Though Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil predicts that the emotions of saying farewell “aren’t really gonna hit anybody really hard until that last week, when we’re really saying goodbye in Los Angeles,” there have been some moments where the reality of The Final Tour is sinking in.
“We just played Japan,” Neil tells Billboard, “and saying goodbye in Tokyo after a couple nights there, it was like, ‘Wow, I’m never gonna be back on this stage doing this with Motley again.’ There’s a finality there. Or Madison Square Garden; I got a little choked up because I know I’m not gonna play Madison Square Garden with Motley Crue again. But, y’know, we’re still on tour. There’s still another city to go and play the next day. There’s a lot of places we’ve still got to go.”
Motley Crue’s Final Tour Rolls On
The Crue has in fact, announced another 21 dates that will be the last shows added to The Final Tour itinerary leading up to the three shows that will end the year and the band’s touring career on Dec. 28, 30 and 31 at the Staples Center. The Crue is currently on break but gets back to it May 9 with a seven-show run through Australia and New Zealand, followed by three European festival appearances before returning to North America on July 22 that will take the group through the closing nights in Los Angeles.
“That seems like a long way off,” Neil says. “After the (last) show, everyone will go home and be like…’Wow, that’s it.’ It’s gonna be a tough one. It’s gonna be hard after that last show to realize, ‘Yeah, Mick’s not over to my left anymore. Nikki’s not over to my right and Tommy’s not behind me.’ That’s the only thing that’s gonna suck about when we’re not together anymore. So you just kind of cherish these moments now with the guys, as a band.”
“I’ll miss the guys, you know?” says bassist Nikki Sixx, noting what he’ll most miss about no longer touring with the band he co-founded more than 30 years ago. “I’ll miss the music that we made. We made some great music. I know those guys more than anybody knows them and they know me more and we’ve been through the highest highs together and the lowest lows. We’ve done things that are unbelievable in our life both good and bad.”
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For the last North American run, the Crue will be adding seats for fans on its Crue’s Nest, a platform that rises at the end of the show as the group performs “Home Sweet Home.” The Crue also plans to add its single, “All Bad Things,” to the set this year. As for surprise guests who might join the group for the final shows, Neil says, “There’s always talk about those, especially in Los Angeles because a lot of people live there. The one thing we don’t want to do is disrupt the actual show. It’s great to have people come out and jam and do things, but we still want to give people the show. We’re not a jam band.”
“So I really don’t know what we have planned for that last night. We have so much time to plan it out. There might be some people who come up onstage. I just don’t know.”
Sixx says of the band’s last stand, “We’re starting those conversations now. In true Motley Crue tradition, we’ll blow every dollar that we make just blowing the place up.
“It’s a nice way to end,” he adds of the Staples Center dates. “We came from L.A.; we came from the gutters of Los Angeles, and [it’s nice] to be able to end it with three nights sold out in Los Angeles with the same original four band members.”
Motley Crue determined the new North America dates by encouraging fans to tell it which cities it should play next by using #DemandTheCrue on Motley’s social media pages. “We’ve always been very blue collar in that sense in letting fans really be involved in a lot of our decisions like set lists and where we play,” says Sixx. “In this type of this situation, it was a fun thing to do that you couldn’t do earlier in our career because [the technology wasn’t there].”
Due to overwhelming demand, @motleycrue revealed their last additional Final Tour dates! RSVP http://t.co/FYMVSsVc0Y https://t.co/pWJgk60mHe
— Live Nation (@LiveNation) April 21, 2015
Neil adds that no determination has been made yet about recording and filming any of the shows. And the film adaptation of the 2001 band autobiography The Dirt — which will be directed by Jeff Tremaine of Jackass fame and distributed by Focus Features — seems to be on the back burner at the moment, although a script is in place and there’s been talk about bringing cast members on the road for a kind of Motley Crue Boot Camp once they’re hired.
“Obviously that hasn’t happened yet,” Neil notes. And, he promises, the final shows won’t necessarily be the last we hear from the Crue, either. “We’ve never said we were breaking up,” he notes. “We just said we’re not touring anymore. We’re gonna be definitely making more music together for different projects and stuff. But right now we’re really just focused on doing these shows this year.”
The Crue’s upcoming final North American itinerary now includes:
Oct. 5 – Hidalgo, TX @ State Farm Arena
Oct. 7 – Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center
Oct. 8 – Little Rock, AR @ Verizon Arena
Oct. 10 – Evansville, IN @ The Ford Center
Oct. 11 – Lexington, KY @ Rupp Arena
Oct. 13 – Grand Rapids, MI @ Van Andel Arena
Oct. 14 – Buffalo, NY @ First Niagra Center
Oct. 16 – Bridgeport, CT @ Webster Bank Arena
Oct. 17 – Manchester, NH @ Verizon Wireless Arena
Oct. 18 – Bangor, ME @ Cross Insurance Center
Dec. 4 – Lincoln, NE @ Pinnacle Bank Arena
Dec. 7 – Sioux Falls, SD @ Denny Sanford Premier Center
Dec. 8 – Grand Forks, ND @ Alerus Center
Dec. 10 – Saskatoon, SA @ SaskTel Centre
Dec. 12 – Edmonton, AB @ Rexall Place
Dec. 13 – Calgary, AB @ ScotiaBank Saddledome
Dec. 15 – Portland, OR @ Moda Center
Dec. 19 – Phoenix, AZ @ U.S. Airways Center
Dec. 20 – San Diego, CA @ Viejas Arena
Dec. 22 – Anaheim, CA @ Honda Center
Dec. 27 – Las Vegas, NV @ MGM Arena
Dec. 28 – Los Angeles, CA @ Staples Center
Dec. 30 – Los Angeles, CA @ Staples Center
Dec. 31 – Los Angeles, CA @ Staples Center
— Additional reporting by Christa Titus