MÖTLEY CRÜE's Manager Says Fan 'Demand' Compelled Band To Scrap Contractual Agreement To Never Tour Again

Allen Kovac, who has been managing MÖTLEY CRÜE for 26 years, told Forbes in a new interview that a renewed interest in the band thanks to the success of the Netflix biopic "The Dirt" compelled the iconic rockers to scrap their contractual agreement to never tour again just four years after their farewell trek. The film was seen by "tens of millions of people," with streaming of the band's music increasing more than 350 percent, and the majority of its fanbase shifting from the 45- to 58-year-old demographic to 18 to 45.

"There's a demand that we could see from data and streaming, where the audience changed and the streaming went up 600% when the film was out and has stayed up 300%, and will stay there because their followers tripled," Kovac said. "And that's what you're aiming for. You're aiming for followers. Not quick playlisting or radio airplay."

Kovac also reflected on the success of "The Dirt", which remains one of the highest-rated music films as voted by the audience on Rotten Tomatoes, the online review aggregation service that allows both critics and the public to rate movies. Movie critics were less impressed by the film, which currently has a 39% critic score from 70 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.

"Each guy [in MÖTLEY CRÜE] agreed they wouldn't change anything," Allen told Forbes. "People could see behind the curtain of a band dynamic. The courage to sit there and show all the things that didn't go right, not just the things that went right — that's the difference between a major label band and an independent band. An independent band is about self-contained music and honesty. A manufactured artist is not self-contained. A manufactured artist isn't being honest. And audiences know those differentiations, especially over time."

MÖTLEY CRÜE will team up with DEF LEPPARD, POISON and JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS for "The Stadium Tour" next summer. The trek will kick off on June 21 in San Antonio, Texas and will include newly announced gigs in Kansas City, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Nashville, Cincinnati and Cleveland. The tour marks CRÜE's first live dates since wrapping its 2014/2015 farewell run. The band toured with POISON back in 2011 and DEF LEPPARD teamed up with POISON for a string of road dates in 2017 — but the upcoming jaunt marks the first time all four acts have hit the road together for an extended tour.

At a press conference in Hollywood announcing "The Stadium Tour", MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist Nikki Sixx explained the band's decision to return to the road: "Honestly, I don't think any of us thought, when we were on 'The Final Tour', we would ever get back together. We weren't really getting along at that point. We had been together 35 years, and it had been a lot of years on the road. I don't think we took a lot of time for ourselves off; we were just constantly touring for all that time. And when it came to the end, we broke the band up and everybody went their own ways."

Sixx continued: "It was during the making of 'The Dirt' movie, we started working on the script, started being on the set, we started hanging out again together. And I think we really started to realize — without even talking about the music — how much we missed each other. And then that got us to go in the recording studio, which is where the whole thing always starts for all of us."