Mötley Crüe have shared ‘Dogs Of War’ – their first new single since 2019 and first official music with new guitarist John 5. Check it out below, along with our interview with Nikki Sixx and John 5.
READ MORE: The Dirt film review – forget passing the Bechdel test, this wouldn’t even pass a literacy test
The glam metal veterans first shared news of new music earlier this week, when they confirmed that Friday (April 26) would see them drop ‘Dogs Of War’. Not only does the single mark their first new music since 2019, it also sees their first official release with John 5 (Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie), after he joined the touring line-up in 2022 and eventually went on to replace Mick Mars as the band’s lead guitarist last year.
Kicking off with a brash, uptempo riff, the song ultimately delivers exactly what you’d expect from the rock icons, retaining their old-school glam roots with frontman Vince Neil belting out a chorus of “Don’t let those bastards get you down”.
The track was recorded remotely last year with the band’s longtime collaborator Bob Rock, and first teased towards the end of 2023 when Crüe played a secret set at The Underworld in Camden, going by the alias Dögs Of War.
“There was no plan to actually record ‘Dogs Of War’,” bassist and founding member Nikki Sixx told NME. “We were in the studio doing demos, and it always happens where we have a vision of a song but then other riffs come out from there. So while we were working on a song, this riff came out.
“We had a ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’ [The Ramones] cover that we were talking about doing, but essentially we were just getting together to be creative. Then ‘Dogs Of War’ came out, as well as a couple of other ideas,” he added. “At the end of that day I went home and was watching A Handmaid’s Tale on Netflix, and here’s a saying in the show, ‘Don’t let the bastard grind you down’. So I wrote it down, then I wrote a lot of the lyrics pretty much from there.”
John 5 continued, recalling what it was like to be writing new music with the members and Bob Rock for the first time. “It was a really cool thing that happened, especially because Nikki and Tommy [Lee, drummer] and Vince had recorded with Bob Rock for so long. But when I went in there, we all got in one room and that was so unorthodox to me because I haven’t recorded that way in so long.
“We all got in one room and just knocked it out, and that’s how everything was tracked. I thought that was so special because nowadays you don’t really see that kind of very organic way of recording.”
After releasing their last studio album ‘Saints Of Los Angeles’ in 2008, the band told NME about the changes that Mötley Crüe have gone through since then – including John 5 joining as a full-time member, and their recently signed deal with Nashville’s Big Machine Records.
However, they reassured fans that while it may seem like the start of a new chapter, the influence from the guitarist is by no means a new development that will see them deviate from their roots.
Nikki Sixx and John 5 of Motley Crue perform at Marvel Stadium. (Photo credit: Chris Putnam/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
“We’ve already written so many songs together because me and Nikki have known each other for decades now. There have been times where we talk like six or seven times a day,” John 5 explained, with Sixx going on to insist that he was “the one that gave him the grey hair” before he even joined the line-up.
“We were working together even back with that Meatloaf song, ‘The Monster is Loose’,”, Sixx recalled, referring to the 2006 track that the two co-wrote for ‘Bat Out of Hell III’.
“We were writing while the Dirt movie was being finished,” he added, going on to share how the band ended up writing multiple new songs around the time of the film.
“If I remember correctly, there were four songs called ‘The Dirt’ because we were trying to zero in on one song, but we ended up releasing all four of them. [Working with John 5] has always been a nice creative process, we’re always having a good time.”
Sixx also went on to share his thoughts on the huge success of the biopic in 2019, as well as the hit 2022 series Pam & Tommy, which saw Mötley Crüe exposed to a new generation of fans – over four decades after they first formed.
“For us, the only constant in our career has been that we constantly change and that comes with hills and valleys,” he explained. “We’ve ridden it out over 43 years and sometimes we’re not cool, sometimes we’re the coolest band, sometimes we can’t even get a phone call back.
“We’re just living in our own little bubble and doing what we want to do. Obviously it feels great when people really love what you’re doing, but I don’t necessarily think we’ve ever thought that we should do something to be liked or for the public reception. We do what we do, we’re passionate about it and we hope that people like it. Also, if they don’t, we get that, we understand it. It’s just part of our creative process.”
Speaking of being introduced to a new generation of fans, the bassist went on to recall what it was like for the band – who are famed for their controversial, hedonistic image – to be now releasing music in today’s landscape, where a different level of responsibility is placed on those in the public eye.
Nikki Sixx of Mötley Crüe performs live for the “The World Tour” at Sheffield Bramall Lane on May 22, 2023 in Sheffield, England. (Photo by Anthony Devlin/Getty Images)
“I don’t really feel that I have any connection to trying to sell myself as something that people want, I just use social media the same way that I’ve used interviews since 1981. I speak from my heart and talk about what I’m actually doing in my life,” Sixx said, elaborating on how his larger-than-life front has been replaced with a more family-oriented image in recent years.
“I have almost a five-year-old daughter and she’s a big part of me and my wife’s life so I share a lot about my family life and about my creative process now. I think that’s the best way to be as an artist, to be transparent.”
As for whether or not fans can expect to see more new music on the way, Sixx confirmed to NME that ‘Dogs Of War’ is one of three new tracks that the band have recorded, although there are no plans for a bigger release any time soon.
“We don’t know when they [the other two tracks] will come out, but we’re really proud of all of them so they’ll probably all come out over this year,” he said. “As far as next year is involved, we’re just not that far down the road in terms of recording songs and deciding what we’re going to do.”
While it looks like the follow-up to ‘Saints Of Los Angeles’ is still a while off, Crüe are set to embark on a run of live shows this summer, including festival appearances at Summerfest, Welcome To Rockville, Festival d’été de Québec and more. Visit here for remaining tickets.
Meanwhile, Mötley Crüe co-founder and former lead guitarist Mick Mars recently shared news of his debut solo album ‘The Other Side Of Mars’ last October. The release marked his first new music since he departed from the glam rock line-up in October 2022, following his struggle with Ankylosing Spondylitis (A.S.).
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