STEEL PANTHER's MICHAEL STARR: MÖTLEY CRÜE's TOMMY LEE Thinks We're 'A Stupid Joke Band'

Despite the fact that they have toured with the likes of MÖTLEY CRÜE, DEF LEPPARD and AEROSMITH, among others, Los Angeles glam metal jokesters STEEL PANTHER have not been fully embraced by the heavy metal community.

“Yeah, MÖTLEY CRÜE wasn’t really down with it,” STEEL PANTHER singer Michael Starr (real name Ralph Saenz; ex-L.A. GUNS) told DailyBulletin.com. “[MÖTLEY CRÜE drummer] Tommy Lee was pretty upset over the fact we poked fun at [MÖTLEY CRÜE singer] Vince Neil. He didn’t like it. He just thinks we’re just a joke, like a stupid joke band that shouldn’t be playing with them. But all their fans like us.”

Starr added that members of MÖTLEY CRÜE simply “take themselves a little too serious,” except for Vince Neil, who “totally loves it.”

“You know, he told me, ‘Hey, Michael, when we retire, you can have all our fans,'” Starr said.

Starr told The Tennessean last year that, despite STEEL PANTHER‘s cult band status, “now, with where we’re at with 25 employees, trucks and buses, there’s a lot riding on what comes out on our CDs. Plus, we’re getting a lot of pressure to write clean stuff from people surrounding our camp, so they can make money off of what we’re doing,” he added. “They’re like, ‘Look, we need a serious record from STEEL PANTHER.’ From day one, we said, ‘No. We’re not doing that.'”

STEEL PANTHER‘s third album, “All You Can Eat”, sold around 13,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 24 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD arrived in stores on April 1, 2014 via Open E/KLS.

Fonte: Blabbermouth.net