MOTLEY HALEN

The Pamela Anderson/Tommy Lee divorce has been making the headlines for the Motley Crue camp lately, but behind the scenes the seminal ‘80s L.A. metal band has been paying a lot of attention to another bad-blood separation--the Van Halen debacle.

The reason for the interest is that Vince Neil, who was fired by Motley Crue in 1992 and was replaced by John Corabi, has been recording with the band again. But the Crue crew is intent on avoiding the kind of bile that plagued Van Halen, first with the noisy exit of Sammy Hagar, who says the band was already reuniting with his predecessor, David Lee Roth, before he was informed, and then again with Roth, who says he was led on with the prospect of rejoining, even though he claims Extreme’s Gary Cherone had already been hired as full-time singer behind his back.

The hopes around the Crue are that both Neil and Corabi will be featured on the band’s next album, due in spring, and even on a subsequent tour.

“John Corabi is still in the band and we’re all really hoping it will work out with both,” says manager Tracy Blackburn. “We saw what happened with Van Halen.”