MÖTLEY CRÜE: Behind-The-Scenes Report From Palladium Gig

MÖTLEY CRÜE's webmaster has posted the following message on the group's web site:

"Today [Monday, Dec. 6] was huge, there's just no other way to describe what happened today! I knew things where going to get crazy, especially when the MÖTLEY server was shut down at 9AM due to all of the traffic we where getting. We had over 40,000 people hit the server before we where able to move the site over to a faster server!

"After the sever problems where taken care of, I was off to the Palladium for the band walk through and sound check. It was good to see all of the guys together again playing on stage! In the ten years of covering the band, I've never seen the guys happier then they where yesterday. You could feel that something big was happening today. Steve-O from 'Jackass' showed up half way through the sound check and went straight to work.... being Steve-O from 'Jackass'. By the end of the sound check he was balancing a 20 foot step latter on his chin! Tommy [Lee] flipped out... he thought it was cool as hell!

"After the soundcheck the band and a few lucky people such as yours truly hopped onto a bus and headed to some studios just outside of the Burbank Airport. The band spent about an hour getting ready for the show and doing some press interviews. Just as we where about to leave for the airport to catch the band's helicopter which was going to fly them into the parking lot at the Palladium, Nikki [Sixx] received a call from management. Seems the fire marshal would not give the band permission to land in the parking lot..... even though they had all of the permits from the FAA! So we boarded the bus and headed back to Hollywood where the band ended up meeting with one of Vince's friends from Vegas. He had a tricked out hearse that the band was able to use to ride to the show.

"The guys got out of the hearse and were instantly mobbed by the press. I couldn't see everything but I know Nikki and Vince [Neil] were interviewed by VH1 as they entered the building. I then ran upstairs to catch the press conference. The guys looked great and in typical MÖTLEY fashion, had some great answers to some lame questions.... like 'Mick, are you up for this?' Mick's response.... 'I'm going to kick your fucking ass!' Great stuff!

"After the interview I rushed down to the floor to get a good spot so I could get more video footage for the SIN [fan club] members. I usually try to get in the center but I never seem to get a good shot of Vince from that angle, his mic always ends up being in the way. So I decided to place myself on Mick's side of the stage.... I wanted to see if he was going to kick some ass on not tonight!!!

"After the band's live interview with Larry King, who I'm pretty sure has no idea who MÖTLEY CRÜE is, the guys walked onto the stage, passing a bloody Steve-O. The dude sliced his tongue with a broken light-bulb on stage while warming up the crowd. If you watch the Larry King interview you can see blood on Tommy's back. That's real blood..... from Steve-O. Anyway.... the guys walked onto the stage and the Palladium erupted! The pit was mobbed with press and just behind us where a couple thousand CRÜE fans seeing the band reunite in their home town. The guys sounded great and kicked some ass tonight. I just wish everyone could have been there.... but since that's impossible, I will do my best to keep everyone informed with MÖTLEY's antics!"