In the world of rock biopics that gloss over the more unsavory aspects of their subjects,
the supposed honesty of Motley Crue's The Dirt is refreshing.
But even a good movie can't keep everything in.
Here are parts of Motley Crue's story that The Dirt ignores.
Early on in The Dirt, we see Motley Crue gleefully fighting during their first concert.
Though it's played largely for laughs, it establishes the idea that Motley Crue is a
band that'll happily throw some punches, apart from Mick Mars.
He remains onstage with his guitar…though he does get a kick in.
Later on in the movie, drummer Tommy Lee punches a confrontational girlfriend on a tour bus,
and everyone, including Lee, reacts with dazed shock.
These scenes make it appear like The Dirt fearlessly depicts the band members' most
violent instincts.
In reality, the movie pulls quite a few punches.
It certainly doesn't show just how comfortable most Motley Crue members were when it came
to hurting people.
Vince Neil has allegedly assaulted women multiple times.
In fact, actor Nicolas Cage once had to intervene during one of Neil's alleged altercations.
Tommy Lee was sued for assaulting a photographer in 2013.
As E Online notes, he was also sentenced to six months in jail for spousal battery in
1998 after a nasty scuffle with Pamela Anderson.
Although Nikki Sixx's destructive tendencies were mostly aimed at himself, Rock Candy magazine
reports that he once got himself and his manager arrested by throwing a bottle at a man's head
in a bullet train from Osaka to Tokyo.
The most glaring character omission from The Dirt is arguably actress Pamela Anderson,
whose turbulent relationship with drummer Tommy Lee would probably have sparked a lawsuit
or nine had it been featured in the movie.
"Why do bad things happen to good people?"
Still, while Anderson is noticeably absent from the film, she definitely left an impression
on more than one band member in real life.
As Vince Neil is all too happy to share in his autobiography Tattoos & Tequila, Anderson
briefly dated him before she got together with Lee.
But Neil's brief involvement with Anderson is nothing compared to her scandal-ridden
marriage to Tommy Lee.
They became one of the most famous couples in the world, and managed to make waves wherever
they went.
They also inadvertently starred in what's generally considered the most famous celebrity
sex tape of all time.
And as we mentioned, the couple had an intensely ugly falling out.
Absolutely none of this is touched upon in The Dirt.
As MTV News reports, Tommy Lee found himself in a strange predicament in 1999.
He evidently thought his glam metal days were behind him and decided to try his hand at
something else.
That "something else" turned out to be…hip-hop.
He put together a rap-metal act called Methods of Mayhem, and started collaborating with
such artists as Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, and even Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst.
We imagine this strange career turn was omitted from The Dirt because it would've caused a
lot of undue confusion.
Plus, Lee reportedly got the idea for Methods of Mayhem during his six-month jail sentence,
so it sounds like a potential plot point that would have been worthy of a veto for a number
of reasons.
John Corabi's fate in Motley Crue is that of the classic "new guy."
Fans never really warmed up to him, and he was quietly phased out when Vince Neil returned
to the fold in 1997 for the Generation Swine album.
As Corabi told Rock by Wild in 2012:
"I was in Motley, and I never knew they were going to bring Vince back.
You know, so things have a way of just...life has a way of just sort of working itself out,
you know?"
The Dirt deems him such an unimportant piece of Motley Crue lore that we only briefly see
him onscreen...and he never utters a single word.
As Raw Music TV notes, Corabi actually offered more to the band than a goofy grin and a lackluster
album.
In fact, the publication claims the new singer outright saved Motley Crue from fading into
irrelevance.
When Neil left the band in 1992, Motley Crue tried to produce a worthy follow-up to its
most commercially successful album, Dr. Feelgood.
But in the context of the era, this proved to be an impossible feat.
Grunge music was rapidly showing hair metal the door, and artists such as Poison and Ratt
were quickly finding out that their brand of rock just didn't have legs anymore.
Corabi ushered in a different songwriting style, forcing the band out of their comfort
zone.
Unfortunately, his fellow band members undermined this new injection of creativity with a bunch
of awful mistakes, like firing their manager, lawyers, and accountants while attempting
to produce the record themselves.
But Corabi was reportedly never an issue for them, and they liked him so much they wanted
to keep him around despite the 1994 album's lack of success.
Until Neil returned, that is.
The Dirt devotes some time establishing Motley Crue as a band that thinks about their image
pretty carefully, if drunkenly.
That's why it's not exactly a surprise that the movie never mentions the time they turned
in a miscalculated music video that got them banned by MTV.
The lyrics to the 1987 single "You're All I Need" are particularly vicious, and Motley
Crue decided to double down in the video.
It depicts a doomed, destructive relationship and features the man trashing their home and
ultimately killing his significant other.
As you can see, much of the video was shot in the matter-of-fact style of a news story.
Let it suffice to say, the clip didn't go over well with MTV executives, who banned
it from the channel.
Nikki Sixx later admitted that the song's dark lyrics were inspired by his own failing
relationship...with a girlfriend he was convinced had been cheating on him.
Sixx says he dealt with the situation by writing "You're All I Need," playing it to his now-ex-girlfriend,
and dramatically walking out of the door when she started crying.
According to The Dirt, guitarist Mick Mars first met Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee during
an audition, and he quickly proved that he was the right man for the job.
"Listen to me.
There's only room for one guitar player in this band, and that's me."
However, the movie conveniently ignores the fact that the real Mars and Sixx had met long
before that…even if they didn't realize it at the time.
In 1978, Sixx was reportedly working at a liquor store when who should walk in but Mick
Mars.
According to Loudwire, the guitar player had a gig with his band White Horse at a nearby
venue called Stone Pony.
He allegedly snuck away to grab a bottle of tequila because the Pony's $2 shots were just
too pricey.
Mars reportedly recognized Sixx as a fellow rocker and struck up a discussion, asking
what bands he liked.
Unfortunately, Sixx's answer included KISS, which didn't impress Mars at all…but the
guitarist still invited the kid to White Horse's concert.
After Sixx finished his shift, he reportedly got wasted and walked into the bar, only to
witness the magnificent sight of Mars grinding out a guitar solo by using a microphone stand
as a slide.
The highly impressed Sixx hung on until the very end, and the two later resumed talking.
Mars even drunkenly gave Sixx his phone number.
However, this chance encounter never led anywhere…until years later, when the guitarist happened to
join his drinking buddy's band.
The Dirt doesn't hesitate to show us some of Motley Crue's more…inspired rock star
behavior.
In the same way '80s action films have training montages, The Dirt has a montage that's dedicated
exclusively to the band destroying hotel rooms and terrorizing people.
"Ah, this is a nice place.
Time to redecorate."
The movie has a tendency to gloss over these antics as "boys will be boys" misadventures...and
the band doesn't really suffer any consequences beyond massive hangovers the next morning.
Really, cop cars only seem to turn up for the real life-and-death stuff, namely, when
Vince Neil crashes his car and kills the Hanoi Rocks drummer Nicholas "Razzle" Dingley.
Of course, in the real world, it's very easy to get in trouble for Motley Crue's brand
of obnoxious behavior.
Apart from the more serious stuff that landed Motley Crue members in hot water, they've
also been involved in a fair share of bizarre lawsuits over the years.
In 1999, MTV reported that Motley Crue harassed a security guard during a concert and almost
started a riot.
In 2016, Metal Sucks reported that a supporting band sued Motley Crue for assorted shenanigans,
including members of the Crue entourage spraying urine at them.
And yet, when the band is forced to face consequences for their actions, they evidently prove to
be rather thin-skinned.
In 2005, MTV reported that Motley Crue was suing NBC.
Why?
Because the network reportedly banned the band after they dropped an F-bomb during a
live Tonight Show broadcast on New Year's Eve.
The Dirt presents Motley Crue as a rather amazing live act, so it's not particularly
surprising that the movie chooses to ignore all the times their rock concerts took a decidedly
nasty turn.
For example: In 1985, a 13-year-old fan was reportedly partially blinded during a concert
in Alabama.
That's because something, possibly a chunk of dry ice from malfunctioning equipment,
flew into his eye.
The 1988 trial was reportedly heated and difficult.
As president of the band's business affairs, Nikki Sixx was in town for the duration of
the proceedings.
His stay was reportedly something right out of a "fish out of water" movie: Following
his near-fatal 1987 overdose, Sixx had reportedly straightened himself out somewhat.
Instead of an outlandish rock star, the locals reportedly found a friendly, super-famous,
nice guy who offered Lifesaver candies to fans.
He even struck up an oddball friendship with a local lawyer.
Sixx gave the lawyer guitar pointers, and the lawyer taught Sixx how to tie a necktie.
The case ultimately ended in a mistrial, and Motley Crue later settled out of court.
The Dirt is based on the book of the same name, a book that has certainly added to Motley
Crue's notoriety, thanks to its avalanche of filthy rock stories.
But wouldn't it be strange if much of the memoir was built on untruths?
We're not saying it was...because we don't need to.
As Loudwire reports, Nikki Sixx has basically admitted as much himself.
In 2019, Sixx was in hot water over a story in the book that described a wild party.
That party evidently ended with Sixx and Tommy Lee committing sexual assault on a woman by
fooling her into switching partners mid-act.
The bass player defended himself to Rolling Stone, claiming that he actually didn't remember
the incident ever happening.
He also claimed he didn't recall giving a lot of his interviews for the book.
Sixx said the interviews were conducted in 2000, a year before he went into rehab, and
a year in which he was allegedly going through a particularly rough patch with his drug and
alcohol intake.
Will we ever know whether the incident actually happened?
Probably not...but it's one of those moments when you really hope the person is lying.
The Dirt introduces Mick Mars when the guitarist shows up for an audition, outplays the blonde
guitarist, and promptly fires the guy when Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee can't work up the
nerve to do it.
"Really?"
As Ultimate Classic Rock reports, there's no proof this ever happened.
We imagine the scene was included to establish Mars as a detached, cynical veteran.
However, it just so happens that Motley Crue did originally flirt with another guitarist
before Mars came along.
But Greg Leon was a far cry from the sad sack we see in the film.
He was a well-known singer and multi-instrumentalist in the Los Angeles hard rock scene.
Lee was a huge fan of his, in fact, he ended up joining Leon's band Suite 19 for a year
and a half.
In 2017, Leon claimed that Lee had wanted him to join Motley Crue early on, but he was
reportedly uninterested because of Sixx's involvement.
Basically, he thought Sixx was a terrible musician.
He also didn't like that Sixx was intent on recruiting a frontman, because he was sick
of sharing lead vocal duties.
Motley Crue and Leon went their separate ways, but the guitar player didn't exactly fade
into obscurity.
He became Randy Rhoads' replacement in Quiet Riot, played with Dokken, and fronted a number
of other bands, too.
So that's that…but one more thing before we go.
You know what else wasn't included in The Dirt?
This commercial:
"If you have a touchtone phone, call us on the Motley Crue hotline.
1-900-832-CRUE!"
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