Sixx's Perspective: Nikki Sixx, 'This Is Gonna Hurt: Music, Photography, and Life Through the Distor
The text features motivational sections. What kind of feedback have you received from fans?
It’s been really wonderful to see kids at the book signings crying, parents saying thank you, saying between this book and “The Heroin Diaries,” they feel like they can do more with their lives. It inspires me every day to get up and do better.
You express love for Motley Crue, but you also voice some criticisms.
I don’t feel I crossed any lines that, as a fan, I’d be upset with. Sammy Hagar wrote a [critical] book [“Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock"], and, honestly, I’m very disappointed in Sammy, and it bums me out to even want to hear Van Halen. I’m a positive fan, and I have a hard time listening to Van Halen with Sammy Hagar singing now.
But the closing quote about Motley in the chapter about how you helped guitarist Mick Mars recover from pain-pill addiction is heavy: “They hadn’t visited him at all. This band runs on rock ‘n’ roll, but sometimes I wonder if there is any soul in it.”
It’s true, though. We’re trying to get better. We’re very dysfunctional.
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For all the stories about rock and recovery, it’s your sister Lisa who defines and haunts this book.
Yes. I came to that revelation sitting in my [photo] studio writing this book. I looked up [at the props] and it was like everything was in slow motion: I looked at the wheelchair, the little children’s polio legs, the 1800s medical stuff, the children mannequins — and I said, “Oh, my God, this is all about her.” It was freeing moment but also one of the scariest and most painful moments. I looked around the room and thought, “I’ve been trying to resurrect my sister.”
Photographer’s Motley Subjects
The photos in Nikki Sixx‘s “This Is Gonna Hurt” include scenes from international travel, staged grotesques, moody portraits and real-world seediness.
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Photos courtesy Harper Collins
Video courtesy ThisIsGonnaHurt2011
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