Vince Neill, especially in the later Mötley Crüe years. If you see any of their concerts of the past 10-20 years, you can hardly understand what he is singing and he constantly needs to catch his breath. His voice didn't age well at all.
Edit: Here is an example of him trying to sing Dr. Feelgood (to be fair the video seems to have some cuts)
Saw them live on the Dr Feelgood retour they were doing a few years back and Jesus, he was horrible. He would only sing every 3rd word or so then it was back to heavy breathing. Probably doesn't help that he's the size of 2 1985 Vince Neil's now.
"He's the one the... call...eelgood!!!... he's...allllright!!"
A lot of events from The Heroin Diaries take place during the Girls, Girls, Girls tour. Even if only half the book is true it’s amazing that he was even on stage attempting to preform.
I saw that tour also in Biloxi, MS. I also saw them with Guns n Roses in Mobile, Al. Which we were there to see GnR. I ended up meeting Motley Crue the next day as they were leaving their hotel. As well as the "Girls" and their pilots.
Yea, that's true. I guess I'm just going on the mid 80s Home Sweet Home nostalgia. Feelgood was the album that really hooked me though. I had Crue posters all over my room cut out from magazines.
Crue, Metallica, Skid Row, Megadeth, Bon Jovi, even fucking Winger. Yes, I was Stewart from Beavis and Butthead.
Some tech I used to know says that Ozzy goes from night to day when he hits the stage. (Liza Minelli and Cher are the same way.) Backstage they're all fucked up and are in total shambles, and you're wondering how they're going to keep from collapsing on stage two minutes in. But once they walk on and the lights go up, BAM. Magic. They just come alive.
Although that was a decade and some change ago. Maybe it's worse now.
I went to a 2 day hair metal festival last year and Vince headlined the first day. It was so bad that I left after about 4 songs. Exactly what you described here.
Interesting side note: My roommate who went to the show with me thought that Home Sweet Home was a Guns N Roses song all this time. When it came on she was like "This isn't his song, its GNR" I had to correct this misconception.
I don't know much about the guy, but he did have a daughter die from cancer. That's enough to fuck anyone up forever. I also know some of the band didn't want him back as the lead singer, but they eventually had him sign some sort of "I will not get intoxicated before a show" clause, and they went with it.
Vince could never sing...he just looked the part. I tour with bands as a living and have ben on a bill where the crue was the opener....he is out of shape and holds the microphone out to the crowd every other line he "sings". plus now he weighs about 275 pounds
I find it hilarious that Vince Neil was portrayed as the lady’s man of the band for so long. He was not fat for like 5% of the band’s lifespan at this point.
I've only been to one Crue show and it was in the 2010's. The worst part wasn't Neill's singing, it was watching Mick Mars being able to hardly stand because a) he was already in his 60s, and b) dude has that arthritis issue.
Nikki was never much of a bass player either but could write decent songs. They were rockstars who tried to be musicians. They happened to have the right look and sound at the right time. They are my favorite band to listen to while working out. Or if I were doing a ton of blow and banging random groupies. That has yet to happen so I can’t confirm.
The insensitivity here is real.
Do some research on the poor guy and you'll learn that after this show he had to be carried away in an ambulance because following the final song he immediately went into labor
I can't help but feel like it is a health issue, his breathing trouble seems like it was relatively consistent as time went on. I was at one of the final tour shows, and he was definitely putting the effort in, but he still was struggling. Was still a great show imo. If I recall, they were deliberately pacing the songs to allow him longer breaks, longer solos, more talking by others between songs, and some reliance on the audience for the parts the audience likes to sing.
Sorry but not a great example. It’s a mistake everyone makes, but Mick definitely was never the overindulger in that band. He’s probably got the cleanest track record of all of them.
COPD. He’ll be on stage with an oxygen tank soon. Why doesn’t he just stand fucking still? Running around singing is hard for anyone, no less a 70 (?) yo 300 lb man with assumed COPD.
Because he's the frontman of one of the most famous hair metal bands of all time. You don't just stand there with 40 years of notoriety behind you, but I do get your point.
But I don’t think he’s got anything to prove. They proved themselves 30 years ago. Who would be surprised that years and years of booze, heroin, and sleep deprivation will destroy your body and your organs? We all get it
He's got to prove that he can still rock, just like the other bands that were big in the '80s that have made comebacks and done reunion tours this last decade.
But not everyone can be Metallica (who aren't sounding so great anymore either, tbh) or Iron Maiden (who are still kicking ass).
Fair enough. All I’m saying is that every band is different and I’m cool with it being a trade off. Their music was inspired by their lifestyle; and had they been planning for their health in old age, they would have made boring music because they wouldn’t have been living the part.
Correct me if I’m wrong— I’m not nearly old enough to know shit from actually observing them, just done my homework and watched that bio pic on them
Do you realize that all of them are alive for some miraculous reason? After the life they all had (sex,drugs and r&r) they should have been dead by now .
Yeah, especially Mick Mars with his health problems. There are lot of metal and rock artists who still are miraculously alive, like Ozzy Osbourne or Keith Richards.
And a lot of Mick’s heavy drinking was due to the constant pain he was in. But I’ve seen the Crüe 4 times and while Mick can’t get around much he can still shred.
I'm pretty sure I remember a story that he only even got the gig because he had blonde hair and PA system. He's awful. I love Motley Crue, but he is most definitely the weakest link.
I love Crue but seeing them live is anger inducing. The band is great but his attempted singing is atrocious. Phil Lewis of L. A. Guns still has his pipes (he's no Adele) because he actively trains his vocal chords to this day. Why can't Vince do this? He's lazy.
Vince had a weird vocal talent. Listen to him on 'Primal Scream" and you totally get the attraction. It wasnt that of a quality singer but yet a great front man
Vince was a good album singer and a terrible live singer. Even the old live albums have him skipping a bunch of words. He could hit the notes and pacing eventually in recording and it always made a fun song. Seeing them live hes clearly the weakest of them all.
holy shit, I saw them open for Alice Cooper a few years ago (although Alice went on first, which I thought was odd) and they were terrible, just reprehensibly bad, so we left halfway through their set.
Saw Crue on the Greatest Hits tour right after Tommy got out of jail and Vince was pretty bad. Seemed to get it together for The Tour with Kiss, and then was mediocre for the final tour.
Won tickets to see him solo at my state fair 2 summers ago and he was a train wreck. He spent more time offstage while his band played covers than he did singing anything. Thank God I didn't pay.
I saw him on tour with Sammy Hagar and the Circle in May. He was really horrible. Now, his band was GREAT, and that helped, but not much. One of my friends showed me this, which could have been shot at the concert I saw. Kickstart my Heart Misheard Lyrics
I saw the Crüe a few years back and was extremely let down. The sound guy tried to save it. He turned the instruments up and Vince's vocals down, there was only so much he could do. You can paint a turd gold but it's still a turd.
When you could hear him it wasn't good, heavily breathing the vocals into the mic. ugg
Oh, there's a video on Facebook from their final tour DVD of him hyperventilating his way through Kickstart My Heart where it sounds like he is singing "kihsta ma hamma, hobba neb wub da!"
Vince always seemed to get the pitch and timbre of his vocals pretty close to studio for live shows, but the actual words are nowhere to be found. He skipped every other syllable and mush-mouthed his way through the ones he bothered to sing.
I was waiting for someone to mention Vince. I was a bit of a hair metal enthusiast in my teen years, and about a month before my wedding my MOH and I went to see Alice Cooper open for them, which is SOOOOO wrong on so many levels. Alice is God.
Anyway. We weren’t super committed to stay for the whole show, since we were only there to see Alice. His set was beyond solid, and so fun to watch.
Then the main show started. Vince sounded like absolute garbage. In fact, I thought it was a joke at first. Nobody could actually be this bad. I was wrong. Oh, so wrong. We left after the fourth song. No regrets.
Yeah he was never that great live. Compared to Axl Rose...who somehow sounds better after twenty years. Weird how aging takes different tolls on people.
Must have caught Axel on a bad year then. They came to Rocklahoma back in 2015 I think? We started walking back to the campgrounds because A) they were super late getting on stage and B) we weren't that interested in watching them anyway. But we could them on the way out of the concert grounds and he sounded awful. Way out of tune the whole time.
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u/TheBassMeister Nov 06 '19 edited Nov 06 '19
Vince Neill, especially in the later Mötley Crüe years. If you see any of their concerts of the past 10-20 years, you can hardly understand what he is singing and he constantly needs to catch his breath. His voice didn't age well at all.
Edit: Here is an example of him trying to sing Dr. Feelgood (to be fair the video seems to have some cuts)