Chronological Crue - The History of Motley Crue in 2012

7/1/12
Concert industry publication Pollstar lists Mötley Crüe at number forty one on their list of the Top 200 top-grossing North American tours of 2011, based on total box office gross data as provided to Pollstar by concert promoters and venue managers. The band grossed $21.1 million in sales, selling an average of 7,397 tickets to each of their fifty one concerts.

Nikki Sixx says his band Sixx: A.M. is already at work writing for their third album. He says it'll, "probably be a 2013 release considering the body of work we're setting as a goal. We will be doing a proper video for the next single soon. Tour options keep coming but we haven't found the right fit yet to open up the conversations."

11/1/12
Nikki celebrates the launch of Sixx Sense with Nikki Sixx on top Los Angeles alternative rock station 98-7fm with an event at The Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood. Fans are treated to a Q&A session with Nikki and live musical performances by American Idol rocker James Durbin and rock band Nico Vega.

20/1/12
Regarding his forthcoming solo album, said to include a number of guest musicians, Mick Mars says, "I still got to talk to my lawyer and to the people themselves [to get clearance for them to appear on the CD]. I know who I want to get involved with, but I don't want to say who it is, because if I do, that would be a rumour, wouldn't it? I don't want to start a rumour thing. But I've pretty much picked out who I want to play with. And I'm sure they'll want to play with me, I'm positive." He also says, "I've been working with a lot of people, like Crashdiet and James Durbin, of course, with Twiggy Ramirez. Lots of different people; Terry Bozzio as well. Trying to play a lot of different things with a lot of different people, in a lot of different styles, approaches of their music not to break away, but to expand on what I already know. I know how to play guitar, but I want to know even more different styles. I've been playing weird stuff, like flamenco or Hispanic music, on guitar solos, when I had to do that, like finger picking or gypsy kind of style. I'm trying to expand on that. Even though I'm an old geezer, it doesn't mean I can't still learn!"

2/2/12
In honour of the city's first hard rock residency - Mötley Crüe In Sin City - Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman proclaims Friday, February 3, 2012 as Mötley Crüe Day.

3/2/12
The Mötley Crüe in Sin City experience gets underway at The Joint in the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, which is transformed into a rock 'n' roll carnival extravaganza Cirque du Soleil-style, including Tommy's 360 drum coaster and the biggest lighting and sound production ever brought into the 3,500-seat venue. The shows by the world's most notorious band in the world's most notorious city are being produced and promoted by AEG Live. The show features rogue carnival-styled seat ushers, a Mötley Crüe midget tribute band, a cross-dressing host with gigantic breasts, female aerialists doing overhead stunts on chain-links, macabre clowns and stilt walkers, a faux wedding during Same Ol' Situation that ends with the bride running off with her maid of honour, a flying apparatus that takes Vince over the crowd, a circular stage that rises and spins above the crowd during an acoustic suite that includes Without You, On With The Show and Don't Go Away Mad, plus over-the-top signature pyrotechnics in almost every song. A piano slowly drops from the rafters for Home Sweet Home, and Mick's guitar solo features video trickery to triplicate him across the stage. As well as the band's hits, they also perform Piece Of Your Action and Afraid, which haven't been performed live in over ten years.

The Mötley Crüe In Sin City residency has transformed the entire hotel and casino into a completely immersive experience, as well as having an impact on the city: there are billboards on the world-famous Sunset Strip in Los Angeles and the 15 Interstate upon entering Vegas beckoning fans to the Hard Rock, then upon entering the casino lobby, Vince's custom 1932 Ford Coupe hot rod is displayed and poker players find themselves gaming on Mötley Crüe branded tables with waitresses wearing little more than Mötley Crüe t-shirts. The elevators are covered in Mötley Crüe signage and even maid service signs for hotel guest rooms indicate clean-up for Home Sweet Home. The band plays for a little over two hours in their four-nights-a-week residency.

4/2/12
The Crüe is joined on stage in Las Vegas by Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach who sings Smokin' In the Boys Room with the band.

5/2/12
Mötley Crüe features in a KIA automotive TV commercial that airs during the Super Bowl. The sixty-second spot titled Drive The Dream stars all members in a race-car dream sequence performing their 1989 hit Kickstart My Heart. Victoria's Secret Angel Adriana Lima, mixed martial arts legend Chuck Liddell and champion bull rider Judd Leffew also feature in the commercial.

Nikki is set to make his acting debut in the proposed short film Shoot'er being helmed by his long-time friend and veteran video director Paul R. Brown. He will play an adulterous scoundrel in the film about a gunman-for-hire, which explores the fine line between being human and fulfilling your objectives. Brown is currently trying to raise $44,000 via Kickstarter, an online threshold pledge system for funding creative projects, by March 15 in order to make and release the film in July, which will also star actor Trent Ford and model Sarah McNeilly.

6/2/12
Mick tells Ultimate Classic Rock that he's still writing for his solo album, saying, "I've got about a good four or five songs that have potential. I don't know if I'm happy with them, you know, so I have to keep listening. Not to say that I'm going to make the perfect song or this that and the other, but I want to make me happy with what I release and proud of what I release. Maybe I can write a whole record of 'Dr. Feelgoods' or 'Girls', but not sounding like Mötley, you know, being me. I'm trying to do a lot of experimenting too, with different cultural rhythms and mixtures of beats - say, take some old Greek guys that played traditional Greek rhythms on their drums, or the Japanese with those big drum things that they use, and throw it all into the mix, see what comes out."

8/2/12
Vince celebrates his 51st birthday by riding Tommy's 360-degree drum coaster during Mötley's residency show at the Joint in the Hard Rock Hotel. His band also surprises him with a three-foot-tall, guitar-shaped birthday cake made by Caked Las Vegas.

24/2/12
It has recently been reported that Tommy agreed to pay his former assistant Michael "Tony" Sullivan $400,000 and issue a public apology to settle a dispute over unpaid wages. However, Tommy tweets, "Not sure if any of you read or even care about the press on my old assistant and me, but it's all bullshit - some leaky sneakies!"

26/2/12
Nikki says, "Been in the recording studio cutting new Mötley Crüe with the guys. We are recording at Tommy's Atrium studio and James Michael is producing. We laid down the bass and drums yesterday and Mick Mars comes in today to blast the guitars. Then Vince is coming in next week to do his vocals. Haven't been in the studio in a few years with the guys and it feels like magic. Hard to explain what it sounds like other than just straight out sexy... maybe throw some dirt and sarcasm on top too."

9/3/12
Following the death of his mother Boula in the morning, Tommy tweets, "One of the loves of my life has gone. My Dear Mother has passed." Following some serious health issues included flat-lining before, Boula was living at Tommy's home with hospice nurses attending, until she died.

16/3/12
Vince has the soft launch of his topless nightclub called Vince Neil's Girls, Girls, Girls in Las Vegas at the former Déjå Vu location, opposite the Orleans off Tropicana Avenue a mile from the Las Vegas Strip. Vince says, "It's something I always wanted to do. So it's like a dream come true. But this will be different and unique. It will be the first rock and roll strip joint. It was a business opportunity to become a partner that was too good to pass up. First, the girls will be edgier. Tattoos won't be banned. They will look like they stepped out of a music video. Hot, provocative and edgy. I know it all comes down to G-strings in the end, but they'll start out with much sexier outfits than you find elsewhere. Second, the music isn't going to be boring. None of that house, generic strip club music. This will be full-on rock and roll." The official grand opening will take place April 13.

20/3/12
Kiss and Mötley Crüe hold a press conference at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood to officially announce their co-headlining 2012 North American summer tour called THE Tour. The rock'n'roll spectacle will take place in forty-plus cities commencing in Bristow, Virginia on July 20, and ending in Hartford, Connecticut on September 23. With Kiss closing the show each night, both bands plan to give fans the ultimate summer concert experience with the most impressive lighting and sound production ever, and their signature over-the-top pyrotechnics. Nikki says, "Growing up, I had a Kiss poster, Aerosmith poster and Sweet on the wall, and for me to go out and do this together, it's an honour. I know what Kiss is about - I've been watching them for years - and I think it's a perfect, perfect match. Maybe a match made in hell, in some places in America they may think, but it's a perfect match and it's gonna be all-night-long hits, bombs, girls, topless a few. Mötley Crüe and Kiss: I can't wait to experience it myself." Kiss front man Paul Stanley adds, "Nikki and I have been in touch with each other and just going, 'This is awesome.' This is something we're all really fired up about. It's double what either one of us could do, so exponentially it's that much bigger. Whatever either band is capable of doing, you do it double on one night. It's out of the park, man. We're gonna level each city, literally."

In an interview with Rolling Stone following the press conference, Nikki says, "What I would like to see people take away from it is that if you actually practice your instrument and practice writing songs and put a hundred percent into your show and every aspect of it, from your clothes to your lyrics, if your singers sing, then this is what happens: you have a long career and you get to go out and do the real deal. It's real rock and roll."

Nikki also tells VH1 Radio Network about Motley's new song Sex due out this spring, saying, "We're gonna play it on tour. We just wrote it and recorded it. We're just finishing mixing. It's called Sex and it sounds very much like it's off the first record, and that was definitely on purpose. I've been writing very simple riffs for the last year and focusing on how these riffs would work for Vince, basically, and took it in the studio with Tommy and Mick and the thing just came alive."

11/4/12
Nikki wins the Paul Gray Best Bassist award at the Revolver Golden Gods Awards ceremony held at Club Nokia in Los Angeles. He also presents the Golden God award to Gene Simmons of Kiss. In their only performance of the year and their first in four years, Nikki's band Sixx:A.M. opens the show with their new single Are You With Me Now and the top 10 active rock hit This Is Gonna Hurt.

13/4/12
Vince attends the black-carpet grand-opening of his strip club: Déjå Vu presents Vince Neil's Girls, Girls, Girls. Located at 4740 South Arville Rd, Las Vegas, the club takes its name from Motley's 1987 album of the same name paying homage to hard-living lifestyle, their love of riding fast, large motorcycles, drinking whiskey, and spending long nights at strip clubs. Celebrity dealmaker Michael Politz brought together Vince's brand and America's premier adult entertainment super power Déjå Vu to help create Las Vegas' newest adult entertainment spot. During the night, Vince performs the AC/DC classic Highway to Hell with Sin City Sinners, and also takes a tumble when he jumps on stage to perform Girls, Girls, Girls.

25/4/12
Tommy features in Show Your Soft Side, a campaign developed to combat the alarming incidence of animal abuse in Baltimore, Maryland. Many of the more horrific cases have been perpetrated by teens, thus leading the Mayor's Anti-Animal Abuse Advisory Commission to look for ways to change the mindset of young people who often view the maiming and torturing of defenceless dogs and cats as a sign of toughness or manhood. The campaign puts forth a very different message — a message that subtly shows that 'being a man' has many facets to it, including a 'soft side' when it comes to animals. The goal is to reach kids early because research shows that kids who abuse animals soon graduate to even more violent crimes. Featuring acknowledged hard men of Baltimore with their pets, the campaign's posters, billboards and print ads make the point that only a punk would hurt a cat or dog.

Tommy recently urged his fans to adopt, not buy, their pets, after he and his girlfriend Sofia adopted a new pup Bowie, named after rock legend David Bowie because of his "crazy grey-green eyes." Tommy says, "We went to a couple of different shelters and we ended up over at East Valley in Van Nuys and there he was, just sitting there with three other dogs, and we were like, 'Oh my God, we gotta get this guy a home. Who could abandon this fucking thing? This is the cutest thing on the planet. I want to kill whoever let him go." Tommy said he became inspired to speak out about adoption because there are so many homeless pets out there that need loving homes.

27/4/12
Vince appears in the season finale of Ghost Adventures, a weekly American paranormal television series on the Travel Channel. The episode was taped at The Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas where he joined the show's team of paranormal investigators Zak Bagans, Nick Groff and Aaron Goodwin. The hotel is one of the oldest still standing on the Vegas strip, and is filled with a history of celebrity clientele and Chicago Mafia connections. Perhaps its most well-known guest was Frank Sinatra, who had his own penthouse suite where he often threw lavish parties. Attempting to channel Sinatra, they recreate a party in his suite. Vince and his entourage experience unexplained first-hand encounters including scratch marks on one woman's back, cold sensations, voices and knocking, but it's not until Vince and his girlfriend Rain Hannah head into room No. 908 that Vince encounters an overwhelming physical experience.

16/5/12
Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy Camp announces that Vince will take part in their the next instalment of its highly successful music-magic experience taking place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas this October, hosted by Gene Simmons along with Zakk Wylde and Sebastian Bach.

22/5/12
Dean Markley USA announces the release of the new Nikki Sixx Helix HD SS bass strings. This collaboration with Nikki offers the exact string type and gauges that he uses on stage, which is constructed of stainless steel alloy and features new Helix patent-pending hyper-elliptical windings. What makes the Nikki Sixx signature set unique is his choice of custom gauges - first string: .050, second string: .070, third string: .090, and fourth string: .110.

24/5/12
Sixx:A.M. makes their new video Are You With Me Now available worldwide after using it to help raise funds for City of Hope, a leading research, treatment and education centre for cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening diseases. Ten days ago they joined other celebrities such as Ryan Seacrest, Vince Gill and Sugarland in their support of City of Hope offering their new music video for Are You With Me Now exclusively to the charity. Fans who made a donation to City of Hope received an exclusive preview code to unlock the never-been-seen-before video. Are You With Me Now is the third single from the band's latest album This Is Gonna Hurt.

27/5/12
Mick features in a new video for the song Boss's Daughter from Michigan hard rockers Pop Evil; a song he co-wrote with the band. Along with playing guitar in the clip, he also gets some attention Playboy playmate Jessa Hinton.

Nikki throws the first ceremonial pitch at the Los Angeles Dodgers vers

us Houston Astros baseball game at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California.

5/6/12
Mötley Crüe commences a string of European concerts and festival appearances by playing at Russia's Crocus City Hall in Moscow, after arriving there a couple of days earlier and taking in some local sights.

A DVD titled Kickstart Live 2011 DVD is released by Showlight/IDS/Fontana North. This unofficial release was shot and edited by Tommy's close friend Bobby Hewitt, with footage captured from multiple shows on the band's North American tour last year. Track listing: Wild Side, Saints of Los Angeles, Live Wire, Shout at the Devil '97, Same Ol' Situation (S.O.S.), Primal Scream, Home Sweet Home, Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away), 360 Drum Solo, Guitar Solo, Looks That Kill, Dr. Feelgood, Nikki Talks, Too Young To Fall In Love, Ten Seconds To Love, Girls, Girls, Girls, Smokin' In The Boys Room, Kickstart My Heart.

7/6/12
Nikki says his grandfather Tom is suffering from prostate cancer. After asking fans to say a prayer for him, he soon receives messages of encouragement from all over the world. Overwhelmed by the outpouring of kindness, Nikki thanks the fans for taking time out of their lives to wish goodness upon his family and lift their spirits.

19/6/12
Nikki's former girlfriend Lita Ford releases her album Living Like A Runaway, which includes a version of A Song To Slit Your Wrist By that was written by Nikki for his 58 side project.

28/6/12
Many fans respond negatively to Tommy's tweet, "I really miss the days when people didn't have fucking cameras in their cell phones! Sick of taking pics with randoms just 'cause it's there!" So he follows up with an open letter explaining that he loves his fans but he absolutely hates taking pictures. He says he doesn't owe this experience to them and they should stop and think about the situation first, before whipping out a camera.

29/6/12
Vince takes the first steps towards earning his pilot's license with a two-week training event filmed by The Aviators TV show for its season-three programming, premiering this fall on PBS, as part of Sennheiser's Live Your Dream program.

6/7/12
During an online chat, Nikki says Mötley Crüe is writing new songs. Regarding their future release, he says, "When the songs are ready, we'll record them and how we will release them, we don't know, because everything is changing and we kinda like it. How we release music in the future, whether it's song by song, EP by EP, album by album, or soundtracks to movies, we don't know … we're open and excited about our future and in no rush to release music just to release music."

Asked whether Sixx: A.M. has any plans to tour, Nikki says, "All the members of Sixx: A.M. are committed and want to tour but, between Mötley Crüe, Guns N' Roses and James' production work, it's extremely difficult to find a time that we would all be available. But, I want to let fans know that it is a priority and we want it to happen in the biggest of ways."

13/7/12
Mötley Crüe's new single Sex has its radio premiere on SiriusXM. A few days later, the band makes the song available for free download from their website for 24 hours.

20/7/12
Mötley commences THE Tour with Kiss in Bristow, Virginia. The band enters the stage from the aisles with pomp and ceremony, accompanied by roadies holding Mötley Crüe flags, before kicking into Saints of Los Angeles. The fifth song of their set is the first live performance of new single Sex, with Vince reading the verse lyrics taped to the floor to ensure accuracy. Tommy then performs his 360 rollercoaster drum solo and hits up the piano for Home Sweet Home. The band's huge stage production incorporates elements of the familiar rock'n'roll carnivale mixed with vaudeville and includes large metal fans, dancing back-up singers, and plenty of fire, including from Nikki's flamethrower bass during the next song Primal Scream. They conclude their ten-song, seventy-five-minute set with Kickstart My Heart.

8/8/12
During their Denver concert, Mötley Crüe and Kiss pledge to donate $100,000 to the Aurora Victim Relief Fund, setup to assist those affected by the cinema massacre in Colorado last month when twelve people were killed and a further fifty-eight were injured at a midnight screening of a Batman film. Nikki says, "Following the heartbreaking news of the senseless shootings in Colorado, we wanted to do something to help the families and victims. We bonded together with our tour partners and friends Kiss to donate money, but we also hope it inspires others to do the same, no matter how big or small."

22/8/12
Imagem Music USA signs a worldwide, multi-year administration agreement with Mick. "Owning my own publishing is something that I am very proud of," Mick says. "I am happy to bring Richard Stumpf and everyone at Imagem on board to administer those rights worldwide."

29/8/12
Tommy's sister Athena is one of the stars of the TV show Ex-Wives of Rock that premieres on the Canadian network Slice. Her eighteen-year-old son Miles wrote the music for the show's theme song, while the show's co-producer Lorraine Lewis wrote the lyrics with Athena, before it was recorded at Tommy's studio The Atrium. Also starring Vince's former wife Sharise Neil, the show chronicles the highs and lows of the glamorous L.A. lives of four women who have led the sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll life... and have survived to reinvent themselves."

4/9/12
During their concert in Nashville, Mötley Crüe and Kiss give a $50,000 donation to Tim McGraw on behalf of Operation Homefront, an organization that provides emergency financial and other assistance to families of service members and wounded warriors coping with deployment and injury recovery by providing funds for immediate needs such as food, housing, childcare, moving costs and vehicle expenses. Nikki says, "We wanted to give back to the servicemen in need. They are the ones who bravely go out to defend our freedom so the least we can do is support them and their families when they return. We are grateful for the opportunity to partner with our friends Kiss to donate money. Hopefully it will help create awareness and inspire many others to follow suit."

5/9/12
Mötley's concert in Detroit is postponed by a day after the tour's pyrotechnics truck crashes and spills their gear when it flips. Travelling on I-75 near Lima, Ohio at about 8:20am, driver Charles Lamb reaches for a water bottle in the cabin and then overcorrects some drift, veering the semitrailer off the freeway where it overturns in a grassy ditch. He is cited for failure to control a vehicle and is taken to a local hospital for minor injuries. The pyro gear worth about $6 million is loaded onto another truck that finishes the remaining three hours of the drive to the Michigan venue.

6/9/12
Nikki's girlfriend Courtney Bingham joins Mötley Crüe on stage in Detroit during Girls, Girls, Girls to perform a birthday burlesque dance, as she celebrated her twenty-seventh birthday the previous day. Nikki says, "It was a blast for me watching Courtney get all excited to dance on stage with our background dancers for her birthday. She really kicked ass too."

13/9/12
Following last night's concert at Cleveland's Blossom Music Center, Vince says, "Paramedics think I broke my foot. I hope not. Getting X-ray tomorrow in Toronto. Thanks Cleveland for understanding!" After obtaining the x-rays, Vince says the doctor confirmed he fractured two bones in his left foot while on stage, and it is put in a cast.

20/9/12
Howard Scott King files a lawsuit against Mötley Crüe, the band's touring company, and Tommy Lee as an individual, for misappropriation of trade secrets in the Superior Court of California. The suit accuses them of unlawful use of King's proposal for a "Tommy Lee Loop Coaster." In his complaint, King claims that he developed the idea for the Coaster as part of his then-business Stages 'N' Motion. King described it as "a track on which Tommy would play his drums on a platform on wheels which follow the track until he was in an upside-down position playing the drums and he would continue playing the drums as the platform followed the track in a complete loop." King alleges that he discussed a proposal for the Coaster with Top Rock Development Corp., Mötley Crüe's agents, on or about November 21, 1991. King claims that both the proposal, as well as a signed confidentiality agreement (which has since been lost or misplaced), expressly stated that the ideas were confidential, and that King was to be compensated should Mötley Crüe implement the Coaster. In June 2011, Mötley Crüe began using the Coaster, or a substantially similar device, as a centerpiece for concerts, as well as in commercials and other promotions. King seeks at least $400,000 in damages.

23/9/12
As Mötley's US summer tour with Kiss comes to an end, Tommy says, "Wow! How time flies! One show in Mexico in a few days but it's a rap for 2012 kids! A little break 'til Jan 2013, then off to Australia with Kiss and Mötley. Been goin' like fuck since Feb in Vegas! 9 months! Fuckin' whooped... I want to thank all the amazing crew guys and girls it took to put this insanity together and keep it up and running every damn day! Respect to all the truck drivers, bus drivers, pilots, dancers, aerialists, stilt walkers, pyrotechnicians - heroes!"

During the band's set, a guy from the audience gets on stage and assaults a crew-member operating a water cannon squirting the crowd. He is arrested after breaking the crew-member's hip.

10/10/12
Vince is one of the guests to participate in the Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy Camp that kicks off today at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

13/11/12
While Nikki broadcasts his Sixx Sense radio show in London, backstage at the Classic Rock Roll of Honour 2012 event, he wins the award for Showman of the Year. On the red carpet, he says the new Sixx: A.M. album currently being written will not be attached to a book upon its release; this time the music will stand by itself. He also says The Heroin Diaries will be a Broadway production. They are about halfway through the second draft of the script – the producers, writer and financers are all in place.

Mötley Crüe announces a tour of Australia with Kiss and Thin Lizzy that will take them around the country in late-February and March next year.

John Corabi releases his acoustic solo album Unplugged through Rat Pack Records. The CD includes five new original songs, along with seven from his former bands The Scream, Union, and Mötley Crüe – new versions of Loveshine and Hooligan's Holiday from the band's self-titled 1994 album. Other musicians to feature on the album are former Collective Soul member Cheney Brannon on percussion, Topher Nolen on bass, D.A. Karkos on guitar, Matt Farley on percussion, and John's former Union band mate Bruce Kulick on guitar.

15/11/12
Tommy launches a rocking clothing line with Australian owned streetwear brand Unit. Developed by Tommy alongside Unit's design team, the range includes a t-shirt, board shorts, jacket and denim with artwork for the range based on his concept "The Goddess Of Noise". Tommy says, "I'm stoked to be working with a brand like Unit that encompasses the same ideology as my music. The Unit team did a great job on the range and the fit and quality are right on." The Tommy Lee/Unit range will be available from December 1 in leading Australian and USA street-wear and action sports retailers as well as online.

17/11/12
Vince celebrates the release of his new Tatuado Vodka with an afternoon signing session at Lee's Discount Liquor in Las Vegas. The spirit is filtered five times and bottled in Las Vegas. Tatuado means tattooed in Spanish. In January, a line of rum called Vince Neil's Poolside Party will be released in plastic bottles, including black cherry, coconut and mango flavours.

24/11/12
Nikki says Mötley's last single Sex was just a taste of some new Crüe and there is much more Mötley music to come. "Mick Mars told me he has so many riffs ready to go. I've personally been writing my ass off for months now, feeling really inspired to follow it up with the rest of the songs from the band too."

26/11/12
Nikki says, "When Courtney and I were in St Bart's, I popped the question and she said YES. We would like to thank everybody who has been tweeting and posting online congratulations to us. Both of us and our families are beyond happy." The newly-engaged couple returned to the U.S. five days ago, after spending five days vacationing on Saint Barthélemy - one of four territories among the Leeward Islands in the north-eastern Caribbean that comprise the French West Indies. Nikki set the scene for his proposal with a candle-lit stroll along the beach, leading his girlfriend of two years to a tent strewn with rose petals where dinner was served before he got down on one knee. His fiancée now wears an engagement ring topped with a large sixx-carat diamond.

1/12/12
During a solo show at Inn Of The Mountain Gods Resort & Casino in Mescalero, New Mexico, Vince takes a closed-fist, rage-fuelled swing at a front row concert-goer just as he had starts to perform Kickstart My Heart. Vince stops the song and yells at the guy to 'get the fuck out of here' before taking a swing at him. Security soon escorts the person from the venue.

6/12/12
FourPoints Television, producers of The Aviators, one of PBS' most-watched television reality docu-series, announces it has signed Vince to head up a new reality series based on his exploits as a newly-certified pilot. "The series Vince Neil Escapes will follow Vince in his dream to finalise his pilot's license, for which flight training occurred on-camera during season three of the program. In the process Vince and an entourage head for the skies in a series of flights to glamorous party destinations. Episodes will accompany Vince and his bombshell entrepreneur girlfriend, his semi-famous rocker manager, and his soft-spoken female mentor and flight instructor, as they embark on various whirlwind flights across North America and the Caribbean, enjoying rock-star level treatment along the way. Throughout the season, Vince battles FAA regulations to earn the right to fly on his own (due to a long history of DUI convictions, including one fatal collision), working with a quirky medical practitioner and accordion player. Yet Vince's more enduring challenge is to strike a balance between his hard-partying nature and the unique sobriety and focus required to fulfil his dream of being a full-fledged pilot. Vince's flight instructor and "angel on the shoulder" warns that the only variable between Vince enjoying a casual flight and dying in a fiery disaster is Vince himself."

11/12/12
John Corabi has formed a new supergroup called Classic Rock All Stars that will tour Russia for ten shows in February. Joining him in the band are Bobby Rondinelli from Rainbow and Black Sabbath, Greg Smith from Ted Nugent and Alice Cooper's bands, Chris Slade of AC/DC and The Firm, Craig Goldy from Dio, and Geoff Nicholls of Black Sabbath.

13/12/12
Vince says he has signed a deal with Hooters Casino Hotel in Las Vegas to open Wildside Saloon - a rock and roll sports bar that is expected to open in the next thirty days - however, the bar never opens.

On with the show