Thanks to Dan Lorenzo at Stepping Out Magazine (www.steppinoutmagazine.com) for this interview.Thanks to Dan Lorenzo at Stepping Out Magazine (www.steppinoutmagazine.com) for this interview.
Interview with bassist Nikki Sixx by Dan Lorenzo
Born in 1958 Frank Ferrano changed his name to Nikki Sixx in 1980. He stole the name from his girlfriend's old boyfriend, a musician from Indiana. The "new" Nikki Sixx went on to write and play bass for Motley Crue who have sold over forty million copies of their music.
How you doing Nikki?
Good, I'm having breakfast.
I know you have a bunch of interviews to do today. You're an 80's metal guy who is somehow still relevant enough to have your clothes for sale in Hot Topic. Why you?
Dude, I really... I don't fucking know. Yesterday I was down at my clothing company factory and the phones are ringing, there's skateboarders, cool bands, people like Evil Knieval- it's just bizarre, I'm talking to Steve Young from the 49ers, he's a Motley Crue fans, guys from the Misfits are Motley Crue fans and it's interesting because they're also Nikki Sixx fans. I have to tell you that I just do what I do because I love it. After all these years, one day I pick up the phone and a guy goes "You're like in Poison or something right, a hair band" and I go "What the fuck is a hair band?" I had to fight that for awhile, and I had to make it very clear that we started before those guys, we started before all those bands including G.N.R. We had nothing to do with those bands, I said "Why are you lumping us together?"
I guess because you all came from L.A.
I guess so. But then one day the phone starts ringing and all the same people that were going ha, ha, ha, are going "Dude, you're the guy!" I really haven't done anything different. I mean, I love heavy metal, I love punk, I'm really driven. I'm opinionated. I don't look any different than I did in 1982.
Yeah- how do you do that?
I think it was the drugs.
So you recommend them?
No, I don't. Please, I don't.
What is going on with Brides Of Destruction?
I love my new band. It's new, it's fresh, there's no baggage. Traci Guns is a wealth of musical ability. The fact that he started a band (Guns 'n Roses) with Axl (Rose) and he walked away because he thought is was just Aerosmith rehash, it's not what he wanted to do, and he started a band that he did feel right about. Even though he agrees G.N.R. made one of the greatest rock records ever, that first record.
That's all they did really.
That is all they ever did, they made one record... and it was perfect timing.
Speaking about Traci, the last time I saw you perform it was in front of over fifteen thousand people at the P.N.C. Bank Arts Center. The last time I saw Tracii it was in a club maxed out at about three hundred people. If Brides Of Destruction never got bigger than a club band would you be happy?
You know I haven't really looked at that part of it- yet. To be honest with you, I guess it's been about the music. Finding the right guys, I said to Tracii, "I started the band Motley Crue because I loved it", in the end it started to turn into this big machine that became very intricate and very hard to keep moving. All these different personalities and in fighting, I go, you you "I just wanna rock" as lofty as that sounds, I just want to rock. I don't know where it's gonna end up. You say clubs, it wouldn't kill me at all. Do I want to end up there? I've got five kids, a wife, I'm very fortunate. I live in a very nice home, I drive really nice cars, I have a nice life. Do I want to play clubs for the rest of my life? Not really. But do I want to be in a band that's real and get it on for a year and warm this band up in clubs? Hell yeah.
I was re-reading "The Dirt" last night- do you think it's a coincidence that the longer you're off drugs the happier your life has become?
Drugs are really only a sympton; something's bothering you so you use drugs and alcohol because you can't deal or cope. I'm a guy who at one point is homeless, and then another point is headlining stadiums in a jet. Now here's a guy who basically from the age of four through twelve has been basically put down and told he's a piece of shit. He's a failure. Then all of a sudden one day he's handed the keys to the kingdom and everybody adores him. It really fucks your head up. Until I got off drugs and I could look at the messages I was given I couldn't really compute them. My kids don't have to live through what my mother and father put me through.
Do you think if you did have great parents you still would have done drugs because that's what rock stars are supposed to do?
You know, I've thought about that before. I don't know. You know, my dad was Keith Richards, my mom was Steven Tyler, my brother was Johnny Thunders- that was my family. We stuck together. If I had a father who was a straight up man, who walked me through things I probably would have done things differently.
Like I said, I was re-reading your book and I was thinking- here's a guy who stole a guitar, stole a piano, you even stole your hame. What do you think of kids stealing your music off the internet?
I think it's great.
Even if it cuts into your sales?
You know what bro? I gotta tell you there is enough to go around.
What do you think about Vince Neil touring, singing songs you wrote?
I don't really say they're my songs, they're Motley Crue whether I wrote them or I co-wrote them. I know when I go out with the Brides Of Destruction I'll play a couple Motley songs, you know maybe throw them in for the encore or something, but to go out and just play Motley Crue songs- there is a Motley Crue. I don't get that. Vince has some pretty cool solo stuff, I don't know why he's not doing a solo tour and you know, playing four or five Motley Crue songs at the end of the night. If anybody should be able to do them Vince should, you know, he sang them. I don't like it. I think it's watering down, you know, if there is ever a farewell tour people might be like "God, this guy's just been on tour playing the same songs forever."
Current line-up:
London LeGrand... vocals
Traci Guns... guitars
Nikki Sixx... bass
Scott Coogan... drums
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 | 2004 - 'Here Come the Brides' |
