Music has always been a space where influence and inspiration blur the lines between homage and unintentional borrowing. But when similarities between two songs are too striking to ignore, the conversation inevitably turns to whether it’s coincidence or something more.
In a recent interview, Sweet guitarist Andy Scott reflected on the unmistakable resemblance between the iconic opening riff of Mötley Crüe’s “Kickstart My Heart” and Sweet’s 1973 track “Hell Raiser”. As he recalled: “I’ll tell you who played (‘Kickstart My Heart’) to me the first time. We were gonna go and see Mötley Crüe and Skid Row in Sweden. I was in Sweden producing a band called Sha-Boom, and (the guys from the Swedish band) Europe came into the studio and they said, ‘Come with us tonight. We’re gonna see Mötley Crüe.’ They said, ‘Our keyboard player went to see them last night in Gothenburg, and we’re gonna see them in the ice hockey place in Stockholm.’ I said, ‘Yeah, as long as these guys are okay.’ And (they) said, ‘Oh, they’re coming with us.’ So we all got in taxis and cars and lobbed up there.”
On the way to the show, someone played the intro to “Kickstart My Heart” for him without revealing the artist. Scott immediately recognized something familiar.
“I went, ‘Well, somebody’s using my guitar riff.’ I said, ‘You know, it happens.’ And when we got to the gig, they started the whole show with the stripper, which is what we did in the ’70s, and the first song they played was Kickstart My Heart. And we used to do Hell Raiser. And the whole of Europe, the band, who were in the audience when we used to play in Sweden back in the ’70s, were all laughing now looking at my face, me going, ‘Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Lovely.'”
This isn’t the first time a connection between Mötley Crüe and Sweet has been acknowledged. Mötley Crüe bassist and primary songwriter Nikki Sixx has been open about his admiration for Sweet, even revealing in his book The First 21 that he once attempted to recruit Sweet singer Brian Connolly for his pre-Mötley Crüe band London.
“How hard could it be for the top band of the Strip to find a new singer?” Sixx wrote. “‘Fuck Nigel Benjamin,’ I told the guys. ‘We’re going to get Brian Connolly!’ Brian Connolly was the voice behind Ballroom Blitz and Solid Gold Brass. He’d left Sweet by that point and recorded one single, but a solo album had not materialized. I called Uncle Don and asked him, ‘Can you help me get ahold of Brian Connolly from Sweet?'”
Whether “Kickstart My Heart” was directly inspired by “Hell Raiser” or simply a case of rock’s cyclical nature is up for debate. What’s undeniable is that Sweet played a key role in shaping the sound that bands like Mötley Crüe would later bring to the mainstream. Interestingly, “Hell Raiser” itself was penned by the powerhouse songwriting duo Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, the same team responsible for hits by Mud, Suzi Quatro, and many others.
As for the riff? Some might call it borrowing, others might call it coincidence. Either way, it’s yet another example of how the past continues to echo in rock’s biggest anthems.
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