Mötley Crüst

The story of Mötley Crüst starts in Tilburg County, one of the many towns south of Los Angeles. Two teenagers named Jack Firestone and Serge Lee founded the band in 1978 covering songs by their heroes Kiss and Alice Cooper. To complete their band, Cooper’s Kiss, they quickly found bassplayer Jesse Jackson and vocalist Vince Johansson. They played all local clubs and bars but after a short period of local fame they decided it was time to move on and they started writing their own material. Late 1979 they changed their name into Motley Crue, a name of which they felt it represented the spirit of the band best. After high school , in 1980, the foursome moved to L.A. to be closer to the music scene. It wasn’t easy. They had to take on shitty jobs and performed almost every night in bars, covering the songs they did back in 1978, just so they could pay the rent and eat. In that year they were almost sued by another band with the same name. They were paid fat money by that other one so the band changed their name into Mötley Crüst. That turned into a good thing, because that name drew the attention of producer Desmond Child who offered the band a chance to record their material. 1982 saw the release of Mötley Crüst’s very first demo-tape ‘Kiss Of Death’. Being influenced by New Yorks’ own Twisted Sister they knew what to do; flamboyant clothes and tons of make-up were going to be the trademark of Mötley Crüst . After a concert Mötley Crüst did in 1983 in New York the band met J.P. French, brother of Twisted Sister’s guitarplayer Jay Jay, who was very impressed. In that year the band were picked up by manager Jim ‘Jimbo’ Raines, after he saw them play with Guns N Roses at the Whisky-A-Go-Go. He got them a deal with Atlantic Records. October 26th 1983 is still a black day in the history of Mötley Crüst; bassplayer Jesse Jackson was found dead in his apartment. His drug addiction finally won and the band found themselves ‘bass-less’. After a period of mourning, Jack called J.P., who immediately took the next flight to Los Angeles. They also added an extra guitarplayer, Joey D., who was kicked out of RATT because he hit on Steven Pearcy’s girlfriend. Having the ‘new’ Mötley Crüst together they entered the studio to record their debut album ‘Seven Churches’ which was released on January 18th 1985. Mötley Crüst got the chance to open up for Whitesnake on their West Coast tour 1985. Right after that Mötley Crüst went back into the studio and recorded ‘To Mega Therion’ which was a huge success, entering the Billboard 100 at number 2 and staying in the top ten for an entire year. This was followed by a nationwide stadium tour with rising stars Bon Jovi. In Juli 1986 Mötley Crüst first toured Europe and Japan together with Aerosmith. The amount of creativity coming from writing duo Firestone/Johansson was enormous because at the end of 1986 the band went to Jamaica to record the follow up to their platinum release ‘To Mega Therion’. After just one month ‘Abominations of Desolation’ was completed and Atlantic was able to get it in stores just before Christmas 1986. It proved to be even better than the second album, with a far better production and easier-to-listen-to songs. In 1987 Jack, Vince, Joey D., JP and Serge found themselves on their first headlining tour across the world. This was the ultimate chance to give their buddies Guns n’ Roses a break and GNR opened up six months in a row. This tour abruptly ended when singer Vince was arrested for doing drugs on stage at a concert in Sydney. He was sentenced to do three months in prison. When he came back to the States things just turned worse. Jack was hooked on liquor, Serge shot an entire South American country up his elbow and JP was arrested for an attempted rape. Joey D., the quiet one, used this period to write new material for the next record; ‘Leprosy’. After Jack and Serge were released from the Betty Ford clinic, they immediately went into the studio to record ‘Leprosy’ which was released on June 10th 1988. Due to mediocre songwriting and bad publicity this record didn’t do well and Joey D. was shortly replaced by Gilby Clarke, who would end up playing in Guns n Roses. But the last thing Mötley Crüst needed was another booze head so Joey D. re-entered the band only four months later. With all arguments worked out Mötley Crüst began working on a gigantic amount of music. Releasing two albums at the same time shocked the entire industry, but the fans were exstatic. The ‘Severed Survival/Slowly We Rot’ album sold over 10 million copies worldwide. Mötley Crüst embarked on a short world tour with Poison, who had just released their platinum record ‘Open Up And Say Ahh’. The band received a Grammy award in 1989 for ‘Severed Survival/Slowly We Rot’ in the category best heavy metal album. Just before Mötley Crüst entered the ‘Wisseloord Studios’ in Holland guitarplayer Joey D. was missing. Later he would claim to have been abducted by aliens but that will remain a mystery forever. Anyway, the four remaining bandmembers recorded ‘Harmony Corruption’ and made headline news when they mooned Dutch Queen Beatrix. But the record didn’t do that well due to changing musical preferences of the public. Because of that Jack and Vince decided it was time to hang their extravagant clothes in the closet, and Mötley Crüst were ‘unmasked’, so to speak. The ‘Realm Of Chaos’ album marked the beginning of a new sound and look for Mötley Crüst. The record was highly acclaimed by the press but with selling figures under 400.000 worldwide, Atlantic Records dropped the band. But Jimbo had already arranged a new deal with a new label from England; Earache. Mötley Crüst recorded their masterpiece ‘Left Hand Path’ in just three weeks and started a four month world tour right after that opening up for Megadeth. On that tour Serge’s old addiction took control again, not very strange with Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine around. Serge was kicked out of the band immediately. He was replaced by Harvey Jones, a cousin of Jack. With Harvey the band recorded their last album in december 1990. The ‘Engraved In Black’ album was released in march 1991 but by that time Mötley Crüst was fed up with the way the music business treated them and the band split up in may 1991. Jack Firestone started a guitarschool in Los Angeles, Vince Johanssen moved to Hawaii, JP opened a tattooshop in New York and played in a couple of hardcorebands, Joey D. moved back to his home state Iowa and Harvey started a new band together with his friend Scott Weiland; Stone Temple Pilots. But after Vince and Jack attended a reunion concert of Kiss in 1998, they spoke to Gene Simmons backstage and were inspired by his business talent. So the magic duo decided it was time for a full scale reunion. Their old clothes were taken out of the closet, they called Joey D., JP and Serge and the Mötley Crüst reunion was a fact. After a few months of rehearsing in 1999 Mötley Crüst performed live for the first time in 8 years at the Ozzfest in San Francisco in August 1999. They also did a secret gig on December 24th in Holland (Europe) in a town called Tilburg (coincidence?). They have already started writing new material and have received offers from Warner, Geffen and Epic Records. The album which was scheduled to be released in the fall of 2000 was cancelled. Joey D. had apparently taken all the recording budget and has since vanished. With replacement guitarist Yellow Anthony (nice nickname, huh?), the band played only one exclusive and sold out show in 2001 at the legendary 013 club. After that comeback, Y.A. and Jack decided to quit, quoting family expansion (meaning having babies with their Playmates), leaving the band without guitarists. The remaining three took this as a chance to 'explore new horizons'. Vince started writing screenplays and is now a Hollywood big shot. Serge Lee started DJ-ing and tried to get his real life soap on national television but after a while, he decided that opening a drum supplies shop in San Dimas (CA) was the way to go. JP, always the businessman, bought a couple of shares in Live Nation and is now the CEO for the north american branch. BUT, in true Kiss style, the Crüst will return, once again, to do shows at their home away from home, that beautiful Sodom and Gomorra named The Netherlands and will show their on stage debauchery two more times.
SO YOU READ ALL THE BULLSHIT THIS FAR? COOL. NOW CHECK THIS. WE'RE JUST A COVERBAND FROM TILBURG, THE NETHERLANDS. AND WE KICK ASS!!!