MÖTLEY CRÜE drummer Tommy Lee has told Stereogum that he is not a huge fan of the band’s third album, 1985’s “Theatre Of Pain”. “There’s parts I love, and parts that I don’t,” he said. “I can’t say it’s my least favorite, because there’s some great stuff on it. But as a band, we were still trying to figure out what it is that we all collectively did. I was just coming into the picture with songwriting, and we were in this headspace where we loved David Bowie. Every time you saw him, he had changed into something different. We liked that, so that’s why around ‘Theatre Of Pain’ we really glammed it out — super-bright colors, more makeup. Then we went for a different look on the next record. We were always evolving, but ‘Theatre Of Pain’ was early on enough that we were still figuring out what MÖTLEY CRÜE was.”
“Theatre Of Pain” contained the hit singles “Smokin’ In The Boys Room” (a cover of BROWNSVILLE STATION‘s 1973 Top 5 hit) and the power ballad “Home Sweet Home”. The album reached No. 6 on the U.S. chart and No. 36 on the U.K. chart. It was certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA in June 1995.
In MÖTLEY CRÜE‘s band autobiography, “The Dirt”, singer Vince Neil expressed his disbelief at “Theatre Of Pain”‘s success.
“Every night, though I loved singing [‘Smokin’ In The Boys Room’], Nikki [Sixx, CRÜE bassist] would complain that the song was stupid and he didn’t want to play it,” he said. “I felt like the only one sober enough to realize how bad some of those [‘Theatre Of Pain’] songs were. I was shocked the record went double platinum.”
Sixx also had less-than-complimentary things to say about “Theatre Of Pain”, calling it “a pile of rubbish, the whole fucking record, with a few moments of maybe brilliance” in 2014’s “The Big Book Of Hair Metal”.
MÖTLEY CRÜE‘s “The Stadium Tour” with DEF LEPPARD, POISON and JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS ” was originally scheduled to take place this summer but ended up being pushed back to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic which is sweeping the globe.
Lee‘s new solo album, “Andro”, is due on October 16. The first two singles from the collection, “Knock Me Down” and “Tops”, were released in early June.
