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Motley Crue In For The Long Haul, Aim To Record 'A 'Sgt. Pepper'' Next Year

Band has eight months of touring lined up.

Mark Mick Mars' words: There will be another Mötley Crüe record -- and oh yes, it will be "something really outstanding."

But first, the Crüe's got some touring to do -- eight months' worth. Once the world's most dangerous reunited band has been around the world and back, that's when Mars, Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee and Vince Neil plan to cut the Crüe's next outing, the follow-up to 2000's New Tattoo.

"There is a new album in the works, but we're taking our time on it," Mars said. "For me, I would like to see like a Sgt. Pepper, an Electric Ladyland, something really outstanding and new. I have a zillion ideas and I'm sure Nikki and Tommy and Vince do, as well. We just haven't sat down and started working together yet, because the tour's been so extensive" (see Motley Crue Live: A Trip To The Time When Rock Was Big And Bummers Were Few").

The band will be on tour in the U.S. until October 16, and in mid-November the boys will head to Japan for six gigs, followed by another six in Australia that'll keep them busy until the holiday. And starting in February, they'll be working America over for the third time in a year, hitting smaller cities -- "the Evansvilles and the Louisvilles" -- followed by another round of European dates and, if things go according to plan, a South American run.

By which point, it will be May 2006. "That's the time to start doing a new record," Sixx said. "We did some pretty diverse records throughout our career. We've gone from Dr. Feelgood to the [1994 self-titled] John Corabi record to Generation Swine, and it was all based on us just being creative. Some of it was more accepted, some of it was less accepted, but if you look at the history of the band, from the first record on, we've always done something fresh."

More than anything else, though, Sixx said he wants to avoid falling into the pattern that's ruined so many other veteran bands: rock and roll flaccidity.

"I don't want to be part of that trend where bands that have been around for more than 20 years become mellow," he said. "Even with U2, a band I respect, everything has this older, mellower feel to it. You hear that in a lot of rock bands. I don't mind having ballads and medium tempo songs -- I just hope we never become a bunch of pu----s."

"It's just amazing to see a younger audience out there," he continued. "When we made a decision to be a band again, a lot of people were saying, 'You guys are like Def Leppard -- your audience is going to be, like, 40-year-olds.' And we were like, 'What the f---?!' The most exciting part of this has been seeing new faces as well as the original faces -- our original fans are wonderful. But as a band, you want to reinvent yourself and you hope you get rediscovered. Black Sabbath is a great example; U2's evolved. They have a new audience and kept the original audience. That's our dream."

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