Vince Neil: Crüe-Leppard show at Allegiant Stadium a possibility

Vince Neil considers the concept for a moment, then says, “To play there would be pretty amazing, obviously.”

And the front man of Mötley Crüe is an expert on amazing. Obviously.

Mötley, as those in the band refer to the band, are co-headlining a 22-city tour that with a still-stellar lineup that seems plucked from 1989: Def Leppard, Poison and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. The “amazing” opportunity would be a date at Allegiant Stadium, due to be finished in July. The first football game scheduled is Aug. 29, when UNLV hosts Cal.

Meantime, the Stadium Tour opens July 7 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. It roams across the country, with the closing date Sept. 5 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. The bands also play such stadia in the west as Oracle Park in San Francisco on July 19, Petco Park in San Diego on July 23, and State Farm Stadium in Phoenix on July 25.

So, then, could this tour play Allegiant Stadium?

“Yeah, because the dates that you have seen are only just the first dates — there are so many more dates being added on, even as we speak,” Neil, who splits his time between Las Vegas and his ranch in Nashville, says during a recent phone chat. “They just put these initial dates out there, put the tickets on sale, to see how it goes. These are just the first announced places and dates.”

As if looking at the schedule himself, Neil says, “There could be a date for it — if you notice there are a lot of gaps there, four or five dates between cities. Some could be put at the end, some at the beginning.”

The tour promoter is Live Nation, a force in Las Vegas and a major player internationally for large-venue bookings. Boosted by the popularity of the biopic “The Dirt” and the over-aching power of the four acts, the tour is already selling at an impressive clip. The festival is reportedly the fastest sellout ever at Miller Park in Milwaukee, which hosts the event Aug. 18 (tickets are available on Ticketmaster.com and range from about $45 to $750, minus fees across the country).

Neil fielded a few other questions during our conversation. The highlights:

You’ve had several business interests in Las Vegas over the years. Anything new on that front?

Yeah, I invested in the Players Locker out in Downtown Summerlin, with the Golden Knights guys.

I’d not heard that. Are you taking a hands-on approach with this project?

We’ve been meeting, yeah, going over the way the decor is looking. It’s going to be cool.

I have to ask about the contract the band signed after the last tour in 2015, that it would never tour together again. Why did you change your mind?

I was kind of the last guy to agree to do it. I’ve been touring so much by myself, I had no reason to want to go back and to the Mötley thing. As far as the contract, I had no idea of it other than there was a loophole that if all the guys wanted to play, then the contract was null and void.

But this was a signed, legally binding document?

As far as I know, it was. I signed it with the band’s attorney.

Why a giant stadium tour, when you could have a sit-down residency in Vegas, or an arena tour?

Well, come on, I mean, why not (laughs)? You can’t beat having 60,000-90,000 people watching you. It’s like a dream come true. Nobody gets to do stadium tours anymore.

It seems the collection of bands that can headline a stadium tour is a lot smaller than it was when Mötley broke in the early ’80s. Do you see it that way, from your position as a headliner?

Oh, yeah. It’s like The Stones, The Eagles … unless you put a big group of country artists together to generate a big package for stadiums.

How is your communication with the other band members. You’d told me a few years ago it was a business relationship. Is that still the case?

(Laughs) It is, but it isn’t. It’s a little better now. We spent three days together in L.A., and it was OK.

How do you decide the order of the lineup for these tours?

If we were to go to Europe, obviously, Def Leppard would be closing a thing like this. Here, in the U.S., we’ll probably headline more. We’ll flip-flop at some points, I don’t know where it would be, but there will be some flip-flopping of the lineup.

Joe Elliott has said Def Leppard won’t be digging into deep tracks on this tour, as the band did in its residency at Zappos Theater this year. How about Mötley Crüe?

You have to play the hits, that’s just a given. Can you imagine going to see Def Leppard and them not playing “Photograph” or “Pour Some Sugar on Me?” It doesn’t happen. Each band is playing 17 to 22 songs, everybody’s favorites and some old favorites that people have forgotten about.

You must be looking forward to putting on a large-scale production.

Oh, yeah and what’s great is we have seven months to figure it out. Everything is bigger, and if you’re in the nosebleeds of a stadium you want to enjoy it as much as the guy who is 15 rows back. We’ll have big screens everywhere, I’m sure of it, so you can see every move. Mötley’s never done anything half-assed. We’ve always tried to do something very cool.

Do you remember the first stadium show you ever saw?

I think it was Van Halen, at the Angels’ stadium, Anaheim Stadium. It was just, “Wow,” getting to feel the whole vibe of that place. It was drinking, partying. It was like being at a football game, except you get to be on the field — and the home team always wins.”

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His PodKats podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram