Mötley Crüe, Def Leppard, Poison Planning 2020 Stadium Tour: Report
Nearly four years after wrapping their Final Tour, Mötley Crüe is reportedly eying a return to the road — alongside two other iconic rock outfits.
According to Rolling Stone, the band is prepping a 2020 stadium tour with ’80s metal mainstays Poison and Def Leppard. Though the groups themselves have yet to officially announce the triple-pronged trek, sources tell the outlet that it will take the bands across the United States.
The move is something of a surprise to fans of Mötley Crüe, whose rowdy exploits were recounted in a Netflix movie, The Dirt, earlier this year. The band claimed that they had signed a “cessation of touring agreement” prior to the Final Tour which prohibited them from future concerts, barring an unanimous agreement within the group.
“Legally, we can’t play again,” bassist Nikki Sixx told Rolling Stone before one of their final shows in 2014. “The only loophole is if all four band members agreed to do it, we could override our own contract. But we know that will never happen. There are people in this band who will refuse to ever do it again, and you’re talking to one of them. There is no amount of money that would ever make me do it again because I have such pride in how we’re ending it.”
Earlier this year, Sixx doubled down on these claims in a further interview with Rolling Stone. “Sometimes I look out at my friends, like the guys in Aerosmith and Metallica, and I’m like, ‘God damn it, did we retire too soon?’” he said. “But there will be no one-offs in our future. Maybe we’ll just get together and jam in Mick Mars’ front room.”
However, fans began to speculate that Mötley Crüe were considering a comeback after the band’s Twitter account retweeted a petition calling for the band to reform, along with the message “This is interesting…” The Tweet was later deleted.
Then on Monday afternoon, representatives for the band shared a video declaring that “Mötley Crüe is back!”
“Almost six years after signing a Cessation of Touring agreement, the contract is off the table because a whole new generation of Crüeheads are relentlessly demanding for the band to come back together,” read the statement that accompanies the video. “Following the huge success of their NETFLIX biopic THE DIRT, Mötley Crüe has seen a massive surge in new audience. And the band best known for breaking the rules has destroyed their cessation of touring contract in true Mötley Crüe-fashion, by literally blowing it up.”
“After 35 years together on stage, and 30 years since the release of Dr. Feelgood, the members of Mötley Crüe parted ways without speaking to each other after their Final Show on December 31, 2015,” the statement continued. “Vince, Nikki, Mick and Tommy didn’t come together again until 2018 to participate in the making of The Dirt movie, which unexpectedly brought them closer together again including seeing them head back into the recording studio after having gone in their own directions for several years. The fuse was lit.”
While obviously great news for fans, the statement does not mention any tour dates or locations.
Def Leppard, who were inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame at a New York City ceremony in March, toured with the Bret Michaels-fronted Poison in 2017, and also with Mötley Crüe in 2011.
