MÖTLEY CRÜE Signs 'Mega-Deal' With LIVE NATION

Robin Leach reports on his blog "Vegas Luxe Life with Robin Leach" that MÖTLEY CRÜE — Vince Neil, Tommy Lee, Nikki Sixx and Mick Mars — signed a $100-million-plus mega-deal last week to produce three albums and perform three world tours for the giant Live Nation entertainment conglomerate.

"We'll actually have been together for 37 years by the time it comes to an end," Vince told Leach.

Vince, who will go off next month on a solo tour of Canada, said that the first of the three long world tours starts this July. The new contract runs for the next 10 years and includes 169 concert dates on the first global journey.

CRÜE is well into the creation of its new studio album, which will be titled "The Dirt" and based on the band's 2001 memoir of the same name. Bassist Nikki Sixx wrote in a new online update, "10 songs done for the new CRÜE album so far, I'm very proud of the songs. I think we're onto some of the better songs we've had in years...Time will tell, of course. A couple of song titles on the CRÜE album are called 'A Scar On Hollywood Boulevard' and 'The Saints Of Los Angeles'... The chemistry in the studio as we're writing is unbelievable."

Nikki Sixx will be featured on a new Fuse TV program called "Live through This" which documents music stars that have made a comeback. The show will air on Thursday, February 21 at 10 p.m.

The Pulse of Radio reported last month that the rumored tour by Sixx's other band, SIXX: A.M., is starting to take shape. The MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist and his new act will likely hit the road in late April and early May for a run through 10 or 12 major U.S. markets. No word yet on exact dates or venues.

Sixx wrote and recorded the album with longtime friends James Michael and D.J. Ashba and has resisted the idea of turning the project into an actual band. But Sixx told The Pulse of Radio that may all be changing. "It seems that people have been able to really feel that it's a band, they really feel that it's something that they can get behind and they can go, 'You know, I really support these guys in what they're doing,'" he said. "It's interesting 'cause we never planned on playing live together, and then we played live together, and that went off so well that I think we accidentally started a band."

Rumors initially surfaced that SIXX: A.M. would tour in February, although Sixx shot down those reports. The project has only played live once so far, last fall at a Utah radio festival.

The SIXX: A.M. album serves as the "soundtrack" to Sixx's recently published book, "The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star".

Twenty-five percent of Sixx's royalties from "The Heroin Diaries" goes to Running Wild In The Night, a charity he established in conjunction with Covenant House to rescue homeless and runaway youth from the streets.