Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Music

Hot Ticket: A novel use of hair spray

By SEAN DALY
Published June 29, 2006

With Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil breaking from his mates for a quick solo stop in Tampa, I feel it's only appropriate to offer a quick reading from the L.A. band's 2001 tell-all The Dirt, without a doubt the most morally corrupt account of the rock 'n' roll life.

In the following not-for-the-squeamish passage, Neil describes the hair band's 1981 pre-fame group house, just a few blocks off the Sunset Strip. If you're wondering why the bleached blond finds it necessary to make even more money on a solo tour, perhaps his nasty past is a good place to look for answers:

"The place was crawling with vermin. If we ever wanted to use the oven, we had to leave it on high for a good ten minutes to kill the regiments of roaches crawling around inside. We couldn't afford pesticides, so to exterminate the roaches on the walls we would take hair spray, hold a lighter to the nozzle and torch the bastards. Of course, we could afford (or afford to steal) important things like hair spray, because you had to have your hair jacked up if you wanted to make the rounds at the clubs."

Vince Neil, with Ratt, performs at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the St. Pete Times Forum, 401 Channelside Drive, Tampa. $29.75-$76.75. (813) 287-8844 or (727) 898-2100 or (813) 301-2500.

- SEAN DALY, Times pop music critic

[Last modified June 28, 2006, 12:48:22]