MÖTLEY CRÜE's 'The Dirt': Truth Or Fiction?

MÖTLEY CRÜE's acclaimed 2001 autobiography, "The Dirt: Confessions Of The World's Most Notorious Rock Band", has been widely hailed as perhaps the greatest rock 'n' roll bio of all time — a stunningly "honest" account that sees the four members of the group openly delving into the dirtiest, squishiest and most disgusting details of the MÖTLEY CRÜE story.

Not so, according to HANOI ROCKS guitarist Andy McCoy.

McCoy, whose former HANOI ROCKS bandmate Nicholas "Razzle" Dingley was killed in the infamous 1984 head-on crash in Redondo Beach, California as a passenger in a car driven by CRÜE frontman Vince Neil, says that at least one incident recounted in the book was greatly embellished and bears no resemblance to what truly happened.

On page 149 of "The Dirt", MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist Nikki Sixx describes a Valentine's Day night out on the town in London following the group's gig with CHEAP TRICK:

"I grabbed Andy from HANOI ROCKS [who was in attendance at the gig] after the show and we hopped into a black English taxi in search of heroin. With THE CLASH song 'White Man In Hammersmith Palais' ringing in my head, we finally found a dealer in a crumbling row of tenement houses nearby.

" 'This stuff is pretty strong,' the dealer smiled at me through large, rotting teeth.

" 'I'm cool,' I told him. 'I'm an old pro.'

" 'You look pretty fucked up, brother,' he told me. 'Do you want me to do this for you?'

" 'Yeah, that would be great.'

"He rolled up my sleeve and looped a rubbed medical tie around my upper arm. I held it taut while he filled the plunger and sunk the needle into my arm. The heroin raced through my veins and, as soon as it exploded in my heart, I realized that I'd fucked up. I never should have let someone else shoot me up. This was it: I was checking out. And I wasn't ready. I still had things to do, though I couldn't remember what exactly. Oh well. Fuck.

"I coughed, I gagged, I coughed again. I awoke, and the room looked upside down. I was on the shoulder of the dealer, who was carrying my out the door like an old trash bag. I gagged again, and vomit came pouring out of my mouth. He dropped me to the floor. My body had turned blue, there was ice down my pants from Andy trying to wake me up, and I had large welts all over my arms and chest from being struck with a baseball bat. That was the dealer's idea: He thought he could put me in so much pain that my system would shock itself back into action. When that tactic failed, he had evidently decided to throw me in the Dumpster behind his tenement and leave me for dead. But then I vomited on his shoes. I was alive. I considered that my second valentine of the night." [end]

"That's not true, no fucking way," McCoy stated about Sixx's version of events. "I was doing heroin at that time, but I remember what really happened that night. Nikki overdosed and then we saved his life. Me and this other guy — he wasn't a drug dealer, he was a heroin addict too — took Sixx to his hotel and took care of him. And now I read from their book that we were beating him up and threw him into the garbage can?! I was like, 'What kind of shit is this?' "

When asked if he has read the book, Andy said, "I have read some parts of it. An American fan sent it to me and she underlined all the parts where we [HANOI ROCKS] are mentioned in the book.

"I just don't understand why they [MÖTLEY CRÜE] would go through the trouble of making up these kinds of untrue stories," McCoy added. "Has Nikki really forgotten what really happened in London or what is going on? I guess this story should tell you something about the book as a whole. I mean, some things have obviously been greatly exaggerated…"

MÖTLEY CRÜE recently announced plans to turn "The Dirt" into a Hollywood movie. The band have signed a deal with Paramount Pictures and MTV Films, and have tapped Rich Wilkes ("XXX") to write the script. A director for the project has yet to be selected.

(Thanks: Timo Isoaho / Sonera Plaza Kaista)