Netflix's The Dirt is a biographical comedy-drama about arguably one the most popular and controversial bands of the '80s and '90s, Motley Crue. The movie does its best to depict the legendary rockers' rise to fame, their infamous offstage antics, and off-the-wall partying lifestyles. The band members were played by Douglass Booth, Game of Thrones' Iwan Rheon, Daniel Webber, and rapper Machine Gun Kelly. However, although the movie did its best to capture the essence of Motley Crue, it didn't get everything right. Here are lies The Dirt told you about Motley Crue.
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00:00Mötley Crüe is one of the most notoriously dangerous rock bands in history, so when the
00:04trailer for the Netflix movie based on The Dirt memoir proclaimed,
00:08"...this story is true," it was easy to expect a brutally honest story.
00:12And while The Mötley Crüe movie is close, it's not all the way there.
00:17The Dirt dances artfully around the subject of Mötley Crüe singers not named Vince Neil,
00:22and it doesn't even bother mentioning the band's first singer.
00:24As Loudwire notes, before Crüe could get Neil locked in, they were in the market for
00:28other singers, and eventually found a man named Odin.
00:32Although they recorded a demo with him, the match wasn't exactly made in heaven.
00:36In the book version of The Dirt, Tommy Lee describes Odin as a round and rather simple
00:40man who was a wonderful singer.
00:42Unfortunately, Nicky Sixx became furious with the singer because of his weird habit of constantly
00:47wearing a pair of white gloves that he refused to remove, even when he was supposed to clap
00:51in the background of a song.
00:53If conflicts with Sixx weren't enough to oust Odin from the band, Mick Mars also had plenty
00:58of beef with him.
00:59Mars made it clear he hated Odin's guts because he thought the singer was a fat hippie.
01:03The movie actually uses some of Mars' colorful opinions about their first singer in the scene
01:07where Mars verbally eviscerates a portly rhythm guitarist also auditioning for the group.
01:12There's only room for one guitar player in this band, and that's me.
01:16So why don't you pack up your toys and go home?"
01:21In The Dirt, Tommy Lee meets his idol, Nicky Sixx from the band London, in a post-show
01:25chance encounter at a diner.
01:27Seeing Lee nervously introduces himself to the bass player, the two hit it off and Lee's
01:32drumstick spinning skills put him on Sixx's radar, despite the drummer's lack of experience
01:37in playing rock.
01:38He got his mad spinning skills from playing in a marching band.
01:41The real story is slightly different.
01:43According to Loudwire, Lee had band experience before Sixx recruited him for Motley Crue.
01:48He was in a group called Sweet 19, and according to Bang Your Head!
01:51The Rise and Fall of Heavy Metal, Sixx was well aware of this, seeing as the bassist
01:56had unsuccessfully auditioned for the band twice.
01:59The two actually met through Sweet 19 guitarist Greg Leon, who briefly played with the proto-Motley
02:04Crue before quitting the band, leaving Lee and Sixx to find a new guitarist.
02:09In The Dirt, recruiting Vince Neil as the band's vocalist was easy as pie.
02:13A quick chat with former schoolmate Tommy Lee and a few seconds of internal debate is
02:18all it takes for the singer to audition.
02:20The biggest conflict comes from Neil's girlfriend, who protests that the band plays too hard
02:24until the magic sound of the quartet inevitably wins her over like only hard rock can.
02:29This is relatively close, but the real Neil was a tougher customer.
02:33According to Loudwire, the vocalist actually missed his first audition for Crue, which
02:37caused them to temporarily experiment with Odin on vocals.
02:41When he turned out to be a disaster, Lee pestered Neil into actually showing up, which he eventually
02:46did with his girlfriend in tow.
02:48She apparently wasn't a fan, but Neil felt screwed over by his previous band and decided
02:53to join.
02:54Before the band went to the studio to make a demo, Neil had only been in the band for
02:57a couple of days and had to keep a lyric sheet on hand to record the vocals.
03:02Every great band has to start somewhere, and as The Dirt shows us, Motley Crue was no exception.
03:07The movie depicts their first gig as a clumsy affair where they initially almost freeze
03:11on stage, despite only performing to a handful of people.
03:14One dude spits on Vince Neil's beloved leather pants, which causes a huge fight between band
03:19members and the crowd.
03:20This isn't enough to win the audience over, and Crue's reputation is as good as made.
03:25According to LA Weekly, their real first concert at the Starwood Club was a much-hyped, successful
03:30gig opening for an established hard rock band called Y&T, in a packed venue with a 600-strong
03:36audience.
03:37The more you think about it, the less sense the movie's depiction makes.
03:40Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee were both known on the scene thanks to their previous bands,
03:45Vince Neil's ability to take over the stage was pretty much his entire thing, and Mick
03:49Mars was a veteran of umpteen bands.
03:52They may have been new together, but they were by no means wet behind the ears.
03:56Game of Thrones star Ewan Rayon's slightly off-putting charisma is essential in depicting
04:01Mick Mars, the guitar player who self-medicates his constant physical pain with booze and
04:06is always slightly tired of his younger bandmates and their excesses.
04:09You're goddamn right I'm old.
04:13Old enough to know better.
04:14I don't want to waste my time f----- around with a bunch of rug monkeys."
04:19Rayon's Mars is a stoic, sarcastic sage who only emerges from his bottle to discuss the
04:24band's artistic direction or make a passing comment that he, unlike the rest of the band,
04:29greatly respects women and refuses to take part in general crew groupie debauchery.
04:33As for the real Mick Mars, well, he's almost certainly the most virtuous member of Motley
04:38Crue, if only because the others were always so happily out of control that an older guy
04:43with serious health issues could hardly hope to compete.
04:46Still, that doesn't mean he's quite as innocent as the dirt makes him appear.
04:50In 1985, the real Mars stated in a Georgia Straight interview that not only are groupies
04:55a blessing, but he probably wouldn't even have become a musician if it weren't for them.
04:59Looks like Nicky Sixx may have been right when he told Louder,
05:02"'Don't let Mick Mars fool you, let me tell you.'"
05:04He had his fair share of debauchery, but that's a conversation you'll have to have with Mick.
05:09Regardless of how much music he's contributed to the world, Nicky Sixx will always be remembered
05:14for his temporary death on December 23, 1987.
05:17Naturally, his sort-of-fatal heroin overdose makes it into the movie, but in a fairly condensed
05:22form.
05:23What's strange, though, is the way the dirt shies away from showing just who Sixx was
05:27partying with at the time.
05:29As Ultimate Classic Rock describes,
05:30"'Sixx overdosed after a hard day of partying with Steven Adler and Slash from Guns N' Roses
05:36and Robin Crosby from Rat, for those who remember Rat.
05:39The failure to mention these particular celebrities seems odd."
05:42The presence of the Guns N' Roses crowd in particular was significant, because it may
05:46have played a part in saving Sixx's life.
05:49Slash's girlfriend was the person who gave Sixx mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while the
05:52paramedics made their way to the scene.
05:54The movie leaves out these details and ends the scene as Sixx passes out.
05:58The only thing hinting at the possible presence of the Guns N' Roses folks is a vaguely Slash-like
06:03figure we briefly glimpse lounging on a couch at the very start of the scene.
06:08One of the events Vince Neil might have liked the dirt to gloss over is the infamous death
06:12of Razzle, the Hanoi rocks drummer who died when Neil drunkenly crashed his car during
06:17a booze run on December 8, 1984.
06:20To its credit, the movie doesn't shy away from Razzle's tragic fate, but it still can't
06:24resist making the whole incident seem a little less damning than it actually was.
06:29While the dirt does show Neil with a bottle of beer in his hand before hopping behind
06:32the wheel, it can hold a coherent enough conversation to pass for sober, and the whole accident
06:37is made out to be a momentary lapse of attention due to some delightful banter with the Hanoi
06:41rocks man.
06:43According to Louder, the real incident was a significantly harsher look for Neil.
06:47Instead of the mild beer buzz depicted in the movie, Neil was reportedly heavily intoxicated
06:52when he hopped behind the wheel, and instead of drifting into the wrong lane while deep
06:55in discussion, the cruise singer was swerving around a stationary fire truck and hit a wet
07:00spot while driving 65 miles an hour in a 25-mile-an-hour zone.
07:05He hit two incoming cars before coming to a halt.
07:08When Vince Neil ended his first Motley Crue tenure in 1992, the dirt makes it seem like
07:13his main post-band activities included hanging out in his favorite bar and desperately trying
07:18to cope with the fact that his young daughter is dying of cancer.
07:21As People magazine reported, the sickness and death of Neil's daughter Skylar happened
07:25for real, and was absolutely devastating to the singer.
07:28However, this doesn't mean Neil spent all his waking hours focusing on that and feeling
07:32bad for himself.
07:34According to Ultimate Classic Rock, Neil signed a new solo deal with Warner Bros. pretty
07:38much as soon as he was out of Crue, and his debut solo single was released the same year.
07:43His first solo album, Exposed, was out in the spring of 1993, and he embarked on a tour
07:48with Van Halen.
07:49There's no telling what Neil, or Motley Crue for that matter, could have achieved had the
07:53tides of pop culture not turned against them.
07:55As grunge started taking over the world, glam metal started to become obsolete, and Neil's
08:00second solo album peaked at a less-than-respectable number 139 on the charts.
08:05In the dirt, Motley Crue reunites with wayward vocalist Vince Neil like old friends making
08:10amends after a stupid argument that drove them apart.
08:13It's easy, it's organic, and all it really takes is a conversation in a bar.
08:17It would be an amazing story, if it were true.
08:20According to Ultimate Classic Rock, Motley Crue had no intention of letting their new
08:24singer John Corabi go, despite his lackluster reception by the fans.
08:28Nicky Sixx even vowed that the Corabi-led Motley Crue would use adversity as fuel and
08:33make the follow-up to their commercially-failed, self-titled album from 1994 a true magnum
08:39opus.
08:40Meanwhile, Neil seemed happy with his solo path, despite dwindling album sales.
08:44No one really wanted a reunion, and it was actually Motley Crue's manager and Neil's
08:48manager who started working together to bring their clients back into their money-making
08:52original form.
08:53In 1997, their efforts finally bore fruit.
08:57According to Ultimate Classic Rock, a blindsided Corabi spent a month as a fifth member of
09:01the band, playing guitar.
09:03Finally, it all just, quote, "...kind of stopped," and with that, he was out.
09:08As The Dirt mentions during his introduction, guitarist Mick Mars suffers from a rare form
09:12of arthritis that is slowly fusing his spine solid, and severely affecting his mobility.
09:17In the final moments of the movie, the band is reunited with Vince Neil, and Mars' story
09:22receives a small bookend of its own when he goes through a hip replacement surgery that
09:26restores some of his mobility.
09:28Mars springs out of the hospital as his usually surly self, but the real road to the operation
09:32was far longer and harder than the movie shows.
09:35"[Crowd cheering and booing in the background.
09:38Blah-de-blah.
09:39F-----g blah."
09:40According to Ultimate Classic Rock, Mars was living in chronic pain for a long time after
09:45Neil rejoined, and when Motley Crue took a break in the early 2000s, he even stopped
09:50playing guitar for a full two years.
09:52When Nicky Sixx sought to reunite the original quartet in 2004, he was shocked to discover
09:57Mars had turned into a frail wreck of a man with a severe addiction to painkillers.
10:01His hip replacement operation was part of digging him out of this rut, but even worse
10:05was the fact that he couldn't play, or even hold, the guitar anymore.
10:09He says he had to reacquaint himself with the instrument with the help of a neuropsychiatrist.