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CRUE ,REUNION CRÖNOLGY

From page 6 of Classic Rock Magazine February 2005

Cover of February 2005 issue.

The tale of how the band got back together.

AUGUST 2000 Mötley Crüe release their eighth album, ‘New Tattoo’, with Randy Castillo replacing Tommy Lee. Written in 30 days flat, Nikki Sixx calls it “escapism at its finest”. Classic Rock begs to differ, saying: ‘The whole thing lacks conviction.’ JULY 2001 Lee makes headlines when a young boy drowns in his swimming pool at a party for son Brandon.

Sixx admits to shagging groupies and taking drugs during a separation from pregnant wife Donna D’Erricho.

OCTOBER 2001 The band’s popularity explodes when their tell-all book The Dirt is published. In timely fashion, Sixx tells Classic Rock: “Right now I have no intention of doing anything Mötley Crüe-related at all. I don’t plan on working with Tommy. Once upon a time I knew a great guy, but our relationship is buried.” NOVEMBER 2001 Sixx blames speculation that the original, classic Mötley line-up will work together again on “the fags in the press”, and the news that The Dirt is to become a movie. Just days after his divorce from former Playboy pin-up Heidi Marks, Vince Neil is pictured kissing females outside a restaurant – then falling asleep.

JULY 2002 As Lee unveils his second solo album, ‘Never A Dull Moment’, he denies rumours of a return to the Crüe.

When asked about his relationship with Neil, he replies: “Vince has changed. He’s gained a lot more weight.” SEPTEMBER 2002 A warrant is issued for Neil’s arrest after the singer beats up record producer Michael Schuman.

NOVEMBER 2002 Sixx announces that his side-project Cockstar have changed their name to Brides Of Destruction. Neil appears in the America’s equivalent of Big Brother.

FEBRUARY 2003 Sixx suggests that a farewell Crüe tour will take place in 2004, but is full of disdain for the band’s lazy attitude, lamenting: “a last-minute call from someone saying: ‘I can’t make it because I need to get a diamond fixed in my Rolex’.” APRIL 2003 With his solo career on indefinite hold, Lee announces plans for a lingerie line (“sexy and tasteful”) and an autobiography. Sixx begins work on The Heroin Diaries, a book detailing his life in the year 1986.

MAY 2003. The band’s back catalogue is reissued.

NOVEMBER 2003 Neil is accused of beating up prostitute Trixxxie Blue at the Moonlite Bunny Ranch brothel in Nevada. The singer later gets up on stage and jams with Sixx, Poison guitarist CC DeVille and Tracii Guns of LA Guns at Hollywood’s Key Club.

JANUARY 2004 Hanoi Rocks, whose drummer Razzle was killed by Neil in a 1984 automobile wreck, express their disgust at the title of the band’s new anthology, ‘Music To Crash Your Car To, Volume 1’.

JUNE 2004 Brides Of Destruction play a series of UK dates.

Neil agrees to participate in VH1’s image-revamp show The Remaking Of Vince Neil. Stylists wring their hands in despair.

OCTOBER 2004 Neil and Sixx meet in Las Vegas to record four new songs with producer Bob Rock. They are later described by Nikki as “a cross between the Crüe’s ‘Dr Feelgood’ and ‘Shout At The Devil’ albums”. Lee signs on with the University of Nebraska’s marching band, as part of a reality TV show.

NOVEMBER 2004 Neil cancels a UK tour after being accused of assaulting a sound engineer during a solo concert. Crüe manager Allen Kovak tells Billboard magazine that talk of a reunion is premature.

DECEMBER 2004 It emerges that Neil has had $80,000-worth of plastic surgery done to his face.