Joann Butler: 45th anniversary of the band. Nikki Sixx: It's crazy. I never saw this coming, you know? Joann Butler: Tell us about this tour.
Nikki Sixx: The band's so tight right now, because we just rehearsed our ass off. Joann Butler: Do you have a favorite song to play live? Nikki Sixx: It kind of changes all the time. "Kickstart My Heart," being about when I had a heroin overdose and was brought back to life.
The songs have outgrown the lyrics. When you hear the song on a football game, at kickoff, they're not thinking about what the song's about. They're thinking about what the energy brings. Joann Butler: What does music do for people?
Nikki Sixx: I see people smiling and screaming and singing every word. I think music does something different to everybody because we're all different. You are watching Joann Butler In Studio With… me, Nikki Sixx from Mötley Crüe. Joann Butler: Nikki Sixx in the house.
Woohoo. Thanks for joining us on LifeMinute. Nikki Sixx: Thank you. Joann Butler: 45th anniversary of the band.
Completely insane. Did you ever imagine that? Nikki Sixx: No. No.
I remember after ten, nine years, I remember thinking, "Wow, it's been a real “Decade of Decadence." And that, we ended up recording the song "Primal Scream," and I think we did the Sex Pistols cover on there, and another song called "Angela." We put that album out while we were working on the follow-up to Dr. Feelgood. So I was like, ten years, you know, when I was growing up, like a lot of my heroes, like, they only had like a four to six-year window. Joann Butler: Right.
Nikki Sixx: Like right in, like even bands like Aerosmith. They're my favorite band of all time, they came out, I know everything about Aerosmith, probably too much. And they came out and they, those first five albums, and then they just kind of crashed and burned. And Joe Perry left, and they had different, and it went through that whole weird thing.
And then they came back with, with Run-D.M.C. and "Walk This Way," and it was, it was awesome, but they had a short window. And so we look at a lot of the bands out there, there's not a lot that have been around 20 years. Joann Butler: So true. Nikki Sixx: Much less 30 years, much 40, and now 45, and I don't know, man.
It's crazy. I never saw this coming, you know? I kinda was like, I remember I saw the Stones, and they might have been in their 40s, and I was like, "Damn, these guys are old, man." And now I'm in my 60s. I'm sure there's someone in the audience going…
Joann Butler: You don’t look it. Nikki Sixx: "How long till this guy drops? He just keeps going, they don't stop." Joann Butler: I know. It certainly doesn't feel that long.
It just gets better and better. Nikki Sixx: You know, to be creative and stay creative and, not just in music but in other things that I do, is very exciting. That's why I'm on this planet, I think, is to try to make up for the fact that my dad wasn't there for me, and I'm able to be there for my kids. I have five kids.
And to stay creative in anything I do and be open to all these like, fun opportunities, and being in Mötley Crüe, and having other bands and radio shows, it's been such a creative, fun journey for as long as I can remember, all the way back to being a kid. So, I'm very grateful to sit here today. Joann Butler: Well, we're grateful to have you. So, tell us about this tour.
It runs through September 26. Looks incredible. What are fans gonna get when they see you guys play live? Nikki Sixx: Well, you know, I wasn't even really aware that it had been 20 years since Carnival of Sins.
My manager brought it up to me and was like, "It's been 20 years." And we kind of started talking about what is different than 20 years ago. And what's really different is technology. And a lot of stuff that we can do with technology mixed with lighting and a performance that is based around a lot of technology and being able to really push the envelope there. So, it was a lot to put together, but actually an easier tour to do because we're not hauling around, you know, tons and tons of extra performers and stuff.
We have four girls that do background vocals. They do burlesque, they do all kinds of fun stuff. So, we mix that in with what we do, and a little bit of pyro. And we're playing songs we haven't played in, I don't know, 30 years at least.
And that was a lot of fun. And that happened because we kept having the same band argument, which is one guy wants to play this song and another guy, then we look at the setlist and we realize, you know, the same 20, or some version of the same 20 top 10 hit singles, and we were like, it's weird, but we're going to have to start dropping singles. And so we put "Take Me to the Top" in there, which 150 million people saw The Dirt movie, and that was the main song in the movie, and we took "S.O.S. (Same Old Situation)" out, which was a top 10 hit single off the Dr.
Feelgood album. And then, you know, we added "Too Young to Fall in Love," so we ended up losing "Don't Go Away Mad.” And so, it was this weird feeling of like, letting go of something we know is become common of our shows. Joann Butler: Right. Nikki Sixx: But bringing in stuff that fans voted online.
So, we literally listened to the fans. I'm seeing, fans are saying this is their favorite setlist they've heard in a decade or so. It feels like everything is falling in place. Joann Butler: Right.
That's so cool. Do you have a favorite song to play live? Nikki Sixx: You know, I guess it kind of changes all the time. I mean, it's been really nice playing "Take Me to the Top" and "Too Young to Fall in Love" and "Red Hot" off the second record.
And people don't even know what a lot of those songs are about, they weren't born. "Louder Than Hell" off our third record. Some of the lyrics are really get down in the dirt, mixed with Bukowski, mixed with lifestyle. It's fun to dig into some of that old stuff that's not so, you know, even "Dr.
Feelgood" is a pretty hefty story about a drug dealer named Dr. Feelgood, and around the fact that, you know, it was the time the band got sober. "Kickstart My Heart," you know, being about when I, you know, had a heroin overdose and was brought back to life. Those are pretty, but the songs have become, have outgrown the lyrics.
So when you're watching a football game and you hear "Kickstart My Heart" on a kickoff, they're not thinking about what the song's about. They're thinking about what the energy brings, and the energy of some of these older songs. Like, I'm sitting there looking at it as a lyricist and a songwriter, but they're looking at it as a, "This was my older brother's favorite song," or "This is the song that I discovered Mötley Crüe because I'd never seen Mötley Crüe and I saw their movie," like "Take Me to the Top." So it's, it’s a lot of like, newness yet old-school familiarity. Band's so tight right now, too, because we just, we just rehearsed our ass off.
We had a very short window of rehearsal. So what we like to do is run the show twice, and, which is what we used to do in the old days. So we come in early, we run the show top to bottom with no lead vocals, so it's just about stamina and intensity and dynamics. Then Vince comes in, we run the show again.
So that's three hours of playing, six days a week. And then we had two weeks of that. And when we landed on stage, we were like, really tight. A lot of these old songs came together really fast, like "Take Me to the Top" came like one take and we were like, "Oh, okay.
We got it." Joann Butler: That's so cool. Nikki Sixx: Like the hardest song I think to play is a song called "Afraid" off the Generation Swine album. It's a departure melodically and it's a tempo shift. And it's one of my favorite songs to play live and it, it again is something really fresh and different.
I've had people I’ve seen online who are like, "I never even heard that song 'Afraid' and it's like now my new favorite song." So it's been a good experience. Joann Butler: Are you doing that one on this tour? Nikki Sixx: We are doing "Afraid." Yes. Joann Butler: All right.
What about out of all the albums you made, do you have a favorite or a favorite song? Nikki Sixx: I mean, you know, they all mean something different to me. I was at different places at different times in my life. You know, writing a song like "Knock 'Em Dead, Kid," after I'd, you know, got in a fight with the police on Sunset Boulevard and ended up in jail, is something that I needed to do at the time.
You know, I was in revenge mode. I was in my 20s and full of piss and vinegar. And you know, yet by the time we moved over to Theatre of Pain, the band had been on the road for so many years opening for Ozzy mostly. We got an opportunity to like, with "Home Sweet Home" to do some different kind of half-time things, like a song called "Save Our Souls." So, that's like a departure from Shout at the Devil, which was a departure from Too Fast.
And it's just, it’s a constant evolution. We never quite know where we're going. When opportunity strikes, something comes up. I honestly, you know, I know fans don't want to hear this, but I don't believe in making full-length records anymore at this time on the planet for me.
Joann Butler: Right. Nikki Sixx: The amount of work that goes into, if you're doing 10 songs on a record, you got to write 20, right? And you better hope five of them are stellar. It's a lot of lyrics, a lot of notes, a lot of chord changes, a lot, a lot of time in the studio, which is all fine.
That's what we do. We work hard. But what I don't like is that when people hear one song and you recorded 10. Joann Butler: Right.
Nikki Sixx: Or you recorded 20, and then 10 of them were demos, and 10 was an album, they only hear one. Radio's changed. Streaming is changing and evolving as we go. So, I'm really into the idea of lightning strikes.
Something comes down, I call the guys, "I got this song. It's just sitting on the tip of my tongue right now.” I told Tommy about it a year ago. I just told my friend and he goes, "You told me to write a song called that 25 years ago." And I go, "Okay, I'm going to finish the song and then show it to the band." But it's, it’s like having a song and a whole team behind a song and being able to get the fans to really understand what the song is about. It's just not something that they just pass by or they go to the new Mötley Crüe album and they only listen to one song.
So I love the idea of like, we did The Dirt, we did five songs from The Dirt, we did three songs on this EP we just did. I mean, that's already a full-length record. So, I think we're just going to keep going. Like, whenever something comes up, you feel something, heartbreak, joy, rebellion, let's write a song about it and let's go cut it, you know, in the studio.
Joann Butler: I love that. That's awesome. One of my favorite songs of all time, "Looks That Kill." Not just a Mötley song, but of all time. And psyched to see it's going to be part of a limited-edition vinyl.
Nikki Sixx: Yes. Joann Butler: Tell us about that. Nikki Sixx: Well, BMG's been doing such a great job with us, and that, you know, it's like creating something, well you said it's your favorite song. And so a lot of people love that song, and to create a limited-edition version of that is super special for the fans.
That's like really what we're trying to do, is create unique things for the fans that they can add to their collection along the way. Joann Butler: And what about the dollar per ticket for ASAP? Tell us about that, too. Nikki Sixx: You know, I was growing up in, when I was in Seattle, I remember hearing that they may not be able to keep the music program going because they couldn't afford, and I was just a kid in high school, and I wasn't actually really going to the music program.
I was like playing in my friend's basement, like trying to learn "Smoke on the Water" and, you know, just being a garage band. But it bummed me out because I saw a lot of kids, musicians that had dreams, that didn't really know what to do with it, whether it's classical music. And the same thing in the arts program. Me being a creative, I believe that, you know, music and art and animation and scores and wardrobe and live, it all goes together.
So, in a lot of cases, there's not enough money to be able to support these kids. And so, the after-school arts program is something that's very important to me and to the band. We are giving a dollar a ticket away at our shows. We just did a great thing with Covenant House that, I built a music program at Covenant House from the proceeds from my book, The Heroin Diaries, which is about recovery.
So, I talked to the band. We decided to do three club shows in LA. It was called The Hollywood Takeover. And we donated not just the money from the tickets, because they were clubs, but like auctioned off like all the instruments, the stage clothes.
We did a lot of like high-end meet and greets, dinner with the band. You know, we talked to a lot of big companies, we said, "You're coming in. You're coming in. It's $25,000 a table because we need to do this for the kids." And we were able to give $400,000 to Covenant House, and we're hoping to give another $400,000 from ASAP from this tour.
And it's just part of our initiative as a band. You know, we are very lucky. We've had a long career. We've been able to take care of our kids, make sure our kids can get the best.
How can we help other people take care of their kids? Joann Butler: I love that. So good. So good.
And the limited-edition box set? Nikki Sixx: I mean, it's so cool. Again, BMG, they're so great to work with. We just have a really clear understanding together of what Mötley Crüe is or is not.
So, they're not like taking our catalog and trying to polish it up to turn it into something that it's not. They're able to say, "What was this album about?" And "We want to do a box set about this, Too Fast for Love or Shout at the Devil or Dr. Feelgood." How do we make that something that the fans have to have? They've got to put it on their bookshelf.
And that's, you know, the new box set, what it’s all about. Joann Butler: Cool. What's the first vinyl record you ever bought or got as a gift? Nikki Sixx: I remember very young, my mom was bouncing around a lot.
We somehow ended up in some people's house in the Hollywood Hills, and this kid that, my mom was friends with the other mom and they had a little boy, he had a record player that when you put the lid down, the needle was built into the lid. And he had 45s, which for years was my favorite number because of 45s like that, I remember for years, people would say, "What's your favorite number?" I'd say “45.” I traced it back. Well, he had all these singles by the Chipmunks. And I didn't know anything about business or licensing, but all the Chipmunks are playing all these like Beatles songs, Rolling Stones songs, they were all licenses.
And it was the Chipmunks, it was like, it was a cartoon show at the same time. So, I remember listening to this music coming out of this little thing. And that was like some of the earlier times, and radio obviously had a huge impact on me because that was the only way that I could get music, was from my grandmother's AM radio. I just remember sitting by this thing and just listening to the DJs talk about the music and then hearing the music actually was very influential in me having my ten-year run as a, with a radio show.
Joann Butler: I love it. What does music do for people? Nikki Sixx: I see people cry. I see people get in fights.
I see people get naked. I see people smiling and screaming and singing every word. I think music does something different to everybody because we're all different. Joann Butler: I love it.
Nikki Sixx: You know, and you could see Mötley Crüe on a Monday and have a whole different emotional experience than you would two Mondays from then. You know, you might be going through something different. You might need Mötley Crüe as a way, or rock and roll as a way to break out, just get out of your rut. You know, we really feel that since we were kids that, you know, people are out there and they're working their ass off.
And you know, I don't care if you're Democrat, Republican, straight, gay, none of it matters when you come to a Mötley Crüe show. What matters is we're all there for the same reason, and that's just to enjoy and express our joy for music. Whether it's us or any other band, I don't care, but we just think it's kind of something that's very important to people. Joann Butler: So good Nikki.
Thank you so much. You're so cool. You're awesome. Have a great show tonight.
