"There's no new music to be made for it," Nikki Sixx declared in 2016, when financing for the film had yet to be finalized. "No reason for it. And if it comes down to [adopts the voice of a record label person], 'Well, you have a new movie – you need to write new music for the movie,' I'm like, 'I'm sorry, but that's cheap.' We don't want to get back into the studio and go, 'We have to write a song, for marketing.' I want to write music because it's real."[3]
On February 22, 2019, Mötley Crüe and Machine Gun Kelly (who plays Tommy Lee in the film) released the video for the song "The Dirt (Est. 1981)" on their YouTube channel. The band announced that the film's soundtrack would also feature three new recordings, all produced with longtime collaborator Bob Rock: "Ride with the Devil", "Crash and Burn", and a cover of Madonna's "Like a Virgin".[4][5][6][7][8]
For the new songs, the band collaborated with Machine Gun Kelly, John 5 (who would eventually replace Mick Mars as the band's guitarist in 2023), and Sahaj Ticotin of Ra. They composed nine songs, but narrowed them down to the three tracks featured in the soundtrack.[8]
In 2019, "The Dirt (Est. 1981)" was featured on the soundtrack for the video game WWE 2K20.[9]
Commercial performance
The soundtrack reached No. 10 on the Billboard 200, making it the band's first top-10 album since Saints of Los Angeles charted at No. 4 on July 4, 2008.[10]