DEALER – 1980’s Tickets

On page 51 of Motley Crue’s autobiography, The Dirt, Tommy claims “he briefly played with another band before it broke up”. That band he claims was “brief”, was the band Dealer.

Below I present three tickets. The first is a show in May of 1980 at the Starwood. On page 52 of The Dirt you will find a ticket for London, also playing at the Starwood in the same month.

While Tommy was beating the skins (and his infamous cowbell), Nikki was dominating Hollywood with London.

The other two tickets are from the Ice House. Located in Pasadena (not far from Pookies where Tommy would later play with Motley Crue) this venue held 200. That’s only about half the size of the venues in Hollywood.

Even though it a small venue many big stars have performed or started at the Ice House. Today it no longer offers musical acts only stand up comedy.

The tickets above show Dealer playing on a weeknight opening for Naked Rush. The last ticket proudly proclaims that Tommy has made it. They are finally headlining a weekend being billed as a “hard rocking band“.

I always saw Tommy at least once a month. Most of the time it was weekly. I can tell you this, when I visited Tommy in January 1981 and he informed me he was now in Motley Crue. I was shocked. I thought he was still in Dealer.

I probably saw him last in early December before the holidays. Doing the math, he was in Dealer at least 7 months based on these ticket dates. I think he was with them sooner than May 1980. Could be more. Compared to the two bands before US 101 and Suite 19, his time with Dealer was close to the same amount. I wouldn’t call that brief (compared to his tenure in Motley Crue, it was brief).

There we have uncovered more dirt, I hope you enjoyed.