Motley Crue and Alice In Chains: Reality vs Fantasy of The Rock & Roll Lifestyle

May 7, 2014 in Raleigh, NC

Motley Crue: The Dirt. A very graphic reality TV show in book form.

I'm currently reading Motley Crue's book The Dirt and it's so informative, gross, graphic, sad and motivating that it is really hard to put down. This book should be read by anyone that has illusions about how glamorous the rock and roll lifestyle really is. All aspiring band members and the women who want to be groupies/girlfriends/wives should absolutely read this book.

Today,  I read this book still on my natural musical "high" of attending my first Alice in Chains concert in Raleigh on May 7. That concert was the first concert since seeing Collective Soul at the April 2009 Dogwood Festival in Fayetteville, NC that I watched a major band that I loved play live in concert.

 For the couple of years, I haven't been to a lot of concerts (no one I really wanted to see or spend precious money on the tickets). So seeing Alice in Chains was a huge event for me.

Everyone seemed to have a great time at the AIC concert. Most people have their dreams of what it is really like to be in a band or date a band member. After reading the Motley Crue book, I got a big dose of reality that the fantasy in my head is very far from the truth.

Being in a band is a lot of hard work for a lot of years. If you are extremely lucky to make it, you have to do even more work to stay at the level of success you obtained while being under a lot of pressure to achieve even more success.

Having reached success, the excesses of having a lot of money and fame come into play. Young good looking men in successful bands will have no shortage of women who will do anything, anyway, anywhere, etc. To be honest, I have never been so grossed out by how abusive and disrespectful Motley Crue was to the women they slept with. The book is very graphic depiction of how the guys really did not care about most of the women or themselves for that matter.

I was so thankful that I in the past when I met band members (Slaughter, Matt Sorum and local bands), I always acted respectfully to myself and to the men. I never wanted to be the notorious groupie bands could write dirty things about in their autobiographies. It should go without saying NOT every guy in every band is like the members of Motley Crue. There are a lot of wonderful healthy smart musicians who love their girlfriends/wives and their families.

Everyone has to make the right choices for their lives. It's human to make mistakes, learn from them and focus on living the best life you can. I keep thinking how much time the members of bands wasted in their youth. Life is so precious. The way you treat your body in your youth will have an impact on your health when you are older.

Jerry Cantrell looked amazing at the recent concert. To be honest, there have been times in the past when looking at Jerry in pictures and videos, he looked a lot older than he is. We have all seen how rock stars mostly do not age very well. The harshness of an addictive lifestyle and life on the road.  It was so great to see him looking so strong, happy and well at the concert. It is never to late in life to improve your health.

Every band has dirty laundry (love that song btw) and Alice in Chains has chosen to be mostly quiet about the details of their wild youthful days. It is interesting to see Jerry and Sean duck and dive around questions about their young crazy days in the band. Good times and bad times. Life Lessons learned the hard way and sadly too late for some members of the band. But of course I would love to know more behind the scenes stuff about AIC.

Standing in front of that stage watching Alice in Chains play, I was impressed by how healthy and strong they looked. Jerry has had struggles with his health and addiction through the years. I was definitely motivated and inspired to continue to improve my health. The band Alice in Chains is a group of men that overcame a lot of hardships in their lives and stayed true to their passion for music.

 I always feel a sense of pride knowing this about my favorite band.

I'm going to write more about Alice In Chains and other bands on my blog.

Thanks for reading!