The most influential, enduring, and iconic metal band of the 1980’s reveals everything a tell-all of epic proportions.
This unbelievable autobiography explores the rebellious lives of four of the most influential icons in American rock history.Mötley Crüe was the voice of a barely pubescent Generation X, the anointed high priests of backward-masking pentagram rock, pioneers of Hollywood glam, and the creators of MTV’s first “power ballad.” Their sex lives claimed celebrities from Heather Locklear to Pamela Anderson to Donna D’Errico. Their scuffles involved everyone from Axl Rose to 2LiveCrew. Their hobbies have included collecting automatic weapons, cultivating long arrest records, pushing the envelope of conceivable drug abuse, and dreaming up backstage antics that would make Ozzy Osbourne blanch with modesty.
Provocatively written and brilliantly designed, this book includes over 100 photos, many never before published, for the most exciting and insightful look ever into the Crüe.
“Her name was Bullwinkle. We called her that because she had a face like a moose.”
That was the introductory line that coaxed me into The Dirt, I had previously watched the Netflix film of the same name and it left me wowed at the life the bandmates from Motley Crüe had lived and puzzled at how the hell they were all still alive and kicking. This band had to be one of the craziest rock groups that there ever has been, from being a support act for Black Sabbath and enduring Sharon Osborne’s maternal dictatorship while on tour, to overdosing and crawling back for more after two adrenaline shots to the heart. Within the pages of this eye-opening memoir, you’ll find yourself sympathising with each member, rolling your eyes at their antics and at times feeling pretty disgusted with the way they lived – refusal to buy loo roll springs to mind.
Under the shocking surface of The Dirt lies layers of life aspects that we, on the outside of the fame life fail to see. With money, fame, parties, and sex also comes toxic relationships, deaths, overdoses, and an air of unhealthy detachment. I listened to The Dirt via audiobook while also looking at the variety of pictures included in the physical copy, many pictures show this out-there rock group, fun loving and carefree, but they don’t show the marriage breakdowns, the strain on the group as individual’s and how from the moment they started hitting the big time, how they had become victims of a greedy music making machine that was draining them of both their passions and the joy of living. The Dirt does not only share with the readers the wildly crazed antics of four bandmates, but also what fame and fortune cost them along the way, as they themselves unravel the ties that retrospectively look back on their actions and behaviours. I felt myself sympathising with each of their stories and the suffering that they endured while being attached to a conveyer belt of the music industry.
Not only is this memoir a peak into the lives of Motley Crüe, but also an inside look at the music industry at a whole including what one must bargain with in receipt of notoriety and the feeling of worth. This band, along with many, are worked by their managers to the point of mental exhaustion, restriction of creativities because new songs do not make as much money as the old ones and just being nudged to the brink of that next drug hit. I couldn’t help feeling sympathetic, I’ve listened to the band’s music for years and didn’t realise the extent of which they had all sold their souls.
The audiobook works really well, especially with each band member reading their own parts, as well as the inclusion of another narrator reading chapters from managers, a temporary lead singer etc. I think the varied look at the same old situations (get it) gave the reader a broader picture of events that occurred. Just a well put together book, I understand how people can listen to it over and over again!
I highly recommend getting your hands on a copy of The Dirt, both audiobook and physical book (yes, I’m a book pusher) after practically inhaling this read, I’ll definitely be reading a few more rock band memoirs!
The Reading Closet 