Why Motley Crue Broke Their Promise To Never Tour Again

Motley Crue is full of surprises - like the time they signed off on a country music tribute album with acts like Rascal Flatts, or the fact that they somehow managed to sell over 100 million records. So it might not come as a surprise that the Crue is surprising fans once more by breaking their promise to never tour again - a promise they made in 2015, according to Rolling Stone. It all started on January 28th, 2014, when the band held a press conference to announce plans for what would end up being a worldwide, 158-show tour and then signed a "cessation of touring agreement" to go into effect at the end of the tour in 2015. In true rock 'n roll spirit, they kept on playing all the way up to New Years Eve, when they held their supposed last show at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Drummer Tommy Lee said in a statement, "We always had a vision of going out with a big f---ing bang and not playing county fairs and clubs with one or two original band members. Our job here is done." Or was it? By 2018, Crue frontman Vince Neil announced on Twitter the band would be releasing new music, stating, "We signed a contract not to tour anymore. We never broke up or said we would never make music again. Hope this clears it up." Once again, there appeared to be no doubt. In 2019, the songs were released as part of a soundtrack to the Netflix biopic The Dirt, based on a book about the band, and by November, rumors of a Motley Crue reunion tour began to circulate. Whether or not the whole "we're never touring again" announcement was a ploy was questionable. For one, Rolling Stone reported that the band had never actually produced the "cessation of touring agreement," despite numerous requests to reveal it. Also, there was apparently a "loophole" written into the contract. According to guitarist Nikki Sixx, "The only loophole is if all four band members agreed to do it, we could override our own contract. But we know that will never happen. There are people in this band who will refuse to ever do it again, and you're talking to one of them. There is no amount of money that would ever make me do it again because I have such pride in how we're ending it." Are you sure, Nikki? He went on to say, "The way we've set it up – including this conversation right now – we'd have so much egg on our face. We have so much pride that that alone would stop it." Cue the egg, because Motley Crue has just announced a 2020 tour with fellow hair-metal gods Def Leppard and Poison, promising to bring in the appropriate amount of money to keep the Crue on the road. And in fitting fashion, they announced it by blowing up the previously unseen agreement in a video narrated by Machine Gun Kelly, who played Tommy Lee in The Dirt. According to Louder, they stand to make as much as $150 million from the tour. Sure, it's a bit hypocritical, but rockers are gonna rock, and they're not the first to pull this stunt. According to Rolling Stone, other acts who've toured after farewell tours are Kiss, Phil Collins, Ozzy Osbourne, Tina Turner, and Cher, just to name a few. Besides, it's not like the fans didn't want it. The band was partially spurred on by a Change.org petition seeking 15,000 signatures titled "Bring Motley Crue Back!", which hit its goal in less than a week. They even briefly shared it themselves before hastily taking it down - probably because they remembered they'd told everyone they'd never tour again. Love it or hate it, Motley Crue has outlasted almost all other bands of its era. 2021 would mark the band's 40th year of melting faces and brain cells, and if you're a Motley Crue fan, the promise of a fourth decade for the rockers might just kickstart your heart as if Dr. Feelgood himself were operating on you.