NIKKI SIXX: 'I'm Proud I've Been Able To Achieve What I've Been Able To Achieve In My Life'

Adam Williams of PopMatters recently conducted an interview with MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist Nikki Sixx. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

PopMatters: How challenging was it to open up to outsiders an extremely personal and painful time in your life?

Nikki Sixx: In 1985, I wrote a song called "Home Sweet Home"; it says my heart is like an open book, for the whole world to read. I've always lived like that — sometimes brutally honest. So this feels natural to me, to just throw it out there. I'm not ashamed; I'm actually proud that I've been able to achieve what I've been able to achieve in my life, and I look at the mistakes that I've made, and I've learned from them.

If you make a mistake and don't learn from it, it's not a good thing. But if you can learn from it, it's a good thing, and the energy from that with James, DJ, and me allowed us complete creative freedom: No boundaries, no rules; just being honest musically. When you hear the soundtrack, you'll hear so many different styles. It's a body of work. The album is almost epic-like, but you can break it down to singles that can be played for people, and then you can listen to the whole thing together and it really does tie into the book.

PopMatters: Reliving what you went through, as almost a cathartic exercise in dealing with past demons, how do you avoid the potential cliché of "just say no?"

Nikki Sixx: To me, it's very simple. It's lead by example, and that accidents happen, mistakes happen, and you pick yourself up and move forward. I'm not a person that beats people over the head with a message. My message is, this is my life and all I'm trying to do is lead by example for somebody that it can be helpful for. If it's not helpful for you, then that's fine. I want people to do what they want to do in their life. I've always been very free like that. I don't want to beat people up at all.

PopMatters: After the recent hard-charging two-year run with Mötley, was it difficult to shift gears and be so passionate about this?

Nikki Sixx: No, not so much. The hardest part was going through a divorce and being able to focus on my children and this book, and being able to make sure the message was clear and say that even in the worst of my times now, I don't have to revisit those places.

PopMatters: You have a built-in marketing niche with the MÖTLEY fan base. In crafting this, how did you look toward expanding beyond that and hitting a much wider base?

Nikki Sixx: Well, I mean I think if it's good, it spreads organically, and that's what we're finding with this song. It's spreading organically. Partners are coming in that want to be involved. It's not part of a marketing plan where they're like, you know, this is what you'll do and this is what you'll do. They're coming in saying this is what we want to do, and this is how we are going to help get this out there.

Read the entire interview at www.popmatters.com.