VINCE NEIL: 'Everything That I've Done, There's Always Been Some Good Coming Out Of It'

Sonic Shocks conducted an interview with MÖTLEY CRÜE frontman Vince Neil when the band played the U.K. edition of the Sonisphere festival, which was held July 30 - August 1, 2010 at Knebworth Park. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Sonic Shocks: Both your new album and book are entitled "Tattoos & Tequila". Was that done to promote your tequila or the other way around?

Vince: (laughs) No, tattoos and tequilas is a way of life! I have lot of tattoos and own two tattoo parlours… It sounded like a good name, one that represents who I am, really.

Sonic Shocks: Let's talk about the album "Tattoos & Tequila", which is a cover album. How did you choose the artists to cover?

Vince: When you're driving your car you hear a song, and you remember what you were doing at that time. For me, each song has a specific memory attached to it, and I know exactly what I was doing in that part of my life. I wanted this record to be like a soundtrack of my life.

Sonic Shocks: Are they in chronological order?

Vince: No. (laughs) I never thought about that. It's like… "Another Piece Of Meat" from SCORPIONS, it brings me back to when Tommy [Lee] and I were 15 years old and would listen to that song over and over and over, driving around his van and trying to look for girls; "Nobody's Fault" by AEROSMITH, we were 15-17 then and going to the beach surfing every day and listen[ing] to the "Rocks" album.

Sonic Shocks: I really like "He's A Whore" from CHEAP TRICK.

Vince: I used to sing that song when I was 15 in a band called HARD CANDY, before MÖTLEY CRÜE, and when MÖTLEY CRÜE wanted to do a cover on the "Theatre Of Pain" album, I brought in two suggestions: one was "He's A Whore" and one was "Smokin' In The Boys Room". We tried them both, and obviously "Smoking In The Boys Room" made it on the record and became a hit, but it could have just as easily been "He's A Whore". I played it the other night in Vegas and Rick Nielsen came on stage to play guitar on it.

Sonic Shocks: When is the book coming out?

Vince: In September.

Sonic Shocks: It's your first personal autobiography; how does it compare to [MÖTLEY CRÜE's autobiography] "The Dirt"?

Vince: "The Dirt" was written by four guys; this is MY story. I touched a lot of things in "The Dirt", but I really didn't get into details; me growing up, my neighbourhood... I grew up in Compton and there were murders and such… It's the story of me growing up, getting into rock 'n' roll, the tragedies in my life, things in and out of MÖTLEY, and it's also ten years on so a lot of things happened since then. It's not only my perspective on my life, a lot of other people are in there: my mom and dad, ex-wives, managers, friends, band members from other bands…

Sonic Shocks: Reading your recent press releases, you come across as a grown up businessman, yet reports on your antics tell a different story. Do you have a double personality, someone looking after the business side of things for you or are you just throwing money down the drain?

Vince: I only choose businesses I have fun with. I have clubs playing live music and I can see new bands coming up, and bands like RATT and L.A. GUNS come to my club to play. And my place in Palm Beach is bars and dancing girls, I have tattoo parlors and I get my tattoos for free now. (laughs) I just opened a Mexican place in Vegas, a Mexican Cantina, because I love Mexican food…

Sonic Shocks: Writing your autobiography, you must have been looking back at your life quite a lot. If you could go back in time and do only one thing differently, which one would it be?

Vince: I don't know, because what I've done in my life, the mistakes that I've made, I learned from them, or tried to learn from them, and apply that to my life, so everything that I've done, there's always been some good coming out of it.

Sonic Shocks: So you wouldn't change anything?

Vince: No.

Read the entire interview from Sonic Shocks.