The Dirt; Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band, Motley Crue

“Her name was Bullwinkle. We called her that because she had a face like a moose. But Tommy, even though he could get any girl on the Sunset Strip, would not break up with her. He loved her and wanted to marry her, he kept telling us, because she could spray her cum across the room….” And so begins The Dirt, Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band, Motley Crue. If you were an eighties kid, and I don’t mean ‘born in the eighties’, but actually spending your teen years, coming of age, in the eighties, then you remember, the Big Hair era of glitter unicorns, neon spandex, wanting to be as cool as the kids in John Hughes movies, Just Say No and the cat eating alien; and you most definitely remember Motley Crue, whether it was from your mother forbidding you to listen to that trash, Shout at the Devil or dry-humping to their records on the dance floor; Motley Crue, was part of the soundtrack of your young life; and this book, should be part of the soundtrack of your adult life.

This book was released in 2001, making me a little late to the game; but the great thing about books, is that they never expire. The Dirt is an autobiography, akin to Marilyn Manson’s Long Hard Road out of Hell—(which was as equally delicious.) The Dirt is told with unbridled honesty and unvarnished truth. There are absolutely no holds barred, and it gives us a look at the way this band lived rock & roll.

It seems that every band and/or musician has such a book out, whether they should—(Life, Keith Richards) or not they should—(Billy Idol, Dancing With Myself).

The book, as expected, is laden with stories of sex, drugs, overdoses, parties, highs and lows; however, a little less expected is the manner in which the tales are related and the book is presented; for example, every story that litters the highway that is Motley’s life, from Vince Neil’s committing murder, Tommy Lee as a prison inmate or Nikki Sixx being set ablaze; is told from several different perspectives. Various players, record reps, etc.…each have a chance to relay the story as they remember it, making for a rich tapestry of debauchery. At times, you finish a particular story and wonder, ‘WTF? Did that really happen’?

Woven between the depravity and excess, you also find, very intelligent, sensitive guys standing in the eye of the storm; i.e.: Vince Neil, who relates the death of his four-year old daughter, Skyler; Tommy Lee’s deep love for his sons and Mick Mars, painful bone disease, which is probably what shortened his career.

To write a truly iconic, great rock memoir; a band/musician, has to have a long enough career to have made an impact and be able to tell good stories. Motley Crue, is such a band; they ushered in a subgenre of hair metal/glam friendly radio rock, greatly aided by the advent of MTV in the eighties, indulged and overindulged in every decadence that existed, and somehow lived to tell about it.

For years, rumors have been circulating about this book becoming a movie; which would be fine, I am sure. I am equally sure that this book, no matter where you open it, will blow your mind, as well, if not better than any movie rendition can or will. In this book, we get to travel and live vicariously in the world of rock & roll. I suspect that if one day you were found dead, and this was the book at your side, it probably wouldn’t invoke a very scholarly perception of you, but, I guarantee, it would have left you with a smile on your face.

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