steelers win the Super Bowl Xl from a private suite parallel with the 45-yard line with DJ Aero, Chad Kroeger from Nickelback and P. Diddy. After the game, Tommy heads to the hotel after-party of The Rolling Stones.

7/2/06
Mötley Crüe releases their Carnival Of Sins Live Volume I & II CDs exclusively in Walmart stores across the United States. Behind the scenes, a key component of the deal commits Walmart to paying the Crüe a $900,000 advance to record a new full-length studio album of all-new material, of which $600,000 is set aside for production of the album while the rest is disbursed to the band. The new album is scheduled to be recorded this year for a release in late in 2006 or early-2007. An international tour in support of the album is also planned, along with the movie in support of the tour.

9/2/06
Nikki says, “I'm really anxious to start playing new music. I'm panting; I want it so bad. I just looked down at my list, and I have forty-five ideas for songs; Mick's probably got somewhere between forty and a hundred riffs. Tommy's got a ton of ideas.”

10/2/06
Mötley Crüe kicks off the next leg of their Carnival of Sins tour in Columbus, Georgia. A ‘jam room’ is being set-up in every city for song writing and the band plans to take the ideas home and commence the final writing sessions in May. Nikki says they intend on adding some new tunes to the set to keep it fresh (mostly for the band); they just need a few days to settle in to their tour environment before they start working them up. He also says he mostly spent time with wife Donna and their kids over the long break but he did get in some song writing and a few photo sessions behind the camera in his studio.

12/2/06
Vince gets hit with a plastic water container thrown from the audience while performing on stage during Mötley’s show in Columbia, South Carolina. As the Crüe stops playing, Nikki says over the microphone, "You don't throw shit at the band. Why don't we find that guy and bring him backstage?" Vince throws his microphone into the crowd before returning fifteen minutes later to continue to rock. Nikki later says, “Vince got hit in the face by some asshole with a cup of piss. Last I saw of the guy he was handcuffed, face bloodied, screaming, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry’ - what an idiot!”

22/2/06
Promoters in Ireland announce a huge outdoor concert at Dublin’s RDS Arena on June 9 featuring Guns N’ Roses with support from Mötley Crüe. The Crüe has previously said they will play several shows in Europe during June with The Rolling Stones, and it seems the offer to support Axl Rose’s band in front of an expected 30,000-plus capacity crowd seemed too good to refuse. Crüe fans speculate over the possibilities of Axl and Vince finally settling their long-standing feud that stemmed from a 1989 incident between Vince’s then-wife Sharise and Axl’s former band-mate Izzy Stradlin’, with Vince most-recently stating in The Dirt that the offer to fight still stands. As tickets are about to go on-sale a couple of days later, the promoter says Mötley decided to cancel their date, even though some radio adverts still say the Crüe is playing.

3/3/06
Sitting in a Quebec City hotel room reflecting on the last year of touring, Nikki remarks that he feels rock’n’roll is stronger than ever again. Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton tells Nikki on the phone that they’re also seeing a younger audience at their concerts. Nikki says, “All’s well out here but I look forward to heading back to L.A. in mid-April for a short break before we start rehearsals for the next album. We have been working on songs out here on the road, but I’m excited to not have any distractions when we’re home. Good news is my book The Heroin Diaries is 100% finished and now we're just laying out the design and looking at an October/November release.”

L.A. Guns drummer Steve Riley says, “Thanks to the Mötley Crüe reunion, there is a demand for ‘80s bands. Mötley Crüe has opened up a lot of doors for bands like L.A. Guns once again.”

12/3/06
From Charleston, West Virginia with just a month of shows left to perform on this tour, Nikki says, “We've been touring, writing and recording for over sixteen months now. I can safely say we need a break. No complaints though – how lucky we are to be able to still do this after twenty-five years. But I feel like Ripped Van Winkle, ready for a mending and hibernation from the volume.”

Nikki also provides closure clarity on his situation with Dragonfly, explaining, “I wanted you guys to know that the company Dragonfly Clothing ripped me off and I chose to not go into litigation with them. It would have been a mess. They showed me how they hide their money in Lebanon and didn't pay taxes on a lot of their income. I know that unlike Vans (who is a public-held company), this would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and would have taken my eye off the more important things in life. So it works in their favour, but please know that buying anything with their name and my name together is not approved by me. It is disheartening to know there are still scumbags out there willing to take advantage of someone's hard work, but life is full of lessons and I'm sure their karma is going to come down on them like a nuclear bomb. I know of many different companies and artists who have sued them. Most win, but it's so sticky. I was the fool; shame on me for trusting them. A lot of their employees and sales staff have left and contacted me to do a clothing line. More on that down the road.”

16/3/06
CBS announces the second season of the worldwide hit TV series Rock Star will feature a new supergroup called Supernova, comprising Mötley Crüe's Tommy Lee on drums, former Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke, and former Metallica member Jason Newsted on bass. They will use the popular reality TV show to find their lead singer this summer as Rock Star talent scouts currently audition hopefuls around the world. Dave Navarro and Brooke Burke will return as hosts and according to Navarro, "Friends of mine, like Slash, Macy Gray, Moby and Rob Zombie will join us and throw in their two cents about who should stay and who should go." Supernova's debut album, tentatively scheduled to be released in Fall 2006 before a world tour early next year, will be co-written and produced by reigning Rolling Stone magazine 'Hot Producer Of The Year' Butch Walker, a songwriter/producer who has previously worked on hits with Avril Lavigne, Pink, Bowling for Soup and Tommy Lee. The first series of Rock Star last year saw J.D. Fortune chosen to front INXS. The show's producer Mark Burnett says, "The winner of CBS's Rock Star will not only play in huge stadiums before sold-out crowds, they will do it alongside legendary musicians from three of America's biggest, all-time rock bands who have sold a combined total of a quarter of a billion albums: Mötley Crüe, Guns N' Roses and Metallica. Fronting Supernova is the ultimate rock ‘n' roll dream and it's about to come true."

Tommy’s Rock Star Supernova commitments cause scheduling conflicts and Mötley Crüe management cancels approximately forty European tour dates planned for May and June, plus scraps plans for a tour through Southeast Asia and Japan being scheduled for July. The band’s package tour with Aerosmith being planned for an August kick-off is also delayed until September.

19/3/06
After performing a DJ set at Global Gathering 2006 in Miami the previous night, Tommy DJs at his Rokbar nightspot. His three DJ gigs in as many nights kicked off at the famous Rick's Café in Jamaica, as he keeps busy on days where no Mötley concerts are scheduled.

21/3/06
From Mexico, where the four original Mötley members just played their first concert there together, Nikki says they are all getting along great and writing music together, but they can't really tell where the music is headed yet. “You just have to close your eyes and let it happen. The only thing we all agree on is it has to be the best album we've ever made.”

Paul Brown has undertaken the huge task of laying out all the artwork for The Heroin Diaries as the book is being prepared for release this October or November. The photo shoot is done and Nikki says the publisher is really excited about the book, adding, “It's really a great read now that all the pieces of the puzzle are in place. So many people came to the table to tell their side of the story relating to the actual diary entries. The title of the book is somewhat misleading because it also deals with my family problems as a kid, depression, as well as my downward spiral into freebase and pill addiction.” The more copies the book sells, the more awareness on drug and alcohol addiction there will be, and the more money it will raise for Nikki’s Running Wild in the Night charity and its beneficiary Covenant House. Nikki says Lemmy from Motörhead has written a short medical history for the beginning of the book that is very demented and there is an album's worth of songs already written for a soundtrack to the book that are ready to record. “I’d say it's very '70s glam sounding. Bits remind me of Bowie and T-Rex with a darker edge to the melodies and lyrics."

Steven Tyler prepares for throat surgery this week, forcing Aerosmith to cancel the remaining dozen dates on their North American Rockin' the Joint tour – the number three tour in the U.S.A. this year, behind U2 and Bon Jovi. The band’s publicist says, “The band is now on hiatus, with no set plans to return to touring or recording”, which casts doubts on the anticipated Mötley Crüe and Aerosmith co-headlining tour later this year that Vince spoke of in January.

25/3/06
Vince says he hopes to begin work on a new solo album with producer Desmond Child for release early next year, once Mötley's Carnival of Sins tour winds up.

5/4/06
After playing multiple shows wearing a brace and taking anti-inflammatory injections, Tommy’s doctor instructs him to give his injured right wrist a rest after his tendonitis makes it difficult for him to perform. Instead of cancelling their Canadian show tonight in Red Deer, Alberta, Mötley Crüe decides to give a fan an opportunity to play with them – Harvey Warren, drummer of the local Canadian bands 1-900 (who previously supported a Vince Neil solo show) and Bröken Töyz (who covers Mötley Crüe songs in their show every week). Tommy is on hand to play the piano parts on Home Sweet Home and ride his Harley on stage, while sharing pointers with Warren as he plays. Father to nine-year-old triplets and manager of a local Starbucks during the day, Warren is asked to travel with the Crüe for the next few days. With a day off tomorrow, Tommy is under doctor supervision and plans on resting in hope that he can continue on and finish the remaining few dates of the tour.

8/4/06
Still unable to take his place behind the drum kit due to tendonitis, Tommy has his former solo band drummer Will Hunt, now of Dark New Day, replace him for the final Mötley Crüe Carnival of Sins concerts in Canada. Tommy does manage to perform his drum solo though, much to the delight of the crowd.

9/4/06
From Nashville, where he is winding up some song-writing sessions, John Corabi says, "I finished a song called If I Never Get To Say Goodbye with Gary Hannon (who wrote Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off). I also finished writing a song with Steve Azar called Then Comes Sunday that is going to be amazing. Last but not least, I finished and recorded a song called She's A Lot Like The Woman I Love with Marcel Chagnon and James Slater."

11/4/06
Chronological Crue releases two brand-new Mötley Crüe books titled Mötley Crüe Down Under: On Tour with The Carnival of Sins and What Mötley Crüe Means to Me: Crüeheads Share Their Stories. The paperbacks give rock music lovers a unique insight into life on the road with the bad boys of rock’n’roll during their wildly successful comeback tour, as well as short stories showing the huge impact and inspiration that Mötley Crüe has had on the lives of their fans.

13/4/06
Mötley Crüe winds up the third-leg of their comeback tour at the Brandt Centre in Regina, Canada. According to figures later released by Pollstar, the Crüe sold 234,643 tickets for these 42 concerts in 2006 that hit ‘C markets’, averaging 5,587 fans in attendance per show.

19/4/06
John Corabi plays the first of two Australian shows with ESP in Melbourne, and includes Mötley's Power To The Music in the set of covers. The shows are John's first visit to Australia in eight years and he says, "I realise that I really need to get here more often." Upon his return to Los Angeles, he plans on finishing a couple of songs to be released via the Internet only.

24/4/06
Chronological Crue's complete history of Mötley Crüe is released as a much-anticipated three-volume series of paperback books to mark the anniversary of the band's first-ever live show that took place at the Starwood in Los Angeles twenty-five years ago this day. Authored by Paul Miles, Mötley Crüe historian, the Chronological Crue series is published as Vol 1. The Eighties, Vol 2. The Nineties, and Vol 3. The Naughties. Exclusively available from CafePress.com, the books include a foreword written by best-selling author of The Dirt, Neil Strauss.

25/4/06
Tommy Lee Goes To College is released on a single-disc DVD by Image Entertainment. Featuring each of the six half-hour episodes, the DVD also includes Tommy's Good Times music video and behind-the-scenes video, plus behind-the-scenes videos of Hello Again and Tryin' to be Me.

28/4/06
The feature film of Mötley Crüe’s autobiography The Dirt takes a step forward with the appointment of Larry Charles as Director. Paramount Pictures' indie division Paramount Classics is producing the movie with MTV Films, while all the band members and Neil Strauss will serve as Executive Producers on the film. Larry Charles has previously directed Masked and Anonymous, which starred Bob Dylan, as well as the soon-to-be-released comedy Borat for Fox.

Donna D'Errico files a petition for Dissolution of Marriage to Nikki Sixx in the Los Angeles Superior Court, based on irreconcilable differences following more than nine years of marriage. She seeks physical custody of their five-year-old daughter Frankie-Jean and her thirteen-year-old son Rhyan from a previous relationship. Court documents show D'Errico has requested that the court grants joint legal custody with child visitation to Nikki, and that spousal support and attorney fees be paid by him as well. Nikki says to Chronological Crue, "It's a private matter, so tell everyone they can keep out of our business."

1/5/06
John Corabi hosts his own radio station through Rock.com and Live365.com. John Corabi Radio promises to play a great mix of all things rock. The shows are pre-recorded and new shows will be uploaded several times a week. An archive station will be launched as well, so fans can listen to past shows they may have missed. A request line is also being planned.

3/5/06
Vince is in negotiations to open his own tattoo parlour on the Las Vegas Strip. He has his sights set on a place at the Flamingo Las Vegas and plans to call the studio Vince Neil Ink.

5/5/06
Tommy sends a ship-load of his latest album Tommyland: The Ride to US Army National Guard troops stationed in Afghanistan after being appalled when he heard that commercial shipping containers full of personal items destined for the Task Force 50th Personnel Services Battalion there were raided by thieves. He immediately contacted charity organisation Operation AC, which sends care packages to deployed US troops, and made arrangements for copies of his album, games consoles, DVD players and more to be shipped out. Tommy says, "I'm so happy to be able to do something for them. Music gets us through a lot." Boosted by his latest charity venture, Tommy also plans to send more copies of his album to other troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Vince hosts the Tenth Year Anniversary edition of the annual Skylar Neil Memorial Golf Tournament at the Lost Canyons Golf Club in Simi Valley, California. The event raises over $175,000 to help fund research for cancer, leukemia, and AIDS. Vince also presents a one-million-dollar commemorative cheque to the T.J. Martell Foundation, representing monies raised over the past ten years for the T.J. Martell Foundation in memory of his late daughter Skylar.

8/5/05
Mötley Crüe's Carnival of Sins live CD is released in the UK as a double-disc set including live videos of Too Fast For Love and Dr. Feelgood, plus a free sticker and booklet.

9/5/05
Adult actress Stefani Morgan reveals in a spread in FHM magazine’s June issue that she met Tommy at a Vivid Video party in January, fell for him and has been dating him. The porn star says, "More guys than girls ask me about Tommy in the bedroom. Everyone asks me, 'So how's the sex with Tommy?' I have no complaints. I've had a lot of great sex with other people before, and with Tommy it's awesome. He's also the most down-to-earth person I've ever met. I'm crazy about him."

10/5/06
Nikki says, “Sometimes we don’t know that we’re right where we are supposed to be in life, even when looking down the barrel of a loaded gun. Life has a way of showing us that pain isn’t always bad. Sometimes we need to grow from it. I have nothing bad to say, nor will I ever about my life with Donna. She is a wonderful lady, but life doesn’t always deal us the hand we want. Powerlessness is a gift I am learning to accept, love is a gift I have received and tomorrow is something none of us have the ability to see. Today is all we have. Yesterday is gone, tomorrow may never come, life is strange, wonderful and painful. Pain hurts, but we hardly ever die from it. Thank you for keeping us in your hearts and not in our wildest dreams did we think we would end up a statistic, but dreams... they’re not predictable.”

19/5/06
Vince plays a solo show in front of about seven hundred people at The Afterdeck - Dollhouse in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina as part of Bike Week celebrations. With Slaughter's bassist Dana Strum and guitarist Jeff Blando joining him in his band, they play covers of Led Zeppelin's Rock N Roll and Montrose's Rock Candy, along with You're Invited from Vince's first solo album, and his most recent solo song Promise Me. The fourteen-song set of mainly Crüe songs winds up with Vince joining in on guitar for a long version of Teaser.

20/5/06
Versailles Records says Vince Neil’s son Neil Wharton and his band Rock N’ Roll Junkies will contribute a song to their forthcoming Too Fast For Love: A Millennium Tribute to Mötley Crüe double-CD to be released early next year. Other artists to record their parts on the twenty songs include Jizzy Pearl, Phil Lewis, Erik Turner, Frankie Banali, Keri Kelli. The label has also lined up Crash Kelly, Pretty In Stereo, Fuel From Hell, Afton Markham and Joetown as new additions to the album. Artists already recorded include John Corabi, Fred Coury, One Bad Son, Radiovipers, Richard Kendrick, Straitjacketsmile, Derrick LeFevre, Marko Pukkila, Chris Catena, Chris Heaven, and the Slashtones.

22/5/06
An un-mastered song from Meat Loaf's next chapter in the Bat Out Of Hell series began to appear on peer-to-peer file sharing websites last week, providing Meat Loaf fans around the world with an unexpected first taste of Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose - the long-awaited third instalment to rock music’s most successful series of all time. The escaped title track was co-written by Nikki with John 5 (guitarist for Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie) and Bat Out of Hell III producer, Desmond Child. The album is due to be officially released on Halloween this year by Mercury Records. A Mercury Records spokesperson says, "We're investigating the source of the leak from the studio, but once the Monster is Loose, you really can't stuff it back in its cage. Because we don't want to encourage further illegal peer-to-peer file trading, we're going to make the song available on Meat Loaf's website and MySpace page."

25/5/06
Paying tribute to Kiss at the first annual VH1 Rock Honors with a rendition of God of Thunder, Tommy plays drums in an all-star band consisting of Rob Zombie on vocals, Slash on guitar, Scott Ian on bass, plus special-surprise second guitarists Ace Frehley and Gilby Clarke. The two-hour tribute show salutes the groundbreaking bands of rock, the once-in-a-lifetime events and the influential people who made a lasting mark on the history of hard rock. The event is also attended by Vince Neil and his wife.

9/6/06
Vince tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he is opening a tattoo shop at the Flamingo in the area where O'Shea's Irish pub is being replaced. Construction begins in ten days on the 2,200-square-foot shop that will front the Strip when it opens late-summer. Vince says he had originally planned a tattoo studio at Harrah's in Lake Tahoe, but plans changed when Harrah's executive Don Marrandino moved to Las Vegas as president of Harrah's and the Flamingo.

10/6/06
Tommy DJs at the grand opening of Crash nightclub in San Francisco to kick off his new resident gig there every month with DJ Aero.

11/6/06
People's Liberation announces a collaboration with Tommy to create a limited-edition clothing range called ‘PL for TL’. The clothing line consists of denim, hooded sweatshirts and hats for both men and women and will combine modern tailoring with an edgy, yet super-sleek fit. The inspiration of the PL for TL group is the artistic elements of Tommy's tattoos; the knits and denim will have authentic detailing influenced by Tommy's unique aesthetic. Tommy will also be intimately involved in the design and development of the products and will make a minimum of six annual appearances at a combination of trade shows, retail locations and fashion shows to promote the clothing line. The PL for TL collection is expected to launch in Bloomingdale's in September.

16/6/06
Rock N' Roll Books announces the release of a new paperback called Behind the Boards Volume One. The book features exclusive, one-on-one, chapter-long interviews with some of the most successful, innovative and influential record producers of the past forty years, including Scott Humphrey with Tommy Lee (in a special artist/producer segment), Dave Jerden, Tom Werman, James Michael, Bob Ezrin, Bob Rock and Andy Johns.

17/6/06
Accompanied by DJ Ashba, Nikki attends the Fourth Annual Friends of El Faro event at The Henry Fonda Theatre, hosted by Molly Sims. The fundraiser of the non-profit charity organisation helps improve the lives of the children in the Casa Hogar Sion orphanage and school in Tijuana, Mexico.

Vince headlines day two of the Rock the Fort festival in Ontario, Canada while Tommy DJs at the Exotic Erotic Ball and Expo in New York City.

20/6/06
Mötley Crüe and Aerosmith end months of speculation and rumour by announcing plans for a massive Route of All Evil tour across North America of predominantly outdoor amphitheatres in the fall. With each band featuring all their original members, the Live Nation-produced tour is to kick off September 14 in New Jersey, marking the first time these veteran bad boys of rock have toured together. Determined to out-do themselves in typical decadent Mötley fashion, the Crüe promises major surprises from a whole new bag of tricks including monstrous new production and tons of additional pyrotechnics, so fans who caught their Carnival of Sins tour can expect a completely new experience this time around. Aerosmith will thrust themselves into the audience during each night of the road trip by erecting a seventy-foot-long ramp that will extend from the stage into the middle of the arena, giving fans an up-close-and-personal experience.

26/6/06
Former Mötley Crüe vocalist John Corabi has signed with the New York-based literary agency Fletcher Parry to shop his authorised autobiography for publication. The firm has repped books by Paul McCartney and Ali G among other entertainment personalities. The as-yet untitled autobiography, co-authored with biographer Jake Brown, is scheduled for release next year.

27/6/06
Tommy guests on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live and talks about Rock Star Supernova. He shows his new tribal-style lion tattoos on his chest and says he can't wait for the Crüe's tour with Aerosmith, especially now that Steve Tyler is also a single man.

While Tommy briefly uses the single-stall men's room at Bella nightspot in Los Angeles later in the evening, Las Vegas actor Josh Duhamel impatiently pounds on the door. Tommy's security guy waiting outside tells him that Tommy is in there and he'll be out in a minute, but Duhamel starts yelling obscenities. Words are exchanged when Tommy comes out and Josh gets in his face, so Tommy's security guy launches Duhamel ten feet before he gets walked out of the restaurant.

30/6/06
A heavily intoxicated Vince performs a solo show at St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Florida with Ratt in support. After struggling to sing the first couple of Mötley tunes in Kickstart My Heart and Piece Of Your Action, spilling his beer, and falling into the audience before being pushed back up, the seven-hundred-strong crowd becomes irate and starts booing, to which Vince tells them all to shut up. When Vince exits the stage during a guitar solo and doesn't return, his backing band (consisting of Slaughter's Dana Strum on bass and Jeff Blando on guitar) starts playing Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love with Blando singing. After some more Zeppelin songs minus Vince, the band says special guest John Corabi will sing with them, after he was asked to help out by management backstage. A few bars into Live Wire, Corabi is joined on stage by Vince, who hangs on him as they share lyrics together and tells the crowd, “I love this motherf@cker.” At the end of the song, Corabi exits the stage while Vince throws his mic into the air behind the drums and stumbles on stage. Into the next song, Vince wanders behind a speaker stack where he is seen being held up, before falling flat on his back. Vince returns as the band plays Teaser, and he yells to the crew to bring his guitar as they play a long solo towards the end of the song. Vince repeatedly yells for the sound guy to turn his guitar on. At the end of the song, Vince is assisted off stage as the set ends early and the crowd boos loudly in displeasure as the house lights go on.

5/7/06
Rock Star: Supernova premieres on TV around the world, as Tommy joins forces with former Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke and former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted. They use the reality TV talent competition to find their new lead singer to record and tour the world with.

Responding to his recent drunken solo performance in Tampa, Vince tells the Calgary Sun newspaper, "I was pretty buzzed. I tripped, fell off (the stage) - sometimes it happens. But, this isn’t a tour. This is just me going out and having fun and sometimes, yeah, I drink a little too much. That’s just the way it is. I just finished 185 shows with Mötley Crüe, so one show in Tampa where I drank a little too much - whoopdie-doo. I am still doing my shows and I’m going to record another Mötley Crüe album and then be back out on tour; by then nobody’s really going to care anymore. We’re actually going to be writing a lot of music out on the road and should have an album out late next year. We’re not ever going away."

7/7/06
Pilot David Martz lands a helicopter in the 1800 block of Wattles Drive, outside a residence in the Hollywood Hills to give Tommy and guests an 80km flight to a Nine Inch Nails concert in Irvine, California. Alerted by residents, the LAPD's Air Support Division spots the chopper hovering above the home and tries to contact the pilot without success. Officers watch as the pilot lands on the street and goes into the house. Other officers go to the house and tell the pilot that he has illegally landed on a public roadway, before Tommy and two other passengers get into the helicopter with the pilot and fly south. Two hours later the party returns and lands again at the residence, even after authorities specifically told him not to do so. Martz is later criminally charged with one count each of reckless flying, landing an aircraft on a public road and landing an aircraft without a permit. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a thousand-dollar fine. City of Los Angeles officials say the only other incident they could recall of a celebrity landing on a public street happened decades ago, when neighbours complained to the West Los Angeles Police substation about helicopter visits to Frank Sinatra's home.

10/7/06
Nikki says, "After the tour and after the divorce papers were served, I was dead, rotting and confused. Time seems to heal all wounds; now all that's left are the bruises. In the end, all I really care about are these beautiful kids. I've just been focusing on my kids and making sure they're OK. I feel they're getting what they need in the way of support and love from myself, Donna and Brandi. Of course, there's the lawyers, lawyers, lawyers — draining, emotionally and financially — but this isn't my first rodeo, but I will tell you it's my last. The upside to the downside is I'm on a creative high. I've been on a song-writing binge. I've gotten back into photography too. Funny Farm studios is up and running five or six days a week. I've been writing with DJ Ashba, who works out of Funny Farm, every day, churning out songs with me and a lot of other great songwriters. In an all-out attempt to let go of the outcome, the new songs have no destination at this time. At some point I have to focus on the Aero-Crüe tour and a new album (both of which I’m very excited about). We have a show somewhere in a week or so, and to be honest, I don't have the heart to go do a gig right now, but once the stage lights dim, I always come alive. Sikki is always waiting in the wings. To quote a favourite cliché: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I'm living proof of that."

11/7/06
Vince attends the 2006 ESPY Celebrity Golf Classic at Lost Canyons Golf Club in Simi Valley, California. The event raises a record $1.1 million in net proceeds for The V Foundation for Cancer Research. He also plans to attend the 2006 ESPY Awards at the Kodak Theatre tomorrow night.

12/7/06
Vince guests on the TV program Criss Angel Mindfreak. The episode features illusionist/ escapologist/ stunt performer Criss Angel using hypnosis techniques to read the minds of Vince and other celebrity guests including Ice Cube, Mark McGrath and Robin Leach.

John Corabi says as well as recently signing a deal with a literary agent in New York for his autobiography, he has been doing a lot of song writing lately for his solo works and also for Nashville artists. He says, “I wrote a song called Crash that is really perking up some ears, and I'm really proud of it, ‘cause it’s just honest and beautiful. I've also been working on a Zep-like acoustic song (working title) Danse de Papillion.”

13/7/06
Tommy attends the Rock Star: Supernova Season 2 premiere party at The Roxy with fellow band members Gilby Clarke and Jason Newsted, plus hosts Dave Navarro and Brooke Burke. Also in attendance are this year’s contestants, along with some of last year’s runner-ups, plus former Mötley manager Doc McGhee, members of Hootie & The Blowfish, and adult stars including Mary Carey and Tabitha Taylor.

15/7/06
Versailles Records announces plans to release the first-ever live album by The Scream, featuring John Corabi on lead vocals just prior to when he joined Mötley Crüe. Entitled The Scream Live - The Official Bootleg, the CD will feature a seven-song show recorded for KNAC in 1992, plus four or five bonus tracks by Corabi marking various points in his career, from Angora up through the present day. However, days after announcing a mid-Spring 2007 release date, the release is permanently pulled by Versailles due to legal reasons related to clearance rights of The Scream songs.

18/7/06
The Crüe rehearses for their upcoming Rock Fest performance in one of the small studios at Center Stage Studios in Burbank, California, running through all their hits.

22/7/06
Vince plays a dinner-time, seventy-five-minute solo show at the Rock the Park event in Ontario, Canada that includes Set Me Free, the Sweet cover from his Exposed solo album. He then flies to Wisconsin to join Mötley Crüe on stage at midnight for a ninety-minute headlining set at Rock Fest. Sounding a little hoarse at times, Vince struggles through a similar set of songs as on the Carnival of Sins tour, but without Mighty Mike, the dancers and Tommy’s camera interlude. Fans feel Nikki’s first live performance since his divorce is the night’s standout. A few songs into the set he tells the crowd, “I’m not sure if you are having fun but I f@ckin' need this!" The old scorpion tattoo on Mick's strumming hand has recently been enlarged.

25/7/06
Carl Bell says Tommy has laid down a killer drum track to Fuel’s possible first single from their new album, currently being recorded in Scott Humphrey's Hollywood studio.

29/7/06
Vince is coaxed up on stage by host Criss Angel to sing a karaoke song during the final Beachers Madhouse show at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Resort in Las Vegas. When the DJ has no Mötley Crüe songs on hand, Vince chooses to sing along to Steppenwolf’s Born To Be Wild instead.

31/7/06
Nikki takes part in the press conference for Meat Loaf's Bat Out Of Hell III listening party at Avalon in New York City. 

At the Activate Asia conference in Australia, games publisher RedOctane announces Mötley Crüe’s Shout At The Devil will be one of the tracks in its forthcoming Guitar Hero II – the sequel to one of the best, most popular and certainly most rocking music games ever created. The game’s developer Harmonix has now officially announced eleven songs on the tracklist with many more expected before the game is out on Playstation 2, hopefully in November this year.

6/8/06
John Corabi says he’s in the process of moving into a new home and has been trying to finish a couple of new ideas for songs. He also says, “I just played in Las Vegas on Friday with some friends and I had a blast. Gilby Clarke came and played a bunch of songs with us, and it was great to see him again. I also ran into Tommy and had a couple of drinks with him at a club in L.A. called the 40 Deuce.”

7/8/06
Back from a five-day trip to San Francisco, Seattle, Aspen, New York City and Dallas, Nikki leaves tomorrow for a seven-day journey to England, India, China and Japan. He says he has finished two amazing songs with DJ Ashba titled Hero and Worst Days of My Life, plus another two songs co-written with DJ and Mikal Blue titled Ugly and Beautiful Death Angel. “Music is flowing – upheaval does that to you. We've been designing the set, lights and stage for the Aerosmith-Crüe tour plus going to court and family time; I'd say sleep is on the backburner. It’s weird to be single. I’m not really a 'go out kinda guy' so I'm just spending all my time with the kids. Summer is winding down and school is gearing up so I won't be too freaked about leaving for tour. Tommy was too kind to offer for me to fly back and forth with him on the jet while we're on tour and he finishes off his Rock Star Supernova show. So I'll be seeing the kids a lot more than I usually do when I tour.”

Hard Rock International announces Mötley Crüe will headline the New York stop of the Ambassadors of Rock Tour. On September 18, the Crüe will take the stage at the Hard Rock Café New York, taking time out of the band's packed tour schedule to celebrate the company's thirty-fifth anniversary and to rock one of the world's most historic stages, in the former Paramount Theater, as such greats as Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and The Beatles have done previously. Hard Rock's Ambassadors of Rock Tour, a worldwide concert series to celebrate thirty-five years of Hard Rock, kicked off at Hyde Park Calling in London with legendary musicians Roger Waters and The Who. Nikki says, "For years, we have had a great relationship with Hard Rock. It's a perfect fit for us to be in New York to celebrate Hard Rock's 35th anniversary."

8/8/06
Nikki is partnering with Kelly Gray, former co-president and house model of St. John, to launch a contemporary sportswear label called Royal Underground. "I don't think anyone else could have convinced me to get back into this business, but he has a passion for clothing that is unparalleled," Gray says of Nikki. "We design everything together, down to the colour of the thread. The marketing behind this is going to be the most exciting thing I've done in five years. Apparel from Newport Beach-based Royal Underground, whose clothing range includes $100 T-shirts, $900 cashmere sweaters and $1,200 leather jackets, will begin arriving in high-end stores such as Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus in early November. Nikki says, "To me, fashion and music go hand-in-hand. Too many of today's fashions have skulls or look tattered and worn out. I think there's something cool about that, but you can step it up a notch and have something a little bit on the classier edge." 

10/8/06
Tennessee singer-songwriter Lennon is announced as the opening act for Aerosmith and Mötley Crüe on the Route of All Evil tour that kicks off next month. She will be supporting the September 19 release of her new album Damaged Goods, featuring the single Where Do I Fit In.

11/8/06
Southern California punk band Supernova files a preliminary injunction to stop Tommy’s supergroup on the CBS-TV reality show Supernova from using their name. The injunction suit is filed after the band and CBS fail to settle the matter out of court. The original band, which was formed in Orange County in 1989 and has released three albums, initially sued CBS, the show's producers, and the members of the new supergroup last month.

12/8/06
Vince performs the pre-game coin toss at Ontario’s Ivor Wynne Stadium in front of thirty thousand people watching the Canadian Football League game between the Toronto Argonauts and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

18/8/06
Nikki posts diary entries from his short trip around the world for conducting face-to-face business meetings with his new Royal Underground clothing line co-founder Kelly Gray. From Saudi Arabia’s Muscat airport, he says after an emotionally moving time in India (equal to his trip to Cambodia last year) he woke that morning in Jaipur, India before taking a private plane to New Delhi for a connecting flight to Dubai. After business in Saudi Arabia, he flies to Shanghai, China today where he goes straight to more business meetings after landing. Their clothing line is developed and going into production, but he says they are really two seasons ahead in design and development. “There's a lot of research and design in every line and we have a lot of partners both overseas and in America. As soon as I land, it's right back into the final touches of the new Mötley tour. It's hard to design a show as a co-headliner. There are different rules, concerns and limitations that apply for both bands and you have to have your show mobile and fast to take down; it's a lot of work. With that being said, I hope I'm not building anybody's hopes up to high (mine too), but I think this show (visually) is even better than the Carnival of Sins tour. I don't want to give it away; the Internet sort of kills the element of surprise after the first show anyway.” From a business meeting taking place two hours outside of Shanghai, Nikki then heads back to the airport for a flight to Tokyo, before returning home to Los Angeles.

The movie 10th & Wolf, co-starring Tommy in his film debut, hits cinema screens across the U.S. The mob drama is inspired by the true story of Joseph D. Pistone, the FBI agent known as Donnie Brasco.

24/8/06
Tommy will star in one of three new Australian ads as part of a $5 million advertising blitz promoting Telstra BigPond content. The campaigns, created by long-time BigPond advertising partner Belgiovane Williams Mackay, will kick off next week.

5/9/06
Mötley Crüe kicks off their Route Of All Evil tour with Aerosmith at the Germain Amphitheatre in Columbus, Ohio. Now with hair extending further over his shoulders, Vince starts proceedings with Dr. Feelgood as the band runs through a thirteen-song set of hits on a wrought-iron and skulls-based set conceptually developed by Crüe dancer Jozie Di Maria, straight out of a gothic Victorian horror story. Plenty of shooting flames, smoke and other pyros add to the voodoo-inspired theatre that also includes a mock slaughter of a rooster by three dancers - Jozie, Alecia Schultze, and Dream Rockwell - wearing strategically-placed, bloodied, white cloth. During Girls, Girls, Girls, Vince rides a custom leather-finished chopper on stage, as detailed in the cover story of this month's issue of Street Chopper magazine. Nikki says, "The first show of the tour was pretty good considering all the little wrinkles that need ironing out. All I saw was smiling faces from the front row all the way to the back of the place. There were a few of the older Aerosmith fans holding their ears, but we like it loud."

12/9/06
San Diego U.S. District Court Judge John Houston grants the request from the members of the original Supernova (an Orange County, California, punk trio formed in 1989) for a preliminary injunction to halt Tommy’s new band from performing or recording under the name Supernova if they fail to change or add any words to the moniker. The injunction keeps the producers of Rock Star: Supernova from "performing rock and roll music, or recording, or selling rock and roll music recordings under the same name, pending a trial of this action on its merits, or until otherwise ordered by the court."

13/9/06
Twenty-nine-year-old Canadian singer and former Hooters fry cook Lukas Rossi is chosen to front Tommy's new band in the final episode of Rock Star: Supernova, ahead of Dilana Robichaux from Houston, Texas and Toby Rand from Melbourne, Australia. Following release of their debut album scheduled for November, they will play their first gig on New Year's Eve before their twenty-eight city North American tour gets into full swing early in 2007. The competition attracted twenty five thousand applicants from around the world.

Vince is featured on the cover of VegasGolfer magazine’s current issue. In the accompanying interview, Vince talks about his golf game, stating, "I started in 1985. Our tour manager was an avid golfer, and we were staying at the Four Seasons outside Dallas, where they have a TPC course, Los something. And I rented some clubs, and it was fun, and I actually bought my first clubs there at the pro shop. And I dug it, so then I played every time that I could. We'd play almost every day, because most of the places where we stayed were on golf resorts."

15/9/06
According to Production Weekly, Larry Charles is now in pre-production on his next film The Dirt. Based on Mötley Crüe's 2001 best-selling autobiography, the film is being made by Paramount Classics and MTV Films and will shoot on location in Los Angeles.

Two new Rock Star Supernova tracks featuring singer Lukas Rossi alongside Tommy, Jason Newsted and Gilby Clarke are made available on the band's MySpace page, allowing fans to hear the tracks It's All Love and Be Yourself & 5 Other Clichés.

18/9/06
Mötley Crüe headlines the New York stop of the Ambassadors of Rock Tour at the Hard Rock Café, celebrating the institution's thirty-fifth anniversary. Steven Tyler joins Mötley on stage to sing Helter Skelter. The event is hosted by comedian Jim Breuer, while Anthrax members Scott Ian and Frank Bello also attend. Dimebag's famed diamond-plated guitar from Pantera's Reinventing the Steel tour is inducted into the café at the event.

Carnival Cruise Lines announces Vince Neil’s Mötley Crüise 2007: a four-day, three-night rock and roll cruise setting sail on Friday 12 January from Miami, Florida, to Nassau in The Bahamas before returning to Miami on the following Monday. In addition to a live concert by Vince and his band, a wet and wild shore excursion is planned, and several on-board activities to raise money for his Skylar Neil Memorial Fund and The TJ Martell Foundation. In true Vince style there will be plenty of bikini-clad babes on and off the ship. Hooters will send thirty of their most beautiful models to compete in The Hooters Girls, Girls, Girls Bikini Contest, as part of Vince Neil's Tres Rios Tequila Beach Party. South Florida's finest gentlemen's club Pure Platinum, a long-time supporter of Vince's charitable efforts, is sending a bevy of Platinum beauties to be caddies for the Pure Platinum Miniature Golf Challenge, which will also raise money for charity. Vince Neil's Mötley Crüise passengers will also enjoy a slew of other rock star-style amenities and events including a custom Mötley Crüise Survival Kit, Vince Vineyards Wine Tasting Party, a one-of-a-kind live charity auction, photo and autograph session with Vince, and a No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em Poker Tournament where one lucky winner could disembark with an extra $10,000 in their wallet.

19/9/06
Whilst in New York, Nikki says he has had a heap of daytime appointments for his Royal Underground clothing label, with Mötley concerts at night plus after-parties and fashion shows.

20/9/06
After getting a cover-up tattoo, Nikki says, “The tour is killer but the days off are killing me. Damn, not enough time to go home and too much time to sit and stare at the same four walls. DJ Ashba’s coming out to write music. We’ve finished up eight new tracks with no destination in mind; just following our hearts and even more so - our fingers.”

30/9/06
DJ Ashba says he and Nikki have now finished sixteen brand new songs that no-one has heard yet. After spending time with Nikki out on the road this week, he says they wrote two amazing songs and also came up with another fourteen song ideas during this time.

1/10/06
James Otto's song Ain't Gonna Stop is selected to be part of EA Sports' NASCAR 2007 video game. Co-written by Nikki, John Rich, and Kenny Alphin, the song is expected to be included on Otto's next full-length album. Otto says, "This is the first song the three of us ever set down to write, and it was a long time ago. Four years or more during the really early days of the MuzikMafia. We were in John's old condo, and he brought in this groove he had written with Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx at a writer's retreat. That really cool, syncopated lyric is very John Rich. When it came to the chorus I starting doing this really big, seventies, southern rock sound and Big Kenny came up with the lyric "fly just as high as I want to."

2/10/06
Before the Mötley Crüe and Aerosmith show at the Air Canada Center in Toronto, Tommy tells Steve Tyler ‘my birthday is tomorrow and I'll give you oral sex if I can play the drums on Last Child. That would be the best birthday present I ever got.' After talking with their drummer Joey Kramer backstage, Tommy joins Aerosmith on stage and plays the song live to the delight of the Canadian crowd. Passing on the oral sex, Tyler says, “We should’ve played Big Ten Inch but he slammed Last Child. I love that boy; he was born with a horseshoe up his ass.”

3/10/06
Nikki and his estranged wife Donna D'Errico have put their Californian home of eight years on the market at close to three million dollars. The Spanish-style villa at 31978 Hidden Highland Road is in a gated community of four homes in Agoura Hills, each on a forty-acre parcel. Built in 1982, the six-thousand-plus-square-foot house has been extensively remodelled over the last five years, including a complete overhaul of the kitchen in 2002 with granite counters, slate floors, hand-hewn oak cabinets, top-of-the-line appliances, a copper sink and a built-in cappuccino machine. The villa has six bedrooms, four-and-a-half bathrooms, a family room, a formal dining room and a bonus room. The master bedroom suite has a balcony, vaulted ceiling, two walk-in cedar-lined closets, a spa tub, a steam shower and a redwood sauna. One of the other bedrooms was designed as Nikki’s music studio. The grounds have a pool, spa, meditation garden, vegetable garden, playground and mountain views. A river-rock waterfall accents the house's double-door entry, which is reached by a private drive.

4/10/06
Scheduled to kick-off a U.S. arena tour next month, emo heavyweights Panic! At the Disco recently asked to borrow Mötley Crüe's famous circus tent from their Carnival of Sins tour to enhance a circus-themed production in planning, but they were told the Crüe might use the tent again on some upcoming tour.

Tommy films Rock Star Supernova's first video in Los Angeles for the song It's All Love.

16/10/06
After rehearsing and doing a show at the Cat Club with Billy Idol a couple of weeks ago, John Corabi says he’s been fortunate lately to have done some shows with some people that he really admires. He played a gig with Eddie Van Halen and Starfuckers a few days later at Eddie's house to celebrate the Sacred Sin movie release. He also just played a gig in Salt Lake City with his jam band called Delicious Vinyl (Fred Coury, Robbie Crane, Brent Woods, Teddy Zig Zag) where they played old Rainbow songs and some other classics like Highway Star, All Right Now and Tush with Joe Lynn Turner on vocals.

23/10/06
Tommy's Rock Star Supernova suffers a major setback with the loss of bassist Jason Newsted who is scheduled for immediate surgery to repair a torn anterior labrum in his left shoulder plus a rotator cuff and bicep tear in his right. Newsted suffered the injuries while trying to catch a ninety-pound bass head that had fallen from atop his amp. The surgery will be followed by a lengthy rehab assignment that could leave him sidelined for up to nine months. The band is currently searching for a suitable replacement to handle touring duties while Newsted recovers. 

24/10/06
Nikki says, "The other night my friend John Rich from Big & Rich came on stage and played Don't Go Away Mad with us in Nashville. Fun times. We met a few years ago while writing music together and have been fast friends ever since. Royal Underground is shipping this week and all the clothes have arrived in L.A. and we're packing them up for the stores. Tommy stole one of our shirts right off my back the other day and Steven Tyler won't take off the cashmere hoodies - I'd say that's a good sign. Last show tonight and we go home for a ten-day break. I can't wait to lay my head on my own pillow and to wrap my arms around my kids. Hell yeah, life is good… Thank you for everything… This has been a hell of a year… good and bad… but we survive."

Restless Records releases a Butchering The Beatles tribute CD featuring twelve new, ass-kicking versions of The Beatles' chart-topping hits including I Saw Her Standing There sung by John Corabi.

31/10/06
Mercury Records releases Meat Loaf's album Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose, the long-awaited third instalment to rock music’s most successful series of all time. The title track was co-written by Nikki with John 5 and producer Desmond Child.

2/11/06
Rock Star Supernova recruits former Black Crowes member Johnny Colt to step in for injured bassist Jason Newsted. Colt, also known for his work with Train, will join Tommy in the rhythm section for the band's North American tour, which launches on New Year's Eve with a sold-out show at The Joint in Las Vegas.

3/11/06
The Vince Neil Ink tattoo shop opens at the Flamingo in Las Vegas. The 1,230-square-foot shop at O'Shea's Casino is the first tattoo parlour inside a Las Vegas Strip casino. To celebrate the grand opening, Vince gets a tattoo on his left calf by Brett Caron of a spider web ace design with VNI initials over the top and today's date underneath. Nikki is one of the guests in attendance that also includes Criss Angel, Evan Seinfeld, Dana Strum and Jeff Blando. Vince's motorcycle from the Girls, Girls, Girls video is on display inside. While waiting for the creation of their very own piece of skin art, customers are continuously entertained with Mötley music videos on large plasma displays. 

During the press conference, Vince tells ABC Radio News that Oscar-winning actor Christopher Walken will make a cameo appearance as Ozzy Osbourne in The Dirt, the movie based on the band's controversial autobiography. While the Mötley Crüe band members are to be played by unknowns, Vince says that other stars are going to appear in the film as rock stars, including Val Kilmer as David Lee Roth. The story gets widely published by media outlets, demonstrating a high-degree of interest in the movie.

4/11/06
The first Cruefest event outside North America takes place in Melbourne, Australia. Chronological Crue's Paul Miles emcees the event and DJs in between the Cruefest Down-Under band performances, as thousands of dollars are raised for Mötley-related charities.

5/11/06
Vince hosts the second annual Off the Strip - Texas Hold 'Em Poker Tournament at The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, benefiting the T.J. Martell Foundation. Celebrities, poker pros, and Las Vegas' hottest dancers join Vince for an entertaining evening. Beginning at 3pm, Vince hosts a special cocktail party, followed by a one-of-a-kind live auction, hosted by Tiffany Granath before tournament play commences an hour later.

7/11/06
The much-anticipated Playstation 2 game Guitar Hero II is released in the U.S.A. and features Mötley Crüe’s Shout At The Devil.

9/11/06
Tommy is one of thirty-six stars appearing in the new Johnny Cash video for the song God's Gonna Cut You Down. The treatment for the clip was written by Justin Timberlake and other stars who appear in the video include Iggy Pop, Kanye West, Chris Martin, Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Amy Lee, Chris Rock, Kate Moss, Sheryl Crow, Woody Harrelson, Keith Richards, Bono, Travis Barker, Kid Rock, Jay-Z, Trent Reznor and Johnny Depp. 

15/11/06
Mick joins Aerosmith on stage in Dallas, Texas and plays the song Stop Messin’ with them. Joe Perry says, “He really ripped it up and we had a great time. He’s got great blues chops even though he plays classic metal in the Crüe. I have a feeling we may do this again before the tour is over. I gave him a DVD of the song for a present and he gave me one of his favourite fuzztones effects pedals. Like I said before, these guys have been great to tour with. Not only are they great to play with but Nikki even outfitted us with his new clothing line.”

16/11/06
Nikki guests in-store at Neiman-Marcus in Houston to promote his Royal Underground clothing line. Tommy also guests in-store in the Y.E.S. Contemporary Sportsweardepartment at Bloomingdale's in San Francisco to support his tattoo-inspired, limited-edition collection Peoples Liberation for Tommy Lee (PL for TL).

21/11/06
The self-titled Rock Star Supernova debut studio album, featuring Tommy on drums, is released on Epic Records. The band performs on Jimmy Kimmel Live to celebrate its release.

22/11/06
An intoxicated crowd member flips-off Nikki and Vince as they play Same Ol’ Situation in Tampa, Florida. He throws something at Vince and then spits at him. Vince quickly spits back and when the guy does it again, Vince takes off his guitar and swings it down at the guy before jumping off stage onto him, crashing through the folding chairs in the first two rows. Members of the Crüe’s personal security quickly apprehend the drunk and remove him as order is restored. Vince addresses the crowd upon his return to the stage to finish the show, perplexed why someone would come to a concert and start such trouble.

24/11/06
Sitting in another hotel room in another city, Nikki says he is missing deeply what he’s worked so hard for. “The kids are all home having Thanksgiving and I'm still on tour. This is the second Thanksgiving in a row away from home. The end of the tour is almost here and room service (a cold turkey sandwich) is almost here too. There are no plans to do anything at this point and that's fine by me, 'cause I'm burnt out and as grateful as I am, I'm ready to go home and stay home. This has been a stressful year and I can't wait for the ball to drop on 2006 and welcome 2007 in.”

27/11/06
INXS singer JD Fortune says he has auditioned for the role of Nikki Sixx in The Dirt movie, "I'm up for a role of a heroin addict, which could be interesting for me considering I don't really party anymore. A needle has never touched my arms I'm glad to say, so it will be acting." 

29/11/06
Tommy’s band Rock Star Supernova sells almost seventeen thousand copies of its self-titled debut album in the United States during its first week of release to debut at position number 101 on next week's Billboard 200 chart. In Canada, it sells 19,159 copies and debuts at number 4 behind The Beatles, Il Divo and U2.

8/12/06
Tommy says he will be adding a brand new line for children to his Peoples Liberation for Tommy Lee (PL for TL) clothing line that features t-shirts, jeans, hats and hoodies with dragon motifs. He stresses he is a fashion fanatic and would love to venture into women’s wear as well.

12/12/06
The Aerosmith and Mötley Crüe Route of All Evil tour earns a nomination for the Most Creative Tour Package award in Pollstar's eighteenth annual Concert Industry Awards. The other nominees in the category are Bon Jovi & Nickelback, Def Leppard & Journey, Fall Out Boy & All-American Rejects, Sheryl Crow & John Mayer, plus Tim McGraw & Faith Hill. The awards ceremony is to be held February 8 at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal Citywalk, Los Angeles. 

13/12/06
Aerosmith asks Nikki to join them on stage during the final concert on the Route of All Evil tour in Vancouver, Canada. “They asked me to play Helter Skelter on stage with them tonight and it was a dream come true (not to mention we kicked some f@cking ass). I'm so pumped right now thinking back on rocking up the stage with my heroes. The Aerosmith guys have been the easiest band to tour with in our career. No drama, no competition. We all hung out together and had a blast. I'll miss them and I know they feel the same.” Nikki also says, “For me, this has been the hardest year of my life I've experienced in almost as long as I can remember. Going through a divorce during a tour is another level of stress I don't wish on anybody. But we get through what we have to get through and now it's time to focus on the most important things in my life: my children and my sobriety. Someone asked me how I didn't go into a downward spiral and I told them because it isn't an option anymore in my life. I'm excited to get back into photography and will post pics when I get them. Paul Brown and myself went into some back alleys here in Vancouver and gained the trust of some local drugs addicts. They ended up after time asking us if we would photograph them getting high and we did. Days like yesterday and today are reminders how good we have it, even when we feel like our head is to the grindstone. I'm heading into the creative underground for a while, hopefully to resurface recharged and ready to come out swinging. How long? However long it takes.”

Mötley Crüe grosses $19 million in revenue during 2006, less than the previous year due to fewer concerts played. To try and maximize revenue, the band hoped to play more headline shows on nights that Aerosmith did not perform, but this was said to be hampered by scheduling conflicts. Behind the scenes, band management is keen to schedule lots of European dates next year, since they couldn’t go ahead with them this year, but the impending success or failure of Rock Star Supernova impacts their ability to commit. Management is disappointed that all four band members have been unable to get into the studio together this year to work on their album of new material.

29/12/06
Nikki makes an in-store appearance for his Royal Underground clothing line at Tomorrow's Laundry in Aspen, Colorado on behalf of Aspen Peak magazine. Guests include John Oates, Tom Gardner (co-founder of The Motley Fool), and fashion legend Domenico De Sole. After celebrating the New Year in Aspen, Nikki will head to Maui, Hawaii for a vacation with his children.

31/12/06
After roughly two weeks of rehearsals, Tommy's Rock Star Supernova band plays their first live show in front of two thousand people at The Joint in Las Vegas to ring in the New Year. The band is preceded on-stage by a taped video message from front-man Lukas Rossi with a slogan of "What happens at a Supernova show, stays at a Supernova show." They open with the song Underdog at 11:20pm and work their way through a patchy thirteen-song set, punctuated with Tommy's tittie cam interlude borrowed from Mötley Crüe shows, a cover of The Verve's Bittersweet Symphony, and a two-take encore of The Rolling Stones' Let's Spend the Night Together. The band uses a four-woman string section for three songs and two dancers in lingerie, denim chaps and boots gyrating during several others.

On with the show