Looks That Kill Motley Crue

Looks That Kill Album: Shout at the Devil (1983)
by Mötley Crüe.

It was released as a single in January 1984. The song is considered one of their best. Shout at the Devil is the second studio album, released on September 23, 1983. It was the band's breakthrough album, establishing Mötley Crüe as one of the top selling heavy metal acts of the 1980s. The singles "Looks That Kill" and "Too Young to Fall in Love" were moderate hits for the band.

The track was written by bassist Nikki Sixx and spent 10 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States, peaking at #54 and #12 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks.

Shout at the Devil was Mötley Crüe's breakthrough success, selling 200,000 copies in its first two weeks. The album's title and the band's use of a pentagram caused a great deal of controversy upon its 1983 release, as Christian and conservative groups claimed the band was encouraging their listeners to worship Satan. The pentagram was something Nikki Sixx brought with him from Sister, a very theatrical band he had been a member of (along with future W.A.S.P. vocalist Blackie Lawless) in the late 1970s prior to the formation of Mötley Crüe. Sister fused occult symbolism such as the Pentagram into a theatrical heavy metal show incorporating blood and facial makeup. Sixx asked Lawless for permission to use some of Sister's occult-related imagery for Shout at the Devil, as at that point Lawless was intent on moving in a different direction. "I said 'take whatever you want' because at that point, I realised that with an image like that, you end up painting yourself in a corner and you can't get out," said Lawless.

Just prior to returning home to Los Angeles to begin recording the album, Mötley Crüe was famously kicked off their support spot on Kiss' Creatures of the Night tour. The bands played only five shows together before Gene Simmons demanded they be replaced, citing their "bad behavior".

At the December 31, 1982 "New Years' Evil" show in Santa Monica, Vince Neil announced from the stage before playing the then-new song "Red Hot" that the band's next album would be titled "Theater of Pain" and will be released in March 1983. The title ended up being used for their following album in 1985. The actual title track "Shout at the Devil" was also played at this show and introduced by Neil as being "about what happens when H.P. Lovecraft and Beelzebub come to visit your house". The title change was probably to avoid confusion with the then-recent "Only Theatre of Pain" album by another LA band, Christian Death.

During recording, bassist Sixx was involved in a serious car crash after drunkenly stealing a friend's Porsche in Los Angeles. At around the same time, actress and friend Demi Moore told Sixx he needed Alcoholics Anonymous, though Sixx dismissed her concerns. Sixx badly injured his shoulder in the crash and was prescribed Percocet, a combination of acetaminophen and the powerful opioid oxycodone which was commonly prescribed to treat severe short-term pain. Sixx's use of Percocet transitioned directly to a crippling addiction to heroin which would cost him $3,500 a day and almost claim his life later in the decade.

As the band toured with Ozzy Osbourne in support of Shout at the Devil, they discussed replacing guitarist Mick Mars. Mars was several years older than the other members of the band, and his bandmates were eager to add a more technically proficient guitarist in the vein of Yngwie Malmsteen. Bob Daisley, Osbourne's bassist, was present during the tour-bus discussion and told the band "do not try to fix something that isn't broken" when asked for his opinion. Daisley has said the band was serious at that time about replacing the guitarist. "They didn't have the balls", Mars said when asked about the prospect of being replaced. "But one day at rehearsal they went, 'Jake E. Lee would look good right here.' I went, 'I'm the guitar player in the band. Nobody else needs to be there.'"

As the tour continued, the band was invited to take part in the 1984 Monsters of Rock festival supporting Van Halen and headliners AC/DC. Guitarist Eddie Van Halen was bitten by Vince Neil during a dinner, with drummer Tommy Lee also biting Malcolm Young at some point. Van Halen and Young were both reportedly furious over this behaviour. Lee also became involved in a fistfight with David Lee Roth which saw Mötley Crüe expelled from their hotel. AC/DC and Van Halen both subsequently demanded Mötley Crüe be removed from the bill, but the band's popularity at that time made such a move difficult. The promoter came up with an unusual solution: Mötley Crüe would enter their trailer immediately upon arrival at the concert venue, and a large crane would then lift the trailer several meters off the ground to prevent the band members from leaving and causing trouble prior to their performance. They would also be required to leave the concert venue immediately following their performance. "You apologized every day", said manager Doc McGhee of Mötley Crüe's behaviour during this period, which eventually resulted in him having to pay a $15,000 deposit before any hotel would allow the band to stay. McGhee also established a rule in which each band member would submit to him a list of everything they had destroyed in a hotel before he'd allow them to check out.

It was an article published in the June 1984 issue of Hit Parader magazine that brought the band's shocking antics to national attention for the first time. Andy Secher, the magazine's editor, traveled to Mexico for an interview with the band and was shocked to find "this young woman, spread eagle on the bed, naked, and they're going at her with a wine bottle". Though Secher had to heavily sanitize the story before it could be printed, the depiction of the band's behaviour nonetheless shocked America and created a firestorm of controversy which saw some retailers threaten to remove the magazine from its shelves. The magazine not only survived, but soon saw its readership increase dramatically, with Secher saying "We happened to hit perfectly with Mötley Crüe. That June issue was on the stands in April, just when Shout At The Devil was peaking."

"Looks That Kill" was a moderate hit for the band and played a large role in exposing the band to a wider audience. The music video produced for the song was shot over the course of an 18-hour day on the main sound stage at A&M Records in Los Angeles. Model Wendy Barry, who portrayed the "warrior princess" in the "Looks That Kill" music video, has said her experience with the band was very positive, describing Mötley Crüe as "all very nice. Really down-to-earth and fun", in stark contrast with their growing reputation for depravity. While Barry acknowledges the music video "generated a stir", she later said of it "I personally thought it was just a well-executed video as far as production, and the song was killer." A year later Barry would appear again with Sixx and Lee in the music video for Ratt's "Back For More".

Vince Neil – lead vocals
Mick Mars – guitar
Nikki Sixx – bass
Tommy Lee – drums, percussion