Motley Crue’s Vince Neil is pretty much everything I hate in a single person
Vince Neil, born Vincent Neil Wharton, is the lead singer of the 80s hard rock/glam band Motley Crue.
TLDR: He’s a piece of shit.
And I don’t say that about a lot of people, but a recent video of one of his concerts reminded me just how terrible he is.
First, Vince killed a guy.
It might not be well known outside of the 80s hard rock circle, but Vince was the intoxicated driver of a vehicle that crashed on the Sunset Strip killing the drummer of Hanoi Rocks who was in the passenger seat. The passengers of the car he crashed into suffered brain damage. Vince spent at most two weeks in jail, and that was it.
Why such little punishment? Because he was the frontman of an up and coming band in LA in the 1980s. That’s why.
Second, after Motley Crue’s heyday had come and gone, in the early 90s Motley Crue kicked him out for not being around, as he was addicted to heroin, speed, and LSD…and his excessive drinking that continued to plague him.
Third, he’s had four marriages…and four divorces. Do what you want with your nuptials, but this is excessive, and there’s just no need for the drama involved with four ex-wives. (Yes, blame goes to the brides, too).
Then, there’s the assaults…constantly.
He was arrested in 2002 for punching a record producer, arrested in 2003 for assaulting a sex worker, arrested in 2004 for leaving a soundman unconscious after assaulting him. In 2007, he was arrested for DUI, then again three years later for the same crime. He was arrested again for battery in 2011 for hitting an ex-girlfriend. In 2016, he was charged with battery for hitting another woman. The heftiest penalty he received for any of this was two weeks in jail. Most of the time, he was given probation or some nominal fines.
He was sued for fraud and eventually liable for several hundred thousands of court fees for other matters.
Probably out of money on poor business ventures and a lavish lifestyle, Vince Neil rejoined with Motley Crue and started some reunion touring. The target demographic for the shows, 40-to-50-somethings, clamored for tickets to see the former rockers put on their first show as the original quartet in some time. Neil, and his bandmates, thought they could cash in. And they did.
But they, particularly Neil, couldn’t deliver.
He constantly cut shows short because he couldn’t sing, and when he did, he couldn’t even sing the right words to the songs, sounding out of the breath and unable to perform the songs correctly. Despite repeated pleas from fans and managers to get in shape, work on his voice, and get back to performance fitness levels, he didn’t. He just continued the same, “Sorry, guys, my voice is gone,” he would say as he walked off the stage.
Three of the top four searches on YouTube for “Vince Neil” come up as:
“Vince Neil falls off stage”
“Vince Neil bad singing”
“Vince Neil misheard lyrics”
You can see one of those incredible videos here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pdQnZLEWNo
I have no sympathy for a man who had an incredible musical gift and pissed it away through drugs, alcohol, violence and fraud. Vince Neil is the type of person who took everything he could and gave nothing back.
