The reunion was not universally loved, and drummer Tommy Lee was the main hold out. The ill feeling between Lee and Neil had not dissipated, and it was also during this time that Lee had many domestic disputes with his then wife Pamela Anderson, which led to him serving jail time for domestic violence. While in jail, Lee had decided that he wanted out, and following his release from prison, and completing a greatest hits tour the band had booked, Lee left the band.
In his place, Motley Crue recruited former Ozzy Osbourne drummer Randy Castillo to take his place. Castillo was a proven performer, a professional, and bringing him into the band at this time seemed like an excellent proposition.
The band spent three months in early 2000 writing and recording the new album. In recent interviews, following the acrimonious split between the band and guitarist Mick Mars, Mars was quoted in an article for Rolling Stone magazine as saying that he didn’t write any of the material on “New Tattoo” nor barely played on the album, and that he was being held accountable by the band because of the poor performance of the previous album “Generation Swine”. "I didn't write any of those songs, since I wasn't invited," said Mars. "I think I played one lick on that album”. Nikki Sixx, interviewed for the same article, dismisses that claim, saying Mick played all lead and rhythm guitars, and whatever else he wanted to. Mars also has three co-writing credits on the album, so it is hard to know exactly what the real truth to the matter is. In any case, the album was released in July 2000, at a time that fans were looking for music from their favourite 80’s artists that more reflected the music of that time. This was Motley Crue’s chance to deliver on that statement.
The opening track “Hell on High Heels’ hits the brief immediately when it comes to providing a song that gives the listener the feeling that they are back in the heyday of the band. No, it isn’t spot on, because the band is older now and it doesn't have that same intensity and energy that those original songs did, but it does provide exactly what the fans and record label would have been hoping for, a song with some similarities to that era.
From here, the lyrical content of the songs of the album begins to take shape, and for the most part it comes across as... unseemly. “Treat Me Like the Dog I Am” just immediately makes you think ‘what the hell are these guys up to here?!’ It is also the start of the writing partnership between Nikki Sixx and James Michael, a musician and producer who would be tied closely to future projects that involved the two of them, including Brides of Destruction and Sixx AM. Here the music is of the right attitude, but it is hard to sing along with the lyrics without either laughing or cringing. In most cases, both. Then they offer us a country acoustic based ballad, the title track “New Tattoo”. Now somewhere along the line this became something that Motley Crue wanted to do, and they are all the worse for it. The band’s point of demise can almost be pinpointed to the success of “Home Sweet Home” from “Theatre of Pain” that was reviewed here on a recent episode, because that led the band down the path to chase that success and it has ruined so many of their songs in the process. This is rubbish, with no redeeming features. It should be played to kids in school in detention to punish them, because it would certainly stop them from ever doing anything to be sent back there again. Even then, it is better lyrically than what is served up on “Dragstrip Superstar”. The music is fine, sounds good even, but lyrically this is another Nikki Sixx clanger. “Jailbait playmate, freakshow masturbate, fuel inject carburette, underage penetrate”. Jesus Nikki how old are you? Actually, don’t answer that. If it wasn’t for the good riff and great solo on this song is would be at the bottom of the barrel. In many ways, it still is. But then you come to the next great instalment on the album, “1st Band on the Moon”, a straight Nikki Sixx song, but you wouldn’t need to take long before you came to that conclusion. Seriously, once again the music is good enough. It isn’t ground breaking, but it is good. Vince sounds great. But the lyrics are puerile trash. Great sounding guitar Mick, I like the solo in the middle of the song. Just... c’mon... it can’t be that hard to come up with something else to sing about. Well... apparently not, because there is more of this to come on “She Needs Rock N Roll”. On the surface it’s just a typical teenager needs to listen to rock and roll music, but the connotations – well, not connotations because the lyrics are straight to the point – just seem like they should have been locked in a box in the past and forgotten. Sure, maybe I’m just old and don’t need to hear this stuff anymore, or feel like I WANT to sing along to it anymore. That part is true, but goodness me there must be a way to be more inventive in songwriting.
Yes, all of this will continue for the remainder of the episode. You have been warned.
The generic side of the band’s music comes to the fore with “Punched in the Teeth by Love”. Firstly, musically. There isn’t a great effort here to create something that is different from anything that hasn’t been done before. Before we even get to the lyrical content, if the music had been more inspiring – you know, offering a great riff or bass line or scintillating solo – then this song may have been better than just generic fluff. But it doesn’t. But then the lyrics: “Flash a smile like an alligator, move her hips like a generator, all over town like an oil spill, if there’s meat on the bone she’ll wag her tail”. This song is credited to all four members of the band, which truly makes it worse. And the repeated concourse of the song title through the last few minutes of the song is overbearing. Not that the follow up is any better, as “Hollywood Ending” is the power ballad that desperately tries to recreate the success and depth of feeling that their ballad hits of the past have provided. In this case though, it is a pretty half hearted effort to do so. Even the quick fade at the end of the track seems like it is an afterthought, a way to stop the pain from going on any longer. It is almost a country acoustic ballad much like the earlier one on the album, that’s the depths that this song falls to, replete with the background singers in the chorus. The band’s writers are trying to pull out all the tricks to create the illusion that this album is bringing back the best of the band from its greatest era, but it is a poor facade that they hare building on. This is a god-awful song.
I can’t work out if “Fake” is an autobiographical song, or if it is actually trying to proclaim that the band is different from the people that they discuss within the lyrical content of the track. They are obviously having a crack at record labels and critics alike, but are they owning their own excesses or blaming them on others? Are they trying the accept that they haven’t always done the right thing, or are they just trying to drag everyone else into the mire with them? There are two ways of interpreting the lyrics. What IS true is that musically, again, this is fairly average fair, unexciting, stuck in a rut and stuck in a rhythm, without the great music that drives the best Motley Crue songs. It may be a statement but as a song it doesn’t do much to advertise that fact. Still, lyrically it is like Shakespeare compared to Nikki Sixx’s offering on “Porno Star”, which is exactly as you would expect a Crue song with this title to be about. Listen to this marvellous composition: “Dot com, dot cum, web cam super scam triple x cyber sex, shoot my rocks on the box, peeping tom on the net, down I’m going down going down, I’m a cyber junkie what a freak”. Welcome to the new millennium everyone. The album then concludes with the cover of The Tubes song “White Punks on Dope”, a song title that is probably very appropriate for some members of this band.
As I related very recently on the episode dedicated to the “Theatre of Pain” album, my introduction to Motley Crue came reasonably early on in my conversion to the heavier side of music. I had asked my heavy metal music dealer to record me an album that had become the next in my line of requirements. He asked me what I wanted him to put on the other side of the cassette, to which I said to him to choose something he thought I might like. The cassette came back with “Shout at the Devil” as the chosen second side album, and I never looked back.
I got a copy of this album reasonably soon after it was released. At the time I hadn’t heard the “Generation Swine” album, and though I was disappointed that Tommy Lee had left the band I was also pleased to hear Randy Castillo had joined in his place, and was looking forward to what he would add to the album. I still had an overall positive mindset when it came to the band and was hoping that what they produced would be worth the wait. And as it turned out, when I did get the album, I wasn’t disappointed in it terribly. It wasn’t “Dr Feelgood” or “Shout at the Devil”, but it was mostly upbeat and sounded as good as I had thought it might without any outlandish expectations. The band hadn’t turned to nu-metal or industrial metal, so most of it seemed above board. After the requisite number of listens, it moved into the usual pile to be found some time in the future.
This has had the very occasional play since. It isn’t something that I go to when I am in the mood for Motley Crue. A couple of times in the years since I have worked my way through the catalogue and this has come up again, and I listen to it and move to the next album. And mostly through that time I have avoided the obvious question that arises from my podcast episode today. And that is - how did Vince Neil bring himself to sing some of this crap? Because overall, I don’t mind the music. The two country ballads are complete and utter rubbish, don’t get me wrong. Whenever I have listened to this album since, I always wonder if Nikki Sixx had a desire to go down the route Def Leppard did at one stage and collaborate with country and western artists and make that kind of music. Because that is what those songs remind me of. But apart from those, and though some of the songwriting is slightly generic in the way it comes across, the music is mostly good, and I can listen to it without any qualms whatsoever. But the lyrics... my goodness, there is some utter crap there. Though the band has only released one album since this, they have still done a lot of touring, at least up until the aborted Final Tour status that they must have stolen from Kiss. And apart from the tour to promote this album, they have never played ANY of these songs live again. And it is no surprise, because even though in this day and age it is difficult to understand anything Vince Neil actually sings anyway, I’m sure he just drew a line under these songs and said “Nikki, the lyrics are shit, I refuse to sing them”.
So yes. Music is fine, lyrics are crap. That is the best way to sum up “New Tattoo”. Even when listening to it this week, I find myself enjoying about half of the album, and groaning loudly about the other half.
Motley Crue were booked to tour Australia on this album, but unfortunately firstly Randy Castillo got sick, a duodenal ulcer requiring surgery that then discovered cancer, which killed him less than two years after this albums release. Then his replacement Samantha Mahoney from Hole also had problems and the tour never happened. Perhaps that was for the best. The album still resides in my collection, but it is one of the ones that will remain in ‘near mint’ condition as the years pass.
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