Vince Neil hasn’t forgotten where he came from and those who helped him on the way up, one in particular being David Lee Roth.
During a recent appearance on SiriusXM, Neil recalled his early meetings with Roth.
“Dave would come to a lot of our shows when Mötley was playing the Troubadour and the Whisky [a Go Go in West Hollywood],” Neil told host Eddie Trunk. “Dave was right there. Because we had all the girls.”
While Mötley Crüe had the girls, Roth had the career advice for Neil.
“He’s the first guy, he kind of took me under his wing,” Neil said. “I was just some club playing rock and roll guy. He took me out to Canter’s Deli on Fairfax [in Los Angeles]. And he just sat me down and talked about what we got to look for in a record company, publishing and just filled my head with the inner workings of being in a rock and roll band. And that was really nice of him. I was nobody.”
While Neil was fairly new to the business of rock and roll, he had a bit of an entrepreneurial background. In fact, he had some experience in the Van Halen merchandising business. He recalled making a few extra bucks as a teen by selling self-printed Van Halen t-shirts.
“I remember the Long Beach Area, Van Halen was playing there,” Neil said. “I didn’t get in, but what I did was I was bootlegging t-shirts. I was the kid out there selling shirts out of my mom’s trunk. I was in my mom’s car. She drove me there.”