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Personalities | Mötley Crüe | Eighties | Rock

(Vocal/instrumental group, 1980–present)

Vince Neil (vocals), Mick Mars (guitar), Nikki Sixx (bass) and Tommy Lee (drums) became the world’s most notorious heavy metal band, as much for their off-record excesses as for their music. They released their crude but effective glam metal debut Too Fast For Love in 1981. Over the years, they became technically more adept, and the production got slicker, but their lyrical subject matter (sex and drugs and rock’n’roll) remained the same. Shout At The Devil (1983) became their American Top 20 debut. Theatre Of Pain (1985) and Girls Girls Girls (1987) kept the ball rolling and Dr. Feelgood (1989) registered their first No. 1 (No. 4 in the UK). Guns N’ Roses, obviously influenced by The Crüe, had emerged by this time, and a feud erupted between the two bands. Neil left in 1992, returning in 1996 for more ever-so-slightly toned-down mayhem.

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock, general editor Michael Heatley

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