Motley Crue's Vince Neil has vintage year
By PHIL ROURA


Vince Neil, winemaker? Who knew!

"I have a very nice, full-bodied Petite Sirah that has a wonderful flavor. I'm also pretty proud of a white Cabernet and a white Merlot we bottled in 2003. Our Cabernet Sauvignon has been rated at 91 by the Wine Spectator. Our white, 90. That's pretty amazing.
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what's amazing is that this is not some snooty vintner talking, but the man who sings "I'm the Motherf- of the Year" on the new CD "Saints of Los Angeles.
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Meet the sober Vince Neil. The onetime wino and lead singer of all-time bad-boy band Motley Crue - who downed more drugs, injected more smack, dropped more acid, visited more jails and engaged in more wild sex than any other rockers in history - is now the proprietor of Vince Vineyards in Sonoma, Calif.


"What's wrong with that?" he snaps when a questioner wonders if he is joking. Still, tending vines and caring about oak casks is not the image of Neil that Crue cultists are cool with.


"I've got a lot of outside businesses," he adds, while taking a break from the band's first-ever CrueFest, an Ozzy Osbourne-like traveling summer show that comes to the Mohegan Sun tonight at 7.


"I own Tequila Tres Rios, a bar in Palm Beach, a tattoo shop in Las Vegas and the vineyard. Dude, just because I'm still wild on stage doesn't mean I'm still f- up. I'm really proud of what we're doing. We just bottled a great white Cab at about $19.
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But who would've expected this from the dude who dished out "The Dirt" in a down-and-nasty 2001 demonography that chronicled the band's drug-addled sexcapades? Labeled "the world's most notorious band," Neil, Nikki Sixx, Vince Mars and Tommy Lee are lucky to still be on the good side of the grass. "Yes we are," Neil admits with a laugh.


As for the CD, "Saints of Los Angeles" is their first studio album in more than 10 years. "It follows the chronology of 'The Dirt' closely, from when we played at the Whisky [the famous go-go club in West Hollywood that's been home to rockers since 1964]. When people hear the album they'll say, 'I know that part. I read it in the book.
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Who thought this up? "There was no giant master plan," he says. "We just went in and made a record, and I'm having the time of my life. I was an a-- when I first started at 23. Now I'm older [47]. I don't need to do that s- anymore.
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To illustrate his point, Neil says, "There's a video from the new album that shows some girls in a glass shower in the back of our bus, and there I am - watching 'Judge Judy.
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He busts out in a raucous laugh. "But I'm STILL the motherf- of the year.
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As for looking back, Neil wants no part of it. "This is our heyday!" he says. "Right now! We are right at the place we want to be.
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In other words: Vintage. Full-bodied. And impertinent.