Motley Crue vocalist Vince Neil couldn't have known what was in store for him when he started
out with the band in 1981.
Since rising to stardom, he's certainly done his part to promote the rock star lifestyle
with plenty of drugs and booze included.
Here are tragic details of Vince Neil's life story.
No parent wishes to live long enough to bury their child, but Vince Neil has been forced
to face this ultimate tragedy.
The singer lost his 4-year-old daughter Skylar in 1995, when Neil himself was only 34.
Young Skylar was diagnosed with Wilms' tumor, a form of kidney cancer, at a time when Neil
was just coming back from a number of other personal and professional misfortunes.
She had to go through extensive chemotherapy, radiation treatments and six operations, none
of which were enough to save her life.
Skylar Neil passed away on August 15, 1995, and the tragedy left Neil absolutely devastated.
He later said of the nightmarish experience,
While Skylar was still fighting for her life, Neil wrote a track called "Skylar's Song"
in her honor.
Neil later included "Skylar's Song" on his solo album, Carved in Stone, and announced
that he would donate all the proceeds of the song to charity.
The singer also set up the Skylar Neil Memorial Fund, which has since raised millions for
children's cancer research.
Members of Motley Crue are well known for being fairly dangerous types offstage, but
it seems Vince Neil is all too happy to bring some of that danger to the workplace, too.
One soundman named Michael Talbert reportedly found this out the hard way when Neil attacked
him in the middle of the concert and actually punched him out.
The soundman said that during a solo concert in October 2004, Neil suddenly ran at him
while he was looking at his monitor.
The singer first tried to kick him, and when the initial attack missed, Neil resorted to
punching — and knocked the poor soundman out cold for a good 45 seconds.
The police report attached to the arrest warrant says the attack appeared to be motivated by
the soundman not turning the guitars up high enough to Neil's immediate approval.
The musician had apparently motioned to Talbert for more guitar volume, but as the man was
making adjustments, Neil unexpectedly ran across the stage, leaped onto the soundboard,
and attacked.
This curious form of not-so-constructive criticism may have played a part in the subsequent cancellation
of the singer's planned U.K. tour.
"Hey, hey, hey, wow!
Warm.
That's it — done."
On December 8, 1984, Vince Neil's passion for fast cars and mind-altering substances
led to a disaster.
That night, Motley Crue was in the middle of an epic drinking binge with members of
Hanoi Rocks, an up-and-coming Finnish band, when they suddenly realized they needed more
alcohol.
Neil was drunk already, but volunteered to make a quick booze run, and Hanoi Rocks drummer
Nicholas "Razzle" Dingley decided to accompany the singer to the liquor store.
It was a fatal mistake.
Neil tried to go around a fire truck and ended up losing control of his sports car and slamming
into on-coming traffic.
Neil escaped with cracked ribs and minor cuts, but two other drivers on the road were severely
injured.
Meanwhile, Dingley was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
For his part in the lethal incident, Neil got away with barely a slap on the wrist.
He received 30 days in jail, of which he only served 15, five years of probation, and 200
hours of community service.
He also had to pay $2.6 million to the people he had injured.
But while his legal consequences were light, his peers never forgot what he did.
Hanoi Rocks guitarist Andy McCoy says Neil has never apologized for the incident, and
Twisted Sister's Dee Snider has gone even further in expressing his disdain, questioning
how Neil was able to walk free after, quote, "literally kill[ing] someone."
You'd be forgiven for thinking that any marriage to a guy as volatile as the Motley Crue front
man is doomed to fail, because history shows that you'd be absolutely right.
Vince Neil has been married and divorced four times over the years.
However, he seems to be aware of his less than stellar track record because he has promised
himself that he'll never get hitched again.
So what exactly keeps causing Neil's marriages to fail?
The man himself has only spoken vaguely about the subject, but his ex-wives don't necessarily
share that tendency.
Neil's autobiography, Tattoos and Tequila, includes interviews from all of the singer's
former spouses.
When Neil abstains from going into the particulars of a divorce, he's swiftly countered by an
interview with an ex, who is usually all too happy to point out that the singer's constant
cheating with groupies contributed to the marriages falling apart.
Whether he's winning Academy Awards or screaming about bees in B-movies, you can always count
on Nicolas Cage to be interesting.
Sometimes, this involves fighting Vince Neil to submission.
Reportedly, Cage and Neil were hanging out at the Aria Hotel in Las Vegas in 2016 when
a fan approached the pair and asked for Cage's autograph.
For reasons known only to him, Neil took affront to this and dragged the fan to the ground
by her hair.
Cage understandably did not care for such behavior, and the situation escalated.
A heated altercation between a famous actor and a famous singer on the Las Vegas strip?
Yeah, there were plenty of cameras rolling.
The footage of the end of the situation didn't make Neil look too good, as Cage easily restrained
the stumbling singer while screaming at him in front of many onlookers.
The incident ended with Neil in legal hot water for misdemeanor battery.
The musician eventually pleaded guilty and agreed to a deal that helped him avoid prison
time and get away with a mere six months of probation and a $1,000 fine.
Being in an ultra-successful rock band seems like a lucrative gig, but nothing can save
you if you're bad at managing your money.
Vince Neil is one of the many celebrities who have been unable to hang on to their considerable
riches.
Perhaps his lowest financial point came in 2005, when he had to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy
after amassing a hefty $1.5 million in assorted debts.
Then again, some would say that the lowest point actually came five years later, when
the attorney who had taken care of said bankruptcy proceedings sued Neil because the singer had
failed to pay $16,000 in fees.
Though Motley Crue's reunion and career revival has seemed to keep the money coming in, Neil
still appears to have a habit of neglecting his legal bills.
In 2018, the singer's legal team threatened to drop him due to $190,000 of legal fees
that he reportedly refused to pay … despite the fact that the legal team was still representing
Neil in an ongoing assault case.
Members of Motley Crue have been known to lay their hands on the occasional lady, but
Vince Neil's hands may not always be intended for loving.
Although he has yet to face a charge that truly sticks, multiple lawsuits have alleged
that Neil is not above getting physical in a very wrong way.
In 2003, Neil faced charges for allegedly battering a prostitute at Nevada's famed legal
brothel, Moonlite Bunny Ranch.
Neil pleaded no contest to the ensuing misdemeanor battery charge and was ordered to pay a $1,000
fine and take anger management classes.
According to the civil lawsuit later filed by the woman, she told Neil he needed to pay
$4,000 to have sex with her and another Bunny Ranch worker.
Neil allegedly reacted by grabbing her by the neck, pushing her against a windowsill,
and then pulling her to the floor.
Whether Neil ever attended those anger management classes or not, it looks like their effects
may not have been all that lasting.
In a later incident in 2011, the singer's ex-girlfriend Alicia Jacobs filed a battery
charge against Neil after an alleged incident of domestic violence left her with visible
bruises.
Neil was charged with disorderly conduct and battery domestic violence, but ultimately
got the more serious domestic battery charge dropped after pleading guilty to disorderly
conduct, and coughing up another $1,000 fine.
VInce Neil doesn't talk about drugs as much as bandmate Nikki Sixx, but that doesn't mean
he's a lightweight.
Quite the opposite, in fact: Neil has said he was heavily into drugs before Motley Crue
even existed.
His early cocaine habit was reportedly so severe that when the band was playing club
gigs and taking its first baby steps, the rest of the Crue actually stepped in and forced
Neil to stop shooting so much coke.
You heard that right not snorting coke, but the much, much more dangerous method of injecting
the drug intravenously.
"Our road manager told our managers if you send these guys to Europe, one of them's going
to come back in a body bag."
Still, clean living was not the Motley Crue way.
Neil says he tried to straighten himself out a few times, but the rock band environment
was not exactly conducive to sobriety.
While the vocalist has always been critical of rehab programs, of which he has attended
many, he says he finally managed to kick drugs at the turn of the millennium.
The singer does have other vices, of course.
Neil hints in the interview that he might have a fairly unhealthy relationship with
gambling and says he has not given up drinking.
All in all, alcohol might be the vice he has the hardest time kicking.
Vince Neil has been described by The AV Club as "rock's most infamous drunk driver," and
with good reason.
His most famous and tragic drunk driving incident is the aforementioned 1984 crash that killed
Nicholas "Razzle" Dingley, but even that notorious episode did little to scare Neil straight.
He was arrested for drunk driving in 2007, when the Las Vegas police became suspicious
of the less-than-controlled maneuvers he was pulling in his Ferrari.
However, he managed to cut a deal with the prosecution and pleaded no contest to a reckless
driving charge to avoid the DUI.
Even that was not enough for Neil, and in 2010, he was once again arrested for the same
reason, in the same city, and this time with the added suspicion of breaking a fan's camera
before stepping behind the wheel.
In fact, just days earlier, he was promoting his autobiography and saying he had quit both
drugs and alcohol for good.
The singer couldn't avoid pleading guilty to a misdemeanor DUI, and was given two weeks
of jail time and two weeks of house arrest.
It should come as no surprise that Vince Neil has a sex tape out there.
Neil's foray into the amateur adult genre was actually a semi-pro effort, as it features
adult film star Janine Lindemulder as well as a woman called Brandy Sanders, who Neil
says was responsible for selling the video in 1999.
Evidently, her plan backfired quite badly.
According to Neil, Sanders eventually had to change her name multiple times to distance
herself from the tape.
Neil himself seems to have made his peace with the movie's existence.
His attitude is that since he can't really do anything about it, there's no point in
fighting it there was, quote, "a lot of wine" involved, and things went as they went.
However, he does admit that telling his wife about starring in a sex video was a, quote,
"tricky" conversation.
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Grunge videos about your favorite stuff are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.