Vince Neil is not a man of many words. This isn’t surprising, considering that most of the words he sings with Motley Crue were written by Nikki Sixx anyway. We spoke with Neil from his tour bus in Tampa.
How’s it going, Vince?
It’s been going great. Everything’s been, if not sold out, close to it. The bands here are great, the audiences are great. Can’t ask for anything better.
I’ve read that you guys have something called a drum roller coaster on this tour. How has that been working?
Oh it’s great. I mean, people are loving it. It’s obviously something different.
When you’re rehearsing for the tour, at what point does something like a drum roller coaster come into the picture?
At the very end. … Our very first U.S. show was Dallas, so we set up in the place where we were playing for like three days, then rehearsed the new set. We did pyro, the roller coaster and then everything else that goes along with it.
On this tour you’ve let fans select the setlists. Any surprises?
No. I mean, a lot of the songs we knew were gonna be on there, obviously like “Girls, Girls, Girls” and “Wild Side” and “[Dr.] Feelgood” and “Home Sweet Home,” those are always gonna be in there. But some of them like “Smokin’ in The Boys Room” was a big fan favorite. We hadn’t played that in a long time. And then also “Too Young To Fall In Love” — which we hadn’t played in like 20 years.
Is that because you reached an age where you weren’t too young to fall in love?
Well, that song was written 25 years ago (laughs). It’s just a song, man.
I always wondered about that, with a lot of the lyrics being written by Nikki. When you’re singing those words after all these years, are you ever getting new things out of them when you’re on stage?
Well no. I mean, I’m performing. I’m not acting out those words, I’m singing a song. So it’s just words that I’m singing, that’s all it is.
Has life on the road slowed down over the years or is it still like the stuff I read about in the Motley Crue biography, “The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band”?
Well, we were a young band. We’ve been together for 30 years now, you know. You don’t do those things. We’re not drug addicts like we were. There are things that you do when you’re 20 years old you don’t do when you’re 50.
In reading “The Dirt” I couldn’t help but think of what that would be like as a movie.
Well, when that book came out, Paramount Pictures bought the rights to make a movie out of the book. And they were going to make the movie. Actually the script was done, then Paramount got a new president and they decided not to do it. So it’s out of our hands. We don’t own the rights to make a movie. So if they make a movie it’s great, if not, whatever.
Who would you want to play you?
I don’t even care if the movie gets made, to tell you the truth. I think you’d have to cast unknown people to play each guy in Motley Crue.
Follow Pat Healy on Twitter @metrousmusic.
