MUSIC-MOTLEY CRUE/ALICE COOPER Not enough danger in rock and roll - Alice Cooper and Tommy Lee

Record ID: 150784

  • Title: MUSIC-MOTLEY CRUE/ALICE COOPER Not enough danger in rock and roll - Alice Cooper and Tommy Lee
  • Date: 11th June 2015
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (JUNE 10, 2015) (REUTERS) ****WARNING CONTAINS PROFANITY*** LEE LISTENING TO COOPER DURING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (English) MOTLEY CRUE DRUMMER, TOMMY LEE, AND ALICE COOPER SINGER, ALICE COOPER, SAYING: COOPER: "The bands that all exploded out of all of that, out of Motley and Guns n Roses and Bon Jovi and Poison, Cinderella, they were all good bands, they were all good rock bands, and they all had flare, they all knew how to have the guitars go around and catch them at the right time, and MTV had a lot to do with that. You were going to put that on MTV as a video, and every band had to learn how to be flashy and how to look good, and had to make up, the whole thing, and I can't see that dying. I think that's too much fun to let die, you know. Right now we're here, I think there's going to be, the next cycle's going to happen where you're going to see that cycle again." COOPER LISTENING TO REPORTER TOUR POSTER (SOUNDBITE) (English) MOTLEY CRUE DRUMMER, TOMMY LEE, AND ALICE COOPER SINGER, ALICE COOPER, SAYING: COOPER: "We opened for The Doors when we were kids, right, I mean we were just starting out. Talk about a guy where you didn't know what was going to happen - Morrison was a total wild card." LEE: "I'll bet." COOPER: "I mean you didn't know if he was going to jump off stage and go to Paris, or if he was going to die that night, and every night you'd sit there and go..." LEE: "What's going to happen." COOPER: "What's going to happen. That's something that's missing now. Iggy had that." LEE: "That's just the fucking men from the boys right there." COOPER: "That's right. You had to give the audience that feeling of danger."
  • Embargoed: 26th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAC9543BW2U1IMHKFHZQX0IKVOO
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS PROFANITIES
    Nearly 35 years after forming among high school friends, and 80 million album sales later, Motley Crue have announced the dates for their last European tour live shows as they begin to reflect on the momentous journey that has seen them become one of the most iconic acts in rock and roll history.
    The Crue have just finished the Australian and New Zealand legs of the Final Tour, something they've been forced to sign legal contracts to guarantee there will be no second shot, and finished playing Japan before that.
    Speaking in London with Alice Cooper - a legendary rock act in his own right - drummer Tommy Lee said he'd only just begun to acknowledge what he and fellow band mates Mick Mars, Nikki Sixx and Vince Neil had achieved.
    "We've done it all. Everything that we've set out to do we've accomplished, and we came, we saw, we kicked its ass, we bought the shirt, we've done everything we set out to to do," he told Reuters Television.
    "For us it's like, let's just go out like this and leave everything intact, leave the legend intact, leave all the memories intact and go out on a super high note so there are no regrets, and there are no feelings like that. Everyone can walk away going like "that was fucking badass"," he added.
    Motley Crue was formed in 1981, originally by bassist Sixx, Tommy Lee and Mars, with lead singer Vince Neil joining the trio shortly before the band settled on the name.
    Among the 80 million albums sold across the globe, the band's popularity peaked in 1989 with the album "Dr. Feelgood."
    "For me I always relate my best memories and best performances and best performances and things like that to the first times," Lee said when asked about what he'd remember most.
    "The first time coming to Europe, the first time going to Russia. I mean when you're you're like 20 something years old and you're like "dude, we're in Russia", I never in a million years though that would happen. We're in Japan, like all the firsts, the first kiss, your first girlfriend, the first time playing Russia, all those things I will never forget and they're the ones that mean the most to me," he said.
    The Crue's metal rock music resonated hugely across the world, but the band were equally well known for their antics off-stage, with the band's members becoming emblems of the hard-partying hair metal acts popular in the 1980s and on the MTV music channel.
    Alice Cooper was one of the pioneers of that scene, described by some as "shock rock", with his live shows involving whips, chains and other manifestations of the nightmarish theatrics.
    Saying he had no plans of his own to retire - Cooper has been teetotal for 32 years, never smoked and happily married for the last 40 years - he said it wasn't just the multi-generational appeal of bands like Motley that explained their longevity, but also the paucity of quality in contemporary rock and roll.
    "It's amazing when we go out on tour, especially these two bands, the first 50 rows are 15 to 25, and they've got all the makeup on, and they've got the Motley stuff on, and they've got the Alice stuff on, they're having the most fun," he said.
    "The reason they're there is because their bands are not producing," he told Reuters Television.
    Motley Crue crowd-sourced the locations of their European gigs, with 500,000 fans from 18 European countries casting their votes on where they wanted to see them play, with 13 dates confirmed in nine countries.
    Their infamous pyrotechnic show will also be accompanying the band as well - their biggest to date in Europe, including Sixx's flae-throwing bass guitar and Tommy Lee's "Cruecifly" drum rollercoaster, which sees the drummer suspended upside-down above the audience while still playing his huge drum set.
    But with a perceived focus of many that rock bands are eschewing showmanship in favour of paring down sounds, some have suggested shows like those performed by Motley Crue and Alice Cooper are a dying breed.
    Though Cooper himself says it won't happen.
    "It's too much fun for it to go away," he said.
    "There's a young band right now somewhere in a garage learning Motley Crue songs and Alice Cooper songs and figuring out "how do we get this guy, our lead singer, to swing on a flaming rope across this and land in this" and I know that it's too much fun to forget about. Whereas young bands that are being very introspective and being very personal," he added. "That's not rock and roll."
    "That's not happening right now," chimed Tommy Lee.
    "It has to be fucking, like I look at someone like Alice, or someone like David Bowie, or someone like Marilyn Manson, the person who you look at and you're like "is he ok?" you know? "Is he going to make it through the show, or is he going to overdose," he said.
    "Someone of the best guys in the world are scary. You don't know, they're unpredictable, they're fucking - they're enchanting, they're wild and I think that's the thing that I'm agreeing with Alice, with that stuff. I don't see that stuff out there right now," Lee told Reuters.
    As for whether that might come back though, they still seem optimistic.
    "There's very little danger in rock and roll anymore," said Cooper.
    "Right now we're here, I think there's going to be, the next cycle's going to happen where you're going to see that cycle again," he added.
    Motley Crue's Final Tour in Europe kicks off in Newcastle in the UK on November 2, and finishes in Abu Dhabi on November 20.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register