BLABBERMOUTH.NET
STEEL PANTHER guitarist
Satchel says that he still loves
MÖTLEY CRÜE even though he thinks "
Nikki Sixx is a dick."
The latest war of words between
STEEL PANTHER and
MÖTLEY CRÜE began when
STEEL PANTHER singer
Michael Starr and drummer
Stix Zadinia were asked in a 2019 interview which musician from the past they would like to bring back.
Starr replied, "I'd bring back
Vince Neil," and
Zadinia chimed in, "He's not dead."
Starr pressed on, saying: "I'd bring back
Vince Neil from back in the day because that guy is dead."
After news of
STEEL PANTHER's comments made the rounds,
Sixx tweeted: "The singer in
Steal Panther [sic] can go fuck himself … wanna-be band putting down
Vince Neil?" One fan then pointed out that
STEEL PANTHER sometimes plays
MÖTLEY CRÜE songs during its concerts, to which the
CRÜE bassist replied, "That's why they are assholes. Backstabbers."
Satchel addressed the
Sixx online feud in a new interview with
Ultimate Guitar. Asked if
STEEL PANTHER's upcoming
"Concert To Save The World" livestreamed event is "a plan to steal the audience from
MÖTLEY CRÜE,"
Satchel replied: "You know what?
MÖTLEY CRÜE had tour plans. And that shit got canceled, right? I mean, I'm a fan of
MÖTLEY CRÜE. I think that
Tommy Lee and
Nikki Sixx can act like total dickheads much of the time, but that's also what comes with being a rock star sometimes. The guys want to act like dickheads and they do — and that's cool. I still like the songs. But we can't steal their fans any more than they can steal ours. People are gonna be fans of both bands, and I'm always gonna love
MÖTLEY CRÜE no matter how big of a dick
Nikki Sixx is, because I like how they sound. Our bands are not mutually exclusive, and you don't have to hate
STEEL PANTHER to love
MÖTLEY CRÜE and vice versa. And you don't have to hate
MÖTLEY CRÜE to say
Nikki Sixx is a dick as well. [
Laughs] I still love
MÖTLEY CRÜE even though I think
Nikki Sixx is a dick — these things are not mutually exclusive. [
Laughs]"
Asked if everything is "cool" between the two bands now,
Satchel said: "I don't have anything going on with those guys. I don't really give a fuck one way or the other. Like, if I saw them, I probably wouldn't go hang out with them 'cause
Nikki Sixx seems like he doesn't like my band so I probably wouldn't buy him a beer. But I don't have anything against
MÖTLEY CRÜE and I wish them the best in the future. But it seems like we annoy
Nikki Sixx — and I'm fine with being annoying to
Nikki Sixx 'cause I don't really give a fuck. But I don't think we're going to be on tour with
MÖTLEY CRÜE anytime soon; that's what I reckon."
Last year's episode was not the first time members of
STEEL PANTHER and
MÖTLEY CRÜE had traded barbs. In 2017,
Zadinia said that his band "really felt unwelcome" during its tour with
MÖTLEY CRÜE several years ago. The drummer told
Music Life Magazine: "[
MÖTLEY CRÜE members]
Tommy Lee and
Nikki Sixx did not like it when we went on tour with them in 2011. And that was the only time that we really felt unwelcome. The thing with those guys is I think they thought we were actually making fun of them directly. And I just gotta chalk that up to their egos being too big, because nothing that we do has anything to do with them directly. But we ended up doing the tour and it went off great and everything was totally fine," he said, adding that it was a European tour and that
DEF LEPPARD was actually the top-billed band on the jaunt.
Sixx told Australia's
Music Feeds in 2016 that he didn't care for
STEEL PANTHER's music. "You know, it's not my thing," he said. "That's just me personally. I don't know. It doesn't feel… I guess a lot of people think it's funny and they're kind of a joke band and that's cool. But that's not my cup of tea. I kind of take my music a little more seriously."
Back in June 2015,
Starr revealed in an interview that
Lee "was pretty upset over the fact we poked fun at
Vince Neil. He didn't like it. He just thinks we're just a joke, like a stupid joke band that shouldn't be playing with them. But all their fans like us."
Starr added that members of
MÖTLEY CRÜE simply "take themselves a little too serious," except for
Vince Neil, who "totally loves it."
"You know, he told me, 'Hey,
Michael, when we retire, you can have all our fans,'"
Starr said.
In 2018,
Satchel acknowledged that not everyone is a fan of his group's over-the-top, juvenile sex-and-drugs schtick. "There are bands that hate our guts," he told
Meltdown of the
WRIF radio station. "We did a tour a few years ago with
DEF LEPPARD and
MÖTLEY CRÜE. And
DEF LEPPARD, they got us on the tour, and it was an arena tour in the U.K. And they love us — they were so nice and so cool. And
MÖTLEY CRÜE was on the tour, and they hated us. They wanted to kill us — every night they wanted to kill us. They talked to us, like, once the whole tour. And
Tommy Lee and I, we just got into it — we butted heads a lot. 'Cause
Tommy Lee… I don't know why he hates us so much. Listen, I extended the olive branch. I wanted to be friends with them. I think some people feel threatened. I think maybe
Tommy Lee feels like we're poking fun at him personally. But we're just having fun… And someday maybe
MÖTLEY CRÜE will be our friends, but I think
Tommy Lee would love it if one of us got hit by a bus."