Mötley Crüe announced their final tour in 2014 alongside the public signing of a "cessation of touring agreement." The band played their final show on New Year's Eve 2015 and that was that. Then in 2017, got back together to record four new songs for the Netflix-released The Dirt biopic… which led to a reunion and full on tour that just recently wrapped up.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx said he originally turned down the reunion tour before hearing any of the details from management. Sixx noted that Mötley Crüe had been touring for roughly 35 years up to their retirement, and that reuniting for more just wasn't appealing at that point. "Tommy does other stuff, and I do other stuff, and I remember getting the phone call from management, and I was like. 'No,' and they go, 'You haven’t even heard what I have to say.'
"And we were friends, and we were fine and everything's good. We're just like, 'No, it’s a lot of work.' When you see the show out there, you're gonna go, 'Wow.' I mean, it's years of work putting it together, and then they were like, 'No, not eight arenas, eight stadiums,' and I was like, 'Let me call [drummer Tommy Lee].'"
"I was like, 'Hey, dude, they’re talking about us touring,' and he's like, 'No.' Because we wanted to be — stand by what we said, and then it was 16 and 36, which we just entered our 36th stadium, and there’s, what, another 120 next year and the year after that, so, we're grateful we said yes."
While the band's 2023 dates have not yet been confirmed, drummer Tommy Lee echoes Sixx's gratefulness of being able to tour over four decades into the band's career. "It's some pretty crazy stuff, man," Lee said. "I just echo what Nikki says, gratitude is on stun. To be able to do this, and think about this, for a second, name a band who's got the same original members that's been doing it this long — good luck."
