Mötley Crüe: Dj Ashba Says He Recorded All the Rhythm Guitars on Saints of Los Angeles
In a new interview, Dj Ashba — former guitarist for Beautiful Creatures and Neil Diamond, Slash cosplayer, and purveyor of klutz-proof water — claims that he, and not Mick Mars, recorded all the rhythm guitars for Mötley Crüe’s 2008 album, Saints of Los Angeles.
Ashba also plays in the band Sixx:A.M. with Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx, and was credited with “co-production and additional engineering” on Saints of Los Angeles.
Ashba tells Eddie Trunk:
“I played all the rhythms on [Saints of Los Angeles]. But Mick was awesome. Mick was actually in the hospital at the time.”
I obviously have no idea if this is true or not. But there are some things I think are worth noting here:
i) It’s not at all uncommon for one member of a band to record all of their guitar parts (and sometimes the bass, too!), ’cause it’s easier to get one person to match their own playing than to try to get someone else to get in the groove. For example, all the guitars on Slayer’s albums, save for the solos, were recorded by Kerry King. This situation is a little more unusual because Ashba isn’t credited with contributing guitars to the album; but if we learned that Nikki Sixx had recorded all of Saints‘ rhythm guitars, it would really be NBD.
ii) This isn’t the first time there have been rumors of the Crüe bringing in a session musician — the unsubstantiated story for years has been that Josh Freese, and not Tommy Lee, recorded the drums for 2005’s “If I Die Tomorrow.” (Now if only they could bring in someone to sing for Vince Neil!)
iii) Ashba is a tireless self-promoter who thinks very highly of himself –which is to say, it’s entirely possible he’s full of shit. I mean, he might not be. But if the idea of him playing on the worst Mötley Crüe album (yes, it’s worse than New Tattoo and Generation Swine) bothers you THAT much, take comfort knowing he’s an unreliable narrator.
Mötley Crüe will tour with Def Leppard, Poison, and Ted Nugent’s favorite guitarist this summer.
[via]
