Las Vegas Weekly

February 10, 2009 · 3:28 PM

Exclusive: Vince Neil plans second tattoo parlor and sets date for Dr. Feelgood

By Robin Leach

Vince Neil.

Photo: Hew Burney/www.hewburney.com

Motley Crue rocker Vince Neil confirmed exclusively to Vegas DeLuxe that he’s set an April 11 grand opening for his rock club restaurant Dr. Feelgood. It’s the first Las Vegas location and third overall, with plans for more across the country.

The off-Strip West Sahara location will get its soft opening underway in March but will wait for Vince’s return so he can perform at the opening night festivities. Vince is busy expanding his Dr. Feelgood empire: His South Beach location, the second in Florida, opens in three weeks. He won’t get there to perform until April when the Motley Crue tour lands in Miami.

Vince also revealed that he’ll open a second Vince Neil Ink in The Rio this summer; the first is in O’Shea’s at center Strip.

He told me: “We’re now one year in with nine more to go on our 10-year world tour contract. I’m loving it. This is the fun part, and it all feels great. The whole second year is planned out. Our first stop now is Omaha, and then we’ve got American cities through the end of March. We have April off, which is when I’ll return home to Vegas for the Dr. Feelgood opening and get The Rio tattoo shop underway. In May and June, we’ll hopscotch Europe before starting the second Crue Fest here at home for July, August and September.

“We get October off for vacation and then return to Europe in November for the missed cities and go back to Australia and Asia in December. It never stops, but we’ll be back here for the holidays again. On top of that, I’ve got my solo record coming out in November.”

Vince and his Motley Crue band mates returned home for the closing of The Joint in the Hard Rock Hotel last weekend. He told me: “Yeah, it did get emotional. There was a tear in my eye when I sang ‘Home Sweet Home’ at the end. I changed so I could wear my Vince Neil Ink shirt for the final number. I had to get a plug in while everybody was being sentimental, but then it got to me, too. All of us up on stage were a little teary eyed. We’d been told we were specially selected to close it down as the final act, and that felt very special. It was an honor, and as fast as we went through the show, it was suddenly the end. It felt strange that that was it.

“We must have played The Joint ourselves a good five or six times over the years. We have a lot of good memories being there. Before we went on stage, the Hard Rock executives gave each of us a guitar that they’d taken off the walls and mounted on plaques to commemorate the night. They also gave us photographs of all the times we’d played The Joint, so it was pretty sentimental.

“Now we go back out on the road. The only thing I really miss with all the traveling we do is the great meals we enjoy when we always come home to Vegas! Somehow I have to figure that one out next time I’m back.”

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