Glam metal band Mötley Crüe have been insanely successful during their near 40-year career since they burst onto the scene in 1981.
The band is made up of Nikki Sixx, Mick Mars, Vince Neil and Tommy Lee, but has also included John Corabi, Randy Castillo and Samantha Maloney over the years.
In 2018, the original line-up reunited after splitting in 2015 and were due to tour the United States this year, starting in Jacksonville, Florida on June 18, co-headlining with British rockers Def Leppard.
Mötley Crüe released nine studio albums between 1981 and 2008 and 30 singles, including last year’s The Dirt (Est 1981), which featured Machine Gun Kelly.
Motley Crue (l-r Mick Mars, Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Nikki Sixx) have been active in the music scene since 1981 (Image: Getty Images)
In March last year, Netflix released a biopic called The Dirt, which documented the band’s rise to arena headliners and starred the likes of Game of Thrones’ Iwan Rheon and Ariana Grande’s ex Pete Davidson.
But if you’ve ever wondered what the lives of rockstars are really like, Daily Star Online has taken a dive into Nikki, Mick, Vince and Tommy’s pasts – and they’re seriously colourful.
Nikki Sixx
(Image: Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Born Frank Carlton Serafino Feranna, Jr, Nikki Sixx, 61, has lived a very interesting life, marrying Playboy Playmates and, worryingly, almost dying of a drug overdose.
Six years after the band kicked things off, in 1987, Nikki was engaged to Denise “Vanity” Matthews – a singer who previously worked with and dated Prince.
In his 2007 autobiography, called The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star, Nikki detailed the relationship he had with Vanity – and with drugs.
He explained that the late singer got him onto freebasing drugs, rather than snorting or injecting them which he wrote was his usual method.
Nikki Sixx documented his time in the band in his 2007 autobiography (Image: Getty Images)
The rocker wrote: “As soon as she showed me the real ins and outs of cooking up a good rock… it was love. Not her. The drug.”
Also in 1987, Nikki was declared clinically dead for two minutes after a heroin overdose.
He was revived with two full syringes of adrenaline.
The musician was addicted to heroin during his time in Mötley Crüe and estimates he overdosed around six times.
Between May 1989 and November 1996, Nikki was married to Playboy Playmate Brandi Brandt, with whom he shares three children – Gunner, 29, Storm, 26, and Decker, 24.
A month after his divorce from Brandi, Nikki married another Playboy Playmate, Donna D’Errico.
Nikki has been married to two Playboy Playmates, including Donna D’Errico, seen here (Image: WireImage)
He and Donna have one daughter together, Frankie-Jean, 19, but they split shortly after the teen’s birth.
Following his stint in rehab a few months later though, they reconciled but split again in 2006, divorcing in June 2007 due to irreconcilable differences.
Between 2008 and 2010, Nikki dated tattoo artist Kat Von D, known for TV shows such as LA Ink.
After their split in 2010, Nikki started dating Courtney Bingham, and they have been together ever since.
The couple got married in 2014 and welcomed their first child together, Ruby, in July 2019.
Tommy Lee
Tommy Lee is arguably the most well known member of Motley Crue (Image: Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Born Thomas Lee Bass, Tommy Lee, 57, is arguably the best known member of Mötley Crüe thanks to his marriage to actress and Playboy Playmate Pamela Anderson, and their subsequent sex tape.
His first wife was Elaine Starchuk and they were together between 1984 and 1985, when they divorced.
Tommy’s second wife was actress Heather Locklear, with the duo tying the knot in 1986 before divorcing in 1993.
He was engaged to model Bobbie Brown but they split and he married Pamela Anderson on February 19, 1995, just four days after they met.
They have two sons together – Brandon, 23, and Dylan, 22 – but divorced in 1998.
Tommy and Pamela’s sex tape leaked in 1995 (Image: WireImage)
In 1995, Tommy and Pamela had a homemade sex tape stolen from them and released on the internet.
He claims that someone working at the house found the tape, which was filmed while they were on vacation, and sold it.
Baywatch star Pamela sued the distributors Internet Entertainment Group, and the couple entered a confidential settlement agreement with the company.
After that, IEG made the sex tape available to subscribers on its website.
In 1998, Tommy served six months in county jail when he pleaded no contest to kicking Pamela while she was holding their son Dylan.
Tommy spent time in jail for kicking Pamela Anderson in 1998 (Image: Getty Images for SiriusXM)
He left her with “bruises, a torn fingernail and fear for the safety of her two sons, Dylan and Brandon”, as reported by the Los Angeles Times at the time.
The couple divorced in the same year but briefly reunited after he returned from jail, before splitting again in 2001.
Years later, in 2008, they got back together again but split for good shortly after.
Tommy was engaged to Prince’s ex-wife Mayte Garcia from 2002 and 2003, and to Greek-German singer Sofia Toufa between 2014 and 2017.
Last year, he married his social media star girlfriend Brittany Furlan.
Mick Mars
Mick Mars hasn’t had quite a checkered past as his co-stars (Image: Getty Images)
Born Robert Alan Deal, Mick Mars, who is in his late 60s, hasn’t had as wild a life as the other members of the band.
One reason may be that because, for the majority of his career, he has been open about his struggle with ankylosing spondylitis.
The condition is a chronic, inflammatory form of arthritis which affects the spine and pelvis.
Mick has a chronic illness which has caused his lower spine to completely seize up (Image: Reuters)
After being first diagnosed when he was just 17, his condition has increasingly worsened and impaired his movement and caused a lot of pain.
He had hip-replacement surgery in 2004 because of his condition.
The chronic illness has caused his lower spine to seize up over the years which caused scoliosis in his back.
He said it was “squashing [him] further down and forward until [he] was a full three inches shorter than [he] was in high school”.
Vince Neil
Vince Neil has had a long history of run ins with the law (Image: Getty Images)
Born Vincent Neil Wharton, Vince Neil, 59, is known as the lead vocalist of Mötley Crüe and for his troubled personal life.
Like two of his bandmates, Vince married a Playboy Playmate, Heidi Mark, in 2000, after dating since 1993, though they divorced in 2001.
He has also had some legal issues, including a tragic manslaughter conviction in 1985.
In late 1984, he was driving a car while drunk and lost control, crashing into an oncoming vehicle.
The other vehicle’s occupants were seriously injured and suffered brain damage.
Sadly, Vince’s passenger Nicholas “Razzle” Dingley of Finnish rock band Hanoi Rocks was killed.
Vince has also done a lot of charity work following the death of his daughter (Image: FilmMagic)
After the incident, Vince was charged with vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence of alcohol.
He was sentenced to 30 days in jail, five years probation, $2.6million (£2m) in compensation to the victims and 200 hours of community service.
The singer was released from jail after 15 days due to good behaviour.
In 2002, he was arrested for punching a record producer and ordered to pay compensation and complete community service.
The following year, he was arrested after being accused of assaulting a sex worker.
He pleaded no contest and was handed a 30-day suspended jail sentence, 60 days of anger management and forced to pay $1,132 in fines in court fees.
In 2007, he was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving but worked out a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty to reckless driving to have DUI charges dropped.
Again, in 2010, he was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving after allegedly smashing a fan’s camera.
This time he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 15 days in county jail and 15 days under house arrest.
He was charged with battery and disorderly conduct in March 2011 after an altercation with his ex-girlfriend Alicia Jacobs.
In December 2015, he was sued alongside a handful of defendants for fraud, over a $500,000 (£398k) investment in the Las Vegas Outlaws arena football team.
The original line-up of Motley Crue reunited in 2018 and were due on a US tour this year (Image: Getty Images)
Vince was fined more than $150,000 for violating San Francisco’s daily 1,000 gallon water cap, with his Danville home being found to have wasted more than 2,200 gallons a day.
And in April 2016, he was charged with misdemeanour battery for assaulting a woman in Las Vegas.
He had been restrained by actor Nicolas Cage during the incident, to which he pled guilty and served six months of probation and paid a $1,000 fine.
However when the victim sued him for $150,000, he demanded the case be thrown out, accusing her of seeking publicity.
Later, he was ordered to pay Howard & Howard Attorneys more than $170,000 in legal fees after he refused to pay them previously.
But while Vince has been tarnished with a checkered past, he has also done some good work.
His daughter Skylar died of cancer at the age of four in 1995, and he founded the Skylar Neil Memorial Fund in her honour.
The organisation has since donated millions of dollars to The TJ Martell Foundation and sponsors an annual golf tournament designed to raise money for children with cancer.
He has also hosted a series of musical benefits.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
