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3 Days With Motley Crue's Vince Neil -- A LUXE LIFE SPECIAL EDITION
11/6/06
11/4/06
11/3/06
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Monday, November 6, 2006
Vince Neil, Motley Crue's lead singer for 20 years and a dozen hit albums, was thrilled and overwhelmed by the fan turnout for the opening of his new center-Strip tattoo parlor-Vince Neill Ink. Along with his wine label, Vince Vineyards, and his best-selling tequila label Tres Rios, this is his 3rd business venture and the first to put his name up in lights on the Strip around the clock! First night the lines of customers ran until 5AM at O'Sheas by the Flamingo and there was yet another line when it reopened at 10AM on day 2! Three-year tattoo artist Matthew McClelland told me that the parlor charges $150 for a 30-45 minute simple illustration the size of a 50-cent piece, but then can go as high as $300 an hour for more intricate detail and color shadings. He laughed that the most unusual tattoo was a RIP tribute to a man who had a tumor removed successfully from his leg and another of a drunk pink elephant tattooed onto one man's backside. Vince became his store's own first customer and he selected a custom-designed VNI logo set in a spider-web. Only Luxe Life could get this up-close and personal with the rocker for his 3-day blowout weekend. While the tattoo artist inked his left leg, halfway beneath the knee and above the ankle, my good friend and Vegas neighbor chatted.
The sexy, rock 'n' roll scene at Vince Neil Ink is just what you'd expect from the Crue frontman.
DAY 1
RL: So now where did this idea of a tattoo parlor come from first of all?
VN: The funny thing is, is that we were originally going to do this idea up in Tahoe at Harvey's with Don Marrandino. But, it fell through the cracks with all of our tours. Then Don called me up and said now I have the real place to do it and I said okay and I was in town and I came over to look at it and he said how about here at O'Shea's? I said 'go for it, absolutely.'
RL: How much of your body is covered in tattoos?
VN: I don't really care if you know. It is like we had trouble finding a spot for this. My legs, my back are all done. This new one -- the first in the store -- is both of our creations. I said I wanted the VNI logo and I wanted it like a black spade and the VNI in red, and the artist goes how about a spider web with it on it. He has made me a believer. He made it cooler. That is what tattoo artists should do. They take your idea and make it cooler.
RL: Does this hurt in any way? Or does it tickle?
VN: You know, I would be a liar if I said it didn't. But, any thing that is good; there is always a little pain involved.
RL: How long does it take to get a design like this?
VN: Well, about an hour-and-a-half for a custom design, but we are talking about the making of it. But you should come in and talk to the designer about your choice and make what you want in detail and filling in.
LEFT: Criss Angel and Vince Neil. RIGHT: Angel gets a closer look at Vince's new tatt.
RL: So this is an unbelievably big weekend for you in Vegas. How has the tour with Aerosmith been going?
VN: It is sold out every city. The cool thing is that we have been buddies with Aerosmith. I sang on Pump album and Steven sang on Dr. Feelgood in Vancouver we recorded the albums together. That was their solo album and ours too back then. Now, 15 years later, and Steven calls me and we love it. Because they are sober, .Joe Perry called me because I have my booze bus with my tequila and wine; they are going through customs in Canada and Joe calls me and he says of all the places I got stuck behind, I got stuck behind your booze bus. They weren't going to let it in and he got stuck.
RL: So how does it feel to come home? You've got the Aerosmith concert this weekend, and you've got the opening of the tattoo parlor; this is a big weekend for a hometown guy.
VN: And I have the celebrity poker tournament, and it is a great weekend. The thing is that everyone comes to Vegas to do a bachelor party and then leave. But they forget that it is home to a lot of people. We actually do a lot of good for the city and for charities and so I don't sleep for a few days, that's all.
LEFT: Vince Neil's new tattoo before coloring. RIGHT: Vince's new bling bling watch.
Vince will be home for two weeks now, commuting nightly via private jet back to his Vegas home from West Coast concerts in San Diego and LA all the way up to Vancouver. Our photos show the close-up of his finished left-leg tattoo, which he asked both me and magician Criss Angel to autograph and then had the artist drill over the magic marker to make them permanent!!! To celebrate the store's extraordinary 1st 24-hour bonanza, Vince even bought himself a monstrous bling bling watch with a diamond encrusted skull and crossbones design!!! (Vince also revealed that the Motley Crue's autobiography "The Dirt" is to be turned into a Hollywood movie and he told my ABC radio news producer, Al Mancini that actor Christopher Walken has been coinfirmed to play rocker Ozzy Osbourne in the film version.)
LEFT: Yours truly signs Vince's leg. RIGHT: Criss Angel adds his signature to Vince as well.
Vince Neil Ink's 2nd customer was Harrah's/Flamingo President Don Marrandino, who must have become the Strip's very first corporate-suit to sit for a tattoo. He selected a rosary for his right shoulder. While in the chair for the 90-minute inking he and I talked to take his mind off the drill:
RL: Why did you pick Vince as the guy to have a tattoo parlor right on the center strip?
DM: Its certainly a good decision gauged by the first day. Vince is a Vegas guy and he is a tattoo guy, and he stands for it, he is a rock and roller and this is a rock and roll place and Vince has been a pleasure to work with. We have had amazing interest from the media and from people who like tattoos and I have never had one but, as you can see, I am getting my first one. And hopefully it will stop at one.
RL: This looks to me more than just a tattoo parlor, it looks like a nightclub, with the dancers around the chopper and the stripper poles. Is that the idea?
DM: Well, it is opening night and I don't think we will do it up like this all the time, but we think we will have a great retail business out there and we think that the tattoo parlor, we have 4 stations and I think they will be full. We hired some of the best artists in the tattoo world and I think they will do a great job with it. I think it will be fun. If you are going to Las Vegas, how many people say let's go to O'Shea's but tonight a lot of people said that day one Mission accomplished.
RL: So the choice between getting married on the spur of the moment or getting a tattoo what would you recommend?
DM: It looks like a tattoo is a lot more permanent. I think so and it's easier than the marriage thing."
DAY 2
The Motley Crue/Aerosmith concert was another total sell-out. Some people paid scalper asking prices of $2,000 a ticket. Talk about loud! I sat in the audio booth for the show and actually had to use earplugs to soften the sounds of the explosions, pyrotechnics and fireworks that dominate the spectacular. It includes scantily clad dancing girls, fog machines, lasers, sensationalistic rear-screen video projections and even a bare-chested Tommy Lee running into the audience on side-risers. The fireworks were incredible and identical to any New Years Eve fireworks festival. Fire Dept. officials would not permit anybody backstage or side stage while the giant flames were being fired skyward. Vince told me backstage: "I told you that nobody's ever seen such indoor pyrotechnics like this. For the audience it's very exciting and somewhat deafening. But I have these plugs in my ears feeding me the music at top volume so it drowns out the noise of thepyros for me. If not I'd go deaf from being right in the middle of all the blasts." Aerosmith, on the other hand just plays its best selling music -- 140 million albums over 33-years and 21 chart-winners. After the show, Vince took a group of pals off to the PURE in Caesars Palace and reunited with a stunning former Oakland Raiders cheerleader, partying with her girlfriends. He scooped them all up and took them across the street to show them his tattoo parlor and upon returning treated them to games of blackjack until they all went their separate ways at 2AM.
LEFT: Yours truly with Vince after he rocked MGM. RIGHT: Vince on stage with the Crue.
DAY 3
It was Vince's 2nd annual celebrity poker tournament in The Joint at the Hard Rock, with an eclectic group of poker pros, sexy dancers and porn princesses Taylor Wayne, Sunny Lane and Tera Patrick with hubby Evan Seinfeld of Biohazard. They hosted a 1-hour cocktail party before play began! Members of Slaughter also played in the tournament when Vince and his wife Leah played host to 126 players who each anted up $550 a piece to play (plus $200 re-entry fee every time they got ko'd). They competed for a $20,000 first prize, with the final 9 players battling for a share of the $50,000 pot. Vince told me that with all the rock world's unique memorabilia up for silent auction he expected to raise $200,000 for his Skylar Neil Foundation, named for his daughter who passed away from cancer in 1995. Since then he's raised more than $1-million for cancer research and this year's effort beats last year's $170,000 total. To wrap it all up, Vince partied last night at the hotel's Body English nightclub with new Morgan's Hard Rock head honcho Matt Armstrong and decided to stay over in a super suite instead of driving the 5-miles home!
Vince Neil deciding whether to raise or fold during his charity poker tournament this weekend.
TOMORROW'S TEASE
Luxe Life has the exclusive scoop about Celine Dion's future plans, including the extraordinary details of the amazing tour she is planning. Plus, another bonus posting of the full interview between Celine and Fox News' Greta Van Susteren when she visited for a live broadcast of her top-rated cable-TV show.
CONTACT US
You can make an indelible impression with an email to
robinsvegas@aol.com.
To ensure you don't miss one always up-to-the minute edition,
click
here
or at the 'Alert Me' up top if you'd like to know the
split-second we
post the brand new Luxe Life.
Go to AOL Vegas for much more on hotels, casinos, restaurants, nightlife, and everything Las Vegas! Check our travel section for great deals on hotels, airfare and much more! And when visiting Vegas, besure to see Las Vegas Magazine in your hotel suite featuring a print edition of AOL Vegas Luxe Life.
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3 Days With Motley Crue's Vince Neil -- A LUXE LIFE SPECIAL EDITION
Vince Neil, Motley Crue's lead singer for 20 years and a dozen hit albums, was thrilled and overwhelmed by the fan turnout for the opening of his new center-Strip tattoo parlor-Vince Neill Ink. Along with his wine label, Vince Vineyards, and his best-selling tequila label Tres Rios, this is his 3rd business venture and the first to put his name up in lights on the Strip around the clock! First night the lines of customers ran until 5AM at O'Sheas by the Flamingo and there was yet another line when it reopened at 10AM on day 2! Three-year tattoo artist Matthew McClelland told me that the parlor charges $150 for a 30-45 minute simple illustration the size of a 50-cent piece, but then can go as high as $300 an hour for more intricate detail and color shadings. He laughed that the most unusual tattoo was a RIP tribute to a man who had a tumor removed successfully from his leg and another of a drunk pink elephant tattooed onto one man's backside. Vince became his store's own first customer and he selected a custom-designed VNI logo set in a spider-web. Only Luxe Life could get this up-close and personal with the rocker for his 3-day blowout weekend. While the tattoo artist inked his left leg, halfway beneath the knee and above the ankle, my good friend and Vegas neighbor chatted.
The sexy, rock 'n' roll scene at Vince Neil Ink is just what you'd expect from the Crue frontman.
DAY 1
RL: So now where did this idea of a tattoo parlor come from first of all?
VN: The funny thing is, is that we were originally going to do this idea up in Tahoe at Harvey's with Don Marrandino. But, it fell through the cracks with all of our tours. Then Don called me up and said now I have the real place to do it and I said okay and I was in town and I came over to look at it and he said how about here at O'Shea's? I said 'go for it, absolutely.'
RL: How much of your body is covered in tattoos?
VN: I don't really care if you know. It is like we had trouble finding a spot for this. My legs, my back are all done. This new one -- the first in the store -- is both of our creations. I said I wanted the VNI logo and I wanted it like a black spade and the VNI in red, and the artist goes how about a spider web with it on it. He has made me a believer. He made it cooler. That is what tattoo artists should do. They take your idea and make it cooler.
RL: Does this hurt in any way? Or does it tickle?
VN: You know, I would be a liar if I said it didn't. But, any thing that is good; there is always a little pain involved.
RL: How long does it take to get a design like this?
VN: Well, about an hour-and-a-half for a custom design, but we are talking about the making of it. But you should come in and talk to the designer about your choice and make what you want in detail and filling in.
LEFT: Criss Angel and Vince Neil. RIGHT: Angel gets a closer look at Vince's new tatt.
RL: So this is an unbelievably big weekend for you in Vegas. How has the tour with Aerosmith been going?
VN: It is sold out every city. The cool thing is that we have been buddies with Aerosmith. I sang on Pump album and Steven sang on Dr. Feelgood in Vancouver we recorded the albums together. That was their solo album and ours too back then. Now, 15 years later, and Steven calls me and we love it. Because they are sober, .Joe Perry called me because I have my booze bus with my tequila and wine; they are going through customs in Canada and Joe calls me and he says of all the places I got stuck behind, I got stuck behind your booze bus. They weren't going to let it in and he got stuck.
RL: So how does it feel to come home? You've got the Aerosmith concert this weekend, and you've got the opening of the tattoo parlor; this is a big weekend for a hometown guy.
VN: And I have the celebrity poker tournament, and it is a great weekend. The thing is that everyone comes to Vegas to do a bachelor party and then leave. But they forget that it is home to a lot of people. We actually do a lot of good for the city and for charities and so I don't sleep for a few days, that's all.
LEFT: Vince Neil's new tattoo before coloring. RIGHT: Vince's new bling bling watch.
Vince will be home for two weeks now, commuting nightly via private jet back to his Vegas home from West Coast concerts in San Diego and LA all the way up to Vancouver. Our photos show the close-up of his finished left-leg tattoo, which he asked both me and magician Criss Angel to autograph and then had the artist drill over the magic marker to make them permanent!!! To celebrate the store's extraordinary 1st 24-hour bonanza, Vince even bought himself a monstrous bling bling watch with a diamond encrusted skull and crossbones design!!! (Vince also revealed that the Motley Crue's autobiography "The Dirt" is to be turned into a Hollywood movie and he told my ABC radio news producer, Al Mancini that actor Christopher Walken has been coinfirmed to play rocker Ozzy Osbourne in the film version.)
LEFT: Yours truly signs Vince's leg. RIGHT: Criss Angel adds his signature to Vince as well.
Vince Neil Ink's 2nd customer was Harrah's/Flamingo President Don Marrandino, who must have become the Strip's very first corporate-suit to sit for a tattoo. He selected a rosary for his right shoulder. While in the chair for the 90-minute inking he and I talked to take his mind off the drill:
RL: Why did you pick Vince as the guy to have a tattoo parlor right on the center strip?
DM: Its certainly a good decision gauged by the first day. Vince is a Vegas guy and he is a tattoo guy, and he stands for it, he is a rock and roller and this is a rock and roll place and Vince has been a pleasure to work with. We have had amazing interest from the media and from people who like tattoos and I have never had one but, as you can see, I am getting my first one. And hopefully it will stop at one.
RL: This looks to me more than just a tattoo parlor, it looks like a nightclub, with the dancers around the chopper and the stripper poles. Is that the idea?
DM: Well, it is opening night and I don't think we will do it up like this all the time, but we think we will have a great retail business out there and we think that the tattoo parlor, we have 4 stations and I think they will be full. We hired some of the best artists in the tattoo world and I think they will do a great job with it. I think it will be fun. If you are going to Las Vegas, how many people say let's go to O'Shea's but tonight a lot of people said that day one Mission accomplished.
RL: So the choice between getting married on the spur of the moment or getting a tattoo what would you recommend?
DM: It looks like a tattoo is a lot more permanent. I think so and it's easier than the marriage thing."
DAY 2
The Motley Crue/Aerosmith concert was another total sell-out. Some people paid scalper asking prices of $2,000 a ticket. Talk about loud! I sat in the audio booth for the show and actually had to use earplugs to soften the sounds of the explosions, pyrotechnics and fireworks that dominate the spectacular. It includes scantily clad dancing girls, fog machines, lasers, sensationalistic rear-screen video projections and even a bare-chested Tommy Lee running into the audience on side-risers. The fireworks were incredible and identical to any New Years Eve fireworks festival. Fire Dept. officials would not permit anybody backstage or side stage while the giant flames were being fired skyward. Vince told me backstage: "I told you that nobody's ever seen such indoor pyrotechnics like this. For the audience it's very exciting and somewhat deafening. But I have these plugs in my ears feeding me the music at top volume so it drowns out the noise of thepyros for me. If not I'd go deaf from being right in the middle of all the blasts." Aerosmith, on the other hand just plays its best selling music -- 140 million albums over 33-years and 21 chart-winners. After the show, Vince took a group of pals off to the PURE in Caesars Palace and reunited with a stunning former Oakland Raiders cheerleader, partying with her girlfriends. He scooped them all up and took them across the street to show them his tattoo parlor and upon returning treated them to games of blackjack until they all went their separate ways at 2AM.
LEFT: Yours truly with Vince after he rocked MGM. RIGHT: Vince on stage with the Crue.
DAY 3
It was Vince's 2nd annual celebrity poker tournament in The Joint at the Hard Rock, with an eclectic group of poker pros, sexy dancers and porn princesses Taylor Wayne, Sunny Lane and Tera Patrick with hubby Evan Seinfeld of Biohazard. They hosted a 1-hour cocktail party before play began! Members of Slaughter also played in the tournament when Vince and his wife Leah played host to 126 players who each anted up $550 a piece to play (plus $200 re-entry fee every time they got ko'd). They competed for a $20,000 first prize, with the final 9 players battling for a share of the $50,000 pot. Vince told me that with all the rock world's unique memorabilia up for silent auction he expected to raise $200,000 for his Skylar Neil Foundation, named for his daughter who passed away from cancer in 1995. Since then he's raised more than $1-million for cancer research and this year's effort beats last year's $170,000 total. To wrap it all up, Vince partied last night at the hotel's Body English nightclub with new Morgan's Hard Rock head honcho Matt Armstrong and decided to stay over in a super suite instead of driving the 5-miles home!
Vince Neil deciding whether to raise or fold during his charity poker tournament this weekend.
TOMORROW'S TEASE
Luxe Life has the exclusive scoop about Celine Dion's future plans, including the extraordinary details of the amazing tour she is planning. Plus, another bonus posting of the full interview between Celine and Fox News' Greta Van Susteren when she visited for a live broadcast of her top-rated cable-TV show.
CONTACT US
You can make an indelible impression with an email to
robinsvegas@aol.com.
To ensure you don't miss one always up-to-the minute edition,
click
here
or at the 'Alert Me' up top if you'd like to know the
split-second we
post the brand new Luxe Life.Go to AOL Vegas for much more on hotels, casinos, restaurants, nightlife, and everything Las Vegas! Check our travel section for great deals on hotels, airfare and much more! And when visiting Vegas, besure to see Las Vegas Magazine in your hotel suite featuring a print edition of AOL Vegas Luxe Life.
robinsvegas at 4:53:00 PM PST Blog about this entry |
Add to del.icio.us | digg this
