Larry Rodgers at The Arizona Repblic recently spoke with MÖTLEY CRÜE frontman Vince Neil. The following is an excerpt from the interview:

Q: Mötley Crüe is in classic form on the new album. Was it fun to look back on the '80s musically?

A: "It's got a great sound, the songs are all fun. There's a lot of memorable stuff in those songs."

Q: The album has some parallels to your band's autobiography (2001's The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band). Why did it take seven years to record it?

A: "When we started writing songs, we started going by things with the book. But it wasn't like we sat out and said. 'Now we're going to write an album about the book.' It just kind of happened."

Q: Has the recording process changed through the years?

A: "With technology these days, you don't really go to a recording studio and sit around like you see in the movies. This record, I never even saw the guys in the band. I did all my vocals at the producer's house."

Q: The Rolling Stones once did that when they weren't getting along. Should we read anything into this with Mötley Crüe?

A: "No, not all. It's just easier. We all travel on separate buses because we can afford it. People like to read stuff into it. You make your life easy and make the things you have to do enjoyable."

Q: Back in the band's wildest days, did you ever look at yourself in the mirror and say, "I'm pushing things too hard?"

A: "I tried to be sober back then, but it was tough because there was no support system. After I got into the accident in '84 (which left a passenger in Neil's car dead) and I did some jail time, I was ordered by the court to be sober. You have to stop when you want to stop, and back then, I didn't want to stop. I wasn't ever really a drug guy; I just like to drink."

Q: What is the key to being a rock front man who lasts for decades?

A: "You have to really enjoy what you're doing and try to deliver the songs to the people out there the way they want to hear it. I try to stay as close to the records as possible because I hate going to see a singer who sings it differently. It drives me crazy."

Go to this location for the complete interview.