<\/p>\n
In the beginning, it was 1981 and bassist Nikki Sixx left London, the glam metal band he\u2019d formed in Hollywood three years earlier, to start a new project with drummer Tommy Lee. Then, they pulled in guitarist Mick Mars, who responded to the duo\u2019s classified ad for a \u201cloud, rude, and aggressive guitar player,\u201d <\/i>and eventually persuaded singer Vince Neil, a former classmate of Lee\u2019s, to leave his band Rock Candy for M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce.<\/p>\n
From its start with 1981 debut \u201cToo Fast for Love,\u201d M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce lived up to its mismatched epithet, from its diabolical breakout \u201cShout at the Devil\u201d in 1983 to the late \u201880s with its most commercially successful release, \u201cDr. Feelgood.\u201d <\/p>\n
Addictions, near-death experiences, hiatuses, departures and reunions \u2014 M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce survived them all. Each step on its musical journey is commemorated on \u201cFrom the Beginning,\u201d <\/i>an album that includes the band\u2019s first single \u201cLive Wire\u201d through its most recent track, \u201cDogs of War,\u201d released 43 years later. The band also revived a M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce classic with a newly recorded version of its \u201cTheatre of Pain\u201d ballad \u201cHome Sweet Home,\u201d featuring Dolly Parton, which reentered the charts in 2025 at No. 1, 40 years after the original recording\u2019s release. <\/p>\n
\u201cM\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce and Dolly Parton together is the ultimate clickbait,\u201d says Sixx, with a laugh. He previously played bass on the country legend\u2019s 2023 \u201cRockstar\u201d album. \u201cI guess it\u2019s part of that wow factor that has been part of the M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce fabric for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Proceeds from the new recording of \u201cHome Sweet Home\u201d benefit Covenant House, the nonprofit with which the band has partnered for nearly 20 years through its M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce Giveback Initiative. Sixx first worked with Covenant House around the publication of his 2007 memoir, \u201cThe Heroin Diaries,\u201d and helped develop a music program at the Hollywood center. In October 2024, the band also played a series of intimate club shows, dubbed H\u00f6llywood Take\u00f6ver, at the Troubadour, the Roxy and Whisky a Go Go in West Hollywood, which helped raise $350,000 for the organization. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese kids are everything,\u201d says Sixx. \u201cThese kids are the future. They might end up changing the world. What if one of these kids can cure cancer and they just didn\u2019t have a shot?\u201d <\/p>\n
Playing those smaller shows in 2024, which also included the Underworld in Camden, London, and the Bowery Ballroom in New York City, is the bare-bones sound, much like rehearsals, that Sixx has always loved. <\/p>\n
\u201cOne of my favorite parts about being in a band is rehearsal,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing like it. It\u2019s raw, just bass, drums, guitar, and vocals off the floor. Then, you add all the bells and whistles as you go along. When we can do things like that, it just reminds me who we are.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also part of what keeps Lee excited at this stage of the band\u2019s career, which includes its third residency in Las Vegas in 13 years, which kicked off last week and runs through Oct. 3 at the Dolby Live at Park MGM. (A portion of the ticket proceeds from the 10-show residency will benefit the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth.) <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been married to Nikki and Vince for over 44 years,\u201d says Lee. \u201cLike with any marriage, you gotta create ways to make it exciting, to keep it fun, or else you find yourselves at the breakfast table, with your face in the paper saying \u2018Pass the butter.\u2019 So Vegas in Dolby Atmos, new music, club shows, crazy videos, Dolly \u2014 we\u2019ve always been trying different stuff to make the audience and us go \u2018Oh, f\u2014 yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n
For M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce, Las Vegas has nearly become a second home since the band\u2019s first residency at the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel in 2012 and its \u201cAn Intimate Evening in Hell\u201d a year later. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got this great body of work that you don\u2019t really realize until you get this far,\u201d says Sixx. \u201cBut now, we\u2019re in one of those interesting places where, if we don\u2019t play the hits, we get
s\u2014, and if we do play the hits, we get s\u2014.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the Beginning\u201d is M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce\u2019s new compilation album. <\/p>\n
(Chris Walter)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n
Some deeper Cr\u00fce cuts worth inclusion in the set include \u201cStick to Your Guns,\u201d a non-single on \u201cToo Fast for Love,\u201d and a song that the Runaways\u2019 ex-manager, producer Kim Fowley, asked a then-teenaged Sixx to write for Blondie in 1979.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was 17 years old, and we recorded that song, and because no record company would sign us, we started our own label and got a distribution deal,\u201d Sixx recalls. \u201cWhen we finally joint-ventured up with Elektra Records in \u201982, they said we needed to take a song off since it made the vinyl sound thinner, so \u2018Stick to Your Guns\u2019 got cut, but I\u2019ve always loved that song.\u201d <\/p>\n
Sixx recently revealed that Guns N\u2019 Roses once considered covering the early Cr\u00fce track. <\/p>\n
\u201dNow I get people saying, \u2018We want to hear, \u201cStick to Your Guns,\u201d \u2019 \u201c says Sixx, laughing. \u201cThere\u2019s like eight people that know that song. That\u2019s a good way to shut down an arena.\u201d <\/p>\n
For Lee, there\u2019s something more paternal around the band\u2019s lengthy catalog. <\/p>\n
\u201cI know every artist says it, but our songs are like our kids,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd over the years, they grow up and they develop [their] own personalities and character. Some stay pretty close to home, settle down, and start their own family. Others go out on a Thursday night and come home on Sunday with no shoes and a shaved head, but we love them all the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
With every song, Lee says, the band members understand each other more. \u201cWe know how to push each other a little further, and hopefully get the greatest out of each other.\u201d <\/p>\n
While there\u2019s always room to make new music, Sixx, who has been the band\u2019s chief songwriter since its inception, prefers the pace of releasing singles. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a different landscape now,\u201d he says, \u201cso to create one or two ideas, or co-write three is manageable, and it\u2019s also digestible for the fans.\u201d <\/p>\n
So many things have changed, and he is also aware of some misconceptions about the band. \u201cThe music is M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce \u2014 M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce is not \u2018The Dirt,\u2019 \u201d says Sixx, citing the 2019 film based on the band\u2019s 2001 tell-all memoir. \u201cPeople have it confused because we were so honest and it became such a part of the fabric of us that they forget about the riff on \u2018Kick Start My Heart\u2019 and just remember the hotel that we tried to burn down in Ontario.\u201d <\/p>\n