Nikki Sixx

Nikki Sixx on "58"

May 12, 2000 - Every hard rock fan knows Nikki Sixx, bassist, songwriter, and leader of Motley Crüe. The Crüe have been the reigning bad boys of American metal for two decades, and their escapades have been documented many times over; in fact, for a while it seemed like Sixx had been personally elected the ex-junkie posterboy of VH1, delivering his deadpan confessional about waking up with a needle dangling from his blood-crusted arm in the Crüe Behind The Music advert that ran around the clock.

While many VH1 viewers may only think of Sixx as the rock 'n' roll junkie who cleaned up his act, few probably realize how the musician has transformed from druggy deceiver to over-achiever. Today, Sixx has four kids, a new record label imprint called Americoma, the Outlaw U.S.A. clothing line, and a broadband Internet channel he's preparing to launch with his partner in that venture, Motley Crüe vocalist Vince Neil. And if that weren't enough, Sixx is also involved in a new musical project--a band, if you will--going by the numerical handle 58.

Not to worry, Crüeheads, Motley have a new album slated for summer 2000, New Tattoo, which Sixx casually describes as "raw, in-your-face guitars, really big rhythm parts for the drums, super-sexist and drug-related lyrics. It's not brain surgery." The Crüe will hit the road all summer along with Megadeth and Anthrax, so there's plenty of metal for everybody. In the meantime, though, Sixx's newest project, 58, is releasing Diet For A New America in the spring.

58 is the result of casual recording sessions between Sixx and his former father-in-law, David Darling. The number is short for 1958, the year both Sixx and Darling exited the womb and entered the world. So, though both gentlemen are the same age, they share family ties that might confuse even Bill Wyman. Nikki's ex-wife is David Darling's wife's daughter. Say that fast three times and continue reading.

Nikki and David were hanging out one day and playing each other bits they were working on, when, to their surprise, the combination of one of Darling's hip-hop beats and Sixx's acoustic glam songs made for an enticing hybrid. Recalls Nikki, "Dave goes, 'Wow, that's really f--ked-up, you hear how that sounds together?' 'Yeah, it's really horrible, huh?' And we just kind of rolled tape." The result became "Song To Slit Your Wrists By." A similar approach was applied when deciding who would tackle which part in any given arrangement.

"I was playing him this song, 'Stormy,' about my daughter," says Nikki. "He goes, 'Wow, that's cool. Hey, let's record it.' I said, 'Well, okay, you sing it, here's the melody line.' He said, 'No, you sing it.' I said, 'No, I don't sing.' So he said, 'Okay, we've got to flip a coin over who sings it, then,' and I lost, so I had to sing it. We started flipping coins over everything. Flip a coin over who has to play the bass, who has to write the lyrics. So then we got to the point where we didn't even write lyrics, we just made them up on the spot. I still to this day don't know any of the lyrics."

Darling, who was the guitarist and vocalist in Boxing Gandhis, became 58's de facto producer. He had previously left the performance end of music for production, and had helmed Meredith Brooks's 1999 album, Deconstruction. He and Nikki began casually recording, and eventually some discs made it to fans who passed the music around, while Sixx made a few tracks available at www.motley.com. Soon the word was out and listeners wanted more. "It was more of a demand thing," confirms Sixx. "It was truly an artistic adventure, or misadventure. It wasn't like some marketing plan of 'We'll get Nikki Sixx of Motley Crüe and this crazy funk, R&B producer guy, and we'll get them together, and we'll get this demographic of people...' We were like, 'Whatever.'"

After the word spread and it became unavoidable that 58's Diet would become a proper release (on Sixx's Americoma label, through Beyond Records, distributed by BMG), Darling and Sixx toyed with the idea of fleshing their little monster out into a functioning band. "I said, 'Well, maybe we should form a band, then if we want to tour, we can tour on the Internet. In fact, let's only be available on the Internet.' So that's where we sit. It's funny, because we're getting all of this feedback from radio, where they're going, 'This could be a top 10 single.' So I call up Dave and go, 'Did you hear that?' He's like, 'Oh man, I'm going to Australia for two months. I don't want a top 10 hit.' And no one believes us! Everyone thinks we're really trying to make this thing successful."

The duo became a quartet towards the completion of Diet, as Darling brought in session drummer Bucket Baker to humanize the beats, and Steve Gibb joined on vocals and guitar. Gibb is no stranger to the family rock set-up: his dad is none other than Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees. These guys play on 58's closing medley, a cover of Gilbert O'Sullivan's early-'70s warhorse "Alone Again (Naturally)" that rolls into the 58 original "Who We Are."

However, a full-band 58 lineup does not guarantee that there will be live shows. We most likely will never even see 58 at a local club doing a one-off. The fact is, as compelling as 58's crazy, catchy blend of classic rock, acoustic country-blues, hip-hop, and R&B might be, for Sixx, home is still Motley Crüe. He makes it clear that, above all else, there will be no 58 tour. "The concept of playing live--I have Motley Crüe, we play to 25,000 to 45,000 people a night. We have 20 years of hit songs, this amazing chemistry amongst us. Do I want to go build another band from the ground up? My ego doesn't need it, my bank account doesn't need it, and my artistic side says that's not even the artistic side of it. The artistic side is making the music, so I'll just stay making the music."

In fact, Sixx sees what could be labeled the Solo Project Syndrome as laughable. "There's these artists that go and form other bands, and it's so important to them that it actually breaks up their [original] bands, or they quit, and they go off and do their club tours. It's really not what we want to do, we're really happy doing what we do."

It would seem Nikki could easily be referring to his former partner, ex-Motley drummer Tommy Lee, who jumped ship to play the metallic hip-hop of his two-man computer-based project, Methods Of Mayhem. "When Tommy put his record out, so many Motley fans hated it," Nikki claims. "I would put that down to how it was done. With 58, I'm not saying Motley's over, or rock is dead, or something that insults the fans. I just say, 'Yeah, I'm doing this thing. If you want to check it out, that's cool.' With Tommy, it was 'I'm not in Motley Crüe anymore, I'm out of the band, I don't make that kind of music anymore, I don't even talk to those guys, and I'm into what's in this week.' I think fans are a little more open-minded than they can come off to be sometimes, but no one wants to be told that what they've been listening to for 20 years is crap."

At cool as 58 might be, Motley Crüe, says Sixx, "is the mothership for me." He's looking forward to putting forth some new Crüe, same as the old Crüe. "There's something real refreshing about an AC/DC or a Motley Crüe, and they just come out and they go, 'Hey, you know what? This is what we do, and if you don't like it, f--k off, and if you do, f--k off!' Because that's what we do, and that's what you love about us." - SL_Duff Copyright© 1997-2000 LAUNCH Media, Inc.

darkone's Nikki Sixx page

The drawing above was done by darkone on February 13, 1984.

above pics from Tattoo Magazine April 1999

January 1st has been officially declared Nikki Sixx Day.

Listed below are some great Nikki Sixx sites filled with lots of amazing photos (more than I could ever hope to have here). Be sure to check them out if you love Nikki Sixx!
Sixx Seconds To Love
Motleyland's NIKKI pages
Lisa's NIKKI pages
Motley Crue + Decade of Decadence NIKKI pages
The Nikki and Donna Show
Nikki's Tattoos
If you have a cool Nikki website you'd like listed here or know of a cool one that's not listed here, please email me so I can post the link here. Thanks!

1-1-1999 "We like women of all shapes and sizes, but sometimes the fat, ugly ones are the best." -- Nikki Sixx

"We really thrive on the word 'sleazy'." -- Nikki Sixx

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