10 Things You Might Not Know About Mötley Crüe's 'Shout At The Devil'

On September 26th, 1983, Mötley Crüe released their second album Shout At The Devil. To mark the album’s 34th anniversary, here are 13 things you might not know about their breakthrough record:

1. The original album's cover featured a pentagram which was visible only when held at a forty-five-degree angle, not the four-square photo of the band.

2. It was the band's first time working with producer Tom Werman, who would later work on Crüe's later albums Theatre of Pain and Girls, Girls, Girls

3. Tom Zutaut, who signed the band to Elektra Records, told the author of Crüe's biography that Nikki Sixx was exploring Satanism at the time, and wanted to call the song (and the album) "Shout With The Devil" 

4. Zutaut claims he saw a knife and fork rise off the table and stick into the ceiling. He writes: "I looked at Nikki and freaked out. 'There is no more 'Shout With The Devil.' If you keep shouting with the devil, you're going to get killed.' I truly believe that Nikki had unknowingly tapped into something evil, something more dangerous than he could control that was on the verge of seriously hurting him. Nikki must have realized the same thing because he decided on his own to change the album title to Shout At The Devil."

5. The song "Bastard" was written as an ode to the band's manager at that time.

6. The line, "My head's spinnin' round and round, but in the seasons of wither, we'll stand and deliver," "Round and Round" and "Seasons of Wither" are references to Aerosmith songs.

7. The spoken-word track called "In the Beginning" was written by Nikki Sixx. The monologue explains how evil has overcome good, and it was now time to "Be strong and shout at the Devil."

8. "In The Beginning" was credited to "Allister Fiend," a character Nikki came up with and was voiced by engineer Geoff Workman.

9. Shout At The Devil sold 200,000 copies in two weeks and reached as high as No. 17 on the Billboard album chart. 

10. Shout at the Devil went gold in January 1984 and was platinum less than a month later. By January 1985 it was double platinum. And in May 1997, it went quadruple platinum.


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