Chronological Crue - The History of Motley Crue in 2015

5/1/15
Vince Neil's Arena Football League team the Las Vegas Outlaws will make their debut on March 30 when they host their inaugural match, most likely against L.A. KISS, the team owned by Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons of Kiss. The Las Vegas Sun reports Vince will be on hand to perform the national anthem and that plans are being discussed for a possible rival Mötley Crüe and Kiss mini-concert before game time and at halftime.

8/1/15
Nikki Sixx says, "The only award I look forward to getting is the one I will probably decline and that's the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. It's a fixed old-boy network that has lost touch with art, song writing craft, lyrics and influential music and usually has other agendas at hand. Young bands tell me it's a joke, and these bands are the future."

13/1/15
Vince welcomes another grandchild when his son Neil and wife Marie announce the arrival of their daughter Hailee Marie Wharton, weighing in at 6lbs 12oz and 20 inches long.

15/1/15
The long-gestating film of Mötley Crüe’s autobiography The Dirt has been picked up by Focus Features, the arthouse arm of NBC Universal, and a search for actors will soon begin. Armed with a screenplay written by Rich Wilkes and Tom Kapinos, Focus is promising a "Dr. Feelgood" movie that will be an outrageous, larger-than-life depiction of the band's high (and low) life. Jeff Tremaine, the helmer of the Jackass movies and Bad Grandpa, which grossed over $102 million domestically, will direct the Mötley movie. Julie Yorn, Erik Olsen, and Allen Kovac will produce, while Chris Nilsson, Steven Kline, and Rick Yorn will executive-produce. The band members are co-producers on the film, as well as Amanda Adelson. Josh McLaughlin, Focus’ Senior VP of Production, will oversee the production on behalf of the studio, after Josh Peters, Focus’ Director of Acquisitions, brought the project into the studio.

Nikki attends the Los Angeles Art Show where artist Robert Vargas sketches a charcoal drawing of him in fifteen minutes to support St. Jude's Hospital.

20/1/15
Mötley Crüe announces on Fox News details of their final performances, marking the end of their touring career. Their final concert will be held on New Year's Eve, December 31 at Staples Center in their hometown of Los Angeles where the band's career began thirty-four years ago. The 2015 leg of The Final Tour will see the band play Japan in February, then Australia/New Zealand in spring. In June, Mötley Crüe will say farewell to the European Festival circuit with three massive performances at Download (England), Sweden Rock (Sweden) and Novarock (Austria) festivals, before taking their can't-miss show back to the U.S., Canada, and Mexico this summer for thirty-four final North American shows due to tremendous fan demand.

Nikki says, "In some of the cities, we could only reach a fraction of the fans who wanted to come see us play last year because of ticket demand so we're coming back to those places to bring them our full production including the Crüecifly drum coaster, as well as all pyro and every other bell and whistle. Even despite the overwhelming fan demand, we can only add so many new cities in North America because of our commitment to take The Final Tour global on our final year."

Coinciding with today's announcement and the theme of The Final Tour, the band also releases its new single All Bad Things, accompanied by a video clip of highlights of Mötley Crüe's career. The band will give away their best-selling Greatest Hits album for free in partnership with Google Play for one week only beginning today. Mötley Crüe is also in the process of putting together the ultimate collector's album package for the fans to be released later this year, which will include the new track All Bad Things amongst many other surprises, details of which will be announced in the near future.

21/1/15
As part of their media promotions for the Final Tour, Mötley Crüe rings the closing bell of the New York Stock Exchange. The band's new single All Bad Things sits at number one on the iTunes Rock Charts in the US and Canada.

22/1/15
Mötley Crüe performs Girls, Girls, Girls live on NBC's The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon.

13/2/15
Black Veil Brides perform a cover of Mötley Crüe's Kickstart My Heart during their concert at the Metropolis in Montreal, Canada.

17/2/15
Mötley Crüe completes their five-show final tour of Japan by playing their last-ever show in the country at the Fukuoka International Center. Vince heads to Maui in Hawaii for a vacation.

20/2/15
With their song Stars in the top ten at U.S. radio, Sixx: A.M. plays the famous Budokan indoor arena in Tokyo with Japanese band Vamps, who will join Sixx: A.M. on their first headling tour of North America in April. Playing drums with Sixx:A.M. for the first time is Dustin Steinke of the Canadian rock band Bleeker Ridge from Orillia, Ontario - they recently finished recording a new album with James Michael as Producer that's due for release later this year on Eleven Seven records. Nikki plays a bass adorned with the rising sun for the Budokan show.

2/3/15
Singer Chelsea Lankes releases a synth-pop cover of Too Young To Fall In Love on her new EP via B3SCI Records. Born in Texas but residing in Los Angeles, the singer reinterprets the Crüe classic with electro-pop guitars and digitally-altered background vocals. She says, "I've always been a fan of the '80s and particularly hair metal. There are so many great lyrics and melodies from that era and dressed up a little differently, they can still be a really great pop song. Too Young To Fall In Love is an earlier cut from Mötley Crüe, but it's one of their best. I'm so drastically different as an artist from their sound but the challenge of making it my own is what makes doing a cover song fun."

4/3/15
When asked during a radio interview if he has any plans to work with Mick Mars again, John Corabi says, "Yeah, actually I was just talking to him the other day. A lot of people already know about it, but as soon as he's done doing this next tour, Mick and I have had some discussions about possibly going in and doing some writing together and doing a record, and maybe going out and doing some shows. So we'll see how that works."

5/3/15
Indonesian rock band /rif say they will collaborate with Tommy Lee on their next album, scheduled to be recorded in his Los Angeles studio this April.

11/3/15
John Corabi heads to Sydney, Australia for about a month to work on a new album titled Revolucion with The Dead Daisies, after participating with them as part of a cultural exchange last month as guests of the Cuban Ministry of Culture, Cuban Institute of Music and the Cuban Rock Agency. The trip came about following President Obama’s deal with Cuba to lift travel and trade restrictions. The Dead Daisies is a collective that is comprised of guitarist Richard Fortus (Guns N' Roses, Psychedelic Furs), bassist Marco Mendoza (Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake), keyboardist Dizzy Reed (Guns N' Roses, Hookers & Blow), guitarist David Lowy (Mink, Red Phoenix) and drummer Brian Tichy (Ozzy Osbourne, Billy Idol).

18/3/15
Vince seeks assistance from the courts to force an Oregon woman to relinquish control of his social media accounts. In a lawsuit filed in Clark County District Court, Vince claims Kristy Sinsara is making unauthorised posts that the public and his fans believe are being made by him. The complaint alleges, “Sinsara maintains control over the accounts because she is using them to trade on Neil’s fame and celebrity as a means of promoting Sinsara and her works.” According to the lawsuit, Vince established Facebook and LinkedIn accounts to advance his social media presence and interact with fans before he met Sinsara, who approached Vince in Nevada and offered to manage his social media accounts; Vince would help promote her as a social media strategist, in return for her managing his social media accounts. Vince agreed to give Sinsara access to and administrative control over his accounts, but he retained ownership of the accounts.

However, after gaining control of the accounts, the lawsuit alleges, Sinsara changed the passwords and email contact information for them. For a period of time, Sinsara created content for Vince’s accounts until he terminated the agreement late last year and asked Sinsara to return control of the accounts to him, but she continued to trade on his celebrity and fame. According to the complaint, on February 16 Vince served a formal legal demand on Sinsara to return control of the accounts but “Even though Sinsara agreed to relinquish control over the accounts on December 26, 2014 and again on March 1, 2015, she has and continues to maintain control over the accounts and makes unauthorised posts on the accounts.” The document claims the unauthorised posts are causing Vince “irreparable damage.”

In a phone interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Sinsara denies the allegations and says she suspects the lawsuit stems from her dispute with Vince’s girlfriend, Rain Hannah. Sinsara said she gave Vince the password for his Twitter account when he asked for it, but he never asked for the password to his Facebook account. She has “absolute access to Facebook” but has not posted anything on Vince’s behalf since January. “The last time I posted something was with his approval,” she said. Sinsara said she does not have the password to Vince’s LinkedIn account. “This whole thing is being spun into an absolute lie,” she said. Sinsara said she gave the Facebook password to Vince’s tour manager, but refused to give it to Rain Hannah out of concern for Vince.

28/3/15
Nikki is the central figure in an episode of the television show Rock Icons that premieres on VH1 Classic in the USA.

30/3/15
Vince's Arena Football League team the Las Vegas Outlaws makes their debut as they host their inaugural match against the San Jose SaberCats. Vince sings the national anthem at the start of the game.

Nikki attends the iHeart Radio Music Awards with his wife Courtney, where he shares a moment with Queen singer Adam Lambert on the red carpet. Michael Clifford, guitarist of Australian pop rock band 5 Seconds of Summer, wears a Mötley Crüeshirt to the event. Nikki later tweets, "Congrats @5sos on your award. Nice Crüe shirt too. See yah next week for some lyric writing."

7/4/15
Members of Mötley Crüe have stood up for their manager Allen Kovac in his legal dispute with lawyer Dina LaPolt. Kovac and LaPolt used to work together, but fell out while negotiating a third season on American Idol for their client Steven Tyler. According to Kovac, LaPolt derailed those negotiations and then persuaded Tyler to dump his management services. He sued LaPolt over those claims in 2012 and the lawsuit was thrown out of court in 2013, but appeal judges overturned that decision last month, meaning the legal battle is now back in full flow.

Speaking to the LA Business Journal, Kovac says, "I am very disappointed in how [LaPolt] has acted. She was my lawyer and was also counsel for Mötley Crüe, but that's all over now. We're in court and I'm going to let the legal process move forward." LaPolt says in return, "Allen Kovac looks rather desperate because many people see this case for what it is: an obvious tactic to punish someone he could not control." According to the Journal, statements have been submitted by Mötley Crüe. Mick previously spoke-out in support of LaPolt, but is now sticking up for his manager, saying, "I believe that Dina's refusal to properly advise and represent me about pending band business, in which she played an integral role, and her refusal to bring my attorney up to speed on the band’s business decisions, resulted in the band and me being dragged into this lawsuit that does not involve us."

8/4/15
Sixx:A.M. commences their first-ever headline tour with a sold-out show at San Francisco’s Regency Ballroom last night. The Modern Vintage Tour commences with sets by special guests Vamps from Japan and Apocalyptica from Finland, before Sixx: A.M. takes the stage with their song X-Mas in Hell as the introduction, and then rips into Let’s Go. The live premiere of Give Me a Love and Relief follows, before they work through the rest of their fan-selected set-list consisting of This Is Gonna Hurt, Pray for Me, Dead Man's Ballet, Accidents Can Happen, Miracle, Live Forever, Gotta Get It Right, Drive, Help Is On the Way, Goodbye My Friends, Lies of the Beautiful People, and Stars. The band then comes out for an encore of Skin and Life is Beautiful to complete a very strong first night. To round out their live line-up, Sixx:A.M. has added drummer Dustin Steinke of Bleeker Ridge, as well as backup singers Melissa Harding and Amber VanBuskirk to create the big sounding show they had always envisioned for the band live. They are also in the process of writing and recording new music for their upcoming fourth full-length album that is to be released next year; they already have enough material for a double album.

18/4/15
Vince attends the 41st Toyota Long Beach Grand Prix in California where he waves the green flag to start the morning Pro/Celebrity Race, and then plays an evening solo concert to headline the Rock-N-Roar show

27/4/15
Vince has reportedly been filmed for an upcoming episode of the ABC TV show Celebrity Wife Swap. His girlfriend Rain Hannah was filmed in Nashville, while Vince took his swapped wife gambling at Red Rock Resort, where he put down $50,000 on the craps table as the cameras rolled. When they reached $660,000 they walked away ecstatically. During another sequence, Vince had to cook a dinner for twenty friends, admitting it was the first time he'd ever played chef in the kitchen. "I hadn't been in a supermarket to do grocery shopping since Mötley Crüe first went out on the road in 1981," he told the cameras. "I didn’t know where to find any of the ingredients."

29/4/15
Mick tells Guitar World that he'll still be touring after Mötley Crüe's final tour. When asked what projects he is working on, he says, "Having some down-time has given me a chance to go in and look at some of the older stuff I've written over the last few years and also to work on some new material. Right now, I’m working with [Alice Cooper guitarist, songwriter and producer] Tommy Henriksen and have written about nine songs in the past month and half. I’m coming up with some really cool, aggressive stuff that’s far removed from what I would be writing for Mötley."

4/5/15
During an interview where he discusses the differences between Mötley and his other band Sixx: A.M., Nikki says, "The day Mötley Crüe plays its last show, I will never play another Mötley Crüe song again… even if it's one I wrote."

9/5/15
Mötley Crüe plays their first-ever, and last-ever, show in New Zealand before commencing their tour of Australia.

1/6/15
The Dead Daisies release their album Revolucion in Europe via INgrooves, which features John Corabi on vocals and guitar.

2/6/15
Tommy co-writes and co-produces the debut single Bettie by Violet Chachki, season winner of the RuPaul's Drag Race TV show.

9/6/15
Mötley Crüe makes their last tour announcement ever when they reveal the cities of their Final European Tour to take place this November. During a press conference at the Law Society in London hosted by Matt Everitt of BBC6 Music today, the band gathers in front of European media from twelve countries and announces the tour dates demanded by their fans. The band gave fans an opportunity to voice their thoughts and vote on which European cities they would like to see the band play. An overwhelming 500,000 fans in eighteen European countries shared their messages on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #DemandtheCrue and could track the progress of the conversation via a heat map that was updated daily. The November tour dates will be the ultimate farewell to the European continent as Mötley Crüe will be bringing over their biggest production and pyro show to date including Nikki's flame-throwing bass and Tommy's Crüecifly drum coaster, as well as the “Crüesnest” where fans can sit with the band up close and personal during the grand finale of the show.

Nikki provides an update on the status of the long-awaited film adaptation of the band's autobiography The Dirt, which was recently picked up by Focus Features, the art house films division of NBCUniversal. He says, "It's interesting, because, in a perfect world, the movie would have come out during the touring cycle. But almost by accident - or, actually, it is by accident - the movie is gonna come out when the band plays the final show. And, in a sense, for us, it is extendingMötley Crüe even further. It's gonna be the end, and then the movie comes, and it keeps the music alive. So we're really excited about that. We've been talking about [releasing it] sometime next year. [It's] a rough idea, but who knows?! We don't make movies. It's our first time [doing] that, and we're learning a lot."

15/7/15
The Arena Football League, as part of its strategic plan to solidify its financial condition and create a platform for growth, has taken over operation of Vince Neil's Las Vegas Outlaws. In a collective decision from the AFL Board of Directors, the team will continue as members of the Arena Football League without its previous ownership group in place. The Outlaws have four games remaining in their 2015 regular season schedule.

16/7/15
Nikki tells Rolling Stone that Sixx:A.M. currently has twenty-four finished songs prepared for the release of two as-yet-untitled, full-length albums to be released next year. He says, "They'll be companion pieces, named Volume One and Volume Two, and they'll come out with a little bit of space between them. Because when a band releases a double album, a lot of times, about halfway through the second record, you say, 'Sounds like they ran out of gas…' So by putting them out separately we'll give the fans time to absorb each one fully. They'll get the first one. They'll stream it. They'll feel it. They'll hear it live. And then it'll be, 'Here comes another one.'" He adds, “There's a lot about our own experiences in our songs, but there's also always a light at the end of the tunnel, because we've lived through those experiences. And on the new material, those themes are maybe even a little bit heavier."

Once Mötley wraps The Final Tour, Nikki will be channeling all his creative energy into Sixx:A.M. for the foreseeable future. "We're all committing 100% of our time to this band, and anything else that's out there has to revolve around that," he says. "And I think James and DJ's visions are the same as mine, which is that we want to play with anybody, anywhere we can. We'd love to headline, we'd love to be direct support, we'd love to play festivals. We'll do acoustic gigs, radio stations, whatever. We just want to play. And that's what we're going to do." Next February, Sixx:A.M. will begin rehearsals for a major tour - just one component in what will be a big year for the group with extensive live dates said to keep them out there for two years."

17/7/15
Mötley adds more production to their last leg of The Final Tour. During the band’s main set finale of Kickstart My Heart, Nikki and Vince are lifted off the stage on special platforms and fly high into the air and over the crowd before returning. The band also has a new massive pentagram that gets lit on fire.

24/7/15
Vince’s attorney James Kohl says the Crüe singer dropped his breach-of-contract lawsuit that was filed in Las Vegas state court during March that accused his social media consultant Kristy Sinsara of hijacking passwords of his accounts and making unauthorized posts. The lawyer says Sinsara handed over the Facebook and LinkedIn profile passwords and the case was dismissed in early June. However, Sinsara disputes this by saying Vince had access to his accounts all along, adding that he also could have verified his account directly with Facebook. 

14/10/15
Tommy wakes up at 3 am with acute pain from tendinitis, having inflamed a tendon in his left wrist, most likely from overuse. He is unable to hold a drumstick, let alone play the night's concert in Buffalo, New York. He sees a doctor who gives him an injection and says the inflammation should go down if he doesn't play drums over the next two days, so he can hopefully play Mötley's next show in Bridgeport, Connecticut - but unfortunately he is unable to play the next five shows.

After getting a call-up at lunch time, Alice Cooper's drummer Glen Sobel, who has previously played with Sixx:A.M., does double duty to fill in and replace Tommy. Sobel preps all afternoon, then come show time, Tommy assists him by handling some of the electronics and cueing him through in-ear monitors from side of stage; he does not perform the Cruecifly drum solo though. Tommy manages to play the piano intro and outro on the night's closing song Home Sweet Home.

27/10/15
John Corabi plays a set of Mötley Crüe1994 album material at The Basement East in  Nashville, Tennessee. The event is recorded and filmed for a future live release.

18/11/15
With Tommy's wrist back to full strength, Mötley Crüe plays their final European concert at Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland.

20/11/15
Mötley Crüe plays their first-ever show in the Middle East, when the band performs at Abu Dhabi Du Arena in the United Arab Emirates. It is also the band's final concert outside of North America. While in the city, Nikki and Tommy take time to visit the picturesque Sheikh Zayed Mosque. Vince heads to the Maldives for a short holiday.

30/11/15
Nikki says, "Finished all my bass parts for both Sixx: A.M. albums today. Tour dates and album releases being planned as we speak. DJ Ashba has just a few more solos and guitar tracks to go as James Michael is finalising his lead vocals and then starting the mixing process. I feel like we have topped ourselves on both albums song-wise, but in the end, our fans will make that decision for us." One of the new songs is called The Rise Of The Melancholy Empire.

1/12/15
English rockers The Struts will support Mötley Crüe in Los Angeles and Las Vegas at the band's final-ever shows. The Struts say, "We have been given the honour of being asked to open for Mötley Crüe at their last four ever shows in LA and Las Vegas!" Nikki says, "When Mötley Crüe first started out, bigger acts like Kiss, Iron Maiden and Ozzy Osbourne took us on the road and helped us reach a larger audience. We carried on that tradition, taking Guns N Roses out on their first tour and creating the Crüe Fest annual tour to showcase younger talent. With the final four shows, Mötley Crüe has one last opportunity to share a band with the world and we thought The Struts were worthy of those last spots on the stage."

4/12/15
Nikki says the bus that Scott Weiland died on yesterday was the same one he used on the most recent Mötley Crüe run of dates. He was found dead in the bed that Nikki had most recently been sleeping in.

13/12/15
Vince says he doesn't know why his name was among the notable people whose names were reportedly included on a new list of East Bay, California residents penalised for violating the Excessive Water Use Ordinance, which imposes fines on suspected water wasters as a reaction to the state's drought. Records show that he consumed more than 2,200 gallons daily at his home in Danville, but Vince says. "This is news to me. I haven't lived in my Danville, CA house for over five years. My property manager would have informed me if there was a violation of Excessive Water Use."

15/12/15
Vince is being sued by an investment group that claims it was defrauded in his ill-fated Las Vegas Outlaws Arena Football League franchise. Outlaws Investment Group and Sohrob Farudi have sued Vince and a group of others in Clark County, Nevada for allegedly misleading them about the team's finances. They also allege that Vince and other members of the Rockstar Investment Group falsely claimed to own the Jacksonville Sharks AFL franchise in Florida, and that they had been awarded an AFL franchise in Las Vegas, to be called the Outlaws. Believing that the team was fully-funded with $3 million, Farudi says he invested $500,000 in the Outlaws in August 2014, only to learn a week later that they still owed the AFL $2.5 million. Farudi also alleges that Vince defamed him to print and broadcast media by "willfully, wantonly, outrageously, intentionally and falsely" accusing him of mismanaging the team. Farudi references an August 10 article in the Las Vegas Sun newspaper published under the headline, "Vince Neil clears the air on team's ouster," in which Vince is quoted as saying: "The investor was the managing partner who paid the bills and ran the team, business dealings, sponsorships and finances. That wasn't our responsibility."

18/12/15
Vince puts his home in Danville, California on the market for $2.575 million, after he purchased the property in the home town of his ex-wife Lia Gerardini for $2.825 million in 2007. The Mediterranean-inspired, four-bedroom home includes five full baths, a solar pool with an elaborate mosaic bottom and arching water jets; a water fall, and balconies that overlook landscaping that's described as Tuscany meets tropical meets NorCal. It also features an outdoor kitchen, scrolling metal work, and a host of chandeliers.

26/12/15
To celebrate the end of Mötley Crüe, a Mötley Krüegoyle Hearse by Barris Kustoms cruises the streets of Los Angeles, stopping at familiar haunts of the band's storied past including the Hard Rock Cafe, Whisky A Go-Go, the Rainbow, The Roxy, The Body Shop, and the Seventh Veil.

30/12/15
The final two Mötley Crüe shows are being captured for a full-length concert film of their finale, which will also include exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes footage of the last week of the tour. Christian Lamb has been tapped to direct the concert portion of the film, while Jeff Tremaine, creator of the Jackass series, is confirmed to direct the documentary segment. Produced and distributed by Live Alliance, the film will premiere in theaters worldwide during 2016, as well as via Pay Per View in all cable/satellite/digital formats.

31/12/15
Billed as "Crüe Year's Eve" Mötley Crüe plays their final-ever concert at the Staples Center in hometown Los Angeles that concludes The Final Tour. During Tommy's drum solo, his Cruecifly rollercoaster malfunctions, leaving him hanging upside down above the audience. The crew manages to help Tommy descend down the rigging and through the crowd, before they finally get his drum kit back to the main stage for the show to recover from the unscripted incident. The concert is an emotional event, with Vince tearing-up prior to Same Ol' Situation, and again during the band's final song together - Home Sweet Home. The Crüe bows-out on top, on their own terms. The final three hometown shows are seen by 37,000 fans and generate $2.7 million in box office revenue, placing them at number two on the list of top-grossing tours for the week. The band’s eighteen-month final tour grosses $100 million from 164 shows in North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

On with the show