Motley Crue Deludes Themselves With Final Tour Plan

When Motley Crue introduced their plans to embark on a remaining tour on Jan. 28, 2014, they positioned themselves as veteran street warriors making a unanimous resolution to exit whereas they had been nonetheless on the high of their recreation.

In hindsight, they had been truly planting the seeds for a comeback tour that may dwarf each different trek of their profession.

But boy, they positive did sound convincing throughout the dramatic press convention the place they introduced their remaining street journey, which featured help from Alice Cooper and would finish on New Year’s Eve 2015 of their hometown of Los Angeles. Arriving to the press convention in a hearse and sitting behind tombstones emblazoned with their names, Motley Crue swore up and down earlier than dozens of reporters that the merely titled Final Tour would truly sign the top of their touring profession.

“We started talking about it a few years ago,” frontman Vince Neil mentioned. “You know, we didn’t want to be one of those bands that maybe have one guy left in it or somebody’s brother or something like that. We want to go out with the four founding members of Motley Crue and go out on top, and leave a legacy of a band called Motley Crue.”

“We want to have some dignity,” bassist Nikki Sixx added. “We feel there’s a lot of bands out there that don’t have dignity. We started this band ’cause it’s something we believed in — rock ‘n’ roll — and we want to call it a day and be proud. It’s pretty embarrassing what’s happening with the state of music with bands out there. I don’t want to name names because I just don’t think it’s really my place, but you know there’s so many bands out there that just, they’re ripping you off. And we’re not gonna do that.”

READ MORE: The Best Song From Every Motley Crue Album

To illustrate their level, all 4 band members ended the press convention by signing a “Cessation of Touring Agreement” that may legally forestall them from touring beneath the identify Motley Crue after Dec. 31, 2015. “That’s not a phrase that anyone has used before,” band legal professional Doug Mark mentioned. “There has never been such a thing as far as I know. It’s an agreement that binds the four of them to not utilize the trademark for touring in the future.”

The solely approach for Motley Crue to nullify the Cessation of Touring Agreement can be for all 4 members to comply with return to touring — a conspicuously huge loophole that the band nonetheless insisted would haven’t any impact on their future. “If we did agree [to another tour], the way we’ve set it up — including this conversation right now — we’d have so much egg on our face,” Sixx advised Rolling Stone. “We have so much pride that that alone would stop it.”

But everyone is aware of Motley Crue by no means shied away from making a multitude.

Motley Crue Quickly Reneged on Their Cessation of Touring Agreement

A humorous factor occurred within the years following Motley Crue’s alleged retirement from touring: Young rock followers embraced them greater than ever. That was due largely to Netflix’s 2019 adaptation of their scandalous 2001 memoir The Dirt. The raunchy band biopic sparked a large increase in streams and gross sales of Motley’s music, significantly among the many 18-to-34-year-old demographic.

How might Motley Crue, a band of the individuals, deny these new followers the chance to see them within the flesh? Deciding that egg on their face for cash in the financial institution was a worthy commerce, the rockers introduced their official return in November 2019 by blowing up their Cessation of Touring Agreement and plotting a stadium tour with Def Leppard, Poison and Joan Jett.

Watch Motley Crue Blow Up Their Cessation of Touring Contract

READ MORE: 46 Farewell Tours: When Rock Stars Said Goodbye

After two years of COVID-related delays, the Stadium Tour lastly launched in June 2022. It earned $173.5 million and bought 1.3 million tickets, changing into the most profitable trek of any of the bands’ careers. Some followers scoffed at Motley Crue’s eagerness to return on their phrase just a few years after allegedly calling it quits — however hey, at the very least they nonetheless had “all four founding members,” proper?

Right?

This, too, would show negotiable in October 2022, when guitarist Mick Mars introduced his retirement from touring. Motley Crue introduced they might soldier on with John 5 in Mars’ stead, plotting one other world tour with Def Leppard for 2023. Things acquired uglier that April when Mars filed a lawsuit towards his bandmates, claiming they had been ripping him off financially and making an attempt to totally oust him from the band, whereas additionally accusing them of onstage fakery through the 2022 Stadium Tour.

The lawsuit prolonged into 2024, as did Motley Crue. The band continued touring with John 5, shirking allegations of onstage fakery, insisting Mars’ staff was feeding him lies and writing new music with longtime producer Bob Rock. Through all of it, they saved shaping their legacy — whether or not it is the identical legacy they envisioned throughout that fateful 2014 press convention stays to be seen.