When Vince Neil Punched Out Izzy Stradlin

In the second half of the 80s, in Los Angeles, hair metal was experiencing an unforgettable and perhaps unrepeatable season. Non-stop parties, drugs, sex, the musicians who animated that scene wanted to excel over the others at all costs. Arguments and insults were the order of the day, often even to the point of raising hands. Between Motley Crue And Guns N’ Rosesfor example, there was no love lost.

This story begins in a club in the city of angels. Sharise Ruddell she was a mud wrestler, a model and she is also the protagonist of the video

“Girls Girls Girls” of the Motley Crueafter all she was the wife of Vince Neilthe singer of the group. That evening in 1989 Vince Neil he wasn’t there, he was rafting in Idaho. That evening Sharise was molested by Izzy Stradlinthe guitarist of the Guns N’ Roses.

This is the woman’s story: “I was at the Cathouse and Izzy was hitting on me. He was out of his mind. I told him to get his hands off me because I was Vince’s wife. Then he grabbed my shirt and pulled it down. I slapped him in the face, then he karate kicked me as hard as he could in the stomach. It took my breath away. Everyone saw it.”

Because revenge is a dish best planned and served cold
Vince Neil
decided to get his satisfaction on September 6, 1989 at the MTV Awards, held at the Universal Amphitheatre in Universal City, California.
Guns N’ Roses
were there to collect the Best Heavy Metal Video award for
“Sweet Child O’Mine”
a prize presented, see the destiny, just from
Motley Crue
.

The singer of the Guns N’ Roses Axl Roseaccompanied by Stradlin, sang “Free Fallin’” And “Heartbreak Hotel” together with Tom Petty. While the members of the Motley Crue they were waiting sunk in a limousine outside the club, Vince Neil was hidden inside, waiting for the right moment to remind Izzy Stradlin how to behave with ladies.

The then manager of the
Guns N’ Roses Alan Niven
recalled what happened: “We were walking off the brightly lit stage into the darkness to our left, and all of a sudden Vince came running and punched Izzy in the face.” Vince Neil said: “When Izzy came off the stage, looking like a cross between Eric Stoltz in the movie ‘Mask’ and Neil Young, I was waiting for him. All the blood went into my fist and I knocked him out. He fell to the ground like an upside-down cow.”

The frontman of the
Motley Crue
but it stops there and does not go into details about what happened immediately after. It was revealed by
Tom Petty
. “Our sound guy, Jim Lenahan, was coming off stage with us, and Lenahan didn’t know Izzy, but he was with us, so he knocked out Vince Neil. Izzy was getting a lot of black eyes in those days. I think he already had a black eye before Vince hit him.”

He takes the floor again
Alan Niven
: “I grabbed Vince and very quickly put him on his back on the floor. My left hand was around his throat and my right hand was up and ready to smash his nose in, and I actually had a quick intelligent thought where I thought, ‘If I do this, it’s not going to end well,’ so I let go.”

He also intervenes to have his say on what happened
Sebastián Bach
then singer of the
Skid Row
which recalls a code of conduct in vogue at the time: “I was on the side of the stage when Vince punched Izzy. Vince’s gold bracelet flew off his wrist as he hit Izzy. It was a nice piece of gold. Vince was huffing and puffing, and I said, ‘Dude, I’ve got your bracelet.’ He said, ‘You can keep it.’ In those days, if someone said something bad about your band, you were obligated to hit them. It was considered totally appropriate.”

Axl Rose
he then did what was appropriate and came to the defense (at least in words) of his bandmate. Neil tells it this way: “Before we reached the exit, Axl came after us snarling like an overdressed Doberman. ‘Come on, you son of a bitch. I’ll fucking kill you!’ he yelled after us. I whipped around. His face was sweaty and contorted. ‘Come on, fuck!’ I told him, and I meant it. He looked at me and squealed like a little whore, ‘Don’t fuck with my band anymore.’ And he walked away.”

The issue didn’t end there, it had a repercussion on the pages of rock magazines, where the two factions competed in insulting the rival party.

The climax came when Axl invited Vince to meet him for a fistfight in the Tower Records parking lot on Sunset Boulevard. The fight never happened, but according to Neil, the offer still stands. “After Axl backed out half a dozen times, I went to MTV with a message for him. I said if Axl wanted to fight me, he should do it in front of the world. We’d go three rounds, and the world would see who the pussy was. But I never heard from Axl. Not that day, not that month, not that year, not that century.” .