Greatest Breakups: Vince Neil and Motley Crue

If you clicked on this article, the odds are high that you are either a fan of Motley Crue or you have seen Jackass director Jeff Trumaine’s biopic on the band (The Dirt on Netflix). We’re a little less than a month away from Valentine’s day, and I want to remind y’all that some breakups really can bring out the best in one or both parties involved. Case in point, The iconic LA band’s departure with founding singer Vince Neil led to each of their best albums, and it’s not even a challenge…

The first thing that came to mind for fans back in 1992 was the band’s frontman going away. Debuting the following year along with a high-budget music video for Sister of Pain, the spotlight naturally trailed Vince out the door. Enter Vince Neil’s billboard breaking Exposed.

Top Gun’s theme craftsman Steve Stevenson on guitar plays a large part in what makes this album so outstandingly kickass to listen to in its entirety. If you listen particularly to the opening track, Look In Her Eyes, there is no way in hell that Buckethead would find the sound he’s known for if he didn’t love this album too.

Revisit any of your favorite Crue songs again and come back to this album; you’re going to find that Vince broadly carries each track. I make that claim because he surrounds himself with high-caliber talent on Exposed in a way I’d compare to David Lee Roth’s solo outings (another fantastic breakup). It was easy to lose track of Motley Crue with all of this going on, right? Apparently, fans in the 90s thought so too as their self-titled album with John Corabi on vocals was so slept on it hurts…

Fans of their early work and heavy as fuck music are the first groups of people to do a double-take when listening to this one as Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee, and Mick Mars’ playing are unrecognizable in what I’m going to call the best way possible. The moments where they each shine are evenly spread throughout the album, which naturally puts some pressure on vocals. For as good of a match as Vince Neil is for the band, John Corabi seriously takes this fat n’ heavy iteration to the next level, and I’m not even mentioning his brief incorporation of harmonica either. The album didn’t sell well at all by comparison to anything else Motley Crue put out, so the collaboration with John was cut short after 15 tracks that were ahead of their time. Many of which were easily the best in the band’s history.

The connective tissue between Exposed and Motley’s self-titled album is how much heavier and thrasher friendly they are. I was given a taste of songs from both when I was doing a timelapse of downtown Los Angeles which was probably one of the most LA things I ever did. Having heard both albums while writing this, I can’t help but feel disappointed in the creative team behind The Dirt biopic for not showcasing this chapter in the band’s history. They don’t have to admit to us how both parties were better off for the breakup, but it would’ve been amazing to get a glimpse in a similar fashion to Ice Cube’s departure from NWA in Straight Outta Compton.

The original Motley Crue coming together at that press conference to sign that contract for their “final tour” taught me the very valuable lesson that paperwork means nothing and that some marriages are better off in divorce…