Classic rocker defends singer against criticism: ‘He sounded solid’

Hopefully he didn’t go away mad.

The bassist of an iconic ‘80s glam metal band recently defended his longtime bandmate.

UltimateClassicRock.com reports how Frank Carlton Serafino Feranna Jr. — better known as the co-founder and bassist for Mötley Crüe, Nikki Sixx — stood up for singer Vince Neil on X the other day.

A fan — in response to the announcement that Mötley Crüe would be going on tour starting July 17, 2026 in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania — stated, “Vince needs to get in shape and fix his voice first.”

“Did you hear him in Vegas?” replied Sixx. “He sounded solid and bad [expletive].”

News broke in April that Mötley Crüe was force to cancel their performance at the Boardwalk Rock festival in Ocean City, Maryland — and postpone their residency in Las Vegas — due to Neil’s health issues. It later came out that the 64-year-old had suffered multiple strokes.

“It was Christmas night, and I went to sleep,” Neil said during an interview on SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation with Eddie Trunk” at the time, as transcribed by Blabbermouth.net. “I woke up and I couldn’t get out of bed. I’m, like, ‘What’s going on?’

“And my left leg wouldn’t work, and my left arm wouldn’t work. So I had to get help out of bed. I couldn’t push myself up to get myself comfortable in bed. And I had to have help. And slowly but surely, the sensation came back in my legs.”

Neil went on to explain that — after he got checked out following the incident — further testing showed he had had “four strokes throughout the years.”

“Two of ‘em I didn’t even know I had,” he said. “One of ‘em was a mini stroke that happened and I just lost feeling in my hand.”

UltimateClassicRock.com states that — according to the man himself — Neil was “95 percent good” during the Vegas residency.

“There’s things that I can’t do on stage still,” he admitted in another interview with Eddie Trunk. “It’s hard to run back and forth on that stage.

“That stage is so huge. But I’m getting used to it.”