Tragic Stories About Mötley Crüe

Few rock bands have achieved equal fame for their music as well as their depravity like Mötley Crüe. The band formed in 1981 and, after several lineup changes, settled on the classic formation of bassist Nikki Sixx, drummer Tommy Lee, guitarist Mick Mars, and singer Vince Neil. Mötley Crüe's musical style perfectly captured the spirit of LA's Sunset Strip in the early 1980s — wild, fast, and sleazy. Of course, the band needed an image that matched their sound, so they adorned themselves with heavy makeup, spikes, and chains, and incorporated various pyrotechnics into their performances. It was only a matter of time before Mötley Crüe became one of the most popular and decadent bands, not just of the 1980s, but in rock history.

Since they formed, Mötley Crüe has sold more than 100 million albums around the world, scored many Billboard hit songs, won multiple awards and garnered even more nominations, and even had a movie made about them based on their New York Times bestselling autobiography, "The Dirt." However, despite their massive popularity (or maybe because of it), the band and its various members have suffered considerable misfortunes and experienced their share of struggles. Death, addiction, and more have plagued Mötley Crüe throughout its existence, serving as a bleak reminder that rock stardom isn't always what it's cracked up to be. Let's take a look at the tragic real life story of Mötley Crüe.

Unfortunately, Razzle's untimely alcohol-related death did little to shake the members of Mötley Crüe of their hard-partying lifestyle. And it wouldn't be long until that lifestyle claimed another life. Sort of.

1987 was a big year for them as they had just released their album, "Girls Girls Girls," to great success, and were about to embark on a world tour. In late December of that year, Nikki Sixx was on a binge with fellow rockers from Guns N' Roses and Ratt until he took things too far. Sixx, according to his LA Times Op-Ed, was already pushing the limit by mixing cocaine and alcohol, but it was the use of heroin that proved fatal; he lost consciousness and was pronounced legally dead.

Luckily for Sixx, however, someone was around to call 911, and paramedics arrived to revive him with two shots of adrenaline, so his death only lasted for a couple of minutes. The bassist recounted in the book "The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band" (via Ultimate Classic Rock) an out-of-body experience he had while dead: "Above me, everything was bright white. I looked down and realized I had left my body. Nikki Sixx — or the filthy, tattooed container that had once held him — was lying covered face-to-toe with a sheet on a gurney being pushed by medics into an ambulance." This was the wakeup call Sixx needed, thankfully, as he's since become an addiction recovery advocate.

Vince Neil's life in the early 1990s was in a slump compared to the fame and fortune he experienced in the previous decade. He was ousted from Mötley Crüe, he and his wife Sharise Rudell had divorced, and his first solo album, 1993's "Exposed," wasn't exactly a massive hit.

However, Neil's life became even more tragic when his 4-year-old daughter Skylar began showing some symptoms that, while minor at first, quickly worsened. A hospital visit revealed that she had Wilms' tumor, a rare yet potentially deadly form of cancer that affects children's kidneys. Over several months, Skylar underwent multiple surgeries to remove the tumor that had spread throughout her body, along with various chemotherapy and radiation treatments. She was released from the hospital after spending more than a month there, but her return home only lasted a few days when her condition caused her tremendous pain, and she was quickly taken back to the hospital.

Neil recalls to People that he had just gotten home from visiting his daughter in the hospital when he got a call from his ex-wife to return to Skylar's side, saying, "'Her vital signs are dropping ... You'd better come back." Neil recounted that "Sharise sat by Skylar's side as 'Skylar's Song' [from Neil's 1995 album "Carved in Stone"] played in the background. Finally, Sharise told her, 'Don't be scared, sweetie. Go to sleep now. It's all right.'" Despite the doctors' best efforts, Skylar passed away on August 15, 1995.

From having wealth beyond one's wildest dreams to the constant adoration from fans around the world and more, who wouldn't want a life of cars and guitars? However, what rarely gets discussed is how much of an emotional and mental toll that overnight fame and fortune can take on a person. Case in point: Nikki Sixx. In his sobering book, "The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star," Sixx recounts how, despite being in one of the most popular bands at the time, he was wrestling with a miserable existence. "I'm gonna go back to the bookstore cause I think I might have depression. Maybe something there can help me? I can't control my moods. I feel like I'm coming apart at the seams... even when I'm not on drugs. If only they knew," he wrote on April 9, 1987.

Since then, Sixx has made it his mission to raise awareness about mental health. He's even called out fellow rocker Gene Simmons of Kiss, who made some thoughtless remarks about people with depression, suggesting that they should simply kill themselves. Sixx responded on his "Sixx Sense" radio show (via Rolling Stone) with, "For people who are depressed, there is a way out. There are many, many ways out. And I don't want people to listen to an interview from a rock star, who's telling you the only way out is out."

As should be quite clear by now, rock stars who live lives of excess are almost always doomed to reap what they sow, and Mötley Crüe's frontman is certainly an example of that. Even well past his 1980s heyday, Vince Neil has gotten himself into all kinds of legal and financial trouble.

According to TMZ, Neil was having lunch with actor Nicolas Cage and comedian Carrot Top in April 2016 at the Aria Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas when a woman named Kelly Guerrero approached the trio and complimented Cage. She claims that Neil responded by grabbing her hair and yanking her to the ground. Neil was charged with misdemeanor battery; Guerro later sued him for lost wages, and for medical expenses incurred over her neck, back, and hip injuries.

The Blast reported that 2019 saw Neil's former lawyer from the firm Howard & Howard Attorneys accuse him of refusing to pay nearly $190,000 in fees, which he owed even as the firm continued to represent him in Guerrero's lawsuit against him. Neil denied the accusations, claiming that his lawyer took advantage of his celebrity status to overcharge him for services.

This is one of the most unfortunate incidents to happen in the world of Mötley Crüe. On June 16, 2001, Tommy Lee was hosting a birthday party at his Malibu mansion for his son Brandon that was attended by 15 preschoolers. What should've been a fun day for the children ended in tragedy when 4-year-old Daniel Karven-Veres drowned in Lee's pool. Christian Weihs was the nanny who chaperoned Daniel to the party, leaving babysitter Judith Zeihm in charge of the young boy. However, Zeihm briefly left the party to walk her dog, which is apparently when Daniel, whose parents Ursula Karven-Veres and television producer James Veres claim didn't know how to swim, drowned at the party. When Lee noticed that Daniel wasn't breathing, he called a 911 dispatcher who instructed him in attempting to resuscitate the young boy, but it was too late.

Despite Lee not being charged of any wrongdoing by the authorities, the Vereses filed a civil suit against him for $10 million, accusing him of irresponsibility regarding the wellbeing of the children who attended the party. The trial lasted for five days, wherein the Vereses' lawyer claimed that Lee's negligence was what caused Daniel's drowning. However, Lee's lawyer pointed out that lifeguards are not required by law at private parties in the state of California. Lee was ultimately found not guilty by a unanimous vote by the jury.

Tommy Lee has experienced his fair share of ups and downs with Mötley Crüe, but his family life over the years has been no less turbulent. His on again-off again relationship with Pamela Anderson is peppered with controversies and drama that no family should ever have to go through. Early in their marriage, their sex tape was stolen and released to the public which, while not necessarily tragic, didn't bode well for their future. After the two seemingly split for good in July 2001, they became embroiled in a custody battle wherein Anderson accused Lee of multiple instances of emotional and physical abuse against her and their two sons, Brandon Thomas Lee and Dylan Jagger Lee.

While Tommy won partial custody of his sons, his relationship with them has been far from idyllic. Tommy's relationship with Brandon has been particularly rocky, with the two accusing each other of assault. In 2018, Brandon got into a heated argument with his father, leading to a fight that resulted in Tommy being taken to a hospital. In a statement to People, Brandon claimed the fight was connected to his father's alleged drinking. Tommy tweeted the following in response to a TMZ report that Brandon had acted in self-defense: "My fiancé and I were in bed when my son busted into the room and assaulted me. I asked him to leave the house and he knocked me unconscious. He ran away from the police. THAT'S the truth."

While Mötley Crüe's classic lineup will always consist of Vince Neil, Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee, and Mick Mars, the band has featured numerous other incredibly talented musicians over the years. One of those musicians is drummer Randy Castillo, who replaced Tommy Lee in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

But before he joined the World's Most Notorious Rock Band, Castillo was born on December 8, 1950, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, picking up the drums after seeing the Beatles' American debut on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1964. The early 1980s saw him relocate to LA. where he played with higher-profile musicians before playing drums on Lita Ford's 1984 album, "Dancin' on the Edge." However, his real big break came when the "Prince of Darkness" himself, Ozzy Osbourne, tapped him to be his drummer, a collaboration that lasted across three studio albums and their accompanying tours.

Once his time with Osbourne was done, Castillo worked on a variety of music projects before joining Mötley Crüe in 1999 when Lee left the band to pursue a solo career. He recorded an album with them, 2000's "New Tattoo," but his time with them was cut short following a cancer diagnosis. He underwent treatment for the condition — squamous cell carcinoma — and believed it had gone into remission. However, it returned and claimed his life on March 26, 2002, ending the career of one of rock 'n' roll's great veteran drummers.