Beginning in 2014, 80s hair metal rockers Motley Crue went on their final tour, which lasted two years. The band went to great lengths to convince journalists and fans that this would in fact be the last time the four members of Motley Crue toured together. To drive home the fact that this would be Motley Crue’s final tour, the name of the tour was Motley Crue’s Final Tour. For those who still weren’t convinced, the band kicked off the tour with a press conference, at which the four members signed a “binding legal document” (referred to as a “cessation of touring” contract) stating unequivocally that the band would never ever tour again under the name Motley Crue.

I’ll spare you the video (unless you really want to watch it), but the above screen shot is Motley Crue’s “legally binding” document being blown to smithereens in a short video announcing the band’s 2020 stadium tour. Motley Crue, for better or for worse, is back.

I guess I’m supposed to be happy about it, but I’m not.

When journalists questioned both the sincerity of the band’s retirement and the legality of some made of legal document, bassist and spokesman Nikki Sixx had the following to say back in 2014: “Legally, we can’t play again. The only loophole is if all four band members agreed to do it, we could override our own contract. But we know that will never happen. There are people in this band who will refuse to ever do it again, and you’re talking to one of them. There is no amount of money that would ever make me do it again because I have such pride in how we’re ending it.”

Pride. That’s a funny word.

Motley Crue is far from the first band to return to the stage after pinky-swearing to their fans that they wouldn’t. And I’m not talking about bands that broke up and later reformed. I’m talking about people like Ozzy Ozbourne, who went on a tour called “No More Tours” in 1992. (In 1995, Ozzy went back and tour and issued a press release that said, in part, “retirement sucked.”) Kiss also went on its own “Farewell Tour” back in 2000. Surprisingly, I saw them almost 20 years later in 2019 on their “End of the Road Tour.” (It’s a long road; the band is returning to Oklahoma in 2020.)

So while coming out of retirement is certainly not unprecedented, rarely do bands go to such lengths to try and convince the world that they won’t do just do that, followed by doing that so quickly. In addition to calling their previous tour Motley Crue’s Final Tour and that whole legally binding document mumbo, the members of the band have consistently denied that they would reform. In the spring of 2019 around the release of the band’s biopic The Dirt on Netflix, the band recorded four new songs for the soundtrack and rumors began to swirl that the Crue might play a few live shows to support the film. Nikki Sixx was the first to run to Rolling Stone to assure fans there wouldn’t be as much as a single “one-off” show again. Lead singer Vince Neil weighed in as well, reassuring the public that “just because Motley was recording again didn’t mean there were plans for the band to book more live shows.”

I could go on and on, pulling up dozens of quotes from the band members from the past five years, but I think it’s more interesting to pull up ones from earlier this month. In the beginning of November — we’re talking two weeks ago — singer Vince Neil and drummer Tommy Lee got into a battle of words over which one should go to rehab first. (This is Motley Crue, after all.) When asked about the feud and mounting rumors of a reunion tour, Neil has this to say on Twitter: “People these rumors are false. I haven’t spoken to any band member’s since movie premiere.”

That was two weeks ago.

According to news reports, Motley Crue was offered $150 million to reunite for a 2020 stadium tour with Def Leppard and Poison. These guys can talk about pride all they want, but money and egos, at least in those circles, trumps pride.

Good luck to the band on their 2020 (second) victory lap, but I won’t be there. I already saw the first Final Tour.