What's Even Bigger Than The New Mötley Crüe Tour?

How about the return of the original lineup of BulletBoys?

Since November 18th, 2019 when Mötley Crüe blew up their Cessation Of Touring agreement, the internet has been ablaze with what their upcoming stadium tour with Def Leppard and Poison would entail. Including, who would be added in a fourth position to round out the roster?

Lately, there has been a lot of classic 80s bands regrouping.

Faster Pussycat and Bang Tango hit the road together recently, in one example, but there are countless others.

That lead many people to start discussing who else might be a suitable fourth act on Mötley Crüe's upcoming stadium tour seeing as so many 80s bands, that had been immensely popular, were available.

Including some that were not, but should be.

We now know that the fourth act will be Joan Jett And The Blackhearts, but one band that came up in discussion who had a huge impact on the scene back then was BulletBoys.

Rumours have been swirling around for a while after Mick Sweda suddenly appeared with singer Marq Torien for a few recent live appearances but it was unknown if Lonnie Vencent and Jimmy D'Anda would also join them for a full reunion.

After all, Sweda, Vencent and D'Anda had already been working together in a band called, rather tongue and cheekily, Lies, Deceit & Treachery with Best Of Seven singer Shane Tassart. The name a nod to their time spent in BulletBoys and their live shows comprised heavily of BulletBoys songs.

It really did look like pigs would fly before they would ever regroup.

Today however, Vencent shared a post on his personal Facebook account confirming the rumours to be true with "the shocking and long overdue reunion announcement of the original and one true BulletBoys."

Originally posted by Jason Raghubir, the post has garnered a few comments including "never gonna happen" and "bass Player Lonnie Vincent isn't either" (sic) but there is little doubt that with the post shared by Vencent himself, that he is definitely involved.

Jimmy D'Anda hasn't commented yet but his profile picture has been changed to a BulletBoys era press shot and his brother Joey commented on the post that "he is, as is Lonny Vencent."

This is far more exciting news than Mötley Crüe announcing they were coming back after devoutly promising they absolutely never, ever, ever, ever, ever would.

The first three BulletBoys albums were undoubtedly their most successful and were those recorded by the classic lineup. Although Torien has been doing his best to keep the BulletBoys name alive, there is little doubt that fans are looking forward to the four original band members playing together again.

The first time I had the pleasure of meeting BulletBoys they were already disbanded with Torien and Vencent the only original members of the band.

It could have been the Acid Monkey days, the more I think about it.

The band was in Calgary looking at studios to record their next album at and had decided to do a short notice show at a local nightclub called The Back Alley. No real announcement was made outside of a quickly thrown together interview at CJAY 92 in the afternoon that I was lucky enough to catch, while listening to the radio at work at Bearcoat Canada Powdercoat.

I immediately started trying to round up people to go. Due to the last minute nature of the show no one had heard of it though and it was a weeknight so nobody was real keen on heading to The Alley when they most likely had to work the next day.

The night was awesome. After BulletBoys played a great set comprised mostly of their classic catalog, I got a chance to hang out with the guys at the club. They were easy to get along with and gracious enough to sign all sorts of things, including a very cool BulletBoys Live poster that had a bunch of the classic cartoons that fans of the band will remember.

Later I would hang that poster on the wall and no one would believe it when I told them about the show and about having met them.

Even then, though, it was bittersweet. It wasn't really the BulletBoys, even if half of the band were original members.

When a group of musicians get together they bring their own talents and ideas. Often times it is this combination of personal styles that adds to the flavour of the music they create. When one or more of these elements are missing, the band isn't quite the same.

It's like Matt Sorum with Guns N' Roses. Sure, the songs that he played on the Illusions records sounded great live but there was always something amiss when it came to the Appetite era stuff. Like it or not, Steve Adler had the style that made those songs great.

It's just too bad he could never keep his proverbial shit together.

I consider myself lucky to see the incarnation of BulletBoys that I did, it wasn't often that they traveled to Canada, especially to Calgary. For countless other fans, they would never get the chance.

That might all be set to change.

About two hours after the aforementioned post, Blabbermouth announced that BulletBoys featuring all original members would be appearing in the opening slot with Ratt and Lita Ford at the third annual 80s Rock The Dam Fest, set to take place July 25, 2020 at Beaver Dam Amphitheater in Beaver Dam, Kentucky.

With any luck this will be part of a larger BulletBoys tour, but only time will tell.

In the meantime, keep your eyes on the sky because you might just see those pigs in flight after all...

UPDATE! Just after 5 pm on December 12th, 2019 BulletBoys posted on their official Facebook page confirming that pigs are definitely in the air!

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