Music Friday: Kickstart My Heart

I went to my first ever concert twenty-four years ago: Motley Crue. In a little over a month from now, they are going to start their last ever concert tour. There is also a movie and a tribute album being made by country musicians. Sounds like they are hoping for a big payout.
I remember a few things from that first concert. I remember a rumor that the only reason they were coming to play our small town had something to do with a funeral the guitarist was attending because he was originally from there: they were at the height of their career, and normally you had to drive to Indianapolis to see a band as popular as they were at the time. I remember that if they said anything between songs it had the word fuck in it. I remember that after this ridiculous drum solo where the drum set was moving through the rafters, the drummer mooned the audience and everyone cheered. I remember the lead singer kicked one of the roadies off the stage (literally, with his foot) like he was a stray dog or something. I remember my mom was very happy to see me come home afterwards, because on the news that evening they showed someone from the concert being taken to an ambulance and she thought it might have been me because he was wearing a black T-shirt. I remember thinking to my teenage self that I had tricked my parents into letting me go to that concert. But as an adult I heard their side of the story: they let me do something stupid because they thought I’d be smart enough to change my mind before the show. In retrospect, they were kind of a silly band, but I suppose that’s pretty much par for the course when it comes to individuation.
Somehow that silly band has lasted over thirty years: after all the car crashes, overdoses, jail time, and lawsuits against each other, here they still are. They’ve always been masters of marketing their image: whether it be doing something stupid because they knew they’d get arrested for it, setting themselves on fire, or putting warning labels on their records before warning labels were even a thing. Now it’s a tribute album by country musicians: yeah, I think it’s probably time for that last ever concert tour.