Rock Music Menu: Mötley Crüe reunites, & not all fans are happy

  • By Michael Christopher rockmusicmenu@gmail com
  • Nov 21, 2019
  • Comments

Motley Crue is planning to head back out on the road. 

There is new vinyl out from Gary Numan.

Another week, another reunion for 2020. This time though, hard core fans of the reunified band aren’t as happy as one might expect. Los Angeles sleaze rockers Mötley Crüe have decided to come back, and there’s a major issue with the situation; their much hyped “Final Tour” came to a close less than four years ago.

Back in 2014, the foursome went over the top theatrical to declare they had signed a legally binding “cessation of touring” agreement, preventing any of them from hitting the road under the Crüe name. At a press conference to announce their “Final Tour,” they signed the documents and assured fans and gathered media that it was going to be the last time ever to hear songs like “Kickstart My Heart,” “Wild Side” and “Home Sweet Home” ever again.

“Legally, we can’t play again,” bassist and de facto leader of the Crüe Nikki Sixx told Rolling Stone in 2014. “The only loophole is if all four band members agreed to do it, we could override our own contract. But we know that will never happen. There are people in this band who will refuse to ever do it again, and you’re talking to one of them. There is no amount of money that would ever make me do it again because I have such pride in how we’re ending it.”

A deeper dive into the alleged legal documents was never possible, because the band’s representatives never made them available to the media. There have been two speculated lines of thought about the contract. One, of course, is that it was all for show and a rather unique way to sell tickets. The other is that there actually was a contract, but its primary function was to ensure none of the members could use the group’s name to tour under, an increasingly common practice these days, especially by the acts that came up on the Sunset Strip in the ’80s. The “cessation of touring” would prevent the world from ever seeing “Tommy Lee’s Mötley Crüe” come to town, and that the only way the band could use it is if all of them agreed to go out again.

That brings us to the announcement this week, promoted with a video of the “cessation of touring” agreement on a desk in an office that exploded, along with the rest of the furniture. Narrated by rapper and actor Machine Gun Kelly, the clip claims that due to unprecedented demand by the public due to the mega-successful Netflix biopic “The Dirt” this year, the band was blowing up the contract and coming back for the fans.

Many of those fans shelled out thousands upon thousands of dollars just a few years ago for pricey meet-and-greets and multiple shows to say farewell to the Crüe on “The Final Tour.” Regionally, the band performed in Camden, Atlantic City, Hershey and at the Wells Fargo Center before closing out with a three-night stand at the Staples Center in Los Angeles that ended on New Year’s Eve 2015.

While there’s no arguing the run was wildly popular, it didn’t sell out everywhere – including in Philadelphia – and now the big rumor is the Crüe has their sights set on stadiums next summer. How they plan to pull that off is by bringing Def Leppard and Poison along for the ride. And with ’80s nostalgia in full-swing, they might just be able to make it happen if the fans forgive them for hoodwinking them in the first place.

Mötley Crüe joins a rapidly growing list of reunited bands set to hit the road in 2020 which includes Rage Against the Machine, My Chemical Romance and The Black Crowes.

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