Vince Neil's Tragic Real-Life Story

No parent wishes to live long enough to bury their child, but Vince Neil has been forced to face this ultimate tragedy. As People tells us, the singer lost his 4-year-old daughter Skylar in 1995, when Neil himself was only 34. Young Skylar was diagnosed with Wilms' tumor (a form of kidney cancer) at a time when Neil was just coming back from a number of other personal and professional misfortunes. She had to go through extensive chemotherapy, radiation treatments and six operations, none of which were enough to save her life. Skylar Neil passed away on August 15, 1995, and the tragedy left Neil absolutely devastated. "This ordeal is something no parent should have to go through," he said of the nightmarish experience. "More than that, I wish no child ever had to go through it."

While Skylar was still fighting for her life, Neil wrote a track called "Skylar's Song" in her honor. The song played in the background as Neil and Skylar's mother sat in the hospital room and watched life slowly leave their daughter. Neil later included "Skylar's Song" on his solo album, Carved in Stone, and announced that he would donate all the proceeds of the song to charity. According to Ultimate Classic Rock, the singer also set up the Skylar Neil Memorial Fund, which has since raised millions for children's cancer research.

On December 8, 1984, Vince Neil's passion for fast cars and mind-altering substances led to a disaster. According to Louder, Motley Crue was in the middle of an epic drinking binge with members of Hanoi Rocks, an up-and-coming Finnish band, when they suddenly realized they needed more alcohol. Neil was drunk as a skunk but volunteered to make a quick booze run, and Hanoi Rocks drummer Nicholas "Razzle" Dingley decided to accompany the singer to the liquor store. This would be his last trip: Neil lost control of his Ford De Tomaso Pantera on a wet spot and it careened into oncoming traffic, ultimately slamming into two other cars at 65 mph. Neil escaped with cracked ribs and minor cuts, but two people in the first car he hit were severely injured and Razzle was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

Ultimate Classic Rock tells us Neil got away with barely a slap on the wrist. He received 30 days in jail (he only served 15), five years of probation, and 200 hours of community service, and had to pay $2.6 million to the people he had injured. However, his peers did not forget what he did. Hanoi Rocks guitarist Andy McCoy says Neil has never apologized for the incident and is so afraid of McCoy that Neil actually runs away when he sees him. Dee Snider from Twisted Sister goes even further in his disdain, and outright calls Neil a murderer.

Some bands go through a stage of half-formed self-discovery before they find their groove, but when Motley Crue burst out of the Sunset Strip in a cloud of hairspray and testosterone, it's easy to think that they were born as a fully-formed group of rabble-rousers. As Loudwire tells us, all band members already had an impeccable scene pedigree: Nikki Sixx was an alum of London, a band that eventually featured pre-fame Izzy Stradlin (of Guns N' Roses) and Blackie Lawless (of W.A.S.P.). Tommy Lee came from Suite 19 with Nikki, Mick Mars had his White Horse, and Vince Neil ... had no interest whatsoever in this whole "Motley Crue" business, thank you very much. Loudwire notes that the other three were interested in Neil's magnetic front man qualities (and his ability to fill a venue with female fans), but the vocalist was already sitting pretty with a band called Rockandi (or Rock Candy), and didn't even bother to turn up for his Crue audition.

When the Crue crew's experiments with another vocalist called O'Dean were unsatisfactory, Lee managed to pester Neil to audition again, and the singer agreed to turn up because as luck would have it, he felt "screwed" by his own band. Neil auditioned, but a lady friend accompanying him felt Motley Crue wasn't a right fit for the singer. Neil ended up taking the plunge anyway, and it's probably safe to say that this was a good career move.

Being in an ultra-successful rock band is a lucrative business, but unfortunately, it does precious little to help you actually manage your hard-rocked assets. As Las Vegas Review-Journal notes, Vince Neil is one of the many celebrities who have been unable to hang on to their considerable riches. Perhaps his lowest financial point came in 2005, when he had to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy after amassing a hefty $1.5 million in assorted debts. Then again, some would say that the lowest point actually came five years later, when the attorney who had taken care of said bankruptcy proceedings sued Neil because the singer had failed to pay $16,000 in fees.

You'd think Motley Crue's reunion and career revival has re-padded the vocalist's pockets, but regardless of his financial status he seems to nurse a habit of neglecting his legal bills. Loudwire says that in 2018, the singer's legal team threatened to drop him due to $190,000 of legal fees that he reportedly refused to pay ... despite the fact that the legal team was still representing Neil in an ongoing assault case.

VInce Neil doesn't talk about drugs as much as bandmate Nikki Sixx, but that doesn't mean he's a lightweight. Quite the opposite, in fact: In an interview with Louder, Neil says he was heavily into drugs before Motley Crue even existed. His early cocaine habit was so severe that when the band was playing club gigs and taking its first baby steps, the rest of the Crue actually stepped in and forced Neil to stop shooting so much coke. Still, clean living was not the Motley Crue way. Neil says he tried to straighten himself out a few times, but the band environment (not to mention his bandmates) was not exactly conducive to sobriety. The vocalist is extremely critical of rehab — as befits a man who once went up to four times a year — but says he finally managed to kick drugs at the turn of the millennium.

Other vices, of course, are another thing. Neil hints in the interview that he might have a fairly unhealthy relationship with gambling and says he has not given up drinking. All in all, alcohol might be the vice he has the hardest time kicking. In 2010, he was promoting his autobiography and saying he had quit both drugs and alcohol for good. Mere days later, CBS News reported that the singer was arrested for drunk driving.

Compared to some other iconic rock musicians, Vince Neil doesn't have a terribly tragic family background. Still, as Biography tells us, young Neil did his level best to make his life as difficult as possible. A born-and-bred Los Angeleno, Neil found early on that he enjoyed the rock 'n' roll lifestyle far more than he enjoyed studying, and meeting future bandmate Tommy Lee in high school didn't exactly prop up what little remained of his scholarly aspirations. Neil soon gave in to his rock star impulses, got into fights, and started doing drugs. For this, he was eventually expelled from school, and the home front was no better: The self-styled problem child managed to get in so much trouble with his family that he had to leave home and live in Lee's van.

There's no telling what sort of fate would have eventually met the young delinquent if it weren't for one thing: Neil saw the rise of the hard rock scene that was washing over Hollywood, liked what he was witnessing, and managed to surf the wave by joining a band. He is well aware that his success was ultimately a matter of luck, and he and the rest of Motley Crue were just fortunate enough to be an up-and-coming band in an area that happened to become the quintessential hot spot for 1980s rock.