I had no idea that Mötley Crüe had a long-standing rivalry with Metallica but I guess it's been going on for about 20 years, right around the time Metallica released Load. Blabbermouth offered a good summary of the beef:
The feud between Mötley Crüe and Metallica stems back to an incident nearly two decades ago when Ulrich accused Crüe of performing to a tape at the American Music Awards in January 1997 (which, by all accounts, they did). After learning of Ulrich's allegations, Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx posted an "open letter" to the Metallica drummer on an American Online message board, writing: "Dear, Sweet, Fat, Balding, Larz (love the make-up, babe!) Taking your ever-moronic soapbox position on a subject that's NONE of your fucking business has made you out to be an asshole as usual. Considering that me and Tommy know that your live tapes have been re-recorded. And ALL your instruments were repaired in Pro Tools (and had that balls to lie to your fans an call it a 'live' album)… People in glass houses should NOT throw rocks!! Considering your bullshit to the press, we feel it's only fair to return the punch!!…Your [sic] such a poseur…Thanks for releasing that 'load' of shit CD of yours…you made more room for us!!"
Siqq burn by Nikki Sixx! The feud was apparently rekindled when Tommy Lee tweeted that "Straight Outta Tempo" photo with Lars' face on it, although I thought it was just a little teasing.
Tanner of Portland, OR radio station 105.9 The Brew wanted to get to the bottom of it this morning, when he spoke with Crüe frontman Vince Neil. The DJ asked Neil to give his side of the beef, which Neil brushed off saying
"Hey, look, you have to ask Nikki about that, 'cause I had no idea there was anything between us and Metallica until I read it. I had no idea."
Tanner is a professional and pressed a little further asking about Tommy Lee's tweet and Neil, who sounded agitated at this point responds:
"I know. I saw it, but, like I said, I had nothing to do with it. Because, like I said, I had no idea that there was any bad blood between us and Metallica."
Somehow the topic got onto lip-synching and Neil vehemently denied it:
"There is no lip-synching in rock and roll; I mean, it just doesn't happen," Vince said. "So it's kind of stupid thing to even talk about, because, I mean, anybody who goes to the show can tell there's no lip-synching involved. It's pretty lame."
Shortly thereafter, because the host wouldn't let the tweet drama go, Neil just hung up. The DJ made it known that it was Neil who requested the interview and had no idea why he was pissed.
I guess the lesson here is if you want to interview Vince Neil, you should probably avoid any questions about Metallica. Ironically, based on all the press this is getting, all I see in Vince's future is more questions about Metallica. Oops, way to not realize how the press works, Vince.
You can hear the audio below:
