MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist Nikki Sixx spoke to Kerrang! Radio‘s Loz Guest about the secret behind the band’s 40 years together, what he’s been up to in the last year, and what his future plans are. Nikki also accepted the Kerrang! Radio Hall Of Fame award on behalf of the band.
Speaking about the fact that MÖTLEY CRÜE has been together four decades, Nikki said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I don’t think any of us ever really looked… I don’t think anybody looks that far into the future. But then you start seeing some of the bands that you grew up with hitting their 30th birthday, and you’re, like, ‘Woah. These guys have been around 30 years. That’s amazing.’ And now [they hit] 40 years. And now bands that meant so much to me growing up, like AEROSMITH, I think they just hit 50 years. In my head, I’m, like, ‘Are they even 50 years old?’ ‘Cause I still see the album cover to ‘Toys In The Attic’. So it’s cool. It used to be a young man’s game, and now it’s a quality game.
“I really admire DEF LEPPARD in so many ways,” he continued, referencing the iconic British rockers whom MÖTLEY CRÜE is supposed to be touring U.S. stadiums with in 2022. “They have such a great body of music, and their work ethic is amazing, and how they interact with each other. And many bands like that. But just using DEF LEPPARD as an example, they’re able to give generations, generations, generations of people great music, whether it’s nostalgic or something new, but they go out and they do these tours. And you get to a place where going to a MÖTLEY CRÜE concert, an AEROSMITH concert [or] a METALLICA concert — the list goes on — you know you’re gonna get, pretty much from the first song to the last song, you know every single song. And that’s a cool place to be for us. It doesn’t matter — you can just look at our catalog and put your finger on it and go, ‘That’s the opening song tonight.’ And you know that the majority of people are gonna have enjoyed it, and it’s been part of their lives. So that’s a fun thing to do, and I think fun for bands and for fans as well.”
He added: “Yeah, 40 years. Woah. I’m not gonna make 50.”
Nikki also talked about the fact that MÖTLEY CRÜE‘s original lineup is still intact, which is a claim that less than a handful of other iconic rock bands can boast.
“I think the camaraderie is a big part of it,” he said. “And also you’ve gotta realize that anybody you knew 40 years ago, you go from being kids to young adults to [being] married, [having] kids, buy houses. I mean, we were all kind of pretty much living together, and then, at some point, we were going to each other’s houses to visit each other and hang out. And you just realize we’re all experiencing the same really super-cool things. But no matter what happened in the band or didn’t happen in the band, it all boils down to rehearsal. You’re in rehearsal, there’s a bunch of open pizza boxes, there’s shit scattered everywhere, Tommy‘s [Lee, drums] over there [pounding the drums]. ‘Dude, shut up. I’m trying to tune my bass.’ Mick‘s [Mars, guitar] over there [playing his guitar] — just all this noise and energy. And then, all of a sudden, it’s, like, ‘Hey, you guys, you wanna run one?’ And then you run it, and it’s, like, bam. Magic. It’s there again. So whatever happens, not even the stage, it goes back to rehearsal — that moment. ‘Cause that’s when there’s nobody there. There’s no press. There’s no photographers. There’s no management. There’s nothing. It’s just the same four guys.”
A year and a half ago, Sixx said that MÖTLEY CRÜE‘s 2019 biopic “The Dirt” sparked a renewed interest from younger fans who wanted to see the band live, contributing to the group’s decision to renege on its infamous “cessation of touring” contract.
After vowing in 2015 never to play together again, CRÜE announced in December 2019 that they would be touring with fellow hard rock veterans DEF LEPPARD and POISON.
“The Stadium Tour” was originally scheduled to take place last summer but ended up being pushed back to 2021, and then to 2022, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Sixx‘s new memoir, “The First 21: How I Became Nikki Sixx”, will be released on October 19 via Hachette Books.
