Interviews

 

Motley Crue

 

Having smoked, drunk, injected and fucked their way through life, Motley Crue continue to defy expectations with their new album, Saints Of Los Angeles. Bassist Nikki Sixx talks to ROD YATES.

 

The only way Nikki Sixx could sound more tired is if he started snoring. Sitting in a hotel room in Jones Beach, “somewhere on the east coast” of America, he punctuates his answers with stifled yawns, breaking off the interview at one point to request a coffee “with milk” from his assistant. You can’t help but think that, once upon a time, it would have been a Jack “with ice”, but those days are, if we’re to believe him, long gone. And while it would be tempting to blame Sixx’s lethargy on a heavy partying schedule, in reality it’s got more to do with the double duty he’s pulling on the Crue Fest juggernaut, playing first with his side project SIXX: AM, followed by a headlining set with Motley Crue. Indeed in 45 minutes’ time he’ll be changing into his Motley stage clothes; but for now, it’s all about staying awake long enough to get through this interview – no mean feat for a man who claims to log only two to five hours’ sleep a night.

 

“I really have a difficult time sleeping,” he motions.

 

The Crue Fest has been launched to coincide with the release of Motley Crue’s latest album, Saints Of Los Angeles, their first since the original line-up of Sixx, Mick Mars, Tommy Lee and Vince Neil reunited in 2004, and ninth overall. A package bill intended to rival Ozzfest as the American heavy rock fan’s summer festival of choice, it also features Trapt, Buckcherry and Papa Roach, and sends out a very clear message: leave the nostalgia package-bill tours to Poison, Dokken and Whitesnake – Motley Crue are all about the here and now.

 

“Well,” considers Sixx, “we’ve never been associated with any of those other bands. We never really felt that the Rolling Stones only toured with ’70s and ’60s bands, or that Kiss only toured with ’70s bands and that Motley Crue only toured with ’80s bands. That’s just so tired when people do that.

 

“The only people who ever try to pigeonhole us are the press,” he adds. “Our fans have always said, ‘Well, Motley Crue’s a moving target and if we don’t keep our eye on it we never know what it’s gonna be.’ So for us it’s just natural instinct.”
Equally instinctive was the band’s decision to make their new album into something of a concept piece, based on their tell-all biography The Dirt. Cynics might suggest it was simply a calculated decision to milk the lifeline the book afforded the band, but Sixx claims deeper motivation.

 

“After the lyrics on The Heroin Diaries [SIXX:AM’s debut album, based on Sixx’s book of the same name], it was apparent to me as a writer that I didn’t want to just write single pieces of music, I wanted to have the challenge of somehow tying them all together. I mean, it’s definitely more work than just writing individual songs cos you have to think forward and backwards at the same time, and I’ve really enjoyed it as a writer, it’s exciting.”

 

That excitement shines through on SOLA, the original line-up’s strongest album since 1989’s Dr Feelgood. Infested with a trademark dose of sleaze and dripping with tales of hard living – sample lyrics: “Girl’s passed out naked in the back lounge/Everybody’s gonna score” – it concludes on a defiant note with Goin’ Out Swingin’, a rapid fire punch that boasts of a band united against the world. Given the in-fighting and rifts that have dominated their post-Feelgood career, you can’t help but wonder whether it relates to the Crue of today, or what they once were.

 

“I think we are who we are,” responds Sixx. “Fortunately or unfortunately, there’s no way of getting around that. I think we’ll be that way forever, it’s who we are as human beings, we have that fighting spirit.”
What is the feeling in the band at the moment?

 

“Fine.”

 

How would you sum up the relationship between the four of you?

 

“I don’t know, it’s just a rock band. People are always doing that, going, ‘What’s it like?’ And we’re like, ‘I don’t know! We’re just four guys in a band!’”

 

Four guys, that is, who just happen to be riding a wave of renewed interest, with Saints Of Los Angeles debuting in the Top 5 in America.

 

“All [popular modern] music is so processed,” considers Sixx. “The consumer is so used to processed meat, so to speak, they don’t even know what the real thing tastes like anymore. So when people bite down and they go for something that’s organically natural rock’n’roll, it’ a good feeling, y’know?”

 

With Motley’s stage time approaching, Sixx motions that he’ll need to be leaving shortly to get ready. It’s a ritual he’s performed thousands of times over the years, one that his children now get an opportunity to witness when they join him on the road for their regular visits. Mention this to him and his voice immediately warms, and he chuckles when asked whether he thinks his children will follow him into the world of rock’n’roll.

 

“I don’t think so. I think my kids are too smart for that. And they also know how much I absolutely dislike touring besides the time I’m on stage, it’s absolutely painful for me to be away from home. It’s anti-climatic, and I feel unproductive when I’m on tour. So what I’ve learned to do is take advantage of that time for doing photography and that seems to be the thing that gets me through that. It’s difficult, what are you supposed to do when you’re on tour when you’ve been touring for so long? I love my time on stage, I love the fans when I can meet them, but the waiting around is quite painful, and I think my kids see that.”

 

Not that this is going to keep him from bringing the Crue to Australia again.

 

“I’m hearing something about October,” he offers. “I had a great time when I was there [in 2005]. Australian people are so kind and the rock audiences are great.”

 

 

 

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