U.K.’s Virgin Radio conducted an interview with MÖTLEY CRUE’s Nikki Sixx and manager Allen Kovac. When asked about how MÖTLEY CRÜE originally became a hot commodity without major label backing:
Nikki: “Nobody would sign us. So we just looked at the bands that came before us, like the DEAD KENNEDYS, FEAR, etcetera, etcetera, in the punk scene. And we formed our own record company called Leathür Records, got a distribution deal with a company called Greenworld. And we just started distributing around Los Angeles. We got distribution outside of Los Angeles, but, really, no one heard of the band. We got to the point where we were doing multiple nights in clubs. And then I had this idea to start playing civic arenas and putting on big shows. There was a lady named Elvira. She was a really famous, haunted character of these horror movies. So we got her for a hundred dollars, which was like a hundred thousand dollars to us, to intro our show. And we played a show called ‘New Year’s Evil’. We got this guy that had hot rods to put funny cars onstage. And we were always trying to up the show. So now we’re selling two and three thousand seats everywhere we play, and still no one would sign the band, because we didn’t fit in. And we kept saying, ‘Isn’t that the point?’ It was to not fit in. And eventually, that record [‘Too Fast For Love’] sold 40,000 copies, and Virgin was really interested in us, and a guy named Tom Zutaut, who was with Elektra Records. And the decision to go with Elektra Records was simply because they were on La Brea [Avenue in Los Angeles], and we could go down to the offices anytime we wanted. They didn’t like it. A guy named Joe Smith signed the band. And then when Joe left, a guy named Bob Krasnow came in and he wanted us off the label. And I think that if we would have not signed with a Los Angeles label, we probably would have got dropped. We went there all the time. We went to Zutaut‘s office. We were constantly going in there with new songs, demos, pushing, pushing. We didn’t know any better. Artists like that would drive Allen crazy.”
On MÖTLEY CRÜE‘s quick ascension:
Nikki: “We formed January 17, 1981… There was a weird frenzy about this band… When you’re young, you don’t know how to control that… You’re young. You’re looking at your heroes, and you’re, like, we’re on the same path. We’re going downhill, our car is on fire and it seems good until you hit the brick wall.”
Allen: “I don’t think you’re on the same path. THE BEATLES glamorized acid. You had Keith Richards [THE ROLLING STONES] glamorizing her*in. These were kids. And the success happens, but you’re also in the era of excess. People are doing blow while they’re doing disco. Everybody is excessive, and all of a sudden, these guys, who always wanted to differentiate themselves, decide, ‘We’re gonna be crazier than everyone else.’ The movie deglamorizes it. And I think it’s the first movie where rock stars are talking about the downside, the very dark downside. I think that’s one of the takeouts of this movie — that artists today have a responsibility to know the damage that they can do to themselves but also to their audience, whether it’s hip-hop or it’s Demi Lovato OD’ing recently. I think that’s where this film is really important for music and pop culture.”