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The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band
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The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band

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4.16  ·  Rating Details ·  23,011 Ratings  ·  1,430 Reviews

Whiskey and porn stars, hot reds and car crashes, black leather and high heels, overdoses and death. This is the life of Mötley Crüe, the heaviest drinking, hardest fighting, most oversexed and arrogant band in the world. Their unbelievable exploits are the stuff of rock 'n' roll legend. They nailed the hottest chicks, started the bloodiest fights, partied with the biggest

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Paperback, 431 pages
Published July 9th 2002 by HarperCollins Publishers (first published 2001)
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Ana
This is the best thing ever.

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Paul Hathaway
Feb 15, 2008 Paul Hathaway rated it it was amazing
Recommends it for: Anyone who thinks their lives are fast paced and interesting.
Recommended to Paul by: Steve
11am. Woke up. Vomited. Started reading this book.
4pm. Neck started hurting. Took huge amounts of cocaine, bottle of Alleve, 5th of Jack, decided reading in bed wasn't the best thing for my posture.
4:15pm. Went crazy, destroyed hotel room, terrified groupies in varying stages of dress, played rock show.
6pm. Was woken up, informed previous rock show was in head by manager, told had to go to real rock show later. Read more book.
8pm. Arrived @ show. Drank 2 more bottles of Jack, took huge amounts o
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evelyn
Jun 09, 2008 evelyn rated it liked it
Shelves: readin2008
i remember when i was 13 or so and i finally realized that all of the r.l. stine books i'd been reading were pretty trashy and devoid of any literary merit. i felt a little silly for devouring something like 100 fear street books. i didn't feel too bad about it, though. i mean, i was reading, and it wasn't like i ONLY read fear street books. i read good stuff too.

this book is like that, only now i'm 25, and this book is friggin DIRTY. i kind of feel like i'm writing a review for soft porn right
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Lilly
Mar 19, 2007 Lilly rated it it was amazing
There's a scene in Gilmore Girls where Lorelei stays home one night because she can't put this book down. I can fully understand why now.

I loved this book. We read books to escape, and this book had me leave my world and be a cliche rock star in the hair metal 80s. It's not about liking hair metal, and it's not about liking rock, and it's not even about Motley Crue (who I knew nothing about at the start of this adventure). It's about what drives people, how lives intersect, and about page-turnin
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Michelle Morrell
Jun 07, 2016 Michelle Morrell rated it really liked it
Holy crap. Were the stories of rock and roll decadence entertaining? Absolutely! All the insider reports were delightful even. But I still came away feeling sad, sad that music and the non-stop consumption of drugs, alcohol, women and stuff seemed to be the only way these men could fill the gaping holes in themselves. Sad at the wreckage they left behind wherever they went. Sad that they seemed to be flailing for meaning even with all the fame and money they craved. Sad that their demons and the ...more
East Bay J
Sep 26, 2007 East Bay J rated it liked it
Recommends it for: Crue fans and people who like the dirt
Shelves: music-bios
I’m not a huge Crue fan. Their first two LPs spent a fair amount of time on my teenage turntable but, by the time Theater Of Pain pranced and prissed its way into release, I had lost interest. I do like some Crue songs enough to get stoked when I hear them, even later compositions like “All In The Name Of…”, “Kickstart My Heart” or “Wild Side”. Their ballads stand out of the 80’s hair metal miasma as being of a certain quality. “Nona” and “Without You” are just the right mix of sincerity and sap ...more
Mariℓina
Aug 07, 2015 Mariℓina rated it really liked it
A train wreck happening right in front your eyes, both horrid and spectacular.


I am not a fan of Motley Crue but The Dirt is one of the best books on the rock memoirs genre, so i had to read it. Indeed, it's brilliant and no matter how you feel about the group, their antics or their music, you will end up loving their journey to stardom.


Filthy, almost gory at some points, insanely sad and painful at others, the only word that comes to mind in the end, is captivating! And horrifically so..
I have t
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Tripp
Feb 03, 2008 Tripp rated it really liked it
Recommends it for: Voyeurs, rock fans
I used to think that I could not be shocked by tales of celebrity shenanigans. Well, I was wrong. After a few recommendations I read The Dirt, the story of Motley Crue. For most of their career, the behavior of these people (Mick Mars excepted) is flat out appalling. As Nikki Sixx notes, if they were not famous they would have been in jail. I'm pretty sure that if you saw any of these people in their heyday, you would hate them immediately.

If it was written in the 80s, it would probably have bee
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Beth F.
Mötley Whö? I was more interested in My Little Pony during the band’s heyday and my taste in music has never leaned in this direction, but I love a scandalous train wreck just as much as the next gal and this bio fit the bill. Plus, Pamela Anderson’s breasts were a seriously major topic of conversation at my high school in 1995 and when she married Tommy Lee, a whole bunch of teenagers who’d been too sheltered to care about Mötley Crüe were suddenly interested in who was getting up close and per ...more
KW
Sep 19, 2007 KW rated it liked it
Shelves: rough-chuckles
I ripped through "The Dirt" while suffering from a nasty bout of the flu. Because of its accessibility, its fast pace and its sporadic-yet-easy-to-track narrative (which simply switches between points of view), I finished it in about a day and a half.
I will admit to never having been a huge fan of Motley Crue, or hair metal in general. I could take or leave Warrant, Poison, Ratt, et cetera. I originally picked this book up because I had heard that its storytelling was both disgusting and delig
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Sarah
Jul 25, 2015 Sarah rated it it was amazing
Let’s be clear. I have zero authority when it comes to reviewing music. Especially heavy metal. The extent of my music knowledge begins and ends with absentmindedly humming along to a 90′s pop radio station while I’m out running errands. About as far away from Mötley Crüe as one can get. And I REALLY don’t know how I went from an obsession with orca and environmentalism to an obsession with a random 80′s heavy metal band in the span of only a few weeks. But here we are…

All of that said, I truly
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Sarah Clark
Mar 26, 2009 Sarah Clark rated it it was amazing
Holy crap, what an unexpectedly awesome book. This book is disgusting and wonderful, which is confusing because it also made me openly weep. Really? Really.

*

Tommy Lee, Mick Mars, Vince Neil and Nikki Sixx, notoriously known as Motley Crue, tell all in this wild ride through the band's history. Replete with drugs, sex, alcohol, addiction, ratted hair, playmates, hookers, incarceration, death, and plenty of Jack Daniels, no topic is sacred. Decadence at its finest.

Appeals: getting the gossip from
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Rebecca
Apr 12, 2009 Rebecca rated it it was amazing
What I learned from this book... let's see... that people are disgusting, that I have deplorable taste in books, that my love for Home Sweet Home is unshakable, that I am conflicted over when it's misogyny and when it's just reciprocal idiotry, and that sometimes people randomly throw up on Kelsey Grammer. Truly awesome.
Molly Rawls
Jan 23, 2015 Molly Rawls rated it liked it
Negative 5 stars for their treatment of women. 5 stars for surviving the amount of drugs they did and eventually sobering up. 3 stars for me being a child of the 80s and not being able to turn away from the train wreck.
Jay Kristoff
Mar 01, 2011 Jay Kristoff rated it it was amazing
Best tell-all from a rock band I've yet read. No punches pulled, and although you need to question any bio written by gents with egos this size, it's still a cracking read. Well worth the time, even if you don't dig on the tunes.
George Bradford
Jan 31, 2014 George Bradford rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition
Shelves: rock-n-roll, america
I've never owned a Mötley Crüe record. I've never seen a Mötley Crüe concert. I've never had any use for Mötley Crüe. Ever.

So I was quite surprised to learn (in 2000) they were writing a book with New York Times music critic Neil Strauss. I was a big fan of Strauss and his writing. And the unlikely venture piqued my interest.

When I discovered the format of the book involved each member of the band individually telling his version of what happened -- and that each of the four versions would then
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Susie
Mar 16, 2010 Susie rated it really liked it
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Scott
Nov 21, 2012 Scott rated it it was amazing
Shelves: non-fiction
If you grew up when I grew up (I was a teen during the 1982 - 1990 years) and were part of my crowd (long hair, leather, troublemaker) then Motley Crue was IT. They are the band every guy wanted to be and every girl wanted to be with. So needless to say they had a big influence on my life and I would say that I'm a fan.

This is their biography. Each chapter is written by a different bandmember or manager. Takes us from the beginning to the latest and they don't pull any punches. This is the band
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Andy
May 06, 2011 Andy rated it it was amazing
Recommends it for: kurt cobain's rotting carcass
Shelves: rock-sleaze
It's no coincidence that Motley Crue can be filed between The Monkees and Motorhead. Better looking than Van Halen, better songwriters than Guns 'N Roses. Combining dashingly rugged good looks with the hardest rocking sounds, they took the country by storm in the 1980's. Lots of great pictures with equally funny stories about the band. Lots of showbiz stuff about Tommy's marriages to Heather Locklear and Pam Anderson, too. Time to put on "Doctor Feelgood".
Emilio José Miras Balaguer
Una de las mejores biografías que he tenido el placer de leer. Aunque el grupo en si no me vuelva loco (me gustan, pero poco más), el libro es muy muy recomendable, tanto como para releermelo de vez en cuando.
Miguel Thannhauser
Jul 01, 2015 Miguel Thannhauser rated it it was amazing
Beste muziekbiografie ooit. Punt.
Satyrblade
Jul 30, 2011 Satyrblade rated it really liked it
Possibly the most entertaining book I've read in my research for a current project, The Dirt follows the most infamous example of '80s hair-metal excess on their long journey through Hell's Hall of Fame.

Told through chapters by the five band members (Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee, Mick Mars, classic vocalist Vince Neil, and his temporary replacement John Corabi), plus a handful of interviews with producers, ex-managers, and the head of the band's former label, the book careens from the bandmates' dysfu
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Hayden
Apr 24, 2011 Hayden rated it it was amazing
This was easily one of the best page turners I've ever read. The Dirt goes in depth, for a no holds barred look into one of the most decadent rock bands ever. Before reading this, I sort of dismissed Motley Crue; I liked a few of their songs, but overall thought they were nothing special. But reading this has shed a new light, I now appreciate every album they've done, and have recently found myself blaring Kickstart My Heart or Dr. Feelgood over and over in my car.

For anyone who's interested in
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Sbell
Mar 03, 2016 Sbell rated it it was amazing
I LOVE ALL THINGS TOMMY LEE!!
I absorbed every scene in this book.
What a wild ride!!!!!
Tsvetelina Stambolova-Vasileva
Този тип книги се оценява емоционално. Тук не става дума за художественост. Рок-биографиите/автобиографиите са свидетелски описания на една епоха, също като дневниците на оцелелите от Холокоста (само че първите, естествено, са много по-забавни). Кое е общото ли? И в двата случая става дума за оцеляване: физическо, психическо и емоционално, но в единия случай опасността е в резултат на външни фактори, а в другия на субективно деструктивно поведение.
И тъй като това ревю започна плашещо да лъха на
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Rae
Mar 09, 2016 Rae rated it it was amazing
This is definitely the best auto-biography I have ever read. The fact that they manage to tell the story of not just the band but the individual members all within the same book is incredible. Having each chapter written from the perspective of a different band member (as well as managers, etc.) gives you all different viewpoints withing the band, allowing you to really get a feel for the inner workings of Motley Crue. I also love that you don't lose anything by having so many people writing in ...more
Schuyler
Jan 23, 2012 Schuyler rated it liked it
As a non-fan of Motley Crue (I mean a complete and total non-fan; I didn't care for them during they're heyday), I came to this book for the well-advertised decadence and debauchery. While the bandmembers' nefarious escapades (as well as Strauss's clever, 18th-c. picaresque chapter frames) sustained me for a while, I eventually grew tired of spending time with the Crue. However, the book did have the interesting effect of simultaneously raising and lowering the band in my esteem. Musically, I st ...more
Chuck
Jul 17, 2014 Chuck rated it really liked it
4-stars
This was most certainly an interesting read, but I probably shouldn't have read this--anyone who thinks they like these guys shouldn't read it IMO. No, not because they aren't role models or any such thing as that, but just because they're not that bright (on ANY level). Personal philosophies such as "curly haired people aren't cool" or "Ebola killed the dinosaurs" and "the Titanic was under secret orders to crash." Really? I mean really? This is the level you guys think on? Give me a fre
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Laura
May 03, 2015 Laura rated it did not like it
This book was horrible. Mötley Crüe is just a collection of self-entitled assholes. I'm not sure what I was expecting but this book was the worst. The parts from Tommy Lee were mildly entertaining but he's still an idiot. They all are. And so angry. Always fighting. What the hell are you so angry about? You could Use your words, but when you're the Crüe, you talk with your fists. Yeah! Let's be honest. These losers were one lucky fluke away from being broke, dead or homeless. Vince Neil drove dr ...more
Holly Haze
May 18, 2016 Holly Haze rated it it was amazing
I've been trying to read more auto biographies of late. I tend to gravitate to crime novels for the mental game and dissociate from the cheesy love stories because they are pathetically trivial and fuck with my emotions. With that being said, this is one of the best auto biographies I've ever read. I like Motley Crue...always have, but now I love them. Being in the radio business my entire adult life, I have met quite a few musicians. Most share the same climb to success. I knew there would be s ...more
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topics  posts  views  last activity   
Why were they such idiots? 10 51 Feb 01, 2017 03:16PM  
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Tommy Lee (born Thomas Lee Bass) is an American Heavy Metal musician. He is known as the drummer for hard rock/heavy metal band Mötley Crüe and ex-husband of actresses Pamela Anderson and Heather Locklear.
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“On Ecstasy, Joan Rivers looks like Pamela Anderson, so imagine what Pamela Anderson looked like.” 7 likes
“Looking down on it from the helicopter, with a bottle of Jack in my left hand, a bag of pills in my right hand, and a blond head bobbing up and doen in my lap, I felt like the king of the world.” 5 likes
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