Motley Crue Storm the Hard Rock

Though Rick Rubin is currently tied up with U2 in London, he's slated to work with both Metallica and Velvet Revolver next, VR drummer Matt Sorum informed us last night during the Hard Rock Cafe's 35th birthday extravaganza. "I think we're going to beat Metallica to the studio cause we write songs faster than they do," he boasted. In addition to the dudes from Velvet Revolver, and Mötley Cr^#252;e (who performed later in the evening) attendees at the event included Max Weinberg with kids in tow (who confessed to us that Tommy Lee is one of his favorite drummers but surmised that the relationship probably isn't reciprocal) and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler who told us he's finally going to release his own solo album sometime after the next Aerosmith record comes out.

"We've got a greatest hits album coming out and one more for Sony and after that I'm doing a solo project. All I can say is 'look out,' " the rocker warned. Tyler was feeling so chipper, he even joked that since Mötley Crüe and Aerosmtih are enjoying the "Route of All Evil" tour so much, the two bands might just decide to record an album together.

The show itself was a typically debauched affair, with Nikki Sixx spitting water all over the audience in between riffs while Tommy passed around his own personal bottle of Jagermeister. "Dr. Feelgood," "Girls, Girls, Girls," "Wild Side" — the classics just kept coming. And when — after gleefully breaking his bass— Sixx invited Steven Tyler onstage to lead the crowd in a rendition of instant-classic "Happy Birthday Hard Rock" it was one of those almost teary, drunk at the Hard Rock moments you never admit to having the next morning.

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Song Stories

“Is It True”

Brenda Lee | 1964

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."

More Song Stories entries »

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