By RICHARD KING
My connection with Motley Crue started when I saw the Too Fast For Love album in a record store.
The record store had a wall of that album showing Vince Neil’s crotch with all the leather and studs. Quite the display. I didn’t buy it, but my friend Bob — the best drummer in Salt Lake — did.
This was the original Leathur version, not the remixed one put out after they signed with Electra. It definitely sounds more raw, check it out on the box set How to Crash Your Car Vol. 1, you’ll see.
That record was in heavy rotation at the band house we hung out in. I first got to see Motley Crue when they played the US Fest in May of ’83. It was the full on leather and studs act they perfected on the Sunset Strip but outdoors, in the daylight with a couple of hundred screaming metal maniacs in tow.
Nine months later they had released Shout At The Devil and were opening for Ozzy. I was a huge Ozzy fan, Black Sabbath was one of my favorite bands, so I knew it would be a great show. I went with my friend Mark.
We would stand on the chairs to get a higher vantage point. No exaggeration, at one point there were six people standing on my folding chair for Motley Crue! The seat broke and I spent the rest of the night standing on the frame of the chair.
I think the shots are pretty good considering how crazed the crowd was. I included a group shot that would have been great if not for all the arms in the way, but hey, we were having fun. The show was great, Ozzy’s show was filmed for MTV and after the show we ended up in a hotel room with Mick Mars, Robbin Crosby and Bobby Blotzer of Ratt and Jake E. Lee. But that’s another story.
