In addition to your music career, you’re also an accomplished businessman at Vince Neil Ink and restaurateur of Feelgood’s Bar And Grill. Did those interests develop from being involved in the entertainment industry?
You can’t just do Mötley Crüe your whole life. Well, I mean you can, but you have to have other interests, too, at least I do. The tattoo shops were just an extension of something that I love. I’ve been getting tattooed my whole life. Living in Las Vegas, this is just a great opportunity to put a couple of tattoo shops here. We have one right on the Strip—I’m the only tattoo shop on the Strip—and one in the Rio Casino. And then with the nightclubs, it’s the same thing, too. ‘Hey, let’s go out to a cool rock ‘n’ roll bar.’ I have one that just opened up in West Palm Beach and one just opened up in Vegas, and some coming in San Diego and Phoenix and New York City very soon. That all goes along with my tequila. I own a tequila company so…I think if you have all of the vices, you’re set. I have rock ‘n’ roll; I have gambling in Vegas (you can actually sit and play Blackjack at my tables while you’re waiting for a tattoo); I have the tattoos; I have liquor. You know, just stay with the vices. Now I just need pornography and cigarettes and I’m all set. (Laughs)
Those shouldn’t be too hard to find.
No, those are, like, the easiest ones to find!
I guess I’m surprised that Vince Ink is the only tattoo parlor on the Vegas Strip. I figured there would be one at every other address. Talk about location, location, location!
Yeah, we’re the only one. Right across from Caesar’s Palace, right next door to The Flamingo. I have 30-something thousand people a day walking by my shop. When you’re getting tattooed people can watch you while they’re walking down the street. It’s really cool.
You have artists who work there, but do you ever pick up a gun?
Oh no, no I don’t. I mean, between the two shops I’ve got about 40 artists that work for me.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but you also have, or had, a winery?
No, used to. I did wines for a long time, but I just got out of it because I really wanted to concentrate on the tequila. And that’s doing very good. It’s called Tres Rios and you can get it in a store near you! (Laughs)
I also wanted to ask about the charity work you do in your daughter’s memory.
On Nov. 8 [we had] our fifth annual poker tournament. It’s been at the Hard Rock for the last four years and I’ve changed it over to The Rio Casino because, as you know, The Rio has been hosting the World Series Of Poker. So what we’ve done is to put the Skylar Neil Foundation tournament in conjunction with the World Series Of Poker tournament and ESPN. The final table is coming up so a lot of the pros play in my tournament. We have a big prize and the winner, just like any other poker tournament, gets a $10,000 bracelet. It’s a big-time tournament and raises a lot of money for the Skylar Neil Foundation. And we have our golf tournament set for the 14th year. That’s been sold out every single year for 13 years and this one shouldn’t be any different. It’s just nice to, at the end of the year, to be able to sit down and write a check to different organizations that we feel deserve money.
Charitable work speaks volumes and is so, so important. What you do with the Skylar Neil Foundation is really commendable. Of course it came out of a tragedy, though. Do you think being a member of such an iconic, respected band has helped you through some tough times?
Yeah, that’s one great thing about music. You can express yourself in things like that where a lot of people who don’t find different outlets like that, whether it be painting or writing or things like that, anything that goes wrong in your life can come out in ways that are not good. We’re lucky, being musicians, to be able to put our feelings in song and let other people experience it along with us. We’re very, very fortunate.
Catch the Vince Neil Band at the Wellmont Theatre in Montclair, NJ, on Nov. 27. vinceneil.net for more.
