PHIL SOUSSAN Says STEVE STEVENS Turned Out To Be 'A Bit Of A Snake In The Grass' During Making Of VINCE NEIL's 'Exposed' Album

During a brand new interview with Love Is Pop, former OZZY OSBOURNE and current LAST IN LINE bassist Phil Soussan talked about his contributions to Vince Neil's debut solo album, 1993's "Exposed". Despite the fact that he co-wrote five of the 11 songs on the MÖTLEY CRÜE singer's disc, Soussan isn't credited with having played on the record.

Claiming that he laid down "some" the bass tracks that ended up on "Exposed", Soussan said that the story of his involvement with the LP "was an unfortunate one. I had put the whole project together with Vince and we started writing songs and many of those songs were songs that were leftover that I had been writing for Ozzy," he said. "When I left Ozzy, I took those songs with me. That's why a lot of that material comes in. So, when you listen to 'The Edge', it's 'S.A.T.O.', when you listen to 'The Look In Her Eyes', it's like 'Bark At The Moon'. Equivalent tracks. And you can hear that. The unfortunate thing is Steve Stevens [Neil's guitarist for the album], who turned out to be, you know, a bit of a snake in the grass. I don't know what his personal issues were, but he walked into the project and once he got in there, he basically had expressed his frustration. He was planning on writing all the songs and playing bass on the record and doing all these things. And I said, 'No, that's not how it's gonna work. It's gonna work as a band.' He said, 'Well, that's how I do it with Billy Idol.' I said, 'Okay, that's Billy Idol. That's not Vince Neil.' And then he started a process of manipulation. Not a pleasant guy. I don't know to this day why he did that. I sort of backed out."

He continued: "At a certain point, it looked like it was going to be very challenging going forward. We had so many problems. The manager had just passed away — Bruce Bird. He was keeping Vince and everybody together, and at that point, it started becoming a mess, and I backed out. And that would've been the end of it. Then one day my business manager called me up and said, 'Oh, you need to know that Steve Stevens has not only put his name on some of your songs, but he's cut you out.' I said, 'That's it,' and I served an injunction on Warner Brothers. He had no evidence to support his claim. We had everything. We had all the demos. We had all the lyrics. We had tapes that were recorded that were pre-dated Steve being in the band. He had no way of substantiating this. At the end of the day, that's how it worked out. But, unfortunately, if you look on the credits on the album, his name is on a bunch of songs even though he did not participate. There's nothing I can do about that."

Soussan added: "It's sad when you meet somebody who's kind of a jerk and that's kind of how he was. Nothing against Vince. I still see Vince all the time. And the guys in the band as well. Robbie [Crane]. I love Robbie, who was originally playing guitar in the band [before switching to bass]."

Neil recruited Stevens, Crane and rhythm guitarist Dave Marshall for the "Exposed" tour, which saw Neil opening for VAN HALEN.

A critically acclaimed effort, "Exposed" peaked at No. 13 on the U.S. album chart and failed to earn gold certification.

Stevens told Metal Babe in a 2015 interview that the experience of making "Exposed" and touring behind it was "crazy." He explained: "I was living in New York at the time, and I had never really worked with an artist from Los Angeles, especially one that came from the L.A. Sunset Strip music scene. Vince was everything that you'd thought he'd be. We had a really good team. Ron Nevison produced the record, who was one of the great '80s and '90s record producers. He did all those HEART records. So doing the album was a real change for me, because with Billy Idol, it's all about playing economically and supporting the vocal and guitar solos if they're needed, but not every song has a solo, and it's not all about playing really fast or showing off. I remember when we were starting to put together the songs for the record, Vince would say, 'Make the solo twice as long, and play faster.' It was nice to be given this platform for the heavier side of my guitar playing. I think the guitar sound on that record is really good, and I'm really proud of that record. It was a great experience. We knew that before we finished the record that we'd be going out to support VAN HALEN, and Eddie's a friend of mine, so that part of the touring was just fantastic. It was a real challenge to play in front of a VAN HALEN audience, you know, because if you sucked, they're gonna let you know."

Neil eventually rejoined MÖTLEY CRÜE in 1997.