STEVEN ADLER Sets Record Straight Regarding Inspiration For MÖTLEY CRÜE's 'Kickstart My Heart'

Steven Adler has disputed Nikki Sixx's version of the events that inspired the lyrics for the classic MÖTLEY CRÜE song "Kickstart My Heart".

Sixx has long claimed that he wrote "Kickstart" about one night in 1987 when he took so much heroin that his heart stopped and an EMT pronounced him dead, before two shots of adrenaline right into his heart woke him back up.

Recorded for CRÜE's 1989 album "Dr. Feelgood", "Kickstart My Heart" only reached No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100, but it is widely seen as one of the group's greatest songs.

Adler discussed the inspiration for the "Kickstart" lyrics while speaking to the Triple M radio station about his upcoming Australian tour.

Asked if he can shed any light on former GUNS N' ROSES manager Doug Goldstein's claim in a recent interview that CRÜE ripped off the riff for the "Dr. Feelgood" title track from GUNS N' ROSES, the former GN'R drummer said: "None whatsoever. Nikki is a genius. He is one step ahead of everybody. But he didn't steal nothing from nobody. He's a freaking genius.

"I was hanging out with him and John 5 [ROB ZOMBIE] last Thanksgiving, and I'm telling you, he is the sharpest person I've ever and just the greatest guy," he continued. "I mean, he ruled the '80s; he ran the '80s. Everything that he did, every band did after he did it."

Adler added: "The only thing of 'Dr. Feelgood', that 'Kickstart My Heart' song, he wrote it about the paramedics took that syringe and did that 'Pulp Fiction' thing to him. But they didn't do that; they didn't do that. I dragged him into the shower with a broken hand and a cast on my hand, I rolled him in, I put the cold water on him in the shower and I started slapping him in the face with my cast. And next thing you know, the purple in his face just disappeared. And then right then, the paramedics came in and they grabbed him out of the shower like a rag doll, dropped him in the living room and they just pumped his chest with their hands. And that was it. But he got a hell of a good song out of it. It is entertainment, after all."

Sixx, who detailed his near-fatal drug addiction in the best-selling book "The Heroin Diaries", recently penned a powerful op-ed for the Los Angeles Times arguing for better policies to end the scourge of opioid addiction in America.

The 59-year-old Sixx struggled with substance abuse for years. He has since become actively involved in a recovery "program," which he credits with helping him transform his life and relationships.