Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee admits that writing new songs with new guitarist John 5 was “really important.”
The “Girls, Girls, Girls” hitmakers' longtime guitarist Mick Mars caused a shock when Nikki Sixx, Vince Neil and Tommy released a statement announcing he had left the band for good, but Mars actually claims he's retired from touring.
Having weathered a legal battle with Mick, the group is feeling reborn, moving forward with a new guitarist and writing new songs with regular producer Bob Rock.
Speaking to Japanese rock radio personality Masa Ito on TVK's Rock City, Tommy said, “Recording was really important for us because we felt a new energy on that tour (Stadium Tour 2023). With John 5 joining the band, we really wanted to share what we were feeling with our fans. This new energy was like a rebirth in many ways, so we started writing songs and we were like, 'Okay, let's call Bob Rock (producer), get it on tape and record it.' The whole tour and John joining the band was really inspiring for us to share new music with our fans because we really believed in the 'last effort decides everything' and we hadn't recorded anything new in a while.”
In April they released the single “Dogs Of War,” their first new music in five years.
“There were no plans to actually record 'Dogs Of War',” bassist Nikki recently told NME.
“We were in the studio making demos and I always had a vision for the song and then other riffs would come out of it, so as we were writing this riff just came out.
“There was 'Blitzkrieg Bop.' [The Ramones] We had talked about doing a cover but we basically just got together to create something. Then “Dogs Of War” was born and we had a few other ideas.
“I went home at the end of the day and was watching The Handmaid's Tale on Netflix, and there was a line in the show that said, 'Don't give in to that bastard,' so I wrote that down and wrote most of the lyrics from there.”