About the CrÜe

Mötley Crüe (it's pronounced "Motley Crew") is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. The band is made up of bass guitarist Nikki Sixx, drummer Tommy Lee, lead guitarist Mick Mars, and vocalist Vince Neil.
Mötley Crüe is one of the best-selling American hard rock/heavy metal acts, having sold over 45 million albums worldwide and 25 million records in the US alone. The band has often been noted for their hard-living lifestyles; all members have had numerous brushes with the law, done jail time (Lee and Neil have both done short stints in prison), suffered long addictions to alcohol and drugs, and are heavily tattooed. Their ninth studio album is due to be released sometime in 2008.

Besides music, Mötley Crüe also set the scale for decadent rock and roll behavior. Since the release of their autobiography "The Dirt", the band has been known as one of the most decadent and self-destructive groups in rock music history.

The name

Mars had been playing for a band, White Horse, when one of the members called the group "a motley looking crew." He had remembered the phrase and later copied it down as Mottley Kru. Modifying the spelling slightly, 'Mötley Crüe' was eventually selected with the inspiration to add the two sets of umlauts supposedly coming from the German beer the members were drinking at the time.

History

Mötley Crüe was formed in California during 1980 when bassist Nikki Sixx left the band London and began rehearsing with Tommy Lee and vocalist/guitarist Greg Leon. Sixx and Lee soon met guitarist Mick Mars. Mars was quickly auditioned and subsequently hired by Sixx and Lee.

Tommy Lee had known Vince Neil from their high school days at Royal Oak H.S. and on seeing him perform with the band Rock Candy at the Starwood in Hollywood, Mars suggested Mötley Crüe hire Vince. At first he refused. However, as the other members of Rock Candy became involved in outside projects, Neil grew anxious to try something else. When Lee made one final appeal to audition he accepted.

They soon met their first manager, Allan Coffman. He financed their first album, Too Fast for Love, on their own small, independent Lethur Records label; the record sold a surprising 20,000 copies.
In 1983, the band changed management from Allan Coffman to Doug Thaler and Doc McGhee. After signing to Elektra Records, the band released Shout at the Devil in 1983, which featured the hit video "Looks That Kill." The record went platinum, but the band's success was temporarily brought to a halt when Neil was involved in a deadly automobile accident on August 12.

Driving under the influence of alcohol, Neil crashed into another car, killing his good friend and passenger Nicholas Dingley of Hanoi Rocks; the other victims emerged with broken bones and brain damage. Neil was found guilty of vehicular manslaughter and driving while intoxicated, and was incarcerated for 30 days in 1985, in addition to performing community service and paying a large cash settlement.
By the time Neil had been sentenced, however, the band's newest record, Theatre of Pain, had already been released and soared up the charts, making the band stars and producing their first Top 40 hit with a cover of Brownsville Station's "Smokin' in the Boys' Room."

In 1987, Sixx suffered a near-fatal heroin overdose. He was declared legally dead on the way to the hospital, but one medic, a Crüe fan himself, refused to give up and gave Sixx two shots of adrenaline to the heart, bringing him back to life.

Their decadent lifestyles almost shattered the band, until the managers pulled an intervention, and refused to allow the band to tour in Europe, fearing that "some [of them] would come back in bodybags". Shortly after, all the band members underwent rehabilitation, except for Mars, who cleaned up on his own. Lee was the first to go into rehab.
After finding sobriety in 1989, Mötley Crüe reached its peak popularity with the release of their fifth album, Dr. Feelgood, on September 1, 1989.

In 1991 the album Decade of Decadence was released, and after the release though, Neil left the band in February 1992. A controversy exists to this day over whether Neil was fired or quit. Sixx has long maintained that Neil quit the band. However, Neil disputes this and insists that he was fired.
Neil was replaced by John Corabi. Mötley Crüe's commercial success waned throughout the 1990s.
The band reunited in 1997, after their current manage and Neil's manager, set up a meeting between Neil, Lee, and Sixx. Agreeing to "leave their egos at the door," the band released Generation Swine. The album was a commercial failure, due in part to their label Elektra Records' lack of support. The band soon left Elektra and created their own label, Mötley Records.

In 1999, Lee left the band to pursue a solo career due to increasing bad tension between himself and frontman Neil. He was replaced by Randy Castillo, who drummed on several Ozzy Osbourne albums. Randy died of cancer on March 26, 2002. No replacement had been named which sent the band into a hiatus.
Within the following six years, Sixx played in the bands 58 and Brides of Destruction, while Lee formed Methods of Mayhem and performed as a solo artist. Neil continued touring on an annual basis as a solo artist, singing mostly Mötley Crüe songs. Mars, who suffers from a degenerative back condition called ankylosing spondylitis, went into seclusion in 2001.

A promoter in England, Mags Revell, started the ball rolling for Mötley Crüe's reunion when he started a promotion that basically revealed how fans wanted the band to reunite. After meeting with management several times, in September 2004, Sixx announced that he and Neil had returned to the studio and had begun recording new material. In December 2004, the four original members announced a reunion tour which began in February, 2005. The album, Red, White & Crüe, was released in February 2005.

In 2006 Mötley Crüe went on the "Route of all Evil" tour co-headlining with Aerosmith. This was another well attended tour following the "Carnival of Sins" tour of 2005. In June 2007, Mötley Crüe set out on a small European tour.

Credits

The information has been taken from Wikipedia and Answers.com. I do not claim to have written it myself.