Yesterday I was in attendance at the sort of event in which I never expected to attend. At the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, a table was arranged on a stage and one hundred or so folks were crammed into a room waiting for four gentlemen to saunter into their seats.

The men are aged as young as 51 and as old as 62 years of age. Their names are Vince Neil, Tommy Lee, Nikki Sixx, and Mick Mars, and they are the members of Mötley Crüe.

The four members have come together to announce that they are embarking on a Final Tour. Not a farewell tour, mind you, but the last tour they’ll ever undertake as members of Mötley Crüe. In fact, their signing a legal document in the above photo saying something to that effect, in legal speak. Bands always seem to have many farewell tours, and the Crüe want nothing to do with that.

The reason I was there is because Dodge invited me. The automaker is the presenting sponsor for the 72-show tour, and the gents drove off down to attend the Jimmy Kimmel show in a variety of Dodge Challengers after this press announcement was finished. It’s certainly an interesting tie-in, and Dodge has a few things planned based on this mash-up, but I’m left to wonder how well the rock and roll and cars tie-in will go.

 

The room was filled with fairly push rock journalists and photographers who needed to get their questions answered and their photographs taken. I sat back with the three other automotive folks in attendance, and took in the spectacle. One brave automotive journalist stood up to ask a question. It was Friend of Hooniverse Elana Scherr from Hot Rod Magazine, who asked what the guys drive. Most hemmed and hawed until Nikki Sixx (smartly) stated that he was looking forward to doing burnouts in “that new Challenger” until his neighbors hated him.

Still, an answer like that only leaves me wondering even more deeply as to why an automaker would associate itself with a rock band. Not just Mötley Crüe, of course, but any rock band. Although if you were to pick a band, this would be a good one. They are an iconic reminder of a specific generation of rock and roll history. You may not identify as a fan of hair metal, but almost everyone can find something from the Crüe catalog; be it Home Sweet Home, Kickstart My Heart, or Dr. Feelgood. Additionally, these four guys truly lived the decadent rockstar lifestyle and, quite honestly, it’s insane their even still alive.

But I digress…

Through that digression, however, I start to see why a match-up like this might actually make sense for Dodge. At the very core of it, it comes down to the chance to utilize the rock and roll image to sell sporty cars. The assumed ability to license music at reduced-fee rates is a bonus, and you can certainly expect to see a Challenger blasting down a coastal road with Crüe pumping along as the soundtrack. It sounds a bit cheesy to type out, but, if done correctly, could get the blood flowing a little bit. Additionally, this will be a 72-show tour with some ticket prices as low as $15-$20. That means a lot of eyeballs are going to be streaming in and out of venues where there should be a phalanx of Dodge vehicles parked for folks to see.

So, at its core, this could be a solid investment for Dodge assuming they get to license music for less than usual and have hundreds of thousands of people walk past their vehicles. Those people will be in Mötley Crüe t-shirts as they file out, but perhaps a Dodge vehicle will be stamped into the background of their brain. I know for myself that I’ve been humming Kickstart My Heart for the past day…

Also, Alice Cooper is still as awesome as you think he is.

A final question for you: What other mash-ups could you imagine with current automakers and current musicians (across all genres)? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.