Eddie Vedder eat your heart out.
Motley Crue and Def Leppard announced – finally – that The Stadium Tour, originally planned for Summer 2020, will kickstart on Thursday, June 16 at Atlanta’s Trust Park, home of the World Series champion Braves.
The tour, which includes Poison and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, already has sold more than 1 million tickets, and a joint press release says that due to intense demand, the bands are adding to the itinerary five more stadium shows in Toronto (Monday, August 8), Indianapolis (Tuesday, Aug. 16), Vancouver, B.C. (Friday, September 2), Edmonton (Sunday, Sept. 4), and Las Vegas (Fri., Sept. 9).
Tickets for the new dates go on sale Tue., Feb. 22 at 10:00 a.m. local time at LiveNation.com.
Amusingly, the press release leans heavily on adjectives and often questionable grammar to describe the bands (“most iconic” and “celebrated rock legends” and “most important forces”) that arguably are household names for many North American music fans, as well as superfluous use of capitalization (“FINALLY” and “EPIC”) to describe the collective musician’s feelings and expectations about The Stadium Tour.
In the press release, the members of Motley Crue decided to make a proclamation as a group instead of Nikki Sixx handling the duty per usual. “It’s on! We don’t think we’ve ever looked forward more to kicking off a tour than this one. We can’t wait to finally see all the fans across North America again. Get ready for a wild ride this summer.”
The band made no bones about the fact that their resurgence in popularity – remember the contract Motley Crue signed that said they would never again perform or work as a band? – and the ability to garner a younger generation of fans was due to the release of the film “The Dirt” on Netflix, a condensed and glossy look at the history of the once-controversial Hollywood glam-rock outfit.
The Def Leppard camp took a more realistic approach by issuing a statement just from singer Joe Elliot. “On behalf of the band, we’re beyond thrilled that the stadium tour is finally happening this summer. It’s been a while coming and we can’t wait to get back on stage again, and we can’t wait to see you in one of the many stadiums soon.”
Poison singer Bret Michaels, never one to let an opportunity to say something pass him by, also included a statement in the news release. “There are not enough words to thank the three generations of fans for making this such an exciting, record-breaking, historical tour with the fastest sellouts in history at these stadiums.”
Last but never least, and somewhat disappointingly, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts followed Motley Crue’s lead with a joint statement of their own. “We are so excited to be back on the road. We missed doing what we love most and can’t wait to see the fans out there again.”
We only want to hear from you, Joan!
The big questions many music fans and ticket holders have are not only will Vince Neil be healthy enough to have the stamina to perform for 36 nights, but will he be able to finish one whole show?
Neil was roundly panned on the internet for his performance (really, more like an appearance) on January 14 in Columbus, OH, where he reportedly didn’t sing a single chorus, choosing instead to hold the mic out to encourage the crowd to “sing it,” and heavily relied on backing singers to handle vocal duties. It should be noted that Neil has a long history of leaving gigs early, falling off stages, mumbling sounds phonetically similar to his lyrics, and to put it nicely, not always bringing his A-game before paying crowds.
It’s been leaked in various media outlets that the Crue had “encouraged” Neil to get his act together in time for The Stadium Tour and that he had lost considerable weight and was laying off the sauce.
Then on Feb. 12, Metal Addicts reported Neil left a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility – that’s twice in one year – and also reported fans saw him in Key West, Fla. buying a very expensive bottle of hooch. Based on Neil’s past well-documented behavior, that’s sadly believable.
To top off the decades-long saga of “Wtf is Vince Neil thinking,” he had booked a solo stop on July 16 at the Red River Valley Fair in Fargo, N.D., which would have been sandwiched between a Stadium Tour stop on Fri., July 15 in Cincinnati, and Sunday, July 17 in Milwaukie. Notably, Fargo is about 1,000 miles from Cincinnati and 570 miles from Milwaukee.
That date no longer appears on StubHub, but tickets are on sale for another Neil solo show, billed with ex-Guns N’ Roses drummer Steven Adler, in Durant, OK on March 25.
At the bottom of The Stadium Tour press release, Tommy Lee talks about “emerging rock band Classless Act opening each night of the show. “I can remember when we went out with Ozzy in 1984 and how it was an insane game-changer,” he said. “We literally blew up after having that opportunity to play live in front of 20,000 people every night. Since then, we’ve always felt it was important to help new bands, whether it was Guns N’ Roses, Skid Row, or so many others. This summer we’re gonna help out Classless Act.”
Two trailers for The Stadium Tour are available to watch here, and artwork for the tour is available to view here.
