If someone looks up to Motley Crue's lifestyle, they should learn from our mistakes.
by Nikki Sixx

With its jam-packed performance schedule and its endless round of photo sessions, video shoots, plane flights and pleasure seeking, the rock & roll whirlwind known as Motley Crue rarely slows down for long. Richard Hogan located bassist Nikki Sixx in the eye of the storm, however, and struck up a conversation. What follows is the heart of that interview, just as Nikki wanted it to be.

It's strange, you know. Even in Motley Crue's first month of being together, it was always crazy - the phones were always ringing. Everyone was digging hanging out with us. Each guy in the band had a following he'd built up playing in other bands. So as Motley Crue, everywhere we'd go it would be mayhem. From a local party, it turned into a worldwide party. You get us separated and you've got the four ingredients of Motley Crue. Putting them together-that's the catalyst that makes it all explode. Because this band's got a magic, and it works. Motley Crue could go onstage and everything could go wrong: amps could blow up, the lighting system could go out, but the magic would still be there. There's a communication we have with our audience that I don't feel a whole lot of other bands have. That communication's growing, and it's a great thing.

London, the band I had before Motley Crue, had a lot of songwriters in it. I felt that my stuff was really good - as any songwriter would - and that I needed to express myself more. That was the main reason for my leaving, because I think that at that time, my songwriting was about to develop into something really good, and the only way to let that happen was to leave that group. I had the first Motley Crue album basically written before the band was formed. London had actually done one of those songs, "Public Enemy #1," which the guitar player and I wrote together. But that was London, and this is Motley Crue. Even from the first time Tommy and Mick and Vince and I played together, we had these huge smiles on our faces - we could feel the magic. If you stand in a rehearsal room with the four of us and we're playing, you can feel it. It's a feeling I can't quite explain. I swear to God, it's a feeling like going to church. And it comes from all four of us. If Vince were to leave the band, or if I were to leave, or Tommy, or Mick, we would just not bother going on. Ever.

For me, rock & roll was never what you'd call just a pastime. But it was never a career, either. I didn't see it as a reason for buying a house, and a reason for buying a car. Still, it wasn't like a hobby where I knew I was going to quit playing, go off, and become a butcher to make a living. I knew I was going to play rock & roll forever, but the seriousness of it was something I never really examined. Which is kind of odd, because usually I'd examine most everything. Music was all I wanted to do; all I cared about was music. I'd drive virtually everybody around me crazy - especially in my younger years, before I was 16. I'd sit down at the dinner table and the first thing out of my mouth would be music. "Can you talk about anything besides music?" they'd ask. My parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, girlfriends, friends, neighbors... the dog... the neighbors' dog... I'd drive them all crazy. I remember being very young, working on my grandparents' farm in Idaho. And I remember listening to Five Man Electrical Band and thinking how cool this song called "Signs" was, because it was kind of heavy. Also, I remember that I'd gotten a bunch of Beatles tapes, and the only two songs I liked by the Beatles were "Helter Skelter" and "Back in the U.S.S.R." - because of the beginning. The rest of the songs seemed wimpy. That's when I discovered the Rolling Stones - they were raunchy and I liked them. I always found myself going for the more heavy music. When my grandparents had the country station on, I would always request "Big Bad John" by Jimmy Dean, because it was the most aggressive - sounding of those songs; it was the only country song that I liked. What I was turned on to in my early years was always the most aggressive of the styles of music I listened to. And I called the stations up. I requested "Big Bad John." I requested Aerosmith when I was 14, 15, and into rock & roll. That rock & roll lifestyle became part of what I was into. When I was younger, I always had long hair. I used to get a lot of hassles from the other kids. So me and my friends, who were musicians and longhairs, too, all hung out together. We looked up to the musician's lifestyle.

Now, if someome looks up to Motley Crue, to our lifestyle, then they should learn from our mistakes. You get into music because that's what you love. It's a growing process to refine a young garage band into a real rock group. Then, when you're successful and everyone sees the refined product, they think it's always been like that. They see the money, the cars, the nice clothes, the nice hotels. But it's not always like that. You start off with nothing, and you're only in it for the music. And then comes this surge of success, of people screaming over you. People taking you to dinners, and everyone pampering you. You get limousines; everyone loves you, and you're the best. Money comes in. All of a sudden it's a whole different trip. Everyone says, "Oh! money! That's what you work for!" And I'm here to tell you that having come from nowhere, and being at that point [where the limos arrive and the money is rolling in], that, really, I'm still into it for the music. Sure, all that other stuff is nice. Once you get that, you realize, "Now that I've got it, I don't need the money!" That's why Motley Crue will prove that we're not in it just to make the quick buck. We're in it for the music, for the show, and for the entertainment. We'll last through [the suspicions and accusations]; we're not in it just to make the money, because the money's already come. I hope we never quit making records. And we don't sell out to selling lunch boxes, you'll notice. And you won't see Motley Crue tennis shoes or shoelaces. We could do that, but the music is what it's all about. And we don't put items up for sale like jigsaw puzzles for three-year-old kids. We're an adult rock & roll band, and we want to make music for people who understand it, not just for little tiny kids. Now and then we get a six-year-old fan. But we're not a bubblegum act, and we refuse to be one. We're simply offering something to the fans that hasn't ever been offered before-all in one package. It's a combination of looks, sound, songs, street-sense lyrics, enthusiasm, and personality, and it's not contrived, and that's the best part. Part of it is obviously conceptual: I wasn't born with warpaint under my eyes. I did think that up. But that's entertainment. We just want to deliver the best music and the best show possible. Everything else really doesn't matter. And we want to make sure that the fans understand that the drugs, the sex, the drinking, and the excessive lifestyle are reflected in Motley Crue's music, but let it be known that we control them and they don't control us. Look, we're not here to endorse sobriety, but we're definitely not here to endorse being complete drunks either. It's your body. It's your mind. But let's not have so much fun that anybody dies. And if someone in our position as a rock band can say that, then the fans will think, "That's good." Then they won't do it, and it will save someone'slife. Because it's O.K. to dance on the edge-but just don't fall off.