Guilty Pleasure Saturday #5 – Motley Crue “Kickstart My Heart”

Kickstart My Heart – Motley Crue (Dr. Feelgood, 1989)

If you listen to the podcast (and if you don’t you should) in the early episodes, it became a bit of a running gag to somehow mention Motley Crue at least once every show. As things evolved it stopped being a thing, but truth be told there are songs by the Crue that I’ve always enjoyed, this being the foremost one (along with ‘Shout At the Devil’ and ‘Live Wire’).

I was 14 years old when “Dr. Feelgood” hit the streets and despite being Guns N’ Roses (my favorite band at the time) and Axl Rose, in particular, main rivals I found myself listening and eventually buying the album. The reason I think I always dug this song was just the high-intensity energy throughout (it’s like a shot of audio Red Bull) and the “whoa, yeah, kickstart my heart, give it a start, whoa, yeah, baby!” was sing-along crowd-pleasing at it’s most primal. I enjoyed it so much I made it my theme song for Dan and I’s backyard wrestling “promotion” the TWF (Teen Wrestling Federation). In my imagination this song got the crowd worked up into a frenzy. But I digress…

In reality the song was inspired by the near-death of bassist Nikki Sixx who had to have his heart ‘kickstarted’ following a near fatal heroin overdose. I’m sure everytime Nikki plays this one it’s a semi-celebration of getting at least at extra twenty five years out of life and counting. Even now the song is a staple on classic rock radio and is played in arenas all over the world to rile up the crowd, just like in my imagination back in 1990 in a random backyard in Detroit. Years have gone by and the Crue is still kicking ass!