Last month Motley Crue announced plans for a 72-show final tour in North America with overseas dates to follow in 2015. But the rock veterans will not be hitting the road with any new songs with Nikki Sixx casting doubt on the worth of any band in their position making an album in todays climate, citing the difficulty of getting radio play as the main barrier preventing bands reaching an audience.
Nikki Sixx tells Classic Rock in an interview printed in full next issue, “We’ve written some songs. But this is difficult to say and probably harder to hear: when you spend nine months working on an album, all the work that goes into it and recording it, mixing it, mastering it, then you release it and it falls on deaf ears. Radio is so fuckin’ formatted, if you don’t have a banjo and a beard they’re not playing you over here. If you’re this kind of band at this stage of your career you can’t be played on Active Rock; if you’ve been around for more than fifteen years you’re classic rock, but classic rock radio doesn’t play new music. You just think, “Fuck, man, this sucks. I have the belief that I would rather have less music reach more people through different opportunities, whether it be through movies, through sponsorships or co-sponsorships through integrated marketing with other types of companies that want to use your song specifically to reach tens of millions of people. I’d rather work on two songs under that plan than do eleven songs that only reach 100,000 people.”
Mick Mars echoed Sixx’s sentiments to Artisan News stating, “I don’t know … maybe I’m retarded or something, but I like to put a lot of effort into this last, farewell tour…”
Watch Artisan News‘ interview with Mick Mars and Tommy Lee below.
source: classicrockmagazine.com
34 Responses
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I tend to agree only if the music is good. Good rock should be on the radio no matter what band puts it out. The problem is some bands don’t realize their new offerings aren’t great. With that said, I am sure radio is prejudice against certain bands without even listening to the music. TMS needs to ask Mick about this in March.
i totally agree with nikki here in my town they are considered classic rock they may have played saints of l.a. a half of dozen times but thats it ,but if they are lynyrd skynyrd ,ac dc ,or bob serger new crap gets played and i’m like what the crap is up with that
I can find a little fault with some of XM-SIRIUS’ programming….BUT…..”terrestrial” radio is dead because ALL of its programming is crap!! Honestly, I don’t know how some radio station PD’s cannot avoid the temptation to put a gun to their head given the crap they are forced to play and how some “classic rock” stations are a joke. When you factor in that many American “music lovers” have the attention span of a gnat and refuse to listen to their “favorite” artist more than just a few tracks or for more than a few weeks instead of sticking with them…it’s no wonder the decay of terrestrial radio is only part of a larger disease. I don’t blame any band for simply giving up and simply going around radio and concentrating on touring or getting their music out through other outlets. One last thing: I hate it when I hear “oh, they are big in Japan…or Europe…etc.” Many “music lovers” could learn a lot from foreign music fans.
Go out on top. I vote NO for a new album.