Vince Neil

Vince Neil
Vince Neil live at Wacken Open Air (2018)
General information
Genre (s)	skirt
founding	1992
Current occupation
singing	Vince Neil
guitar	Jeff Blando
Electric bass	Dana Strum
Drums	Zoltan Chaney
former members
Drums	Vik Foxx (1992-1997)
guitar	Steve Stevens (1992-1993)
guitar	Dave Marshall (1992-1993)
guitar	Brent Woods (1995-1997)
bass	Robbie Crane (1992-1997)

Vince Neil (* 8. February 1961 in Hollywood , Los Angeles , California ; actually Vincent Neil Wharton ) is an American musician and singer of the glam metal band Motley Crue .

youth

Vince Neil was born to Clois Odell Wharton, called Odie, and Shirley Wharton, nee Ortiz. His father was of half Native American descent from Paris , Texas, and was a police car mechanic. His mother was of Mexican roots and was from New Mexico . His sister, Valerie Wharton Saucer, is sixteen months younger than him. During the 1960s, his family moved across southern California from Inglewood to Watts before settling permanently in Glendora. When the family lived in the Compton area for some time , Vince Neil had the two rival street gangs Crips and AC Deuceys as neighbors. Neil was robbed of his pocket money by four gang members when one of the gang members slit his cheek and chin with a knife. Neil attended Sunflower Intermediate School, later the Royal Oak High School, where he first met Tommy Lee . Neil got into trouble due to various clashes and substance abuse on school grounds and was eventually expelled from school. In addition to music, he was interested in surfing , basketball , baseball , football and wrestling in his youth .

Vince Neil is dyslexic . After Vince Neil went secretly into a warehouse for beach souvenirs as a schoolboy in Compton that afternoon with four friends and stole backpacks full of items such as seashells and coral necklaces, he sold the stolen items on the street. With the money, Neil bought his first music cassette, the 1969 album Cloud Nine by the soul band The Temptations . In this way, the youngster discovered soul music for himself and became a fan of Al Green , The Spinners and The Four Tops . Such artists, rooted in gospel , were popular ghetto music in the settlement Neil had to grow up in . Neil also made some money by selling torn-out pages from a paperback book of pornographic photos he accidentally found on the street in the schoolyard for 25 cents each, until Neil was suspended from school for a few days.

Bands

Rockandi

Neil gained his first experience as a singer in a local band called Rockandi, which was founded by James Alverson (guitar) and which included Neil as well as drummer Robert Stokes and bassist Joe Marks. The idiosyncratic spelling of the band's name was deliberately chosen. When Rockandi appeared, Neil was hired by Tommy Lee and Nikki Sixx for Mötley Crüe.

Mötley Crüe

When Nikki Sixx was looking for a replacement for the dropped singer Greg Leon in 1980 for his band Mötley Crüe, to which Mick Mars and Tommy Lee belonged at the time, Lee made him aware of Neil. They went to see a Rockandi concert and offered Neil the job. He initially refused, but changed his mind when the other members of Rockandi decided to orient themselves more towards New Wave in the future . He joined Mötley Crüe in 1981 and completed the quartet.

Before starting his solo career, Neil recorded five albums with Mötley Crüe, namely Too Fast for Love (1981), Shout at the Devil (1983), Theater of Pain (1985), Girls, Girls, Girls (1987) and Dr . Feelgood (1989).

In December 1984 members of the band Hanoi Rocks visited him at his home in Los Angeles during their tour of the USA. When the beer ran out, he drove with Razzle (bourgeois Nicholas Charles Dingley), the drummer of Hanoi Rocks, heavily drunk with 1.7 per mille in his bright red Ford Pantera sports car to a liquor store. On the way back, Neil as a driver collided with an oncoming car in a hilly neighborhood on a wet and winding coastal road. Razzle was killed instantly. Neil escaped and was charged with negligent homicide. He had to pay $ 2.6 million in damages to the victims and was sentenced to 30 days and 200 hours of community service. To do community hours, Vince Neil attended several schools and lectured on the dangers of alcohol and drugs. In prison, which began immediately after the tour of the Mötley Crüe album Theater of Pain and which Vince Neil started in a prison in the Californian city of Torrance , the rock musician had to serve food in the cell, clean cells and clean them for other inmates Wash the police car. Because of good conduct, Neil was allowed to leave the prison after 19 days.

During a Japan tour with Mötley Crüe in the course of the release of the album Girls, Girls, Girls 1987, in which the quartet performed three times in the Budokan , Vince Neil got into an argument with four members of the Yakuza in a Roppongi restaurant in the capital Tokyo . when Neil, completely drunk, grabbed the table with both hands and knocked it over, whereupon the yakuza men threatened him with drawn pistols. Neil later took the girlfriend of a Yakuza member to his room for sex, and in revenge, the Yakuza gang stole an expensive Rolex watch .

After the band released the greatest hits album Decade of Decadence in 1991 , they went back to the studio to find the successor to Dr. To bring in Feelgood . Quarrels arose during the sessions for this album and Neil left the group, he was replaced by John Corabi . As a result of the separation, he sued his three former bandmates for 25 percent of their future income and for damages. Neil returned to the Crüe after the temporary end of his solo career in 1997 as a singer on a contract basis, but continues to receive a quarter of all revenues.

In the biopic The Dirt - You Wanted Sex, Drugs & Rock'n'Roll (2019) about Mötley Crüe, he is played by Daniel Webber .

Solo career

Because the other band members no longer tolerated Neil's activities outside the group, he was fired. After his release from Mötley Crüe, he started a solo career. The biggest coup in putting his band together was the engagement of Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens ; other members of the group were Dave Marshall, Robbie Crane and Vik Foxx.

Vince Neil (2005)

In 1992 the soundtrack for the film Encino Man (German title: Steinzeit Junior ) was released, on which the title You're Invited (But Your Friend Can't Come) was included, which was written by Vince Neil, Jack Blades and Tommy Shaw . On April 27, 1993, Warner Brothers Records released the album Exposed , which debuted at number 13 on the Billboard 200 and stayed in the US charts for 13 weeks. In Germany it was only 96th place. The tracks Sister of Pain and Can't Change Me were released as singles , and the album also contained the sweet cover set Me Free . On the Maxi-CD at Sister of Pain also one was cover version of Rod Stewart -Songs Blondes Have More Fun as well be I Wanna Sedated ( Ramones ) published. The band toured the United States as opening act for Van Halen .

The second solo work, Carved in Stone , which appeared on August 4, 1995, was not so successful. Stevens had left the band and was replaced by Brent Woods, Vince Neil had produced the album together with The Dust Brothers and brought it in a different direction: Industrial sounds dominated the CD, the album hardly received any positive reviews. Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote: Neil is experimenting with hip-hop and industrial and has delivered an album that neither an imaginary new audience nor its old fans will like. The album has its moments, whenever Neil sticks to his tried and tested three-chord sleaze metal. On the whole, the album is a letdown. The German edition of Carved in Stone contained two cover versions, namely Lust for Life by Iggy Pop and 25 or 6 to 4 by the group Chicago .

Carved in Stone debuted at number 139 on the Billboard 200 and immediately disappeared from the charts the following week. Neil's career as a solo artist then slowly but surely fizzled out, and in 1997 he returned to Mötley Crüe.

On May 27, 2003, after a club tour, the live album Live at the Whiskey - One Night Only was released , but it only contains songs by Mötley Crüe.

In 2010, Neil went back to the studio to record a solo CD. Tattoos & Tequila almost exclusively contains cover versions, u. a. by Elton John ( Bitch Is Back ), the Scorpions ( Another Piece of Meat ), Cheap Trick ( He's a Whore ) or Aerosmith ( Nobody's Fault ), as well as a previously unreleased piece by Mötley Crüe: Another Bad Day , which was featured in the sessions for Album New Tattoo (2000) remained. Only Tattoos And Tequila is a Neil original. Neil's band consists of bassist Dana Strum, guitarist Jeff Blando (both from the band Slaughter ), and drummer Zoltan Chaney. Marti Frederiksen and Jack Blades also worked as musicians and producers on the album. Tattoos & Tequila rose to number 57 on the Billboard 200 a week after its release in the United States on June 30, 2010, and in the first week the album also reached the following positions in other US charts: number 14 in the rock charts, number 6 in the hard rock Charts and number 7 in the independent charts.

Other activities

In addition to his activities with Mötley Crüe, Neil was always active outside the band. In 1986 he took part in Ronnie James Dio 's Hear'n Aid project and played the single Stars as a background singer. In 1990 he played the musician Bobby Black in the film The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (German title: Die Abenteuer des Ford Fairlane - Rock'N Roll Detective ). The film was released on DVD in Germany, but has not been approved for young people. In 2004 Neil played a tattoo artist in an episode of the US TV series Still Standing, and most recently he starred in the series Bones - the bone hunter (episode: The Beginning of the End ) with and played himself.

In 2005, VH-1 produced the reality show Remaking Vince Neil . a. underwent cosmetic surgery. Starting from his obesity at the time, he was trained with the help of a personal trainer, received fashion tips, a new hairstyle and finally recorded a new song with the help of Desmond Child . Promise Me , the result of the collaboration with the producer who produced the big hits by Bon Jovi , Alice Cooper and other greats in rock, was only released on iTunes and only in the US and was also only available for a short time.

In the 1990s, Neil was active as a racing driver in the Indy Lights series. He reported that he had received a ride in a racing car as a gift and that he enjoyed it so much that he regularly bought hours afterwards to be able to race. He later ended up as a licensed driver in the racing series and often took part in celebrity races.

Neil is the founder of the Skylar Neil Foundation, a foundation dedicated to the fight against childhood cancer. Neil founded it in 1995 after his daughter Skylar died from cancer. Well known is the annual Skylar Neil Memorial Golf Tournament, to which Neil invites many celebrities and thus collects donations for the foundation.

He currently owns a small charter airline (Vince Neil Aviation), runs a tattoo parlor in Las Vegas and runs Feelgoods Bar and Grill (6750 West Sahara, Las Vegas) which takes its name from Mötley Crüe's ( Dr. Feelgood ). He also sells Tres Rios Tequila. On September 16, 2010, Neil's autobiography titled Tattoos & Tequila - To Hell and Back with One of Rock's Most Notorious Frontmen , which he wrote with journalist Mike Sager, was published.

On June 27, 2010, Neil was arrested in Las Vegas on suspicion of driving under the influence of intoxicating substances ( DUI ) and released on $ 2,000 bail. On 26 January 2011 he became a 15-day jail sentence followed by equally long house arrest and an additional fine in the amount of 585 US dollars condemned after he had pleaded guilty. The place of detention was the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas; Neil was released into house arrest after ten days for good conduct.

family

Live with Mötley Crüe (2007)

Vince Neil has a son with one of his ex-girlfriends, Neil Jason Wharton, who was born on October 3, 1978 when Vince Neil was just 17 years old and still in high school. In 1981 Neil married for the first time, namely Beth Lynn, with whom he has a daughter (Elizabeth Ashley, born October 29, 1983) and from whom he was divorced in 1985.

He and his second wife, Sharise Ruddell, married in April 1987, had a daughter, Skylar Lynnae Neil, who was born on March 26, 1991. Neil divorced Sharise Ruddell in 1993, and her daughter died on August 15, 1995 of so-called Wilms' tumor , a kidney cancer that occurs in children. In the Mötley Crüe autobiography The Dirt , published in 2002 by Hannibal Verlag in German, Vince Neil describes the suffering and death of his daughter Skylar, who had to remove a six and a half pound tumor in several operations, in detail on twelve pages, in addition to two black and white white photos of his child. In addition, daughter Skylar's hospital stay is a scenic part of the film adaptation of the book The Dirt . After the death of his daughter, Vince Neil's drunkenness flared up again, combined with drug abuse, which is why he was first admitted to the Betty Ford Clinic , which he left after only three days for grief therapy at the Anacapa Clinic in Oxnard do.

In the same year, Neil met the playmate Heidi Mark, the wedding followed on May 28, 2000. In August 2001, she filed for divorce due to "irreconcilable differences", which was carried out in 2003.

Neil has been married to his fourth wife, Lia Gerardini, since January 9, 2005; the couple live in Las Vegas.

Solo discography

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Exposed   DE 96 07/05/1993 (3 weeks)   CH 29 05/23/1993 (3 weeks)   UK 44 05/08/1993 (1 week)   US 13 05/15/1993 (13 weeks) Carved in stone   US 139 09/30/1995 (1 week) Tattoos & Tequila   US 57 07/10/2010 (1 week)

Singles

You're invited   UK 63 10/03/1992 (1 week)

Studio albums

• 1993: Exposed ; Warner Bros. Records, 9362-45260-2
• 1995: Carved in Stone ; Warner Bros. Records, 9362-45877-2
• 2010: Tattoos & Tequila ; Frontiers Records, FR CD 463

Live albums

• 2003: Live One Night Only

Singles

• 1992: You're Invited (But Your Friend Can't Come)
• 1993: Sister of Pain
• 1993: Can't Change Me
• 1995: Skylar's Song
• 2005: Promise Me (USA only)
• 2010: Tattoos & Tequila

Film and TV

• 1990: The Adventures of the Ford Fairlane - Rock'N Roll Detective ; DVD: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2003; (F2-SDE 0184008), FSK: No youth approval
• 2004: Still Standing (US TV)
• 2009: Bones (episode The Beginning of the End )

literature

• The Dirt - Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band ; Harpercollins Publishers, Inc., 2001, ISBN 0-06-039288-6 .
• Vince Neil and with Mike Sager: Tattoos & Tequila - My way to hell and back with Mötley Crüe . Hannibal Verlag, Höfen 2011, ISBN 978-3-85445-335-2 (Original edition: Tattoos And Tequila ).

swell

1. ^ Mötley Crüe : The Dirt . Autobiography of the glam metal band Mötley Crüe, co-authored with Neil Strauss , from the American by Kirsten Borchardt , Hannibal Verlag , Höfen , 2nd edition, 2002. p. 312
2. ↑ Tattoos & Tequila ; Orionbooks, 2010
3. ^ Mötley Crüe : The Dirt . Autobiography of the glam metal band Mötley Crüe, co-authored with Neil Strauss , from the American by Kirsten Borchardt , Hannibal Verlag , Höfen , 2nd edition, 2002. p. 312
4. ^ The Dirt - Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band ; Harpercollins Publishers, Inc., 2001
5. ^ Mötley Crüe : The Dirt . Autobiography of the glam metal band Mötley Crüe, co-authored with Neil Strauss , from the American by Kirsten Borchardt , Hannibal Verlag , Höfen , 2nd edition, 2002. p. 314
6. ^ Mötley Crüe : The Dirt . Autobiography of the glam metal band Mötley Crüe, co-authored with Neil Strauss , from the American by Kirsten Borchardt , Hannibal Verlag , Höfen , 2nd edition, 2002. p. 314
7. ^ Vince Neil: Tattoos and Tequila ; Orion Books, 2010, ISBN 978-1-4091-0479-7
8. ^ The Dirt - Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band ; Harpercollins Publishers, Inc., 2001
9. ^ Mötley Crüe : The Dirt . Autobiography of the glam metal band Mötley Crüe written with co-author Neil Strauss , from the American by Kirsten Borchardt , Hannibal Verlag , Höfen , 2nd edition, 2002. pp. 142 ff. + 146 f. + 164
10. ^ Mötley Crüe : The Dirt . Autobiography of the glam metal band Mötley Crüe, co-authored with Neil Strauss , from the American by Kirsten Borchardt , Hannibal Verlag , Höfen , 2nd edition, 2002. P. 170 f.
11. ^ Mötley Crüe : The Dirt . Autobiography of the glam metal band Mötley Crüe, co-authored with Neil Strauss , from the American by Kirsten Borchardt , Hannibal Verlag , Höfen , 2nd edition, 2002. P. 219 f. + 231
12. ↑ https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mn0000500992 Band biography on allmusic .com
13. ^ Mötley Crüe : The Dirt . Autobiography of the glam metal band Mötley Crüe, co-authored with Neil Strauss , from the American by Kirsten Borchardt , Hannibal Verlag , Höfen , 2nd edition, 2002. p. 295
14. ↑ Tattoos & Tequila ; Orionbooks, 2010
15. ^ Billboard Chart History
16. ↑ Charts at musicline.de ( Memento of the original from March 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
17. ↑ Review on allmusic.com
18. ^ Billboard Chart History
19. ↑ Chart history on Billboard.com
20. ↑ Interview for myride.com (English)
21. ^ Website of the Vince Neil Aviation Co.
22. ↑ Vince Neil Ink website
23. ↑ Feelgood’s website ( memento of the original from June 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
24. ^ Website Tres Rios
25. ^ Motley Crue's Vince Neil Jailed 15 Days For Drunk Driving; sleazeroxx.com
26. ^ Mötley Crüe : The Dirt . Autobiography of the glam metal band Mötley Crüe, co-authored with Neil Strauss , from the American by Kirsten Borchardt , Hannibal Verlag , Höfen , 2nd edition, 2002. p. 317. On page 303 is a black and white photo of rock singers together Vince Neil with his son Neil.
27. ^ Mötley Crüe : The Dirt . Autobiography of the glam metal band Mötley Crüe, co-authored with Neil Strauss , from the American by Kirsten Borchardt , Hannibal Verlag , Höfen , 2nd edition, 2002. pp. 321–332
28. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: DE CH UK US

Web links

Commons : Vince Neil  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• vinceneil.net (official site)
• Skylar Neil Foundation website
• Vince Neil in the Internet Movie Database (English)