Nikki Sixx says that MÖTLEY CRÜE originally invited VAN HALEN‘s David Lee Roth to share the bill with them and DEF LEPPARD on “The Stadium Tour” but that David passed. “I don’t open for bands that I influenced,” the CRÜE bassist says Roth told him, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Back in October 2019, Roth reflected on the influence of VAN HALEN on bands that followed, telling KKLZ‘s “The Mike & Carla Morning Show”: “Hair bands were the imitations of VAN HALEN. Yeah, it is true, and spandex was what they came up with as something visual. I started off in leather, with the same haircut that Bono and [Bruce] Springsteen and the guys in METALLICA had. A famous haircut — if I had that same haircut today, it’d have its own Instagram. But VAN HALEN was a ’70s band — we started off in 1972, and our first two albums were in the ’70s. We sold our first 10 million records before the ’70s were over. We spawned a whole lot of imitators who resorted to gimmickry and trade crap. It’s easier to imitate a haircut and a kind of pants and to exhibit bad behavior.”
“The Stadium Tour”, which also features POISON and JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS, was originally scheduled to take place last summer but ended up being pushed back to 2021, and then to 2022, due to the coronavirus crisis.
When it happens, “The Stadium Tour” will mark the CRÜE‘s first live dates since wrapping its 2014/2015 farewell tour. CRÜE toured with POISON back in 2011 and DEF LEPPARD teamed up with POISON for a string of road dates in 2017 — but the upcoming jaunt marks the first time all four acts have hit the road together for an extended tour.
As of January 30, 2020, “The Stadium Tour” had already grossed $130 million from one million tickets sold, plus another $5 million worth of VIP seats, according to Billboard.
Tickets ranged from $150 to $400, not counting some varied pricing that reflected demand as part of “dynamic pricing.”
Roth performed as the opening act for the February/March 2020 North American leg of KISS‘s farewell tour, but is not making any appearances on the rescheduled KISS shows which kicked off on August 18 in Mansfield, Massachusetts.
In March 2020, Roth postponed the final six shows of his Las Vegas residency due to the coronavirus pandemic.