Alan Niven, the former manager of Guns N’ Roses, recently talked about his early involvement with Mötley Crüe and didn’t hold back his thoughts. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Niven, who played a key role in GN’R’s rise to fame in the late 1980s, looked back at his brief time promoting Mötley Crüe’s debut album Too Fast for Love. And while he did contribute to their early success, he admits he has regrets.
Niven said he feels torn about helping launch the band, explaining that he knows how some of the band members treated others, especially women, and that he’s not proud of being part of that legacy. He also criticized their body of work, calling it a “thin catalog” lacking in depth or meaning. In his words, Mötley Crüe are simply “brutish entertainers,” not artists who offer anything intellectual or spiritual.
“[I feel] very ambivalent about the small role I played in the progression of Mötley Crüe because I know who they are. I know what they’ve done to various people. I know how they’ve treated certain numbers of women. And I am not proud of contributing to that.”
“And on top of that, someone needs to turn around and say, ‘It’s a thin catalog that they produced,’ in terms of what they produced as music. There’s not much there and it’s certainly not intellectually or spiritually illuminating in any way, shape or form. They are brutish entertainers, and that’s it.”
Before becoming known as the first person willing to manage Guns N’ Roses when “no one else would,” Niven was already active behind the scenes in the 1980s rock scene. He helped get Too Fast for Love into record stores before Mötley Crüe signed with a major label. But unlike his pride in shaping GN’R’s career, his connection to Crüe leaves him with mixed feelings.
In the same interview, Niven also opened up about the reality of managing rock bands, saying it’s not a job for someone looking for an easy schedule. For him, it was a nonstop lifestyle that required total commitment. He explained that true rock managers live and breathe the business 24/7, not just during office hours.
“It was my way of life. People who go into management and think it’s a job that starts maybe at about half past 10 in the morning once you’ve had your coffee and then you check out at six, they’re not true managers.”
“They’re not in management for the right reasons. Rock ‘n’ roll is a way of f— life. It’s 24/7, 365. And that was my approach to it.”
