Music

LOS ANGELES — Motley Crue is hitting the road again — and they're bringing some friends along for the ride.

The heavy metal band announced the launch of the first-ever Crue Fest on Tuesday. The summer rock festival will feature the four original members of Motley Crue — singer Vince Neil, bassist Nikki Sixx, guitarist Mick Mars and drummer Tommy Lee — as well as Buckcherry, Papa Roach, Sixx:A.M. and Trapt.

"We've been wanting to do this forever," Lee told The Associated Press about the festival. "And we're finally doing it."

Produced by Live Nation, Crue Fest will kick off July 1 in West Palm Beach, Fla. The tour will stop in 41 U.S. and Canadian cities.

"The second we hit the stage, everything is exactly the same," Lee said. "But when the house lights go up these days, everybody leaves and goes back to their hotel room or bus or airplane or whatever. It's different now. People have families and kids."

The band also announced it will release "Saints of Los Angeles," their ninth studio album, on June 17.

Lee told the AP the new album — the first featuring all four original band members in more than a decade — is a mix of "old school and new school" Crue.