Vodka, Fist Fights, and Firing: The Moscow Music Peace Festival That Ended in Disaster

The Moscow Music Peace Festival, held on August 12 and 13, 1989, might have started as a fundraiser for struggling addicts. But it ended in a series of alcohol-fueled fights that ended with Mötley Crüe firing their manager, Doc McGhee, who also produced the event slated as the “Russian Woodstock.”

The Moscow Peace Festival of 1989 featured a stacked lineup of some of the biggest names in rock and roll at the time, including Ozzy Osbourne, Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, Skid Row, Cinderella, and Scorpions. The festival’s organizer, Don McGhee, was also the manager of several of the performing bands, including Mötley Crüe, Scorpions, Bon Jovi, and Skid Row.

But as history would show, this infamous 1989 festival was less “peace, love, and music” and more “vodka, fist fights, and firings.”

The Moscow Music Peace Festival Ended With This Manager’s Firing

Trouble at the Moscow Music Peace Festival began when the musicians started drinking and doing drugs despite performing at an addiction awareness fundraiser. Then, the trouble came to an undeniable head during Bon Jovi’s set. As Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee explained in I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution, “We were told there would be no pyro. None of the bands were allowed to use it. Mötley was synonymous with pyro.”

“Then, Bon Jovi started their set, and they had these big explosions,” Lee continued. “I ran around the arena to the backstage area and saw Doc. He said, ‘What?’ I ran at him and hit him in the chest. He went flying through the air. I said, ‘Tomorrow, when you wake up, you can get a job managing the Chipmunks. You do not manage Mötley Crüe anymore.’ And that was it.”

Skid Row’s Sebastian Bach added a few extra details. “I was right there,” he recalled. “Tommy said to me, ‘Your manager’s a f***ing a**hole.’ Then, he grabbed my bottle of vodka and chugged it. I mean, like, ‘gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp.’ Ran over to Doc, punched him in the head. Doc was walking around with tears in his eyes. It was a bad f***ing scene. Mötley wouldn’t fly back in the same plane with Doc.”

Doc McGhee Denied Controversies Surrounding The Festival

Doc McGhee gave his side of the story in I Want My MTV, saying, “Mötley felt like I f***ed them, which I didn’t. There was a malfunction—one tiny piece of pyro went off on one side of Lenin Stadium. It was a popcorn fart. I was backstage, and I didn’t even hear it. When Tommy came at me, I was shocked. I had no idea what he was talking about.” McGhee blamed the incident on burnout.

“Nikki almost died of an overdose a year and a half before that,” McGhee continued. “Vince had killed a kid in a car crash with the drummer from Hanoi Rocks and crippled two other kids. I mean, the cats*** was piling up. And when the cats*** gets bigger than the cat, you’ve got to get rid of the cat.”

Even before Tommy Lee and Doc McGhee’s violent confrontation, controversy swirled around the festival due to McGhee’s history of drug smuggling. Some claimed that McGhee had put on the Moscow festival to get out of a massive drug charge, including Bon Jovi, but McGhee later denied these claims.

“What judge in this world would say, ‘OK, I’ll tell you what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna let you off. You just have to do the first show in the history of the Soviet Union.’ Nobody’s going to say that,” McGhee argued on an episode of The Rock Experience. “Before that show, I had Mötley Crüe, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, we had everybody in rehab. I was very into keeping people, trying to get them to understand where they fit in life without drugs and alcohol.”

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