Las Vegas Weekly

September 22, 2010 · 4:01 PM

Advance excerpts from Vince Neil’s new autobiography Tattoos & Tequila

By Robin Leach

Vince Neil performs with Camp Freddy at The Pearl in the Palms on July 10, 2010.

Photo: Edison Graff

There will be screaming headlines tomorrow when hometown rocker Vince Neil releases his outrageously candid, shock-and-surprise autobiography Tattoos & Tequila. It’s everything you’ve always known about rock ’n’ roll excess -- and more: alcohol abuse, drug dalliances and girl groupies in sufficient numbers to field a basketball team - -nightly! Vince describes it as a journey “to hell and back.”

“It’s a miracle we survived. We are all very lucky we didn’t kill ourselves,” Vince admits. “Death was never my intent. Today, I’m healthier than a syringe full of cocaine powder I was doing back in ’81.”

In fact, here in Las Vegas at the 50-year mark and with three plastic surgeries behind him, he still makes music and runs successful business, including his tattoo parlors, restaurants, tequila company and a charter jet fleet.

Vince’s well-traveled road began in Compton, near downtown L.A., as gangs began their turf takeovers. His and Motley Crue’s exploits became as famous as the group’s music. He was even kicked out of the group for a while before returning at their request, but the book details why he doesn’t really speak to them anymore even though they have a world tour contract to fulfill over the next six-plus years. It’s a rant against Tommy Lee, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx in what he says is bad treatment of him. He labels Nikki a self-appointed Messiah and Tommy as fame obsessed.

Here’s our first approved authorized excerpt:

The story goes that Nikki and Tommy and Mick waited 4 hours for me to come. Pissed, they had our tour manager, Mike Amato, send me a fax asking where I was and ordering me to come to the studio immediately. I was like, WTF, you know? Who is ordering me to do sh*t? WTF do you mean, immediately? Nobody talks to me that way. I am a grown man. I called the studio hoping the fax was Nikki’s weird idea of a joke, but of course it wasn’t. Nikki started balling me out because my phone line had been constantly busy -- maybe it was out. How was I supposed to know the line was out? And if it was out, how did I get the fax? The funny thing about all this stuff -- the thing that nobody says -- is that the guys had been rehearsing with John Corabi this whole time. I didn’t know about it then, but I know about it now.

So if you ask me, you can tell this story 100 ways, but there’s only one truth. They just kind of masterminded some sh*t with this whole thing ’cause they wanted to get rid of me and replace me with Corabi. I drove in to the studio. I don’t remember if it was in Hollywood or in the Valley. I don’t remember which one of my 30 cars I drove -- probably one of the four-wheelers or the Hummer. When I got there, Nikki and them start talking all this trash about how I was out the night before drunk and how they are thinking of … getting a new lead singer! When I heard that, I think I went deaf and blind. I was, like, I’m outta here. It sounded to me like I’d just been fired.”

Yes, the tales of Playboy bunnies and porn stars will titillate you as he romps through a list of “Girls Girls Girls.” Even his ex-wives are quoted extensively in the book to have their say about how he couldn’t stay faithful while married. Threesomes, foursomes and more were on the daily menu as dinner and dessert.

But you’ll feel his pain and cry along as he relates the awful, tragic and painful death of his little daughter Skylar. Here’s an authorized excerpt:

“The doctors said they needed to perform another operation: The scar tissue from previous surgeries had formed on my baby Skylar’s intestines, twisting them and obstructing her bowels, the main source of her pain. After that, Skylar looked even worse -- if that was possible. It was as if she herself had given up. Lord knows she was a fighter, but I guess her little body just couldn’t keep on taking it. The life had drained from her face; she was just skin and bones. Three days later, they took her, this time to remove her kidney, they said. Once inside, they discovered that the cancer had spread -- it was in her liver, intestines and dorsal muscles.

I was at home a few days later when the oncologist called to tell me they’d placed Skylar on a ventilator. He suggested one last operation. They warned us the procedure was extremely dangerous. However, they said if Skylar made it through, it was very likely she would survive. Those 8 hours in the waiting room were the worst of hundreds. Sharise and her family, my family, Neil, Heidi … all of us sat huddled together anxiously waiting for word from the doctors.”

Vince says that his three Motley Crue colleagues never contacted him during his daughter’s cancer battle. He’s raised more than $2 million for cancer research since her death through the Skylar Neil Memorial Foundation, and his charity blackjack tournament is already scheduled for Nov. 7 at The Rio.

Vince doesn’t shy away in the book from tackling his drug use. Here’s another authorized excerpt:

“The second time I had pot mixed with PCP, a horse tranquilizer known on the street as angel dust. I remember the first time I tried it. I was with four friends in a car at a drive-in theater watching Silver Streak, a hilarious movie with Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder. My friend handed the pipe to me; I didn’t know how much to smoke. And I sure wasn’t gonna be a puss wad and ask. I just toked it down, big time. I ended up getting so screwed up that I could hardly move or speak. Honestly, that was one high that I wanted to see come to an end.

I remember we all freaked out when a security guard came up and knocked on the window. He rolled down the window, and the smoke billowed out. … I was sure we were going to jail. But all the guard did was ask him to take his foot off the brake. His red brake lights were disturbing the people behind us at the drive-in. After that, I got out of the car and staggered toward the snack bar, which was located at the rear of the drive-in. Even though I was messed up, I was totally munched out, hungry as hell. The girl who served me must have thought she was dealing with an idiot, because I could hardly speak.

I ended up having to point at the stuff I wanted. I got a big box of popcorn and some sodas, but I ended up spilling everything on the endless walk back to the car. It felt like I was on one of those primitive plank bridges over a gorge. I was lucky to even find the car. The next day, I smoked more. Mostly because it was there.”

Ozzy Osbourne’s wife Sharon Osbourne, a judge on America’s Got Talent, has already blasted Vince’s book. Vince defends it all as “the honest, frank truth.” We posted an exclusive and candid interview with him on Monday. He speaks frankly about the breakup of his fourth marriage and some of the book’s other secrets. He’s on a cross-country book and record promotion tour and returns home for a book signing at Borders in Town Square next Wednesday.

Vince will play with Motley Crue at the Oct. 3 Alabama Music Festival and resume Crue Fest 3 next year. From Nov. 11-14, he’ll solo headline the annual cruise ship festival ShipRocked as the ultimate rock and roll vacation sailing from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to the Bahamas and the private island Coco Cay Bay. ShipRocked also stars Tesla, Sevendust, Black Stone Cherry and others.

Meantime, Vince’s fourth wife Lia has talked candidly about their bust-up and her pain, and we’ll have that right here at Vegas DeLuxe on Friday, along with reaction to the book that is released tomorrow.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

Follow Robin Leach on Twitter at Twitter.com/Robin_Leach.

Follow Vegas DeLuxe on Twitter at Twitter.com/vegasdeluxe.

Follow VDLX Editor Don Chareunsy on Twitter at Twitter.com/VDLXEditorDon.

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