Motley Crue

When Motley Crue's lead singer Vince Neil releases his first solo studio disc in 15 years, you might expect there to be some good stories behind it.

Especially for a guy who's been married four times, and in the last four months alone was separated from Wife No. 4 and arrested for drunk driving in Las Vegas.

But Neil's disc, titled Tattoos and Tequila, is mainly a collection of '70s covers by such artists as Sweet, Cheap Trick, Aerosmith, Sex Pistols, Elvis Presley and Elton John.

"I just wanted to make a really cool party album," said Neil, 49, in Toronto earlier this year.

"The thing with these songs, each one has a memory attached to it. This whole thing is like a window into my life. Every single song has a memory attached to it. I could picture in my mind what I was doing listening to these songs. I was a young kid going to see bands on the Sunset Strip and it takes me back to those days."

Still, he has at least one good tequila tale.

"Falling off my horses in the Agave fields," he said laughing. "It gets hot in Mexico. So I'm on my horse, I have 2,000 acres of Agave in Mexico, and fell off. I didn't hurt myself but I got really lucky I didn't fall (into the Agave). They're like nine foot spears and if you fall on one of those, that could really hurt."

For the record, he has six tattoos, the most precious being one on his chest of a sacred heart bearing the name of his daughter Skylar, who died of cancer at the age of four in 1995.

"Tattoos and tequila -- it's just my life," he said.

Neil, who has two originals on the disc including the Nikki Sixx-penned Another Bad Day, a reject from a past Motley Crue album, says the long break between solo records -- he actually released a live solo album seven years ago -- is mainly due to his day job.

"I just haven't had the time to do it with all the touring that Motley Crue's been doing and different businesses that I opened," said Neil.

Among his businesses are his own brand of tequila and a Mexican cantina, both called Tres Rios; two tattoo parlours, Vince Neil Ink; two private jets for lease at Vince Neil Aviation, and two bar/restaurants called FeelGoods.

Still to come is CrueFest 3 next year, commemorating the veteran glam-metal outfit's 30th anniversary.

"That's when they start calling you legendary and icon when it just really means old," he said with a laugh. "For Motley to still be viable and selling out arenas and festivals 30 years later, it just shows that we weren't just a flash in the pan. We're very multi-generational now. You see, not only the fans that grew up with you, that are in their 40s, but with their kids, 12-year-olds with Shout At the Devil shirts on. I see a lot of dads with their five year olds on their shoulders taking them to their first rock experience. And attorneys standing next to tattoo artists. It's everything, that's the beauty of being of being in Motley right now."

Neil is also planning to release his own biography, called Tattoos & Tequila, that follows the warts-and-Crue biography, The Dirt, which came out in 2001.

"That book was written about four guys," he said. "I had a voice in it but I just touched on subjects. I touched on my youth, you know growing up in Compton, and witnessing murder after murder and thinking it was normal, and the tragedies with my daughter and the car wrecks (his best friend was killed and Neil, who was driving, served jail time for vehicular manslaughter), getting into music and my high school days and being in Motley Crue. The Dirt is 10 years old so a lot of stuff has happened in the last decade. It's just really the first time I've really told my story."

Neil bought jet for dogs

Cakes and Crackers, Vince Neil's two cocker spaniels, led to the Motley Crue frontman starting Vince Neil Aviation, a private jet company with two planes for lease.

"Those are the kids," he says pointing to pictures of the dogs on his blackberry.

"I mean just because of them I had to buy a jet. I bought an airplane for the dogs 'cause I have a home in San Francisco and Las Vegas and my (fourth and soon-to-be ex) wife won't put them on the crate so I bought a jet to get my dogs back and forth. I would have to charter planes for the dogs all the time and it was getting so expensive that I realized it was cheaper to buy a plane than to keep chartering it."

If that sounds just a little lavish, you're not alone in thinking that.

"Life's fun," he said, flashing a Dunamis watch that cost a cool $500,000.

Hey, I had to ask the cost with all those sparkling diamonds staring me in the face.