The moment I decided to do a book with Mötley CrĂŒe was the moment I first met them: backstage after a concert in Phoenix, during which bassist Nikki Sixx kicked a security guard, drummer Tommy Lee spit on another guard, and singer Vince Neil told the crowd to seize the stage, which it did, tumbling over barricades and causing thousands of dollars in damage. As I walked to the dressing room to introduce myself as the writer whoâd be profiling them in Spin magazine, I heard concert security guards talking on stage left.
SECURITY GUARD: Get the guy who kicked Jim! The one with a beard. Weâre fucking pressing charges.
I run back to the dressing room to warn the band.
Hey, I just heard security talking. Theyâre getting the police to arrest you.
NIKKI SIXX (laughs): Are you the guy from Spin?
Yeah, but Iâm serious.
SIXX: Did Nick [Cua, Mötley tour manager] put you up to this?
No, theyâre really coming back. I would leave if I were you.
SIXX: Did you ever interview Johnny Thunders?51
No, but Iâve interviewed Kenny G.
SIXX: Oh, just wondering.
I attempt to convince Sixx to leave before heâs arrested, but he thinks itâs a birthday prank, because in half an hour he will be thirty-nine. Suddenly, six police officers burst into the dressing room.
POLICE OFFICER ONE: Is this the guy who attacked the security officer?
POLICE OFFICER TWO: I donât know. They both have facial hair.
POLICE OFFICER ONE (to Sixx): Put your hands behind your back.
POLICE OFFICER TWO (to Tommy Lee): You too.
TOMMY LEE: Why me? I didnât do anything.
POLICE OFFICER ONE: Weâll check the videotape to see which one of you it is.
POLICE OFFICER TWO: Weâre also placing you under arrest for inciting a riot. And for inciting girls to expose their breasts.52
NEARBY ROADIE: Is that a bad thing?
LEE: Canât I put something on? Iâm in my shorts.
POLICE OFFICER TWO: No, just come with us.
The police lead Sixx and Lee, who is wearing nothing but tight rubber shorts, into the corridor and toward the backstage exit. Two teenage Mötley CrĂŒe fans tentatively approach them, each clutching a copy of Shout at the Devil on vinyl.
FAN: Can you sign these for us?
Tommy Lee nods his head back toward his handcuffs.53 As theyâre led out of the arena, I return to the dressing room, where Cua is arguing with police. Meanwhile, Vince Neil blow dries his hair nonchalantly, as he has throughout the incident, while guitarist Mick Mars lounges in a chair nearby.
MICK MARS: Well, what did you think of the show?
[Continued . . .]
In history books, Ernie K-Doe is best known for recording the 1961 number one rhythm and blues hit âMother-in-Law,â a song he found discarded in a studio trash can. But to the denizens of New Orleans decades later, he was known as a bona fide character, brimming with unpredictable energy and an unchecked ego. At an awards ceremony I once covered, for example, he told the crowd, âThere have only been five [sic] great artists in the history of rhythm and blues: Ernie K-Doe, James Brown, and Ernie K-Doe.â
On the edge of the TremĂ© neighborhood, at the Mother-in-Law Lounge, a bar heâd opened with his wife Antoinette, K-Doe could be found almost nightly, performing impromptu concerts and talking about himself nonstop.
âIâm cocky, but Iâm good,â he responded when I arrived with a New York Times photographer and asked to do a story on him.
Later that evening, he led us outside to his small touring van, and we huddled together on the seats as he gave one of his last interviews. Afterward, we returned to the bar to take photographs and watch him perform.
The trouble began when K-Doe suddenly stopped belting the song âWhite Boy / Black Boyâ and looked directly at me . . .
ERNIE K-DOE: We had a good interview, didnât we?
Are you talking to me?
ERNIE: I was good to you, wasnât I?
You sure were.
ERNIE: Then why are you trying to record my show?
Everyone in the bar turns to look at me.
Iâm not recording it! Itâs not even on.
As I hold up the tape recorder to show him, his wife, Antoinette, runs at me from behind the bar.
ANTOINETTE K-DOE: Give me the tape!
I wasnât recording the music. It was just in my lap because I donât have a bag and itâs too bulky to fit in my pocket.
ANTOINETTE: I saw you recording. We arenât playing any more music till you give us the tape.
Iâd give you the tape, but I have other interviews on here and I need them.
ANTOINETTE: We let you interview us. We let you take pictures of us. We waived our fee and didnât charge you anything.54 And now we want the tape. Give it to us.
I can play the tape out loud to prove I wasnât recording the music, if that would settle this.
ANTOINETTE: Lock the door. Nobodyâs getting out of here until he hands over the tape. And I want the photographs, too.
A small, stocky man, either plainclothes security or a loyal patron, runs to the door and stands menacingly in front of it.
BAR REGULAR: Letâs just hear some music. Iâm sure he didnât tape it. ANTOINETTE: This ainât your business. (To me:) Ernie K-Doe is a legend. I am sick of people coming in here and taking advantage of us. You ainât even from the newspaper. I saw what you were doing. You went into the back room to switch the tapes, then came out here and started recording.55
I went into the back room to make a phone call.
ANTOINETTE: If you wonât give it back to us, then Iâm calling the police. Thatâs K-Doeâs music on there. So itâs his property.
I can play the tape. I swear I wasnât recording the music.
ANOTHER REGULAR: Give her what she wants. The police will probably throw you in jail because they support this bar.
Listen, Iâd love to. But Iâve been doing interviews at Jazz Fest all week, and theyâre on this tape. And Iâm not giving it to anyone.
ANTOINETTE (on the phone): This is Antoinette K-Doe at the Mother-in-Law Lounge on Fifteen Hundred North Claiborne. We got someone here whoâs stolen something of ours and wonât give it back. I want him arrested.
Fifteen minutes of no music and dirty looks later, two policemen enter the bar.
ANTOINETTE: They were making tapes of us and taking photographs of us, and we want them. Itâs our right.
POLICE OFFICER ONE (to the photographer and me): Give me yâallâs driverâs licenses, and wait outside.
Ten minutes later, the police come out and talk to us. I explain what happened. One of the officers goes back inside and returns with Ernie and Antoinette.
POLICE OFFICER ONE: If yâall donât come to a resolution right here, weâre going to have to take you in to the station and take depositions for a civil case. And I donât think yâall want to go through that.
If youâll just let me play you the tape to prove thereâs no music on itâ
ANTOINETTE: No, heâs lying.
Listen, I was just trying to help a musician I admired get some attention. I have no interest in even writing the piece at this point. Iâll erase the interview right now if that will settle things.
I partially rewind the cassette and start recording over a small portion of the interview.
ANTOINETTE: I want to hear the part you erase. Iâm not going to let you leave here with anything.
Iâm recording over it now as we speak.
ANTOINETTE: Man, that is no good.
What do you want? I just want to get this settled in a peaceful way and go back to my hotel.
ANTOINETTE: I know. I really want to get inside and get to my business, too.
POLICE OFFICER ONE: I understand, but now you got yourself in a situation. Just make sure that they know the interview is all erased from the tape. You canât just leave and tell her, âIâm gonna promise you that by the time I get home, itâs erased.â You stay here till theyâre sure that heâs not on that tape anymore and then yâall are even.
POLICE OFFICER TWO: Why donât you just give me the tape?
I have other interviews on here that I need.
ANTOINETTE: Right, but you see what it is: You want everything you want, but you ainât willing to give nothing back this way.
Iâm erasing it as weâre speaking. Itâs recording right now.
ANTOINETTE: You didnât say that!
I said I was recording it. Itâs recording us arguing right now.
POLICE OFFICER ONE: All you want to do is undo what they did. If they say they donât want you to use it and yâall are not going to use it, that should be the end of it. Now yâall agree.
ANTOINETTE: And we want her film.
POLICE OFFICER ONE: Iâd like to do this in a peaceful way. Iâll tell yâall, Iâm not used to this type of stuff. I wonât lie. All I know is yâall entered into an agreement: maybe not a contractual agreement, but at least a verbal agreement to do something. That verbal agreement has been breached, even if itâs in her mind. Even if itâs her perception for whatever reason. But I can tell you that if you donât give her the film, weâre going to have to take all yâall in.
The photographer hands Antoinette a blank roll of film, and keeps the film with the actual photos in her pocket.
ANTOINETTE: I saw...