First, the subject of a ballad country is not so far from the life of a rock 'n' roll, the blond singer said as he sat in a Nashville, Tennessee, with guitarist Sixx hotel.
"You're young and you're going to drink, get high and write songs," Neil said. "Bad things happen: you lose your wife, your house, your car."
"And you write a song about it," Sixx intervened.
Instead of a clash of cultures in the album of 15 songs, "Nashville Outlaws: A Tribute to Motley Crue", released on Tuesday, crooners Nashville countries celebrated the band of metal coated leather-hair teased whose rock anthems helped 80 define.
Backed by Big Machine Label Group CEO Scott Borchetta, who brought the album to his long list of artists including Rascal Flatts, Florida Georgia Line and Brantley Gilbert, multi-genre approach fits perfectly with the younger fans of country music, whose tastes fall around the radio dial.
Motley Crue, among his final tour in the United States and Canada, had no input in how artists or songs performed. The most outstanding performances sound very little like the original heavy electric guitar, as when LeAnn Rimes sings "Smokin 'in the Boys Room" with a horn section or when the Mavericks bring their country of Cuba defeated "Dr. Feelgood”.
Big & Rich, Darius Rucker, Gretchen Wilson and Justin Moore also appear on the album. For some of the artists were the lyrics and emotions that attracted them to the project.
"More than anything this song is the country, but southern rock," Moore said of his version of "Home Sweet Home", the first single from the album. "It's something you do not hear very often, so I'm very proud of it."
For Neil, whose father was from Texas, this is not country music rebelled against as a teenager who loved rock 'n' roll.
"I saw the Florida Georgia Line, and one of the guys has a mohawk and tattoos," Neil said. "I mean, you cannot get any more rock 'n' roll than that."
