STACK #203 Sep 2021

FEATURE MUSIC

WithoutYou is a romantic ode toTommy and Heather Locklear Dr. Feelgood ’s tender-hearted power ballad Without You has soundtracked many a high-

f-cked up on heroin, he was useless. I couldn’t believe he was shooting up at my f-cking wedding.” Tommy and Heather divorced in 1994. Metallica booked producer Bob Rock because they loved Dr.

Feelgood !? “By using samples in conjunction with the drum kit to get the weight and the size of the drums,” the producer told journalist Jake Brown. “Tommy would tap me on the shoulder and say, ‘Rockhead, could I have a little more bottom?’… He was such a loud hitter that he would actually compress the drums… so I remember I would have to back off the mics.” Metallica were so impressed by the resulting sound that they recruited Bob to produce their seminal self-titled album of 1991 (AKA ‘The Black Album’). “They particularly liked the sonic quality of Dr. Feelgood , and they wanted that size and weight,” Bob confirmed. Bryan Adams plus members of Aerosmith, Cheap Trick and Skid Row supplied backing vocals The roll call of legends who sing back-up vocals on Dr. Feelgood proved the Crüe’s magnetic pulling

When I heard the kick drum, my kidney fell out

- Bob Rock, producer

school prom slow dance/pash. “That was a very simple idea for

Feelgood ’s sonics “I had seen Mötley Crüe live, and when I heard the kick drum, my kidney fell out,” Bob has joked during an interview. So how did he recreate that booming bottom-end for Dr.

a song, [for] which I had written a lyric about Heather Locklear and Tommy,” Nikki revealed during a 2009 interview. “They were coming over to my place all the time. I thought to myself one day, Without You – coming from Tommy’s perspective – life would not be the same. It was a good relationship at that time. It was sort of a romantic moment. I apologise for that.” Naw, ain’t that cute? At Tommy and Heather’s wedding, however, Nikki was a shoo-in for ‘Worst Best Man Ever’. “He kept excusing himself to go to the bathroom, and then he’d return and start nodding off in the middle of the ceremony,” Tommy recalls in the Crüe’s bestselling tell-all autobiography, The Dirt: Confessions Of The World’s Most Notorious Rock Band . “As a best man, he was so

power extended way beyond just drugs and chicks: Sticky Sweet features Bryan Adams plus Steven Tyler (Aerosmith were recording their tenth album Pump in the same Canadian studio); Cheap Trick’s Robin Zander and Rick Nielsen supply BVs on She Goes Down (check out that cheeky zipper sound effect at the 3.33-minute mark!); and Time For Change features additional BVs by Skid Row.

MERRCH MONTH of the

MÖTLEY MERCH If we’ve got you feeling not just good but positively gooey for the Crüe, check out the neat merch JB are slinging right now.

Top: Dr. Feelgood 500 piece jigsaw puzzle. Left: Every Mother’s Nightmare Tour ‘84 t-shirt. Below: Girls, Girls, Girls 500 piece jigsaw puzzle

Clockwise from top left: Channel 10 news anchor David Johnston announces the “warm welcome” fans gave Mötley Crüe (described later in the report as “bedlam”) upon the band’s arrival at Melbourne Airport for the Dr. Feelgood tour, 1990; Promotional image of the band, 1989; Tommy Lee and Heather Locklear, late ‘80s

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