Motley Crue: The Dirt - Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band

title: Motley Crue: The Dirt - Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band
authors: Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars, Nikki Sixx and Neil Strauss
published: 2001
pages: 431
genre: memoir
first line: Her name was Bullwinkle.
rated: 4 out of 5

Whiskey and porn stars, hot reds and car crashes, black leather and high heels, overdoses and death. This is the life of Mötley Crüe, the heaviest drinking, hardest fighting, most oversexed and arrogant band in the world. Their unbelievable exploits are the stuff of rock 'n' roll legend.

Now, before you ask me 'What the heck made you read this book?', let me say that The Dirt had me hooked from page one and no other book has made me say 'Oh my God' so many times out loud while reading. I was also shaking my head as I read, which made a few of my co-workers very curious as to what I was reading. A good friend of mine read this book and kept telling me about it, so she passed it on to me when she finished. Then when I was done, of course, we had to discuss it. We both agreed it was a crazy, disturbing, unbelieveable and really interesting read. I laughed sometimes, I was shocked, I was saddened by some parts of it and pitied these guys, and sometimes I was just plain disgusted.

Reading this book was like watching a car wreck, you know it's awful to look at, yet you can't look away, somehow you are fascinated by it.

Motley Crue is an American hard rock band that formed in 1982. In Motley Crue: The Dirt - Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band, each of the four band members tells his story beginning from thier childhood through thier time with the band. It was about sex, drugs and rock 'n roll, but you also get to see another side to these guys. When Nikki Sixx, formerly known as Franklin Feranna, tried to call his father and re-connect, his dad hung up the phone on him, screaming 'I do not have a son. I don't know who you are'. Mick Mars suffers from an illness called ankylosing spondylitis, which is a form of arthritis that had him in intense pain most of his adult life. "I'm a prisoner in my own body." He became addicted to pain killers and alcohol. Vince Neil lost his young daughter to cancer. "I was her father, and I was supposed to protect her. I had done everything in my power for Skylar-everything-and the truth was that I was powerless."

Each of the band members talk about thier addiction to drugs and alcohol, thier childhoods and how they found each other and became Motley Crue. They also mention thier wives and girlfriends as they are telling thier crazy, messed up stories. Since they formed in the early eighties, they were wearing spiked heels, tight clothes, makeup and had high, teased hair. It was all about looking punk rock and being bad ass hanging out on Hollywood Boulevard.

They refer to other rock star legends they came across, like Alice Cooper and Ozzy Osbourne (be forewarned, when they tell a particular tale about something Ozzy did, it made me gag). I'm surprised these people are still living, considering the amount of drugs and alcohol they have consumed.

Tommy Lee talks about his courtship with Pamela Anderson. He also talks about his time in jail when she had him arrested for assault. His letters to Pamela during his six month incarceration are included. The band members talk about thier spiral down into addiction, and the demons they struggled with for a very long time. They discuss overdosing, jail time, marriages, divorces, groupies, touring and much more.

I enjoyed reading Mick and Tommy's tales the most. They both made me laugh out loud. And I think Mick has the most insight out of all the band members, maybe because he is the oldest. "I question a lot of things and form my own opinions. They're just as valid as a rocket scientist's or anyone else's. Who says you have to believe something because you read it in a book or saw pictures?"



This was a great memoir, not for the faint of heart, almost like a wild ride. With chapter titles like 'Shout at the Devil', 'Save Our Souls' and 'Some of Our Best Friends are Drug Dealers', how could you not be curious to read it?
If you don't mind the vulgar language and crazy stories, you may just enjoy this one. The Dirt is being made into a film, click here to see Nikki Sixx discussing it.


Here's a few quotes:

'I'm a hopeless fu**ing romantic. That's a part of me that a lot of people don't know about. They know everything there is to know about another part of me, but not a thing about my heart.'-
Tommy Lee

Women and money didn't like me. In fact, the former always seem to walk out of my life with all the latter.
-Mick Mars

I was fourteen years old when I had my mother arrested.
-Nikki Sixx

I've learned in life that if you chase something for long enough, pretty soon it will start chasing you.
-Tommy Lee

I had been onstage performing for tens of thousands of people; now I was alone. I had sunk into subhuman condition, spending weeks at a time in my close with a needle, a guitar, and a loaded gun.
-Nikki Sixx

Visit the bands website: http://www.motley.com/splash/

Of course I had to close my review with a Motley Crue video.

You Know I'm A Dreamer
But My Heart's Of Gold
I Had To Run Away High
So I Wouldn't Come Home Low...