MÖTLEY CRÜE's SIXX: MICK MARS And TOMMY LEE Are 'Tasting All The Fruit' On Tour

MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist Nikki Sixx recently spoke to John Serba of The Grand Rapids Press about the group's outrageously successful "Red, White, and Crüe 2005...Better Live Than Dead" tour, which is scheduled to hit Grand Rapids, MI on April 27.

"If you're spending 50 bucks to go to a concert, you take a date, and you wanna buy a T-shirt, a few beers and parking — for $150-$200, you better get your (expletive) knocked in the dirt," he said. "It's not a passive thing. It's not like sitting in a movie theater and going, 'This is an enjoyable experience.' You gotta walk out of there covered in sweat and spit."

The bassist claims 70 percent of MÖTLEY's audience is too young to remember the band's MTV and commercial radio dominance. In that context, the CRÜE members are elder statesmen of rock excess, the leather-clad professors of rock-show bombast.

"We're educating them on decadence ... on what rock 'n' roll truly is supposed to be," he said.

The band plans to write and record a new album after its extensive world tour wraps up by the end of 2005. But is he worried the songwriting will suffer, what with the band members actually seeing eye-to-eye these days?

"Oh, we can go to the vaults," he said. "We've got some (expletive) stored up. Let's just say all the baggage wasn't left at the door."

Addressing the topic made Sixx's tone of voice sway from serious to silly without notice.

"For me, there's no baggage with the guys. I've always been the good one," he said, laughing. "You talk to the other guys, they'll say, 'Nikki's been a piece of cake for 25 years. He's never been a dictator. He never really had a drug problem.' "

He's joking, of course. Sixx recently finished work on a book, "The Heroin Diaries", a chronicle of his days as a junkie during the late '80s, when an overdose caused his heart to stop until doctors revived him.

But now, he's clean, sober and happily married to former Playboy playmate and "Baywatch" actress Donna D'Errico.

For those reasons, he's shying away from any extracurricular shenanigans on tour.

"I'm actually behaving myself," he said, his grin coming through in his voice. "Mick is single, and Tommy is single, and they're tasting all the fruit. I'm endorsing it highly. Me, I'm sort of like Charlie on 'Charlie's Angels'. I'm the designated driver."