LOS ANGELES — “All bad things must come to an end.” That’s how Motley Crue broke the news it was calling it quits.The influential, and infamous, L.A. rock band turned Beacher’s Madhouse in Hollywood into a circus Tuesday morning as more than 100 media outlets packed the hot spot to hear the band’s announcement of a 72-date farewell tour.
After more than three decades together, Vince Neil, Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee and Mick Mars unveiled plans for a last hurrah. They even sat behind tombstone markers for an additional morbid flourish.
The Final Tour, as it’s aptly titled, kicks off July 2 in Grand Rapids, Mich., and will head overseas next year. Alice Cooper will join the Live Nation-produced trek.
Unlike countless other rock bands and pop stars who have announced farewell tours to only return to the road for one reason or another — or set up shop in Las Vegas — Motley Crue’s members insisted that when this run of shows ends, that’s it.
The band even had its attorney on hand to present a formal agreement that, effective at the end of 2015, bars any of the band members from using the Motley Crue trademark — which they all signed. Lee smiled and pounded the table with his fist after signing his name on the document, and Mars shouted “R.I.P.” into a microphone.
The plans had been in the works for a few years. Sixx said, “We started talking about how we want to go out. We don’t want to hobble off into the sunset. Tommy said it best when he said, ‘A farewell tour is when a band does (one) and then gets back together and does another (one) and breaks up and gets back together until there’s no milk left in the . and it’s a rip-off to the fans.’ “
“We don’t want to be one of those bands that maybe have one guy left in it, or somebody’s brother. We wanted to go out with the four founding members … and go out on top,” Neil added.
“It’s because we are on top, we are holding it together, we are playing better and sounding better. We want to leave a legacy and have some dignity,” Sixx continued. “We feel there’s a lot of bands out there that don’t have dignity. We started this band, and we want to call it a day and be proud.”
As for any chances of them collectively changing their minds to come together again, Sixx vowed that band members were “going to stick to our word.” As for any chances for new music before going on the road, Sixx said fans will “just have to see.”
The final tour coincides with a number of Motley Crue-branded projects.
A long-gestating film adaptation of the band’s best-selling memoir, “The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band,” is in the works. Jeff Tremaine (“Jackass,” “Bad Grandpa”) will direct, and he said that he’d spent the last two years crafting the script and that he was “knee deep” in getting it ready to present to band members, who will help produce. Tremaine said he hopes to start filming in June.
The band has also teamed up with Big Machine to release a country music tribute. Label founder and Chief Executive Scott Borchetta said he’d already locked in Florida Georgia Line, Rascal Flatts, recent winner of “The Voice” Cassadee Pope and LeAnn Rhimes.
And be prepared to hear the band’s music in car commercials. Dodge, the tour’s sponsor, will use the band’s smash “Kickstart My Heart” to score commercials it will roll out to mark its 100th anniversary. (“Home Sweet Home” already has appeared in a real estate commercial, which aired during Sunday’s Grammys telecast.)
Formed in 1981 by Sixx and Lee, Motley Crue has sold more than 80 million albums worldwide. The group’s last album, “Saints of Los Angeles,” was released in 2008.
Tickets go on sale to the public on Friday through Ticketmaster, and the band announced that it had priced seats as low as $15 to $25 to keep shows affordable.
