Mötley Crüe has had an interesting past few years. The band split with founding guitarist Mick Mars which resulted in a lawsuit over financials, and has come under fire for some less-than-stellar vocal performances from Vince Neil. In an interview with The Jesea Lee Show, Mudvayne vocalist Chad Gray voiced a pretty honest opinion on Mötley Crüe in 2024 – hang it up or try harder.
On Mötley Crüe's decision to recruit John 5 in place of Mars for touring and studio duties, Gray said: "At this point, I would just bow out. It's not the same, dude. I'm not the guy that fucking like just wants to sit and talk shit, but I have, unfortunately… It hits me in such a pure place, and to see it just kind of turn into fucking whatever because it was such a big part of my life, and so it's hard for me to watch."
Gray was then asked if the band should call it a day. Gray responded that maybe if the band tried harder they should keep going, but seemed to only single out Neil given his comments about vocal performances as vocalists get older.
"Unless you wanna try harder. You know what I mean? And it's not all of 'em. [drummer Tommy Lee] can still fucking play. Tommy's a fucking beast. I mean, he always will be. But that's usually the way with drummers – they usually can stand the test of time.
"I get it with singers and shit like that. You lose some of your register and frequency, your pitch will drop. That's just fucking nature. 'Cause it has with me — my resonant pitch has definitely dropped. I can still get up there, but it's weird. My register break is a little bit lower and different. So, it does happen, but it's just, like, come on, man."
Still, Gray credited Mötley Crüe as a gateway to metal when he was a kid.
"My mom had me when she was 17 years old," said Gray. "So, I would cruise the strip with my mom and her friends, and fucking Peter Frampton and The Eagles and Zeppelin, that was what was on the radio. So that's what I grew up with.
"So I grew up in a very musical household, because my mom was still young and it was basically the classic rock era in real time. So I grew up on a lot of really great music, man. But I'm telling you fucking what — nothing touched me like, man, the first [time I heard 'Live Wire']. That opening riff to fucking 'Live Wire' was, like, 'What?' Like I said, I had a familiarity with music — I knew music and I knew good music — but that shit was just, like, it bit me. It fucking bit me."
