So last night after a eleven hour day of work and after our four year old went to bed I could not wait to watch The Dirt Movie. I'll post my thoughts on the movie below this write up but first this is why my review of this movie is going to be slightly bias. I've been a fan for thirty two years, have seen them over ten times in concert and their music got me through a lot of tough times with being in a severe accident in 1994 and surviving.
In May of 1987 I was turned on Much Music's show The Power Hour and was watching an interview with a band called Mötley Crüe. I was instantly drawn in to it and awaited the premiere of their new video Girls, Girls, Girls. I was drawn to the rebellious nature of this band as I grew up in a very religious home being raised by two amazing parents who were Christian ministers and every Sunday whether I liked it or not I was sitting in a church for several hours.
I saved up a few weeks allowance and went in to our local record store in Bonavista, Newfoundland and bought "Girls, Girls, Girls" on cassette. I spent so many hours when the leaflet unfolded learning all the lyrics and banging my head. So up came the next Sunday and having the usual argument with my parents about having to wake up for church went a little different this day. I decided to bring my Sony Walkman with me, run the wire up the back of my shirt and sat up in the balcony listening to this cassette over and over. While the folks in this church were singing "Take a walk with Jesus" I was rocking out to "Take a walk on the Wild Side" without anyone knowing. (In fact I've told my parents who were ministers about this)
It took me about two weeks to learn the opening sequence to the song Dr. Feelgood but when I did it was all I played for a good two months and must have drove my parents crazy but I didn't careI felt like Mick Mars.
At the age of 14 for my school English project we had to do a speech on a popular subject. I decided to pick "Why Heavy Metal Is Not The Devils Music" as my topic of choice. I thought the speech was great but I went in to detail about how Metal was a scapegoat for people wanting to blame the worlds problems on it ended up with a call to my parents from my teacher who was concerned about my mental state. Someone had also reported me to her because of the Crue posters and Shout At The Devil album cover I had pinned up in my locker but hey I turned out alright.
We had a friend of the family stay with us that was a pastor at another church and he took over my room for the weekend. On the back of my door I had a giant Crue flag with the Shout At The Devil pentagram album cover on it and he told my parents they were satanists and I should not be listening to their music. My dad took my cassette collection from me and I was pissed. So I went to the garage plugged in my guitar and played the opening bars from SATD for a good two hours straight on my 50 watt Peavey amplifier and it felt damn good. After the gentleman left I got my Crue tapes back and all was normal. I continued to listen to Crue and often had stereo battles with my brother who was blaring his Stryper cassettes in the next room over so on many nights it was Shout At The Devil Vs. To Hell With The Devil.
In 1994 I was involved in an incident where I was attacked by three males and stabbed thirteen times. (Twice in my leg and nine on my back) I came very close to dying and spent quite a bit of time in the hospital and it took me months of recovery learning how to walk again. A family member asked what I wanted from home at the hospital and without hesitating I wanted my Motley Crue music. I guess the song "On With The Show" had a deeper meaning to me at this time as I just moved on and went on with my own show but this incident made me look at life completely different and take nothing for granted. I was laid up on a couch for almost six months and there was no such thing as Social media at the time or Netflix to binge watch something, so all I had was live TV, my stereo and my metal and rock collection on cassettes. Most of the time when I'd get upset I'd put on Crue and blast it in my headphones and it would take me away, ease my mind and make me for get everything I had just experienced.
Fast Forward to 2006 and I was now living in Toronto, Ontario with my family. The Carnival Of Sins tour was coming to Toronto and this was it I was about to see my favourite band of all time live in concert. Growing up in Newfoundland we didn't get many concerts come to town aside from Our Lady Peace & Trooper so this was a very big deal for me.
In 2007 I started a online group for sending coffee to Canadian soldiers serving our country in Afghanistan and I had no idea what this would eventually lead to but that will come later.
In 2007 after moving to Calgary I hosted a Support Our Troops night at Cowboys Night Club here in Calgary, Alberta and the bar bused in military men and women from all over Alberta. They had a silent auction to raise money for military charities and there was one item I was not losing.
It was box seats to an upcoming Motley Crue show and I won't say how much I paid for it but it was for a good cause and it was another amazing night of seeing my favourite band live.
April 2013 would be my greatest Crue moment in my 30 years of being a fan. Through my Thank A Soldier page a lady from their management team reached out to me about their upcoming Calgary show and said they wanted to give me some tickets to bring some Canadian Forces members to their show. Ofcourse I agreed and myself and seven veterans arrived at the stadium to find we had been seated in ROW ONE Center stage. For about thirty minutes before the show started I just sat there in disbelief looking at the stage setup and reflecting on my 14 year old self learning how to their play their songs I was about to get my ass kicked in the front row.
Just when I thought this couldn't get any more amazing they were singing "Home Sweet Home" and Vince was going along the front row putting his microphone in front of people on the chorus. It got to me and I belted out harmonies with him and he looked surprised. He gave me a thumbs up and said "F**k Yeah" away from the mic and threw a guitar pick at me.
I didn't think this night could ever be topped but I was wrong.
My daughter had another moment the first time she saw Splash N Boots live in concert and said to me "Dad how did they get from the TV to here"
She kept saying over and over "This is so amazing, so amazing and great thank you"
The best words I've ever heard.
So I guess that pastor that stayed with us back in the 80s was wrong, I didn't turn out to be devil worshiping demon or a biker from listening to Motley Crue. I think I turned out alright
The Dirt Movie - My thoughts.
It was a wild ride from start to finish. Was the acting Oscar worthy probably not according to whatever standards they use to judge them on these days I have no idea as I don't watch the show. If you watch this movie expecting to see anything less than filth that made Motley Crue what they were you will be sadly disappointed. If you're easily offended I would stay far away from this film . This movie is the kick in the nuts 2019 needs and a reminder that sometimes we take things way too seriously. I'm sure in the next few weeks there will be some group that will protest it or request Netflix to remove it or some sort of online petition. If you read the book you won't be disappointed. if you've followed Motley Crue along the way as I have you'll enjoy this movie.
Rock On!
