According to Mötley Crüe’s manager, Allen Kovac, he says that reason the band has decided to reunite, and rescind their agreement to never tour again, was a renewed interest in the band thanks to the success of the Netflix biopic The Dirt.
“The most relevant statement is that global film, with a global internet and global streaming, is the future,” Kovac told Fox Business. “When I go to Amazon, I can see a Mötley Crüe book, I can see a Mötley Crüe documentary, I can see a Mötley Crüe live show, I can see the fact that they got a film, they got CDs out and they got streaming and they’re selling merchandise. So to me, managers and artists should move into 2020 and out of 1999, and so should record companies. You can’t make music in quarters. You can’t develop an artist in a quarter. It takes a couple of years, sometimes a lot more.”
Kovac also addressed the criticisms of singer Vince Neil for his reported diminished singing ability and weight gain. He also discussed the health status of guitarist Mick Mars, who has been dealing with a chronic form of arthritis that led him to undergo a hip replacement.
“They’ve never canceled a show. If you’ve never canceled a show, you have a Triple A insurance rating.
Some of [the band members] are working with a trainer, some of them are working with a nutritionist to make themselves the best they can be,” Kovac continued to explain to Fox Business. “The greatest insecurity for an artist is: Is anyone going to care about my music? Is anyone going to buy a ticket? We were in November when the discussions were happening, and these guys were already into regimens of how they get ready for a tour.”
Speaking specifically about Neil, Kovac stated, “Let’s see what Vince sings like and looks like when the tour goes out.”
[When it comes to business decisions] the smartest move for Motley Crue might have been foregoing a jaw-dropping sum to own the masters to its catalog – a hot-button issue now as pop star Taylor Swift feuds publicly with her record label.
“When you look at Motley Crue, they’re one of a unique set of artists that own their own masters,” Kovac says. “They decided they would agree with me as opposed to their lawyers and business managers and pay their former record label back $10 million of the $12 million they were owed so they can own their masters and use their masters with books, tickets and films to broaden their base globally. It takes courage to give up eight-figures. It takes courage to try new things.
Taylor Swift is very upset she doesn’t own her masters… Did she buy those masters? No. ‘I’m Taylor Swift and I deserve my masters,’ and the media is not really covering that. She’s also selling a lot of music because she’s talking about a business deal. Her audience doesn’t want to hear about a very rich and successful artist upset that she doesn’t own her copyrights. That should have been a business transaction. Either her advisers gave her bad advice or she didn’t listen…”
As previously reported, Mötley Crüe will be joined on tour by Def Leppard, Poison and Joan Jett and The Blackhearts. When the summer dates were announced, a third of them sold out, and six more shows will be announced soon, possibly next week, Kovac says.
Read more at Fox Business.
source: foxbusiness.com
14 Responses
Insert “eye roll” here please.
Thanks
Who the hell is Tyler Swift? Sounds like she needs a good Swift kick in the ass! Nevermind. Anyway, onto real musicians, I really hope the Crue (especially Vince) get their asses in shape for the stadium tour coming up in the summer! F–k retiring! Just keep going and “ROCK ROCK (TILL YOU DROP)!!” Oh yeah, and “Ride With The Devil” on the “Wild Side!” And when all else fails, “Kickstart My Heart!!”
I sure do hope they listen to their trainers and nutritionists. now is not the time to be stubborn, gentlemen. It’s not just about this Stadium Tour but in living healthier lives. Vince, listen up!
Taylor Swift is an amazing American songwriter (not so great a vocalist), and her first two albums are legit. She is in a situation like many young artists who sign a deal at a very young age without knowing the complexities of it. Now she’s using social media to complain and bludgeon the label that owns her masters. She’s just not as savvy as Nikki Sixx.
As for the diet and trainers… one word – KETO. If Vince can cease with the alcohol, Keto is the easiest and healthiest diet to be on. It’s a great lifestyle change, but Vince has no personal discipline so I don’t anticipate he’ll last long on any diet or training regime. Could you imagine Vince and the rest of the Crue doing a Peloton ad!?
Please forgive me if my sympathy for Ms. Swift is zero to none.
She came from an affluent background in Pennsylvania. Her father was a successful stock broker for Merrill Lynch, and her mother, had worked as a mutual fund marketing executive. This is someone who came from a family that is not only shrewd in business, but highly intellectual.
Swift is a very smart businesswoman, that is how she was able to market her own marginal talent into that of superstar status, equivalent to those with real singing talent, like Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood. She is not the wounded doe you perceive her to be, and even on the off chance she was mislead by Scooter Braun, she has very sharp parents who could have hired the proper attorneys to make sure her interests were protected. Again, she came from a wealthy home to begin with, it’s not like she was ever a struggling, and starving, musician who was clearly taken advantage of, while being desperate for money. Again, she gets little to no sympathy from me.
As for the Crüe, it was their manager who advised them to keep their catalog. I am not discounting Sixx’s intelligence, but being that most of the time his mental acuity was compromised by pharmaceuticals, I tend to believe Kovak, when he says it was he, who insisted they not sell their masters.
Finally, I was fortunate enough to meet Bret Michaels’ up at Eddie’s old Sirius/XM show (when he used to broadcast from Opie and Anthony’s old studio on 57th Street) and he discussed this very issue. He said, the only reason the band still owed their masters (despite being poor and starving at the time) was because he insisted they never sold them, no matter how desperate they got for money. Talk about being business savvy, Michaels is a very sharp cookie. No wonder he won the Celebrity Apprentice. I think people underestimate his intelligence.
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