Growing up with Mötley Crüe in My Walkman... From New Orleans to New York!
Motley Crue Release 'Shout at the Devil' 34 Years Ago TODAY!
VIDEO: Motley Crue LIVE Shout at The Devil 1983
Mötley Crüe finished up Shout at the Devil in July 1983. It sold 200,000 copies in two weeks and reached as high as No. 17 on the Billboard album chart. Shout at the Devil went gold in January, 1984 and was platinum less than a month later. By January, 1985 it was double platinum. And in May 1997, it went quadruple platinum.
For this rebellious youth, Shout at the Devil, which came out Sept. 26, 1983, (I was 15 years old at the time) and was just what I was looking for. I was a ward of the State of Louisiana living in an orphanage in New Orleans but we didn't call it an orphanage we called it "A Boys Home" You can read more about Waldo Burton Boys Home Here. We called ourselves Home Boys before the phrase was really popular.
One of the Home Boys had this cassette tape. For those that don't know what a cassette tape is I included a picture below. Ha Ha! The tape was these four crazy looking mother fuckers with makeup. I remember thinking hmmm they are copying off KISS. I think they were influenced by KISS for sure according to Vince. They were also kicked off the KISS Tour according to Vince.
For this rebellious youth, Shout at the Devil, which came out Sept. 26, 1983, (I was 15 years old at the time) was just what I was looking for. I was a ward of the State of Louisiana living in an orphanage in New Orleans but we didn't call it an orphanage we called it "A Boys Home" You can read more about Waldo Burton Boys Home Here. We called ourselves Home Boys before the phrase was really popular. One of the Home Boys had this cassette tape. For those that don't know what a cassette tape is I included a picture below. Ha Ha! The tape was these for crazy looking mother fuckers with makeup. I remember thinking hmmm they are copying off KISS. I think they were influenced by KISS for sure according to Vince. They have also been kicked off the KISS Tour according to Vince.
At the time I was really into KISS, Sex Pistols, Slaughter and local hometown NOLA favorites Zebra. So I was well on my way to something rebellious.
Shout at the Devil did it for me. I remember grabbing my Sony Walkman. (Big Shout out to my friend James Gunn for making walkman relevant again). throwing in the tape and kicking back. The kicking back didn't last very long. I was ready to fuck something up, I was ready to rock like never before. So I grabbed my guitar and borrowed some money from a couple vending machines. I waited till it was lights out and I escaped from the Boys Home with Shout at The Devil in tow. I must have listened to it a thousand times on my journey. That cassette stayed with me for a long time. My first job (Popeyes Chicken) my first car (1982 Camaro) and of course my first real girlfriend (Karen Borden)
It was the 80's and I loved every minute of it. I took off to New York in 85 without Karen, just my car and Shout at The Devil in the Dashboard. Landed in Manhattan, joined a band, and stayed wasted the majority of the time. Ahhhh the 80's. I wanted to make it out to L.A. to hang on the Strip but it seems like I could never get out of L'Amour . The L'Amour was a 3/4 rock club in a very bad area of Brooklyn.
Looking back now it's amazing I made it to 50. I was in a Crue cover band for a minute but couldn't manage to stay clean and sober long enough to really accomplish anything artistic. After several brushes with the law, I decided to hang up the guitar and get help. I've been clean and sober for 27 years now. Do I have any regrets? Not really it was the 80's and I was in NYC to me it was worth every scar.
From 83 till 89 when I got clean and sober Mötley Crüe was always there. In those early years, I always wondered what it would be like to hang out with Vince Neil. In 2010 that's what I set out to do.That's a whole other story, and I have so many awesome road warrior stories but we will save them for the book :)
I have had the pleasure of working with several of my hero's in rock. I have produced a song with Randy Jackson of Zebra with Darren DPaul Wise, titled: What it Feels Like, created a TV show pilot with Mark Slaughter and Dana Strum (WARofROCK) and have produced several Rockin The Red Carpet Shows with Vince Neil of Motley Crue, Produced a Rock Festival with Warrant and Eddie Money and became friends with them all.
To Be Continued...
Tom Stokes with Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe
Rockin The Red Carpet with Vince Neil Produced by Tom Stokes in several cities
Dana Strum (Slaughter) interview about WAR of ROCK plus Randy Rhoads Story.
Rock Song Tom Stokes Produced with Randy Jackson of Zebra and DPaul Wise Dallas Texas
You Think You Know Metal - Mötley Crüe.
What's your Mötley Crüe Story?
Comment Below! Rock On!
