Who Knew That Motley Crue Was Decadent?

I’m always amazed with the silly stories that become the big controversies of the day. It’s not like we don’t have legitimate issues that should be the focus of our attention. There’s the war (along with the numerous issues that surround that action), gas gouging, domestic wiretapping, lobbyist corruption, environmental issues…the list goes on and on.
Locally, we have our own problems. If you listen to some news channels, these include teen drinking (although statistics actually show underage drinking to be at a lower level than in the past), silly polygamists that don’t look at all like the babes on HBO’s Big Love, and the mumps. There’s also the contentious abortion debate, the upcoming water crisis, road construction hassles, city budget issues, and the perplexing reelection of De Knudson and Dave Munson.
Yet if one were to get their news only from the letters section of the daily paper (which I hope absolutely nobody does), there is really only one issue that anybody should care about – whether Motley Crue provided enough evidence of their decadence for ticket buyers.
The debate started not before the concert but almost three weeks after they nabbed their six figure payday on April Fools Day. A twit by the name of Amber Ernste wrote a scathing letter to the editor complaining about the filth she had to endure that evening. It was so bad she supposedly left before the show even began. She says she should have been warned before she bought her tickets.
Since then, there has been a daily deluge of letters laughing at her silliness…as they should. Now I’m not here today to give this band any credibility. I’ve hated them ever since I first heard them way back in the ’84 or so, and I still hate them to this day (except for Tommy Lee, who was really cool to me when I interviewed him a few years ago). In my opinion they represent everything that was wrong with ‘80’s bubblegum metal. More importantly, I’ve had to endure their music at strip clubs for 20 years. Note to strippers all over the world – playing “Girls, Girls, Girls” is completely played out. It’s as big of a cliché as the moron yelling out “Free Bird” at a non-Skynyrd show. Please just stop.
The quality (or lack thereof) is not the issue today. Ms. Ernste is. For her to claim that she had no idea there would scantily clad women, alcohol, silly double entendres, and other references to sex and drugs is nothing short of ludicrous. They may not have created the term “sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll” but they have certainly lived up to that motto their entire career. Almost every song title is sex-related; every promo photo plays up to their decadent image. VH1’s Behind the Music feature spent almost the entire show on two segments of their career – Nikki Sixx’s drunken car crash that killed a member of Hanoi Rocks and Tommy Lee’s porno home movies with ex-wife Pamela Anderson. Hell, their ticket stubs even proclaimed this tour as “Carnival of Sins”.
What the hell did this woman expect? Has she lived under a rock her entire life? It’s not like she stumbled onto a death metal band playing in a small club. She had to make a decision to spend forty bucks to see the show; at that kind of cost wouldn’t it make sense that you’d have to know something about the band.
Here’s what I think actually happened, and I admit that I have no proof to verify this, She was not at the Arena that fateful evening. If she was inside the building it was a sort of fact-finding mission. She knew beforehand that the band was “sinful”, and wrote that letter to the editor to save us from our sins. Guess what? It didn’t work. Instead, you just look like an uneducated fool.