Mötley Crüe is probably one of the most well-known heavy metal bands in music history. The band was founded in 1981 by bassist Nikki Sixx, drummer Tommy Lee, lead guitarist Mick Mars and lead singer Vince Neil. They managed to achieve international fame in just a couple of years and they have sold over 100 million albums to this day.
Aside from their great music, crazy concerts, and backstage antics, Mötley Crüe members are also known for their troublesome lives, abuse of alcohol and drugs, and violent incidents. The bandmates fought with each other as well and there came a time in 1992, when the other members of the band were fed up with Vince Neil’s attitude and decided to fire him.
Did Vince Neil Get Fired From Mötley Crüe?
Apparently, the answer is yes. As mentioned above, by the mid-’80s, the band had reached international success which was definitely a good thing, but also quite life-transforming for the band members. With increasing self-confidence, the members started being more stubborn with their opinions and argue more.
Mötley Crüe spent 1989-1990 on a massive world tour which was a great success and the band’s biggest effort until that day but ultimately left the band feeling burnt out. This tiredness made the members more aggressive and this led to a lot of conflicts, one of which ended in Vince Neil’s firing.
Following the release of ‘Decade of Decadence‘ in 1992, it was announced that Vince Neil was out of the band. As a reason, the band had proposed that he wants to spend more time focusing on his hobby, car racing. This statement was refuted by Vince Neil who claimed that he was fired from the band because he wasn’t a blues guy and the band wanted to go in that direction.
Thus is how Vince Neil described that period during an interview with Los Angeles Times in 1993:
“We had been rehearsing for a few months but we didn’t do any recording. It just wasn’t sounding good to me. I’m not a blues singer and Motley is a rock band — not a blues band. I think it’s a stupid idea that will alienate the fans.”
Who Replaced Vince Neil When He Was Fired From Mötley Crüe?
After a long search, Vince Neil was finally replaced by John Corabi. Soon after that, in March 1994, the band released a self-titled album which made it to the Billboard Top 10 as it ranked No. 7 but was a complete commercial failure. It prompted a lot of criticism and negative comments from thousands of fans.
Fans claimed that the only person who can front Mötley Crüe is Vince Neil. Rumors say that Corabi agreed with the band’s fans and eventually, he suggested that the band should bring back Vince because there’s no way they can replace him as a figure and voice as no one will ever be like him.
This is what Corabi said during an interview with Exposed in 1993:
“My record was the first record that they had done that didn’t go platinum, didn’t make some sort of crazy noise, and everybody panicked“.
On the other hand, Vince Neil had embarked on a solo career and released a moderately successful album named ‘Exposed‘ in 1993 and a follow-up named ‘Carved in Stone‘ in 1995 which was even less popular. Ultimately the band reunited with Vince in 1997 after they decided to ‘leave their egos at the door.’ After that, they released ‘Generation Swine’ which debuted at No. 4.
