Nikki Sixx once claimed that Mötley Crüe were in secret negotiations with the US State Department to travel to Baghdad during the Iraq War to perform a Rolling Stones song

Motley Crue backstage in 2005.

As any history buff will tell you, a coalition led by the US invaded Iraq in March 2003. The following month, Baghdad was captured after a six-day battle, and in May George W. Bush famously declared the "end of major combat operations". 

The story wouldn't finish there, of course. The Iraq War continued until 2011, more than two thousand US soldiers remain in the country to this day, and the repercussions continue to reverberate around the globe.