Vince Neil’s December stroke was his fourth — and Nikki Sixx says the singer came back swinging on the Carnival of Sins tour anyway.
By Theon Lewis — The Superfan, CelebnMusic247
Mötley Crüe just wrapped the loudest victory lap of their career, and Nikki Sixx is making sure everybody understands what it cost. In a new interview with USA Today, covered by Blabbermouth, the bassist opened up about Vince Neil‘s health — including the severity of the stroke that nearly ended the band’s 45th year before it started.
Vince Neil’s fourth stroke
The stroke Neil suffered in December 2024 was, per Sixx, the most severe of his life — his fourth. “This was his fourth stroke, so his health is of most concern, as is the health of the band,” Sixx said, per Blabbermouth’s coverage of the interview. Neil has taken years of online criticism for his live vocals and his weight, and Sixx didn’t pretend otherwise: the singer has taken, in Sixx’s phrase, a lot of bricks in the face over it.
The setlist Vince Neil refused to shrink
The band built its recently completed Return of Carnival of Sins tour — a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the original 2005–06 Carnival of Sins run and of 45 years of Mötley Crüe — carefully around its singer. Sixx said the band didn’t want to load Neil up with songs that might be too much for him. Neil had other ideas. He insisted on keeping “Red Hot” in the set, came into pre-production sounding strong — and then, in Sixx’s telling, he really came alive once the tour hit the stage.
That was the point, per Sixx: Neil wanted to prove it to himself first, and then to the fans — that after a fourth stroke, the voice is still there when the lights go up.
The 247 Take — Rock comebacks get announced with press releases; this one got proven one “Red Hot” at a time. A singer talking his band OUT of protecting him, ten months after a fourth stroke, is the most Mötley Crüe story possible — and Sixx telling it plainly, bricks and all, is why fans believe it.
Nikki posted this today:
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Sources: Blabbermouth
