motley crue joan jett tour

Def Leppard – The Stadium Tour with Mötley Crüe, Poison & Joan Jett

The stadium tour.

The world’s most iconic and celebrated rock legends will hit the road together next summer for a co-headlining tour SO MASSIVE that it could only be held in America’s biggest stadiums.

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“We’re trying to turn these shows into a mini-festival… we’re all from the same genre. Most people that like that kind of thing saw us day after day on MTV in the Eighties.  Our journeys have gone in different directions since then, but synchronicity pulls us back together once again. It’s a celebration of that whole kind of vibe.” – Joe Elliott

2019 ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES Def Leppard are one of the most important forces in rock music. Over the past year, the icons closed out a sold-out worldwide tour including a North American stadium run & headlining the UK’s Download Festival to 90k screaming fans. Def Leppard’s star continues to rise and prevail. The band have amassed a staggering 2.5 billion streams since releasing their music digitally last year. Def Leppard’s influential career crosses generations and includes numerous hit singles and ground-breaking multi-platinum albums—including two of the best-selling albums of all time, Pyromania and Hysteria, both of which are certified Diamond (10x platinum).

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The Stadium Tour: Def Leppard & Mötley Crüe, Poison, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts

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BIGGEST NORTH AMERICAN STADIUM TOUR OF 2022 KICKS OFF THIS JUNE

Over 1 million tickets already sold 5 new shows added, new dates on sale starting feb. 25 at 10 am local time on livenation.com.

After two summers of delays it is FINALLY happening!! The world’s most iconic and celebrated rock legends will hit the road together this summer for a coheadlining tour SO MASSIVE that it could only be held in North America’s biggest stadiums. THE STADIUM TOUR featuring, MÖTLEY CRÜE, DEF LEPPARD with POISON and JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS will hit select cities in the U.S. and Canada where each band will bring their electrifying stage shows while promising to perform their stadium sized anthems. Produced by Live Nation, the summer tour is set to steamroll through North America starting June 2022.

Due to fan demand, the tour is adding 5 all new stadium shows to the epic run. Tickets for the new dates will go on-sale to the general public beginning Friday, February 25 at 10 am local time at  www.LiveNation.com , check local listings for details. Def Leppard & Mötley Crüe VIP offerings for the 5 new shows will be available coinciding with the general onsale next Friday Feb. 25 at 10 am local time.

Citi is the official card of The Stadium Tour. Citi cardmembers will have access to purchase presale tickets for Indianapolis and Las Vegas shows beginning Tuesday, February 22 at 10 am local time until Thursday, February 24 at 10 pm local time through the Citi Entertainment program. For complete presale details visit  www.citientertainment.com . For Toronto, Vancouver, and Edmonton shows American Express® Card Members can purchase tickets before the general public beginning Tuesday, February 22 at 10 am local time until Thursday, February 24 at 10 pm local time. 

Following the huge success of their NETFLIX biopic THE DIRT, Mötley Crüe has seen a massive surge in new audience with fans around the world demanding the band tour again. This led to the band members reuniting and announcing that “Mötley Crüe is back” in 2019. While The Dirt caused a meteoric 350% increase in streams of Mötley Crüe’s music across all platforms and the younger 18-44 demographic now represents 64% of the band’s fanbase most of the new fans have never seen any of the band’s legendary live shows that Crüeheads have relished for 4 decades. In 2021, Mötley Crüe celebrated their 40th band anniversary, as well as the 40th birthday of their iconic debut album, TOO FAST FOR LOVE. The 35th anniversary of their GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS hit album is coming up on May 15. Mötley Crüe have sold over 100 million albums worldwide, achieving 7 platinum and multi-platinum albums, 9 Top 10 albums, 22 Top 40 Mainstream Rock hits, 6 Top 20 Pop singles and 3 GRAMMY nominations. The band have amassed close to 5 billion streams across digital platforms. They have over 15 million social media followers, a New York Times best-seller and a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. The band is ready to deliver an over the top stage show packed full of hit songs.

“It’s on!  We don’t think we’ve ever looked forward more to kicking off a tour than this one. We can’t wait to finally see all the fans across North America again. Get ready for a wild ride this summer!” Mötley Crüe said in a joint statement. 

ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES Def Leppard are one of the most important forces in rock music. In 2019, the icons closed out a sold-out worldwide tour including a North American stadium run & headlining the UK’s Download Festival to 90k screaming fans. Def Leppard’s star continues to rise and prevail. The band have amassed a staggering 5.5 billion streams since 2018, reaching a younger 18-44 demographic that now represents 58% of their fanbase. Additionally, the band have garnered an impressive 15 million followers across their social media platforms. Def Leppard also celebrates the landmark 45 th anniversary of their formation this year, marking 45 years of legendary rock ‘n’ roll history making. Def Leppard’s influential career crosses generations and includes 110 million records sold, numerous hit singles and ground-breaking multi-platinum albums—including two of the best-selling albums of all time, Pyromania and Hysteria, both of which are certified Diamond (10x platinum).

“On behalf of the band, we’re beyond thrilled that the stadium tour is finally happening this summer … it’s been a while coming and we can’t wait to get back on stage again & we can’t wait to see you in one of the many stadiums soon!” said Joe Elliott.

POISON will be bringing a rocking real and relevant no holds barred thunderous live show to the Stadium tour this summer with the all original lineup of Bret Michaels, C.C. DeVille, Bobby Dall and Rikki Rockett. POISON will be unleashing an onslaught of hit after hit songs in its set. The humanitarian of the year, two years running, Michaels along with POISON is known to bring a unique style of passionate high energy, sincere gratitude and a positive attitude.  Michaels engages all the fans and makes it an absolute epic ride of true live music. Together With C.C.Deville on guitar, Bobby Dall on bass, and Rikki Rockett on drums POISON will rock the stadium with a chemistry that will bring a big summer mega party vibe and Michaels promises to give 1000 % on the stage as the hotter it gets the harder POISON promises to rock!!!

Poison’s Bret Michaels also added: “There are not enough words to thank the three generations of fans for making this such an exciting, record breaking, historical tour with the fastest sell outs in history at these stadiums.” 

Joan Jett grew up during a time when rock ‘n’ roll was off limits to girls and women, but as a teenager, she promptly blew the door to the boys’ club right off its hinges. After forming her band the Blackhearts in 1979, with whom Jett has become a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, she has had eight platinum and gold albums and nine Top 40 singles, including the classics “Bad Reputation,” “I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll,” “I Hate Myself For Loving You,” and “Crimson and Clover.” With a career that has spanned music, film, television, Broadway, and humanitarianism, Joan Jett remains a potent force and inspiration to generations of fans worldwide. As a producer, she has overseen seminal albums by Bikini Kill, and the Germs’ LA punk masterpiece ‘GI.’ Jett and Kenny Laguna (her longtime producer and music partner) co-founded Blackheart Records from the trunk of Kenny’s Cadillac after rejections from no less than 23 labels. 40 years later, Blackheart is a thriving entertainment company producing music, film and television, and continues to champion emerging bands. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts continue touring the globe with headlining shows alongside fellow rock legends like The Who, Green Day, Heart, and Foo Fighters. After two COVID-19 postponements, the group will return to the road in summer 2022 for The Stadium Tour with Def Leppard, Motley Crue and Poison. ‘Bad Reputation,’ a documentary about Jett’s life, premiered to critical acclaim at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and is now available for streaming.

“We are so excited to be back out on the road! We missed doing what we love most and can’t wait to see the fans out there again!” said Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.

Emerging rock band Classless Act, signed to Better Noise Music, is set to open the tour. With the release of their single “Give It To Me” in 2021, the band has already received critical praise from the likes of rock media including SPIN, Loudwire, and more. Mötley Crüe’s Tommy Lee was an early follower of the band and is excited to have them join him and his bandmates on the road, saying, “I remember when we went out with Ozzy in 1984 and how it was an insane game changer!! We literally blew up after having that opportunity to play live in front of 20,000 people every f***ing night! Since then, we’ve always felt it was important to help new bands; whether it was Guns N Roses, Skid Row or so many others.  This summer we’re gonna help out Classless Act.”

THE STADIUM TOUR 2022 DATES: 

New Shows Highlighted

Thursday, June 16 Atlanta, GA Truist Park

Saturday, June 18 Miami, FL Hard Rock Stadium

Sunday,  June 19 Orlando, FL Camping World Stadium

Wednesday, June 22 Washington, DC Nationals Park

Friday, June 24 Queens, NY Citi Field

Saturday, June 25 Philadelphia, PA Citizens Bank Park

Tuesday, June 28 Charlotte, NC Bank of America Stadium

Thursday, June 30 Nashville, TN Nissan Stadium

Saturday, July 2 Jacksonville, FL TIAA Bank Field

Tuesday, July 5 St. Louis, MO Busch Stadium

Friday, July 8 Chicago, IL Wrigley Field

Sunday, July 10 Detroit, MI Comerica Park

Tuesday July 12 Hershey, PA Hersheypark Stadium

Thursday, July 14 Cleveland, OH FirstEnergy Stadium,

Home of the Cleveland Browns 

Friday, July 15 Cincinnati, OH Great American Ball Park

Sunday, July 17 Milwaukee, WI American Family Field

Tuesday, July 19 Kansas City, MO Kauffman Stadium

Thursday, July 21 Denver, CO Coors Field

Friday, August 5 Boston, MA Fenway Park

Saturday, August 6 Boston, MA Fenway Park

Monday, August 8 Toronto, ON Rogers Centre  

Wednesday, August 10 Orchard Park, NY Highmark Stadium

Friday, August 12 Pittsburgh, PA PNC Park

Sunday, August 14 Minneapolis, MN U.S. Bank Stadium

Tuesday, August 16 Indianapolis, IN Lucas Oil Stadium  

Friday, August 19 Houston, TX Minute Maid Park

Sunday, August 21 San Antonio, TX Alamodome

Monday, August 22 Arlington, TX Globe Life Field

Thursday, August 25 Glendale, AZ State Farm Stadium

Saturday, August 27 Inglewood, CA SoFi Stadium

Sunday, August 28 San Diego, CA Petco Park

Wednesday, August 31 Seattle, WA T-Mobile Park

Friday, September 2 Vancouver, BC BC Place 

Sunday, September 4 Edmonton, AB Commonwealth Stadium / Stade du Commonwealth 

Wednesday, September 7 San Francisco, CA Oracle Park

Friday, September 9 Las Vegas, NV Allegiant Stadium  

About Live Nation Entertainment

Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE: LYV) is the world’s leading live entertainment company comprised of global market leaders: Ticketmaster, Live Nation Concerts, and Live Nation Sponsorship. For additional information, visit www.livenationentertainment.com .

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Live Nation U.S. Concerts:

Monique Sowinski | [email protected] 

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Mötley Crüe, Def Leppard, Poison and Joan Jett rock in D.C. despite rain, lightning and broken ribs

motley crue joan jett tour

WASHINGTON – Shortly after finishing a boisterous set of party-vibe rock anthems, Poison frontman Bret Michaels grinned as he expressed his feelings about the first few dates of The Stadium Tour.

“The fans are having a great time and we’re having a great time,” he said in his small “quick change” tent backstage, his red bandana soaked with sweat and his spirit still high from bouncing around the Nationals Park stage. “I’m letting everything hang out.”

He paused and laughed: “Wait, check that. I’m giving 1,000%. It’s nice to survive and thrive. The expectations (for this tour) were high and it’s exceeded my expectations.”

Three years of planning and two years delayed because of COVID-19, The Stadium Tour showcases the titans of ‘80s-era hard rock. Poison is the sandwich act on this massive rock circus that erupted in Atlanta on June 16 and will crisscross the country until wrapping in Las Vegas in September. Los Angeles-bred Classless Act kick-starts the six-hours of music, followed by the ageless Joan Jett and The Blackhearts, Poison and headliners Mötley Crüe  and Def Leppard , who flip-flop closing slots each show.

Paul McCartney turns 80: So naturally we ranked 80 of his best songs

Wednesday’s D.C. production in front of about 40,000 fans also marked the second of the first four dates disrupted by rain and lightning.

At the close of their stomp-along smash “Pour Some Sugar On Me,” Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott informed the audience that incoming bad weather necessitated a hasty end to their visually dazzling performance (“Pyromania” stingers “Rock of Ages” and “Photograph” remained).

With Mötley Crüe on deck to close the night, the majority of the crowd endured the 90-minute wait until the lightning – but not the rain – ceased and Motley stormed the stage with “Wild Side.” After all, fans hadn’t seen the band perform since 2015, when the quartet announced its clearly-not-binding “cessation of touring agreement.”

The Stadium Tour might be built on nostalgia, but the generations of fans wearing T-shirts of all of the acts indicated that the appeal stretches beyond Gen X-ers bred on MTV.

Here’s how the show unfolded.

Joan Jett and The Blackhearts

The unchanging Jett – still sporting a black shag and ebony attire – sliced through singalongs, including “I Hate Myself for Loving You,” “Bad Reputation” and her harmonious rendition of Tommy James and the Shondells’ “Crimson & Clover.” Backed by the potent Blackhearts, as well as stalwart manager/producer Kenny Laguna in his usual residence behind the keyboards, Jett delivered her songs with ferocity balanced by cool, a smile mixed with a sneer. The lone female on the tour (aside from the dancing girls/backup singers accompanying Motley Crue), Jett ruled her stage with stealth fierceness.

Is there a more genuine frontman in rock than Michaels? Bursting onto the catwalk jutting from the stage for the opening cruncher “Look What the Cat Dragged In,” Michaels employed his side-shimmy move, slapped the shoulders of guitarist C.C. DeVille – hair draped down his back – and engaged the crowd with his aerobic activity. An expert ringleader, Michaels had fans clapping overhead during “Ride the Wind” and frequently dropped to his knees on the wet ramp to smack hands with the faithful pressed against the stage.

DeVille grabbed his Flying V guitar for “Talk Dirty to Me,” its buzzing riff emblematic of Poison’s music – uncomplicated and fun.

As Michaels and DeVille entertained at the front of the stage, Rikki Rockett flipped his drumsticks throughout fan favorite “Fallen Angel,” while bassist Bobby Dall showcased his anchor role on the bottom-heavy “Unskinny Bop.”

Michaels shouted out the military veterans in the crowd before the band’s signature ballad, “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” – the audience singing along heartily - before ending the musical party with “Nothin’ But a Good Time,” a rational closer for this rock ‘n’ roll revelry.

Bret Michaels 'still rocking': Poison frontman talks touring, health and bandanas

Def Leppard

Beneath their visual array of lasers and super-sized video screens, Def Leppard unveiled a set list that tapped deep into their 40-year catalog.

Singer Joe Elliott, a silver fox in his natty jackets, led the quintet through “Animal” and “Foolin’” before springing into the most delectable song on the band’s new “Diamond Star Halos” album, the ultra-catchy “Kick.”

Bassist Rick Savage and guitarists Vivian Campbell and Phil Collen – whose admirable torso still gets its own spotlight – provided the honeyed harmonies on the band’s layered offerings, and drummer Rick Allen, wearing his trademark Union Jack headphones, powered with unrelenting enthusiasm. 

Elliott sounded particularly strong on “Bringin’ on the Heartbreak,” a song that still swoons and soars, and the gliding shuffle that is “Rocket.”

However, it might be time to retire “Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad,” a beautiful ache of a ballad that for years has sounded off-key when performed live.  

Fortunately, Def Leppard squeezed in their epic “Hysteria,” which was accompanied by a video scrapbook of the band’s legacy, including their 2019 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction , and mega-size newspaper headlines underscoring their endurance. Elliott looked very “A Clockwork Orange” in his black bowler hat and red and black-striped jacket, still effortlessly cool as he commanded the stage.

Motley Crue

The curved steel staging was erected long before the band was able to take the stage, giving fans hope through the rain that Motley Crue would indeed appear.

A faux news bulletin intro bled into the opening slammer, “Wild Side,” the stage alight in red as singer Vince Neil, bassist Nikki Sixx , drummer Tommy Lee and guitarist Mick Mars thundered through the menacing hit.

The band – primarily the bass and drums – often overpowered Neil’s vocals, particularly on the rumble-to-a-roar “Shout at the Devil."

Lee slammed away at his kit with his usual wild man abandon, so it was no surprise when he reminded fans after three songs about his four broken ribs that prevented him from playing most of the set. Tommy Clufetos, a veteran of Ozzy Osbourne’s band, hopped in starting with the sweeter sounds of “Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away).” He’s a terrific sticksman, but Lee’s personality was missed (as his departing gesture, he tossed spare ribs into the front rows while sharing, with many expletives, how much pain his injury was causing him).

Neil’s voice vacillated between barely discernable (“Too Fast For Love”) and surprisingly supple (“Live Wire”); frenetic strobes, scissoring red and white lights and sheer adrenaline covered for a lot of his vocal shortcomings.

Was it a perfect Crue? No. But there’s a lot of “Dr. Feelgood” when the band is unleashed live.  

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Ultimate Classic Rock

Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Poison and Joan Jett’s 2022 Tour: A Tale of the Tape

Motley Crue , Def Leppard ,  Poison  and  Joan Jett  and the Blackhearts will finally embark on one of the year's most highly anticipated tours  this summer.

The Stadium Tour was originally set to launch in the summer of 2020, then postponed to 2021 and again to 2022 . The trek will now begin in Atlanta on June 16 and wrap up in Las Vegas on Sept. 9, with new, additional show dates having been added to the schedule.

In one corner of the ring, we have Motley Crue, the band that famously swore off touring in a highly publicized press event at the outset of 2014 before destroying  its " Cessation of Touring Agreement " shortly before this upcoming jaunt was announced in 2019.

In the opposite corner is Def Leppard, one of the most durable bands on the touring circuit. To their left is Poison, whose penchant for dirty talk and fallen angels still resonates with audiences today. And last but certainly not least, we see Jett, a former Runaway -done-good whose career has spanned more than four decades. But how do the four acts stack up against one another? We take a look at a Tale of the Tape below.

CURRENT LINEUP 

Motley Crue:  Vince Neil (vocals), Nikki Sixx (bass, vocals), Mick Mars (guitar), Tommy Lee (drums) Def Leppard: Joe Elliott (vocals),  Phil Collen (guitar, vocals), Vivian Campbell (guitar), Rick Savage (bass),  Rick Allen (drums) Poison:  Bret Michaels (vocals), C.C. DeVille (guitar), Bobby Dall (bass), Rikki Rockett (drums) Joan Jett and the Blackhearts:  Joan Jett (vocals, guitar), Dougie Needles (guitar), Hal B. Selzer (bass), Michael McDermott (drums)

FORMED/HOMETOWN

Motley Crue: 1981, Los Angeles Def Leppard: 1977, Sheffield, England Poison:  1983, Mechanicsburg, Penn. Joan Jett:  1979, Long Beach, N.Y.

Formed at the outset of 1981, Motley Crue was originally the brainchild of bassist Nikki Sixx, drummer Tommy Lee and guitarist Greg Leon, who was replaced by Mick Mars just months later. Singer Vince Neil was initially reluctant to join the group, but when the band he was part of decided to embrace a New Wave direction, he signed on.

Originally known as Atomic Mass, the band that would become Def Leppard was formed in 1977 by Rick Savage, Tony Kenning and Pete Willis while they were still students at Tapton School in Sheffield. They soon recruited singer Joe Elliott, who suggested a new name of "Deaf Leopard," which was subsequently changed,  Led Zeppelin -style, to Def Leppard.

Poison got their start in Mechanicsburg, Penn., in 1983 when they went by the name Paris. "We were glam from the start. People used to throw rocks at us, but we didn't give a shit. We had a vision. We didn't care what people thought of us," Bobby Dall recalled . Not long after, Paris set off for the bright lights and big dreams of California, where, after losing their guitarist, Bret Michaels, Rikki Rockett and Bobby Dall met guitarist C.C. DeVille, and Paris became Poison.

Following the dissolution of the Runaways in 1979, Joan Jett recorded a solo album in Europe before eventually moving to New York, where her producer, Kenny Laguna, was based. She formed the band that became the Blackhearts in Los Angeles, inspired by the energy of the city's punk scene. After completing a tour of the U.S. and Europe, the band settled in Long Beach, N.Y.

Motley Crue: April 24, 1981, West Hollywood, Calif. Def Leppard: July 18, 1978, Sheffield, England Poison: 1983,   Santa Monica, Calif. Joan Jett: The Runaways - Aug. 12, 1975, Torrance, Calif.   / The Blackhearts -   1979, Huntington Beach, Calif.

Motley Crue's first show was a gig opening for  Y&T . Helping the band secure the prestigious show was the fact bassist Nikki Sixx worked at the venue and begged his boss to give them the slot. Recalling the gig in the group's autobiography,  The Dirt , Vince Neil said the band hadn't rehearsed a complete show at the time of their debut.

Def Leppard's first public performance  was held at Westfield School in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The band played a 50-minute set for the princely sum of approximately $6.50. Their set included a cover of the  Thin Lizzy  classic "Jailbreak" and an original song called "World Beyond the Sky."

Poison drummer Rikki Rockett said the group's first show as Poison took place in 1983 at Madam Wong's West in Los Angeles, a venue that had also hosted the likes of the Police , Guns N' Roses and others. Bret Michaels recalled some of the group's earliest shows as being a test of patience and perseverance. "The first year you’re out there, you pay the clubs to let you play,” said Michaels in a 1988  Spin   profile. “You rent a depressing room at Club 88, and if you can get 20 people at your show and impress them, they’ll bring their friends next time and there’ll be 40.”

Joan Jett’s first show with the Runaways, whose lineup at the time comprised of Jett, Sandy West and Michael "Micki" Steele (who later joined the Bangles), was reportedly at a Torrance, Calif., house party in 1975. Her earliest known shows with the Blackhearts are believed  to have been at the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach, Calif., and the Whisky a Go Go in Hollywood. After that, Jett and the band embarked on a European tour.

FIRST ALBUM

Motley Crue:  Too Fast for Love (1981) Def Leppard:   On Through the Night  (1980) Poison:  Look What the Cat Dragged In  (1986) Joan Jett:  Joan Jett  (Germany, 1980) /  Bad Reputation  (U.S., 1981)

Motley Crue first released  Too Fast for Love   on their own Leathur Records label in 1981, but after reportedly selling upward of 20,000 albums independently, Elektra Records scooped up the album for release the following year.

Def Leppard's full-length debut followed a well-received self-titled, three-song EP. The band ended up re-recording two of the EP's three tracks ("Overture" and "Getcha Rocks Off") for  On Through the Night .

Poison's Look What the Cat Dragged In   was far from an immediate smash. The first single from the group's debut, "Cry Tough," stalled on the charts, but following the release of "Talk Dirty to Me," the album eventually found its way to multi-platinum status.

There was initially little to no interest in Jett's solo debut in the U.S., so the record was released in Germany before she and producer Kenny Laguna decided to put it out independently in the U.S. She eventually secured support from Boardwalk Records, which re-released it under the title  Bad Reputation .

BREAKTHROUGH

Motley Crue:  Shout at the Devil (1983) Def Leppard: Pyromania (1983) Poison: Open Up and Say ... Ahh !   (1988) Joan Jett:  I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll  (1982)

Too Fast for Love  might have introduced Motley Crue to the masses but it was  Shout at the Devil   that took the group to another level and helped define the burgeoning Los Angeles glam-metal scene.

Def Leppard's first two records, On Through the Night  and  High 'N' Dry  sold respectfully, but  Pyromania   was the band's coming-of-age moment. Three singles from the album -- "Photograph," "Rock of Ages" and "Foolin'" -- made the Top 40, while another four tracks were also rock radio hits.

Poison found moderate success with their debut album but it was their second,  Open Up and Say ... Ahh! , that cemented their stardom. The album spawned four Top 20 singles, including the No. 1 "Every Rose Has Its Thorn."

In early 1982, Jett’s cover of the Arrows’ “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” could be heard coming out of every jukebox, basement stereo and car radio throughout the country. The single sent its titular album  rocketing to the No. 2 position on the  Billboard  200 albums chart.

PLATINUM STUDIO ALBUMS IN THE U.S.

Motley Crue:  Five Def Leppard:  Five Poison:  Three Joan Jett:  Two

When it came to album sales, Motley Crue could do no wrong in the first decade of their career. Each of the group's first five albums has been certified platinum, with 1989's Dr. Feelgood  selling the most at 6 million.

After  Pyromania  made Def Leppard stars, the band's next three records went platinum, with 1987's  Hysteria  being their best-seller at 12 million copies. That success subsequently sent fans back to the band's first two albums, which also eventually went platinum.

Each of Poison's first three albums, including 1990's Flesh & Blood , have been certified for multi-platinum sales for a total of more than 11 million copies.

Jett has two platinum sales certifications to her credit,  I Love Rock 'N' Roll  and 1989's  Up Your Alley , which spawned the hit single " I Hate Myself for Loving You ."

TOP 10 SINGLES

Motley Crue: Two Def Leppard:  Four Poison: Six Joan Jett: Three

Motley Crue's album sales are remarkable, but only two of their singles have cracked the  Billboard Hot 100   Top 10: "Dr. Feelgood" peaked at the No. 6 position in late-October 1989, while "Without You" topped out at No. 8 in 1990.

Def Leppard  didn't crack the Top 10 until  Hysteria 's title track reached No. 10, followed by their next three singles: "Pour Some Sugar on Me," "Love Bites" and "Armageddon It," all reached No. 3 or better; "Love Bites" is Def Leppard's only No. 1.

Poison have the most Top 10 singles of all the acts hitting the road together this summer. "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" is the group's only No. 1, but "Unskinny Bop," "Something to Believe In," "Nothin' but a Good Time," "Talk Dirty to Me" and their cover of Loggins & Messina's "Your Mama Don't Dance" each found various positions within the Top 10 as well.

Joan Jett hit No. 1 with “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll.” That chart-topper was followed by a cover of Tommy James and the Shondells’ “Crimson and Clover,” which peaked No. 7, while her third and last Top 10 single was 1988’s “I Hate Myself for Loving You," which topped out at No. 8.

ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME

Motley Crue: No Def Leppard:  Yes Poison: No Joan Jett: Yes

Even though Motley Crue have been eligible for entry into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 2006, bassist Nikki Sixx claimed the HOF has stated the band's past behavior will keep it from ascending to the institution. Def Leppard were  inducted into the Hall in 2019, 14 years after they were first eligible, while Poison has yet to receive the nod. Joan Jett was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015.

MOST RECENT ALBUM

Motley Crue:  Saints of Los Angeles (2008) Def Leppard:   Diamond Star Halos  (2022) Poison:  Poison'd (2007) Joan Jett: Changeup  (2022)

Motley Crue spent years touring on the back of their hits, which helps explain the lack of regular studio output after the turn of the century. There were eight years between the release of 2000's  New Tattoo and  Saints of Los Angeles , but the band did contribute four new songs to the soundtrack of the 2019 group biopic The Dirt .

Seven years passed between Def Leppard's 2015  self-titled studio record  and 2022's Diamond Star Halos , which featured some notable guests such as David Bowie pianist Mike Garson and singer Alison Krauss .

Poison's most recent effort is 2007's  Poison'd , an album that featured cover songs from the likes of David Bowie, Tom Petty ,  Kiss  and others.

Joan Jett's latest offering is  Changeup , a fully acoustic album that featured 25 unplugged tracks from Jett’s back catalog.

RECENT TOUR GROSSES

Motley Crue:  The Final Tour (2014-2015):   Gross $66.1 million.  Def Leppard: Co-headline tour with Journey (2018):  Gross $97.8 million

Motley Crue's Final Tour, which touched down in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia,   reportedly sold upward of 1.3 million tickets. Demand for the tour was high in many markets since it was billed as their farewell. But, as we've come to see, goodbyes aren't always forever.

Except for two Canadian shows, the entirety of the 2018 Def Leppard- Journey tour was U.S.-based and sold more than 1 million tickets. Not only did the tour touch down in arenas in many markets, but it also filled stadiums such as Boston's Fenway Park and Target Field in Minneapolis.

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By Jazz Monroe

Def Leppard and Motley Crüe

This spring, Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard will finally embark on the stadium tour that they announced in 2019, joined by original support acts Joan Jett & The Blackhearts and Poison . Check out the dates below.

“On behalf of the band, we’re beyond thrilled that the stadium tour is finally happening this summer,” Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott said in a statement. “It’s been a while coming and we can’t wait to get back on stage again and we can’t wait to see you in one of the many stadiums soon!”

Mötley Crüe said, “It’s on! We don’t think we’ve ever looked forward more to kicking off a tour than this one. We can’t wait to finally see all the fans across North America again. Get ready for a wild ride this summer!”

The year the tour was first announced, Def Leppard were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and Joan Jett joined Bikini Kill onstage at one of their reunion concerts. Read Pitchfork’s review of Mötley Crüe’s Netflix biopic The Dirt .

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The Stadium Tour

The Stadium Tour:

06-16 Atlanta, GA - Truist Park 06-18 Miami Gardens, FL - Hard Rock Stadium 06-19 Orlando, FL - Camping World Stadium 06-22 Washington, D.C. - Nationals Park 06-24 Queens, NY - Citi Field 06-25 Philadelphia, PA - Citizens Bank Park 06-28 Charlotte, NC - Bank of America Stadium 06-30 Nashville, TN - Nissan Stadium 07-02 Jacksonville, FL - TIAA Bank Field 07-05 St. Louis, MO - Busch Stadium 07-08 Chicago, IL - Wrigley Field 07-10 Detroit, MI - Comerica Park 07-12 Hershey, PA - Hersheypark Stadium 07-14 Cleveland, OH - FirstEnergy Stadium 07-15 Cincinnati, OH - Great American Ball Park 07-17 Milwaukee, WI - American Family Field 07-19 Kansas City, MO - Kauffman Stadium 07-21 Denver, CO - Coors Field 08-05 Boston, MA - Fenway Park 08-06 Boston, MA - Fenway Park 08-08 Toronto, Ontario - Rogers Centre 08-10 Orchard Park, NY - Highmark Stadium 08-12 Pittsburgh, PA - PNC Park 08-14 Minneapolis, MN - U.S. Bank Stadium 08-16 Indianapolis, IN - Lucas Oil Stadium 08-19 Houston, TX - Minute Maid Park 08-21 San Antonio, TX - Alamodome 08-22 Arlington, TX - Globe Life Field 08-25 Glendale, AZ - State Farm Stadium 08-27 Inglewood, CA - SoFi Stadium 08-28 San Diego, CA - Petco Park 08-31 Seattle, WA - T-Mobile Park 09-02 Vancouver, British Columbia - BC Place 09-04 Edmonton, Alberta - Commonwealth Stadium 09-07 San Francisco, CA - Oracle Park 09-09 Las Vegas, NV - Allegiant Stadium

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Stadium Tour Photos – Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Poison, Joan Jett + Classless Act

On June 16, the Stadium Tour starring co-headliners Motley Crue and Def Leppard and special guests Poison , Joan Jett & The Blackhearts and Classless Act kicked off in Atlanta, Georgia and photos from the big night have emerged.

It's been suggested that Crue and Def Leppard will take turns, of some sort, when it comes to which band will close out the night and on opening night it was Def Leppard who powered through torrential rain to bring the long-awaited show to a close, while Crue's turn onstage came during the daylight with some clouds overhead. Drummer Tommy Lee was also relieved by Tommy Clufetos after he disclosed a rib injury that prevented him from playing the full set. Lee will try his best to get through as many songs as he can as the tour rolls on.

While the run is largely comprised of veteran acts, it was young startups Classless Act, who bring a modernized version of a tried and true, hair-flippin' (see the photo below) rock 'n' roll sound, that took the stage first. Just weeks before the start of the trek, they debuted their eponymous song , which features a guest appearance from Motley Crue singer Vince Neil , helping to tie everything together even more.

Joan Jett & The Blackhearts came up next and delivered a set of time-honored hits and then it was time for a trio of legendary hair metal bands that feels a lot like a dream lineup for anyone who was around to witness the classic era and see these bands on their own tours decades ago.

As for Poison, Bret Michaels and co. had "Nothin' But a Good Time" out there with a 12-song set that even included a cover of the famed Van Halen instrumental, "Eruption."

See setlists from the first night here , check this location to see the upcoming Stadium Tour stops and, for tickets, purchase those here .

Stadium Tour, Opening Night Photos - Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Poison, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts + Classless Act

11 artists who turned down joining huge rock + metal bands, more from loudwire.

Can You Guess the ’80s Hair Metal Video From the Screenshots?

Concert review: Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Poison and Joan Jett rock PNC Park

Alexis Papalia

Four bands transported PNC Park back to the Three Rivers Stadium era when The Stadium Tour finally came to Pittsburgh on Friday.

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Poison, Def Leppard and Motley Crue combined for a raucous six-and-a-half-hour concert that delighted fans both young and old.

Multiple bands remarked on how relieved they were to be back on the road after the pandemic caused cancellations. Bret Michaels said, “Two and a half years I’ve been waiting for this exact party!” Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott succinctly expressed the relief of both the audience and the bands: “We finally made it.”

PNC Park saw a perfect sunny day for a 1980s party and a packed stadium full of fans thrilled to throw one. Despite its slate of anti-establishment hard rockers, the show ran impressively on time. It was technically faultless, from the varied, colorful light displays to the crystal-clear sound, every act shone in an amazing spectacle.

Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard perform at PNC Park tonight @TribLIVE #defleppard #MotleyCrue pic.twitter.com/bTIuktHNUN — Shane Dunlap (@shanedunlap) August 13, 2022

The lineup started strong with Joan Jett and the Blackhearts playing to a crowd that was revved up even at the 4:30 p.m. start time. Jett – as rebellious and striking as ever in all black – didn’t miss a beat with a set of crowd-pleasing hits from “Cherry Bomb” to “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll.”

The band threw in some stripped-down songs, like “I’m Gonna Run Away,” as nods to their recently released acoustic album “Changeup.” On their more bombastic tunes, like “Do You Wanna Touch Me?” the whole band brought an energy that had the assembling crowd on its feet.

While Jett didn’t shout out the lyrics the way she used to, her sultry voice on songs like “Crimson and Clover,” and the band’s growling guitars and pounding drums to match left no doubt that the 2015 Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame inductees can still rock.

The Blackhearts wrapped up their hour-long set with back-to-back crowd favorites in “I Hate Myself For Loving You” and “Bad Reputation.”

Considering lead singer Bret Michaels’ Western Pennsylvania roots, it may have been wise to make Poison the show’s headliner in Pittsburgh. Instead, they came on second to a thunderous hometown welcome. Michaels never hid his own excitement, shouting “It’s Bret Michaels and it’s good to be home!” as the band took the stage.

Michaels was full of love to share, lavishing praise on Pittsburgh, where he spent plenty of time while he was growing up in Butler. “I can’t stop smiling, my brothers and sisters are here bringing it. I’ve been telling them on this tour, the ‘Burgh is going to kick your ass!”

Poison rocked their way through high-energy radio classics like “Ride the Wind,” “Talk Dirty To Me” and “Nothing But A Good Time.” Still, they left room in the middle of their set for “Every Rose Has Its Thorn,” a power ballad that had what felt like the entire stadium singing along.

Guitarist C.C. DeVille had the crowd in the palm of his hand during a minutes-long electric guitar solo and Rikki Rockett, the Mechanicsburg-born drummer, rocked out with his own spotlight performance.

Both Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and Poison played hour-long sets, but Def Leppard and Motley Crue performed for 90 minutes and used every second to great effect.

It was hard to imagine more of a hard-rock high than Poison, but Def Leppard was revealed onstage under a rising curtain bearing their logo and brought fans to their feet with a mix of classic hits and new material that fits right in with the oldies. Lead vocalist Joe Elliott still sings like he did in 1983, even if he’s rocking silver hair these days.

The band showcased songs from their new album “Diamond Star Halos.” As Elliott announced proudly onstage, “From our homes all over the place, we managed to 100 percent remotely make an album – and we pulled it off.” The first single, “Kick,” fit right in with songs from the band’s heyday like “Animal” and “Hysteria.”

Elliott promised the audience a range of their music from the very old to the very new, and they delivered. The set wandered from tracks off of the band’s second album, released in 1981, to the present. Nothing quite revved up the crowd, however, like “Pour Some Sugar On Me.”

Def Leppard closed with “Photograph,” and the screens on either side of the stage showed snapshots of the band collaged together with their live performance. Before they left the stage, Elliott made one request of the fans. “Do us a favor, Pittsburgh. Don’t forget us and we won’t forget you.”

As the sun finished setting, the crowd buzzed with anticipation for the night’s final act, Motley Crue. Just after 9:30 p.m., the band made an epic entrance after a video intro that depicted a fake apocalyptic news broadcast and amid an electronic red-and-black banner declaring “The future is ours.”

All of the buzz made sense once Motley Crue started to play. Everything about their performance was a musical wave that swept up even the most apathetic concertgoers. From the frenetic, colorful lights to the band’s undeniable hard rock sound, the show was an adrenaline rush. Lead singer Vince Neil’s iconic voice rang out over chugging, screaming guitars, all held up by the heart-pounding beats of infamous drummer Tommy Lee.

Much like Def Leppard before them, Motley Crue mixed the classics with the new, even throwing in a rendition of “The Dirt,” the song written for the 2019 film of the same name about the band. Still, they seemed to have the most fun doing a series of covers. Nikki Sixx, Motley Crue’s bassist, introduced the medley by referring to them as “our favorite Motley Crue songs that are other people’s songs. Motley Crue karaoke!” The medley included “Rock ‘n’ Roll Part 2,” “Helter Skelter” and “Anarchy in the U.K.,” among other influential songs.

After a series of old-school hits like “Dr. Feelgood” and “Girls, Girls, Girls,” Motley Crue finished their set with “Kickstart My Heart,” a song that sent the thousands of attendees away with more than enough energy for the drive home.

Motley Crue setlist

  • Shout at the Devil
  • Too Fast for Love
  • Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)
  • Saints of Los Angeles
  • Looks That Kill
  • The Dirt (Est. 1981)
  • Rock and Roll, Part 2 / Smokin’ in the Boys Room / White Punks on Dope / Helter Skelter / Anarchy in the U.K.
  • Home Sweet Home
  • T.N.T. (Terror ‘N Tinseltown)
  • Dr. Feelgood
  • Same Ol’ Situation (S.O.S.)
  • Girls, Girls, Girls
  • Primal Scream
  • Kickstart My Heart

Def Leppard setlist

  • Take What You Want
  • Foolin’
  • Armageddon It
  • This Guitar (Acoustic)
  • Two Steps Behind (Acoustic)
  • Bringin’ on the Heartbreak
  • Pour Some Sugar on Me
  • Rock of Ages

Joan Jett setlist

  • Victim of Circumstance
  • Cherry Bomb
  • Oh Woe Is Me
  • Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)
  • You Drive Me Wild (The Runaways cover)
  • Fake Friends
  • Everyday People (Sly & the Family Stone cover)
  • Crimson & Clover
  • I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll
  • (I’m Gonna) Run Away
  • I Hate Myself for Loving You
  • Bad Reputation

Poison setlist

  • Look What the Cat Dragged In
  • Ride the Wind
  • Talk Dirty to Me
  • Your Mama Don’t Dance (Loggins & Messina cover)
  • Guitar Solo (with Eruption Van Halen snippet)
  • Fallen Angel
  • Every Rose Has Its Thorn
  • Nothin’ but a Good Time

Alexis Papalia is a TribLive staff writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

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Mötley Crüe & Def Leppard with Poison and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts

August 16, 2022 @ 4:00 pm - 10:00 pm, mötley crüe & def leppard with poison and joan jett & the blackhearts.

August 16, 2022

2:00 PM South Parking Lot Opens

9:00 AM Ticket Office Opens

3:30 PM Gates Open – East, West & South

4:00 PM Start Time

PLEASE NOTE ROOF & WINDOW WILL BE CLOSED FOR THIS EVENT.

Nfl clear bag policy will be in effect. .

THE STADIUM TOUR

BIGGEST NORTH AMERICAN STADIUM TOUR

OF 2022 KICKS OFF THIS JUNE

TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 2022

LUCAS OIL STADIUM | INDIANAPOLIS, IN

MÖTLEY CRÜE     DEF LEPPARD  

JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS

ON SALE STARTING FEB. 25 AT 10 AM LOCAL TIME ON LIVENATION.COM

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Motley Crue & Def Leppard: The Stadium Tour with Poison & Joan Jett & the Blackhearts

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Fri, Sep 2 nd 2022 4pm

Live Nation Presents MOTLEY CRUE & DEF LEPPARD: The Stadium Tour with Poison and Joan Jett & the Blackhearts September 2, 2022 BC Place Doors: 3:30 p.m. Show: 4 p.m.

Book a suite for the show by contacting our sales team at [email protected].

Bags and purses are not allowed at BC Place as part of an integrated security plan based on Industry Best Practice. Click here to learn more about the stadium’s bag policy.

The BC Place roof will be open for the concert. Please expect summer weather temperatures inside the venue. Guests may bring empty water bottles up to 1L to the event, and filling stations are located at the concourse.

All gates, A through H, will be open. Guests are encouraged to enter through the gate with the shortest line .

Please note the early start time for the event. There are no in-and-out privileges once inside the stadium except for emergency or medical purposes.

Smoking of any kind, and the use of alternative smoking devices (electronic or vapor), is not permitted on BC Place property.

As part of our commitment to a contactless guest experience, all purchases at BC Place are now cashless transactions. A cash-to-card system will be available to accommodate guests who may only have cash and no digital forms of payment.

Please be aware that pyrotechnics, lasers, strobe lights, fog and fire effects may be used during the show.

The Floor Level may be accessed from the ramps at Sections 212, 216, and 243. Tour merchandise will be available at Sections 205, 222, 233, and 249.

Face masks are encouraged but not required. Proof of vaccination is not required. Please stay home if you are not well.

For the stadium’s guest policies, including prohibited items, please click here .

More tour information below:

After two summers of delays, it is FINALLY happening.

The world’s most iconic and celebrated rock legends will hit the road together this summer for a coheadlining tour SO MASSIVE that it could only be held in North America’s biggest stadiums. THE STADIUM TOUR featuring, MÖTLEY CRÜE, DEF LEPPARD with POISON and JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS will hit select cities in the U.S. and Canada where each band will bring their electrifying stage shows while promising to perform their stadium sized anthems. Produced by Live Nation, the summer tour is set to steamroll through North America starting June 2022.

"It's on! We don't think we've ever looked forward more to kicking off a tour than this one. We can't wait to finally see all the fans across North America again. Get ready for a wild ride this summer!" Mötley Crüe said in a joint statement.

“On behalf of the band, we’re beyond thrilled that the stadium tour is finally happening this summer. It’s been a while coming and we can’t wait to get back on stage again & we can’t wait to see you in one of the many stadiums soon!” said Joe Elliott.

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Def Leppard, Motley Crue ‘Stadium Tour’ Grosses $5 Million Per Show

Def Leppard has launched a virtual museum, "The Def Leppard Vault," featuring an archive that will continue to grow with interviews, photographs, videos and more.

Story by Charles Ken, photo by Anne Erickson

Motley Crue and Def Leppard are raking in big bucks with their ‘Stadium Tour’

Motley Crue and Def Leppard’s long awaited North American “Stadium Tour” is proving to pull in some big bucks for the rockers. As the band nears the final dates of the trek, returns show the tour grossed around $5 million per show in August. How massive is that?

The tour kicked off in June and also features support from Poison, Joan Jett and Classless Act. The numbers comes from Pollstar, a live industry trade publication.

According to Pollstar’s LIVE75 chart , which ranks current tours by average tickets sold over the last 30 days, the Crue and Def Leppard’s Stadium Tour hit 14 cities in August, including Boston, Toronto, New York State, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Seattle and beyond. The trek sold an average of 36,513 tickets each night and pulled in an average gross of $4,962,861, according to Pollstar. The only tours that did better than Motley Crue and Def Leppard were Ed Sheeran, Coldplay and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The Stadium Tour was postponed for two years due to the pandemic and finally set off in Atlanta in June. It didn’t go smoothly from the start, as Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee announced at the first show in that he’d broken his ribs and would only perform a few songs. He was able to take on the whole set again on June 28 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Check out remaining dates for Stadium Tour dates below.

Remaining Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Poison and Joan Jett Summer 2022 U.S. Tour Dates:

08/16 – Indianapolis, Ind. @ Lucas Oil Stadium 08/19 – Houston, Texas @ Minute Maid Park 08/21 – San Antonio, Texas @ Alamodome 08/22 – Arlington, Texas @ Globe Life Field 08/25 – Glendale, Ariz. @ State Farm Stadium 08/27 – Inglewood, Calif. @ SoFi Stadium 08/28 – San Diego, Calif. @ Petco Park 08/31 – Seattle, Wash. @ T-Mobile Park 09/2 – Vancouver, British Columbia @ BC Place 09/4 – Edmonton, Alberta @ Commonwealth Stad. 09/7 – San Francisco, Calif. @ Oracle Park 09/9 – Las Vegas, Nev. @ Allegiant Stadium

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Parties and punch-ups: behind the scenes at the 1989 Moscow Peace Festival

Just your everyday tale of the first (and probably last) anti-drug festival behind the Iron Curtain, with Bon Jovi, Scorpions, Ozzy Osbourne, Cinderalla and Skid Row

Moscow Peace Festival - press conference

If the original 1969 Woodstock festival, with its gruesomely naked bodies, uninhibited drug-taking and unprecedented approach to crowd control – come on down, brothers and sisters, it’s all free! – had been emblematic of the countercultural ‘revolution’ of the late 1960s, then there can have been no better symbol of the money-grabbin’, drug-hypocritical, so-called safe-sex 1980s than the Moscow Music Peace Festival, held exactly 20 years – and what seemed like several lifetimes – later. 

Never mind Live Aid . More people may remember that but Live Aid, with its ultra-focused fundraising and dizzying global clout, was more of a handholding 60s throwback than it was a genuine expression of the age; a cultural aberration that deliberately traded on me-first 80s guilt to ram home its almost anachronistic message: feed the children, help the poor, pretend Thatcher and Reagan never existed (and while you’re at it, help revive my career). 

The Moscow Music Peace Festival, however, was a genuinely self-absorbed, glossed-over, height-of-the-80s, multimedia event; inspired by the deeply held desire of a convicted international drug-trafficker to avoid going to jail, and the fervent wishes of the famous bands whose careers he then guided not to be robbed of their Svengali, their bad daddy, their real money maker. 

In short, the only interests the Moscow Music Peace Festival really served were of the people on the stage, not the ones off it. 

Even the location for the event seemed bizarrely at odds with prevailing rock culture, certainly as it had existed up until 1989: since when had the Lenin Stadium in Moscow become a venue of choice for high-profile rock bands? 

Since Doc McGhee said so, that’s when. McGhee, lest we forget, was then manager of five of the seven big-name bands that would appear on the Moscow bill: Bon Jovi , The Scorpions , Mötley Crüe , Skid Row and local Russian outfit Gorky Park. 

While the only other big name acts appearing at the festival not connected to McGhee – Ozzy Osbourne and Cinderella – were both managed by people he’d worked with many times over the years (notably, Sharon Osbourne, on the Crüe’s breakthrough US tour opening for Ozzy six years before, and when Doc returned the favour by letting Lita Ford , then managed by Sharon, open for Bon Jovi on his 1988 world tour). McGhee was also a convicted felon.

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Or as drummer Tommy Lee put it in the 2001 official Mötley Crüe biography, The Dirt : ‘Before [McGhee] met us, he was living a secret life that blew up on him when he got busted for helping smuggle 40,000 fucking pounds of pot from Colombia into North Carolina.

It wasn’t his only bust, because he was also being accused of associating with some well-connected madmen who had conspired to bring over a half a million pounds of blow [cocaine] and weed into the United States in the early 80s.’ The result, after he had pleaded guilty at the trial in North Carolina, was a relatively modest $15,000 fine, plus a five-year suspended prison sentence.

The reason he was able to get off with such a light sentence was his additional offer to put together an anti-drugs organisation, the Make A Difference Foundation, for which he would raise money the only legal way he knew how: via his music biz connections.

As Tommy said: ‘Doc knew that anyone else probably would have been in jail for at least 10 years for that shit, so he had to do something high-profile to show the court he was doing the world some good as a free man. And his brainstorm was to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Woodstock with the Moscow Music Peace Festival.’

But as Tommy ruefully concluded: "It was all bad from the moment we stepped on the plane… There was a so-called doctor on board, who was plying the bands who weren’t sober with whatever medicine they needed. It was clear that this was going to be a monumental festival of hypocrisy."

Not that I was yet aware of any of that as I stood there, sweaty and starving, at Cheremetyov airport in August 1989, waiting for the plane to land. I was still too flummoxed by Moscow itself to worry about what any of the bands might be thinking. I had arrived 48 hours before to find a city gripped by such a fearful heat that all the sensible (read: rich) people had fled the city for their summer dachas. Not that there was much to keep them there during the cooler months either.

Back then, before the Berlin Wall had fallen, the image Moscow conjured up in one’s mind was of a large, grey, unhappy citadel full of long faces and even longer food queues. The reality, however, was much worse than that. Rule number one, I discovered on my first night there, was There Is No Food. That is, nothing edible.

There were restaurants, of course, but mostly they were all closed. Usually for ‘cleaning’ which seemed to take place approximately six nights out of seven. Even when you did find a restaurant open it invariably wasn’t worth eating in. Learning to survive on the road means learning to eat anything. Fussy eaters are the first to throw in the towel.

As a result, over the years I had, at various trying moments, found myself eating smoked reindeer and bear-steaks in Helsinki; drinking the foul tap water of Rio de Janeiro; quaffing chilli-dogs and fries at fast-food counters all over America; and gorging myself on raw fish and cold rice in Tokyo.

But never in all my travels had I come across anything so frankly – or ironically – vomit-inducing as the Chicken Kiev in Russia. “Why do you think there are no dogs on the streets of Moscow?” whispered Dimitri, conspiratorially – one of the many official KGB-approved festival ‘guides’ and ‘interpreters’ – as I pushed away my plate again one night.

Rule number two: There Is No Such Thing As Russian Money. Well, actually, there was – it was called ‘the rouble’, but no self-respecting Russian trader would accept them as currency. Officially, a rouble was the equivalent of £1 sterling. But on the black market you could get up to 10 roubles for your pound.

Even then, however, they simply weren’t worth having. The only thing a stack of Roubles could buy you was a wooden doll and a big furry hat. The only real consumer goods available were on sale in the tourist-only stores, which took all major credit cards including American Express. In fact, the main currency in Moscow back then, spookily, was US dollars. And if you didn’t have the exact amount you could throw in a pack of Marlboros. For change, you might receive an assortment of dollar bills, 10- franc pieces and the occasional silver Deutsche Mark. For small change you might get handed a packet of orange-flavoured Tic-Tacs. No joke.

As for music… well, these days, no doubt, it’s as easy in Moscow to download your favourite emo codswallop from the internet as it is anywhere else. Back then, however, records and tapes were purchased almost exclusively on the black market. There was only one official record store in the whole of Moscow and when I visited it they were selling the sort of junk you might find at a car-boot sale – dusty Frank Ifield LPs and third-generation home-made cassettes of The Beatles.

Everything else was either banned or simply not available in the Russian market. The reason for this, as Jon Bon Jovi later told me, was that “they don’t pay royalties”. He said they’d actually let them release the Slippery When Wet album in the USSR, “but we did it knowing we’d never see any money for it”. If it hadn’t been for the fact that the album had already made $100 million throughout the rest of the world they’d never have been so generous. Along with most of the Western bands flying in for the festival, I was staying at a ‘five star’, £125 night shit-hole in the heart of Moscow, one block from Red Square and the imposing shadow of the Kremlin.

Sex workers lined the entrance to the hotel, and dark-suited security guards with the thick necks and thicker accents of Bond villains checked the ID of everyone wishing to enter. Enormous black cockroaches clung lazily to the walls and ceiling of the lobby. In my room on the 16th floor I was advised by one of the advance crew to check for bedbugs before turning in for the night.

In my bathroom the water running from the taps was the rich brown colour of yesterday’s piss; in the soap dish there sat a decomposing apple-core. The only towel provided was hanky-thin and crisp as an old rag. Two cigarette stubs floated lifelessly in the toilet pan. I was truly baffled. What the fuck had happened back there when they’d had the Great Revolution? Hadn’t anybody come out on top at the end of it? And if they had, where did those guys go to eat – and sleep?

I had only been in bed 10 minutes when there was a knock at my door. I thought it might be the KGB. But when I opened the door a crack there was only one of the sex workers from the lobby, asking if I’d like to buy champagne (“Only ten dollars, US,” she grinned uninvitingly) or perhaps more (“I keep you company, yes?” Er, no… thanks).

This happened every single night I was there. On the third night, already drunk and feeling emboldened after another day of dog-burgers and Tic-Tacs, I invited her in. She asked if she could bring a friend and out of nowhere another woman appeared. I gave them $20 and we opened a couple of bottles of champagne. It was so sickly sweet it made Asti Spumanti taste like Dom Perignon.

I sat there on the bed morosely, drinking it and asking them about Russia. They agreed that Russian life was “verrry bad”. Never mind, I said, Gorbachev was working on it, right?

“No!” they cried in unison. Gorbachev was “verrry, verry, verry bad!”

They said they’d preferred life under the old regime. At least then, they said, you could get meat and bread and didn’t have to queue for everything. I gave them another $20 when they left and went to sleep feeling worse than ever. Gorby may have been a huge hero to the West back then but apparently he didn’t mean shit to the ordinary whores and champagne guzzlers of Moscow.

I went to sleep thinking I understood but of course I didn’t. It goes without saying that the bands were even more nonplussed when they arrived. Walking through Red Square in the rain with Ozzy the day after he landed, he looked around glumly and summed up the general feeling surrounding the build-up to the festival when he said: “If I was living here full-time, I’d probably be dead of alcoholism, or sniffing car tyres – anything to get out of it. I can understand why there’s such an alcohol problem here. There’s nothing else to do.”

Vince Neil and Nikki Sixx from the Crüe were similarly downbeat when I ran into them backstage at the Lenin Stadium the day before the first of two shows.

“It might be an anti-drugs concert for some people,” said Nikki with a shrug, “but it’s not for us. It’s anti-abuse we’re talking about. That’s our belief. We’re not here to preach. If you tell a young kid not to do drugs, he’s gonna do it anyway. I know I did. We just say – if you cross the line between use and abuse, then that’s really tragic. I’ve crossed that line, many times. And I know from experience that it’s bad, and I try to tell kids not to cross the line. The rest is up to them.”

But then Ozzy and the Crüe were the only bands on the bill still struggling with ‘substance abuse’ issues of their own. Indeed, Ozzy would be arrested for attempting to strangle Sharon within weeks of returning home from Moscow, after drinking the case of Russian vodka miniatures he’d been presented with by the promoter. While Nikki, Vince and the guys were then famously fresh out of an enforced spell in rehab, riding a wagon they were still barely clinging to.

The Scorpions, the only band from the West on the bill to have played there before – 10 sold-out nights in Leningrad in March ’88 – were predictably more upbeat about the festival’s prospects for doing good, hamming it up during their soundcheck at the Lenin Stadium with an over-the-top version of Back In The USSR.

As vocalist Klaus Meine told me afterwards: “There’s everywhere a drug problem, all over the world. So I think it’s good that the bands stand together on one stage and give a message to the kids in the world: forget about the drugs. The best drug is music.”

In the end, it was left to the ever-more earnest Jon Bon Jovi to talk up the festival and put it into some kind of historical perspective. Driving around town with Jon one afternoon in the back of a Russian-made Zil limousine, I listened patiently as he waxed lyrical about Nelson Mandela, Bob Geldof and the impossibility of obtaining a cold beer in Moscow. The two major issues, said Jon, were “money and awareness”.

After the “production costs” all proceeds from the two concerts were clearly earmarked for various drug and alcohol ‘rehabilitation centres’ and ‘substance abuse awareness’ programmes, specifically in the Soviet Union, where until the onset of Gorby’s perestroika it was not officially admitted that a drug or alcohol problem even existed.

The extra “icing on the cake” was being able “to do something no other rock band has yet done”. Live Aid had been about helping the famine-victims of Africa; Moscow was about helping the kids closer to home.

“You know, at this stage of the game, it’s like you ask yourself, ‘What can we do that Led Zeppelin or the Rolling Stones or the Beatles didn’t already do?’ And being here is it. Not only do we get to come over in a good cause, we also get to put on the kind of rock show never before seen in the Soviet Union.” Meine peered out the window through his shades at the rain sleeting down then added: “People are always ready to question the motives behind why a bunch of rock stars would want to get together and do something like this. And, sure, inevitably you get a clash of egos occasionally. It’s not exactly the easiest thing to organise in the world, we sure found that out! But at the end of the day, I look at it like this.

"I wouldn’t have known about Nelson Mandela’s situation like I do now had I not been drawn to it because of the artists on Amnesty. Or I don’t think that I would’ve ever known about Ethiopia the way I do now if it wasn’t for Bob Geldof. So there is a wonderful icing on the cake. You get to see all these big performers that I enjoy too, but there’s ultimately a cause behind it. And that’s what raises your awareness.”

All of which was true. And yet behind the scenes several spectres still loomed. Not least that of Aerosmith , who not only pulled out of the event at the eleventh hour but also insisted their contribution to the official Make A Difference album (a version of The Doors ’ Love Me Two Times) be lifted from the final pressing, after privately expressing concern over where exactly all the money was actually going.

Then Ozzy threatened to pull out of the event the night before the first show when McGhee suddenly changed his placing on the bill from third to fourth, upgrading Mötley Crüe to the slot above Ozzy. McGhee took the threat seriously enough to return Ozzy to his original placing on the bill, just below the Scorpions and Bon Jovi, and Ozzy kept his promise and did the show.

What Mötley Crüe thought of this was only made clear 12 years later when The Dirt came out. According to Tommy, "Doc had told each band something different in order to get them to do the show. Jon Bon Jovi thought it was just another stop on his world headlining tour, while we thought it was supposed to be a small-scale, reduced set. Then the production manager broke the news to us that we’d been demoted. We were on before Ozzy and The Scorpions, I was fucking livid.

Doc was supposed to be our manager, looking out for our best interests, and he was favouring one of his newer clients, Bon Jovi, over us and the Scorpions, who, in Russia, were massive. 'Fuck you, Doc,' Nikki said to him. 'We didn’t fly all the way to Russia to be an opening act while Bon-fucking-Jovi gets to headline for an hour and a half. What’s up with that?'"

After the show was over, Tommy says, he ‘hunted Doc down and found him backstage. I walked right up to him and pushed him in his fat little chest, knocking him over onto the ground like a broken Weeble. As he lay there, Nikki broke the news: “Doc, you lied to us again. This time you’re fucking fired!”’

The last time I saw Jon Bon Jovi on that trip he was in Red Square, still looking for a cold beer.

“Have you discovered any of the night life here yet?” he asked me hopefully.

I shook my head. We stood there on the steps of St. Asille’s Cathedral in Red Square, along with all the other out-of-towners and tourists, waiting to watch the changing of the guard at the gates of the Kremlin. I don’t think either of us knew what difference any of it really made…

It’ll be alright on the night…

Amid all the backstage chaos, just how did the Moscow shows go down?  

Despite the behind-the-scenes bickering – Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee even punched out promoter Doc McGhee when he realised headliners Bon Jovi were to use pyrotechnics, something all the bands had been told was strictly off limits – music-wise the Moscow Music Peace Festival was a triumph. 

Against all the egotistical odds, each band finally took to the stage and played six songs. Skid Row stormed through a set that featured The Sex Pistols’ Holidays In The Sun , Ozzy Osbourne mixed his own solo material ( Shot In The Dark and Suicide Solution ) with a couple of Black Sabbath classics ( Sweet Leaf, Paranoid ) to a huge response. 

Cinderella were at the height of their powers – turning in a set that included high-voltage versions of Falling Apart At The Seams and Coming Home , while Mötley Crüe channelled their anger into a ball of punkish energy with a ferocious set that featured Girls Girls Girls and Wild Side . 

The Scorpions were given a huge reception – they were arguably the most popular band on the bill back then – and Gorky Park held their own. 

Topping it off, Jon Bon Jovi showed his prowess for courting popularity with the locals by wearing a Russian army coat and hat as the band tore through a show that included Blood On Blood, Wanted Dead Or Alive and Lay Your Hands On Me . Both nights finished in a memorable jam session; members of all the bands joined by drummer Jason Bonham took on Elvis’s Hound Dog (first night), Little Richard’s Long Tall Sally (second night) and Led Zeppelin’s Rock And Roll (both nights).

Mick Wall

Mick Wall is the UK's best-known rock writer, author and TV and radio programme maker, and is the author of numerous critically-acclaimed books, including definitive, bestselling titles on Led Zeppelin ( When Giants Walked the Earth ), Metallica ( Enter Night ), AC/DC ( Hell Ain't a Bad Place To Be ), Black Sabbath ( Symptom of the Universe ), Lou Reed, The Doors ( Love Becomes a Funeral Pyre ), Guns N' Roses and Lemmy. He lives in England.

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motley crue joan jett tour

  • Anniston/Gadsden

How to get tickets for Alanis Morisette’s tour with Joan Jett

  • Updated: Mar. 25, 2024, 1:57 p.m. |
  • Published: Mar. 25, 2024, 1:56 p.m.

Alanis Morissette

Seven-time Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Alanis Morissette will bring her Triple Moon Tour to Nashville and Alpharetta, Ga. Courtesy | 313 Presents

You Oughta Know – Alanis is coming! Alanis Morrisette is heading out on her Triple Moon Tour this summer.

Ever since her album “Jagged Little Pill” exploded on the music scene in 1995, Alanis Morisette has been known for her angst-ridden, feministic tunes.

She’ll be performing in Alpharetta, Ga., June 22 and in Nashville on June 23. Both dates will also feature special guests Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and Morgan Wade.

The tour kicks off in June and ends in August 2024.

Morisette is releasing a meditation album “The Storm Before the Calm” June 17.

How to find tickets

Find tickets to her June 22 show at Ameris Bank Amphitheater in Alpharetta at StubHub , Vivid Seats , Ticketmaster and Seat Geek .

Find tickets to her June 23 show at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville at StubHub , Vivid Seats , Ticketmaster and Seat Geek .

Find a complete list of tour dates here.

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motley crue joan jett tour

  • Tours & Sightseeing
  • Hop-on Hop-off Tours

motley crue joan jett tour

City Sightseeing Moscow Hop-On Hop-Off Tour with Optional Cruise

  • City Sightseeing hop-on hop-off tour of Moscow
  • Create your personalized sightseeing itinerary and explore Moscow at leisure
  • See attractions like Red Square, St Basil's Cathedral and Alexandra Garden
  • Hop on and off as many times as you wish at any of the nine stops around the city
  • Enjoy informative audio commentary on board the bus
  • Ticket valid for 1 day or 2 day

Inclusions & Exclusions

  • Hop-on hop-off tour only, if option selected
  • Hop-on hop-off tour and boat tour, if option selected
  • Boat Tour only, if option selected
  • Recorded commentary
  • Gratuities (optional)
  • Hotel pickup and drop-off
  • Food and drinks, unless specified
  • Entrance fees

Departure & Return

The route begins at Red Square but you can board at any stop

Buses run every 20 minutes, 10am - 5:30pm, daily

What To Expect

Brim with contrasts, Moscow is one of Eastern Europe's most intriguing capitals. With more billionaires per capita than any other city, Russia's capital is host to everything from ostentatious palaces and onion-domed churches to austere reminders of its Soviet-run history, all wrapped in multiple layers of rich imperial and political history. Add world-class museums, edgy contemporary arts, lush green parks and a wealth of other attractions, and Moscow is made for discovering on a City Sightseeing hop-on hop-off bus tour.Simply hop on your comfortable, open-top, double-decker City Sightseeing bus and soak up the sights, from the cobbled space of Red Square - the stage of massive military parades in Soviet times and home to the colorful domes of St Basil's Cathedral - to the Big Stone Bridge, overlooked by the monumental Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Have your camera ready as you pass other stellar attractions, or hop off to stroll around Alexander Garden or visit the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum, home to stunning collections of European art, including masterpieces by Botticelli and Rembrandt.Armed with your 2-day ticket, feel free to stay on the bus for the full loop (60 minutes) and listen to the entertaining audio commentary, or hop on and off at any of the nine stops around the city as you please. The choice is yours!ItineraryMoscow City Sightseeing Hop-On Hop-Off Stops:Red October Island Red Square  New Square Alexander GardenArbatskaya SquareKropotkinskaya Metro StationPushkin Fine Arts MuseumBig Stone Bridge Bolotnaya Square

Additional Info

  • Confirmation will be received at time of booking
  • Children must be accompanied by an adult
  • Wheelchair accessible

Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel At least 24 hours in advance of the start date of the experience.

Your Contact Details

Questions or requests.

Do you have questions or specific requests regarding this tour?

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