Synopsis

"Without You" presents Motley Crue in a deliberately surreal performance setting rather than a conventional narrative. Animated doors open onto a spinning coin before the band appears amid stone pillars and Egyptian-inspired scenery. Vince Neil delivers the ballad while abstract images interrupt the staged performances, including a live jaguar and a violin ensemble accompanying the song's slide-guitar section. The video's dramatic imagery gives the band's romantic power ballad an ornate, dreamlike atmosphere, contrasting sharply with the tougher, more overtly rebellious style of many of their earlier clips.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was filmed at the Grand 1894 Opera House in Galveston, Texas, on January 15, 1990, after the band's concert in nearby Houston.

• The production was handled by Sharon Oreck through O Pictures, with Bill Pope serving as cinematographer.

• The original concept reportedly involved making a motorcycle movie, but the band rejected the idea because motorcycles had already been central to the "Girls, Girls, Girls" video.

• The finished clip was described by Nikki Sixx as having a surreal quality, which is reflected in its mixture of theatrical sets, animation, classical musicians, and unusual animal imagery.

• The jaguar seen in the video was a live animal named Czar, from the Exotic Cat Refuge and Wildlife Orphanage in Kirbyville, Texas.

• The song's subject was linked in the album liner notes to drummer Tommy Lee's relationship with Heather Locklear.

• "Without You" appeared on the 1989 album "Dr. Feelgood," a record that marked one of the band's most commercially successful periods.