Vince Neil’s long trek back to the stage started the morning after Christmas. He woke up, but his body didn’t. He tried to get out of bed, but couldn’t. Walking to the bathroom was suddenly impossible.
This was not the gift he’d expected or wanted.
“I had a stroke,” Neil says casually during a recent phone chat from L.A., where Mötley Crüe had been rehearsing for their upcoming residency at Dolby Live. “My whole left side went out.” Neil says he felt fine when he went to sleep Christmas night, his health scare hitting him in his sleep.
Neil shared the news during a recent phone chat, when asked why the the band’s original dates at Park MGM were moved back from March-April to the upcoming shows Friday through Oct. 3. Neil, Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee and John 5 are today’s Mötley Crüe roster.
The band announced Neil was to undergo a “required medical procedure.” That was true, many times over.
PT over performance
“I had to learn to walk again, and that was tough,” Neil says. “The doctors said they didn’t think I’d be able to go back on stage again. I go, ‘No, no, I’m gonna do it. Watch and see.’”
The first move, Neil says, was, “Motley canceled the first part of the (residency) so I could get better.”
Neil worked in physical therapy for months, from his home in Nashville. That’s where he and his longtime girlfriend, Rain Hannah, moved about a decade ago. The couple own a 30-acre ranch with horses and a large pond or small lake, depending on your perspective.
“I went from people carrying me to the bathroom, because I couldn’t walk myself, finally to a wheelchair,” Neil says. “I graduated to a walker, and then I had a cane. Now I don’t need anything. But it’s like a full-time job getting back to where you feel good again.”
Luckily, Neil’s ability to use his voice was not affected. But as he says, “It takes a while to get your brain to start moving your legs, for them to do what your brain wants to do. You try to walk but it doesn’t come out right.”
A local football coach in Nashville led Neil through workouts, including the “ladder” agility drill, where Neil moved his feet through squares placed on the ground.
“I’ve doing that a lot, a lot of running — I learned how to run again,” Neil says. “It’s been tough, but I’m back, I’m 90-, 95-percent to where I was before, and it’s going to be great.”
Refuting track talk
Neil shot back at former bandmate Mick Mars when asked about reports of the band augmenting their live shows with backing tracks. Mars has been on the record saying the band’s shows are boosted by recorded instruments and vocals.
“No, we never did that, ever. It was Mick Mars who got pissed off, because we fired him, basically,” Neil says. “But his whole thing was that I don’t sing any of the lyrics. Nikki doesn’t play in his bass and and Tommy doesn’t play his drums. And we’re like, ‘What the f—- is he talking about? Because he was the only one on tape, because he kept f——— stuff up, so we had him on tape.
“When he started going off on some weird tangent, our sound guy just turned him off and turned the tape on. The only thing about that was that it was all in Mick Mars’ head.”
Whatever the chain of decisions, Mars left the band after in October 2022 after 41 years of service, citing health issues. John 5, who has backed David Lee Roth, Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie, stepped in.
Solo comeback
Neil returned to the stage with his solo band on Aug. 2 at Boston’s MGM Music Hall at Fenway, sharing the bill with Bret Michaels and special guest Stephen Pearcy of Ratt. Some fans applauded Neil’s long-awaited return. Others were concerned over his comparatively sluggish appearance in videos from the show.
Neil’s Aug. 22 date at River City Casino in Missouri was called off. By then Neil was working toward Mötley Crüe’s rehearsals for the Dolby Live series in L.A. Weeks later he said the rehearsals
Neil’s health scare unfolded a month after a Learjet he owned was involved in a runway crash with a parked Gulfstream jet at Scottsdale Airport. The pilot, 78-year-old Joe Vitosky, was killed in the incident. Neil was not on board, but Hannah was, and was injured.
“Rain broke six ribs, the cracked vertebrae still hurts her, it’s what she deals with,” Neil says. “But she is back on her horses. she goes riding all the time.”
A new release
Just ahead of the Dolby Live series, Mötley Crüe issued their greatest-hits compilation “From The Beginning.” The collection covers the band’s career from Strip (Sunset) to Strip (Las Vegas).
The high-volume, power-chord tent posts are the band’s first hit, 1981’s “Live Wire,” to year 2024’s “Dogs Of War.” Also in the mix: “Kickstart My Heart”, “Dr. Feelgood”, “Girls, Girls, Girls”, “Shout at the Devil,” “Smokin’ In The Boys Room” and “Wild Side.”
Some if not all of those songs are expected to be played at Dolby Live. Neil says the upcoming set list is “extensive, with some deep cuts, but the songs that fans want to hear.”
“It takes you through the full Mötley Crüe lifestyle,” says Neil, gearing up for some of the most important shows in his career..”I am going to push through the best I can.”
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.
What: “Mötley Crüe: The Las Vegas Residency.”
When: 8 p.m. Sept. 12, 13, 17, 19, 20, 24, 26 and 27; Oct. 1 and 3.
Where: Dolby Live at Park MGM.
Tickets: Starting at $54.12.
Information: Ticketmaster.com/MotleyCrueVegas.
