When Mötley Crüe completed their Saints of Los Angeles tour and Crüe Fest 2 this summer, they turned their attention to their past, revamping their best-of collection for a fresh Greatest Hits, which hits stores today. On the road, the band paid tribute to one of their milestones — the 20th anniversary of 1989’s Dr. Feelgood — by playing the LP in its entirety. Vince Neil and Nikki Sixx were kind enough to take Rolling Stone through that album track by track earlier this year, and now Tommy Lee and Mick Mars weigh in on what made the record hit so hard.
Check out photos of the band kick-starting Crüe Fest 2.
Having guests like Steven Tyler, Skid Row and Cheap Trick’s Robin Zander in the studio made it a “classic album,” Mars says, and Lee discusses how the band, under pressure, made a pact to get sober and take the LP to the “next level.” “I can’t believe the four of us, in the state we were in, pulled it together like we were going to battle,” he says, recalling how the band left everything behind but motorcycles and equipment and moved to Vancouver to do the record with Bob Rock. “We built tunnels to send the sound out into these big loading bays, and miked that,” Lee recalls. Mars notes the ballad “Without You” features 79 tracks of guitar alone.
As for the epic power ballad “Home Sweet Home,” Mars remembers Lee “was goofing around on piano” when he came up with the song’s memorable lick — and that during recording, he accidentally wrecked his Les Paul and had to finish up with a Kramer Baretta. Lee says the song “really captured what it was like out on the road” and the video still stands up for him. “When MTV played music instead of all those Love thin...
Article Source: Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily