Mötley Crüe Confused for Their Hair Metal Parody Foes Steel Panther on Prime Video Doc Poster
During those hazy, heady, hair-heavy days of glam metal in the Eighties, one could maybe be forgiven for occasionally mistaking one massive-mulleted band for another at first glance. But 40 years later, it looks like Amazon Prime Video has committed the victimless — but instantly meme-able — sin of not just confusing two groups, but two groups from two completely different eras also don’t exactly have the best relationship: The poster for the 2020 doc Rock ‘n Roll Icon: Mötley Crüe does not feature a photo of Mötley Crüe, but rather contemporary hair metal revivalists/satirists, Steel Panther.
The mix-up was spotted by a Steel Panther fan, who shared a video on Instagram that was recirculated by Steel Panther frontman Michael Starr. Steel Panther also joked about the incorrect photo on Twitter, quipping, “Just to be clear, that new documentary about us on @PrimeVideo is completely unauthorized and full of falsehoods. They didn’t even talk to us.”
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As it happens, there’s been some tension between Mötley Crüe and Steel Panther over the years, with the former not exactly appreciating the latter’s shtick. The friction likely dates back to a 2011 U.K. tour that featured the Crüe, Def Leppard, and Steel Panther; in a 2017 interview, Steel Panther drummer Stix Zadinia (real name Darren Leader) said Tommy Lee and Nikki Sixx, in particular, were not fans of the parody act, and Leader said he believed, “I think they thought we were actually making fun of them directly. And I just gotta chalk that up to their egos being too big because nothing that we do has anything to do with them directly.”
The beef got another boost a few years ago when Starr quipped in a 2019 interview with Little Punk People that if he could bring any artist back from the dead, it would be Mötley Crüe’s Vince Neil. While Neil was very obviously not dead, Starr got in an extra jab, saying, “I’d bring back the Vince Neil from back in the day because that guy is dead.” The comment clearly irked Sixx, who shot back on Twitter, “The singer in steal [sic] panther can go fück himself… wanna be band putting down @thevinceneil?”
As of publication, the Mötley Crüe/Steel Panther photo mix-up is still live on Amazon Prime Video (a rep for the streaming service did not immediately return Rolling Stone’s request for comment). We hope Mötley Crüe doesn’t feel too hard done by the mix-up either — honest mistakes happen, and it’s not like they were shoved out of the frame entirely. For some odd reason, the poster still features a photo of the actual Mötley Crüe hovering just slightly over the pic of Steel Panther.
