Hair Metal Guitarist: ‘Vince Neil Is Scared Of Me’

On December 8th, 1984, Hanoi Rocks drummer Nicholas Charles “Razzle” Dingley was in a car with Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil. Both were inebriated. The short trip to the liquor store ended in disaster when Neil, the driver, lost control of the car in a wet spot and hit two vehicles from the oncoming lane.

Razzle was killed, and two young people were left with lifelong injuries. Neil was eventually convicted of vehicular manslaughter and handed a sentence of 20 days in jail, plus fines and community service.

Speaking to Classic Rock, Hanoi Rocks guitarist Andy McCoy shared his opinion of Vince Neil’s actions and revealed the singer does his best to avoid meeting him:

“Not only did Razzle die, two young people got crippled. And this guy sat one night in jail, got away with a misdemeanor. If he would have been a broke Afro-American guy or Latino, he would have been doing life in San Quentin.”

“He’s scared of me. Every time he sees me, he runs away. But to me, it is so important – it is the moral value of the thing. The other Mötley Crüe guys apologised, but the other guys didn’t do anything wrong.”

McCoy continued, revealing that Hanoi Rocks once planned to sue Neil, but he persuaded them not to, because he didn’t want to put a price tag on a life:

“They were f**king so pissed off with him that Mötley Crüe almost broke up that day. Tommy just wanted to beat the sh*t out of the f***er. He’s got ‘PMUSA’ tattooed on his ass – prime meat from the United States; f**king hell, I’d say prime p*ss… prime p*ssy USA.

“We could have sued over Razzle and gotten millions, but I was the one that put a stop to that. There was talk about that and I said: ‘How the hell can we put a price on a brother, a family member? There isn’t enough money, you can’t put it in money. Let him live with it, let karma get him.’ And it has. He just doesn’t seem to get out of trouble. But as he made his bed, he will sleep in it.”