Motley Crue Look Back at "Dr. Feelgood," "Home Sweet Home"

When Mötley Crüe completed their Saints of Los Angeles tour and Crüe Fest 2 this summer, they turned their attention to their past, revamping their best-of collection for a fresh Greatest Hits, which hits stores today. On the road, the band paid tribute to one of their milestones — the 20th anniversary of 1989's Dr. Feelgood — by playing the LP in its entirety. Vince Neil and Nikki Sixx were kind enough to take Rolling Stone through that album track by track earlier this year, and now Tommy Lee and Mick Mars weigh in on what made the record hit so hard.

Check out photos of the band kick-starting Crüe Fest 2.

Having guests like Steven Tyler, Skid Row and Cheap Trick's Robin Zander in the studio made it a "classic album," Mars says, and Lee discusses how the band, under pressure, made a pact to get sober and take the LP to the "next level." "I can't believe the four of us, in the state we were in, pulled it together like we were going to battle," he says, recalling how the band left everything behind but motorcycles and equipment and moved to Vancouver to do the record with Bob Rock. "We built tunnels to send the sound out into these big loading bays, and miked that," Lee recalls. Mars notes the ballad "Without You" features 79 tracks of guitar alone.

As for the epic power ballad "Home Sweet Home," Mars remembers Lee "was goofing around on piano" when he came up with the song's memorable lick — and that during recording, he accidentally wrecked his Les Paul and had to finish up with a Kramer Baretta. Lee says the song "really captured what it was like out on the road" and the video still stands up for him. "When MTV played music instead of all those Love things, it was 14 weeks in a row Number One," Mars recalls. "I knew it was a great song — it could have been better if our record company didn't mess it up." Click below to watch the duo break down "Home Sweet Home."

Motley Crue's Greatest Hits track list:

1. "Too Fast For Love"
2. "Shout At The Devil"
3. "Looks That Kill"
4. "Too Young To Fall In Love"
5. "Smokin In The Boys Room"
6. "Home Sweet Home"
7. "Wild Side"
8. "Girls, Girls, Girls"
9. "Dr. Feelgood"
10. "Kickstart My Heart"
11. "Same Ol' Situation"
12. "Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)"
13. "Without You"
14. "Primal Scream"
15. "Sick Love Song"
16. "Afraid"
17. "If I Die Tomorrow"
18. "Saints of Los Angeles"
19. "The Animal In Me (Remix)"

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Song Stories

“Too Close”

Next | 1998

Next was formed in Minneapolis when the uncle of Terry "T-Low" and Raphael "Tweety" Brown, who was a gospel choir director, introduced the brothers to Robert Lavelle "R.L." Huggar. Sounds of Blackness singer Ann Nesby groomed the R&B group before handing them over to Naughty by Nature's KayGee, who wrote and produced "Too Close." The idea for the song was sparked "from a conversation we had with several girls at a nightclub," explained T-Low. "It's talking about the club scene, with guys getting out of hand and the female telling him to back up, asking, 'What are you doing?'" 

More Song Stories entries »

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