In a recent episode of the Thinking About Guitar podcast the guest was John 5, formerly with Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie, among others, and now playing Mick’s parts in Motley Crue.
He was asked about the rumors that some members of Motley Crue are using backing tracks and not playing their instruments live, and I can prove he’s telling the truth.
That podcast interview is posted below but here’s the main quote from John 5 about it:
“I’m so glad you brought that up, and people don’t wanna talk about it, but I’m so glad you brought it up. There was this talk that was going on for so long, like, ‘Oh, this person’s not playing live,’ or, ‘That person’s not playing live.’ Everything — Nikki is playing every note up there, but it’s so funny that people don’t wanna accept that.
They’ll be, like, ‘Oh, his hands aren’t even on the bass,’ and it’ll be up in the air. But it’s, like, he’s fretting a note, or it’s he’ll have this arm up, but he’s picking with this hand. But people don’t understand that. Nikki plays every single note on that stage. He messes up. You can hear mistakes. Tommy plays everything. I play everything. Vince is singing..."
That last line is how you know he’s being honest about the band actually playing their instruments live. If you’ve ever heard Motley Crue in concert, then you know that Vince Neil sounds horrible live. He barely sings, and can only remember 1/4 of the words to HIS OWN SONGS!
There’s NO WAY anybody would be using a backing track and use something that sounds that craptacular. And if the band were going to use backing tracks they would 100% start with using one for Vince before they’d ever use one for Nikki’s bass, which as all musicians know is the “easy” instrument to play in a band. (j/k bass players, bass is awesome)
So there you have it. Vince Neil’s awful singing is proof that Motley Crue are playing live, no matter how bad one of them sounds.