If there’s one thing Mötley Crüe mastered in their hair metal heyday it was fighting for the right to party. But on the veteran band’s new single, they steal a page from another famously hard-partying crew from the 1980s: the Beastie Boys.
The originally snot-nosed rap trio quickly transformed into more evolved, socially conscious musos by the early 1990s, while the Crüe, well, they keep on Crüe’in. On Friday (August 23) the group announced the upcoming release of a three-song EP, Cancelled (Oct. 4), which in addition to their recently released original rocker “Dogs of War,” features a guitar-heavy cover of the Beasties’ 1986 Billboard Hot 100 No. 7 hit “Fight For Your Right.”
Other than the title, it’s an improbable left turn for the Vince Neil-fronted band, though a release announcing the EP noted that the group’s take on “Fight” has become a live fan favorite since it was first rolled out during a secret 2023 club show for 450 fans at the Underworld in London.
Produced by the band’s longtime studio consigliere Bob Rock, the Crüe’d take is pretty much what you’d expect from the group that also features original members drummer Tommy Lee and bassist Nikki Sixx and former Rob Zombie/Marilyn Manson guitarist John 5, who replaced original guitarist Mick Mars after his retirement in 2022. Packed with squealing guitars, pounding drums and Neil’s yowls over the chorus’s shouty gang vocals, the lyrics about smoking, drinking, parental complaints about long hair and raging all night somehow seems on message for the now-sixtysomething members who once made unadulterated debauchery their calling card.
The band’s debut release on Big Machine Rock marks the Crüe’s first new music since the one-off 2019 single “The Dirt (Est. 1981)” with Machine Gun Kelly. “It was really great getting in the studio and working on some tracks together,” they said in a joint statement announcing the EP, which will also feature the title track. “What started out as a couple demo ideas turned into this EP produced by Bob Rock. We look forward to getting back into the studio again soon and writing more new music, as well.”
Listen to Mötley Crüe’s “Fight For Your Right” cover below.
