Mötley Crüe emphasize “The band plays live as they always have…” and “Anything else you’ve read are lies”
Mötley Crüe emphasize “The band plays live as they always have…” and “Anything else you’ve read are lies”
Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard have commenced their European leg of their The World Tour. The two multi-platinum album selling bands played in Prague, Czech Republic yesterday (on June 2, 2023) along with openers Eclipse, Wolfmother and Kabat.
Mötley Crüe continue to be plagued with accusations that they play to recordings during their live sets. Things really seemed to pick up steam in that regard in mid-March 2023 when former Mötley Crüe guitarist Mick Mars‘ friend and drummer Carmine Appice (King Kobra, Vanilla Fudge, ex-Blue Murder, ex-Ozzy Osbourne) indicated in an interview with Andrew Daly for Ultimate Guitar: “Well, I tell you what I’ve been talking to Mick, and he told me, ‘When I was on the Stadium Tour, I was not happy.’ Basically, everything was on tape; it was all planned out and ultimately a lot of crap. And Mick is a pretty good player, and so, to now let him loose and play the way he wants, that was never going to work for him. The truth is that everything has been weird for a while with Motley Crue, and Mick didn’t like that everything was on tape. Mick told me that people that came to see it could tell that it was all pre-recorded and that everything was on tape.”
Mars then filed a lawsuit against Mötley Crüe consisting of (according to Variety) a “verified petition for writ of mandate to compel inspection and copying of books, records and documents” held by a half-dozen businesses (Motley Crue Touring Inc., Motley Crue Inc., Red, White & Crue Inc., Masters 2000 Inc., Cruefest LLC, Motley Records LLC, Masters 2008 LLC and unnamed Does) that fall under the Mötley Crüe umbrella. The lawsuit was reportedly filed with the Los Angeles County’s Superior Court in early April 2023. Variety reported that Mars‘ lawsuit paperwork indicated in part:
“Ironically, 100% of Sixx’s bass parts were nothing but recordings. Sixx was seen fist pumping in the air with his strumming hand, while the bass part was playing. In fact, a significant portion of (Vince) Neil’s vocals were also pre-recorded. Even some of (Tommy) Lee’s drum parts were recordings. Some fans actually noticed that Lee was walking toward his drum set as they heard his drum part begin,…”
At first, Mötley Crüe didn’t comment on whether some of their band members were actually playing to recordings but rather that they knew the “truth”. Mötley Crüe seem to have switched strategy as they are directly addressing the accusations that they play to recordings by occasionally responding to various comments on their Facebook posts.
Back on May 1, 2023, Mötley Crüe indicated that “there were no backing tracks for band members” in response to a Facebook comment that they had used backing tracks on their last tour.
This time around, Mötley Crüe posted on Facebook about their successful concert in Prague and they replied to a comment from an individual named Kevin White who indicated, “Pay all that $$ to hear a recording……no way.” Mötley Crüe‘s response was “Kevin White The band plays live as they always have… Anything else you’ve read are lies”.
Mötley Crüe performing “Wild Side” and “Shout At The Devil” live in Prague, Czech Republic on June 2, 2023 (video footage from buceko‘s YouTube page):