CRUE II: Meanwhile, speculation on the reasons...

CRUE II: Meanwhile, speculation on the reasons for the split continues. The Crue camp has offered no statements since a Valentine’s Day announcement and Neil, following a brief flurry of rebuttals, has clammed up too. The band’s press release, issued by Elektra Records, said that Neil’s passion for race-car driving had made him less committed to band activities than the other members and that he wished to pursue that hobby.

Neil contested that view, first in his own Elektra press release (announcing the company’s signing of him to a solo deal) and then in print, radio and television interviews. Addressing both the issue of commitment to the band and rumors that the real reason he was asked to leave was a drinking problem, Neil made his most pointed comments to the Album Network’s Nast.

“I did not leave the band,” he said in the Feb. 21 issue. “I was fired. I wasn’t fired for my interest in race-car driving, and although I drink occasionally, that wasn’t why I was fired either. I was fired because I didn’t like the direction Nikki was taking on the new album.”

Saying that the new Crue material was lush and ornate in the mode of Led Zeppelin’s “Physical Graffiti,” Neil bemoaned the use of keyboards and female background singers. “It isn’t Motley Crue,” he charged.

Crue manager Doug Thaler says simply that fans can judge for themselves, though they’ll have to be patient. The group’s next album is not expected to be in stores for at least a year. There’s no word as to when Neil’s solo debut will be released.