Spinner

Nikki Sixx Urges Industry to 'Make Music, Not Coffins'

In the debut of Spinner's Shout It Out Loud column -- a feature in which we invite musicians to climb atop their proverbial soap boxes -- Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx takes on the industry that both made and broke him, helping his band sell more than 45 million albums worldwide, while simultaneously feeding -- or, at best, ignoring -- his destructive drug addiction. Sixx, six years sober, details his harrowing struggle in his forthcoming memoir, 'The Heroin Diaries,' due Sept. 18.

So, you're sitting there with a new guitar and a dream. Maybe your favorite band's music and a poster on your bedroom wall. You practice and practice, and your friends want to know why you don't want to hang out all the time anymore. But you stay locked in your bedroom, and practice. You say, "I'm learning something new." You dive into music with a passion you've never felt before, and nobody understands. You tell everybody your dream and they laugh and say, "C'mon. Forget that. You know it will never happen." But you know in your heart that it will. You're gonna make it to the top. Music will be your life, and you will breathe new life into music for all the world to hear. You have no doubt that you're on your way.

Then one day you wake up and your dream has come true. You roll over in bed and your head is no longer full of excitement, wonderment and passion. It's clouded with dread, 'cause you can't get outta bed without that hit, a toke or a drink. The crowd from the sold-out show is still ringing in your ears, but you don't really care anymore. It hurts ... it hurts so bad you have to do it again and again. You're not a dreamer anymore -- you're an addict. And so the story goes ... This isn't a new story, or refreshing at all. So why do I rant? Well, to be honest ... it's not that, but it's this that I want to talk about.

The music industry is a business. We all agree, and I am the first to tell you, I'm a business man. I have a family to support and bills to pay. I'm not unique in that way, but in any other profession your business partners, the executives, the wives, girlfriends and co-workers would not leave you to die, or worse, enable you to continue on being an addict. So why in the business of music?

Well, let's see ...

Maybe the record companies, managers, agents and hanger-ons don't want the money to stop? They say things like, "It's OK, 'cause he's in a band. It's OK, it's just a car crash, it's just a hotel room, it's just cocaine, it's just a few too many drinks. Don't ruffle his (or her) feathers ... everything's gonna work out. We can't cancel the tour, the TV show. We have a deadline for the album." Or worse, they say nothing.

Well, you know what? People die from this shit and record sales go up. Oh, wait, there's a good motive. It's a business after all. Cruel, sad and true. I've seen it, I lived it. So why bring it up? Well, to be honest, it's not humane to pussyfoot around this pink elephant that's dying in the middle of the room.

In our song 'Life is Beautiful,' we sing, "It took a funeral to make me feel alive." I think we need to stop enabling artists before the blood hits the floor for humans' sake, not for gross ticket sales' sake and not for commissions, but because we care. Think of the lives that might have been saved if someone stood and said to the artist in a downward spiral, "I won't manage you or release your albums unless you get help. I love you too much to watch you die." End of story. Walk away, and stop turning a blind eye. There are those in this business who do that, but there are far too many who don't. Enabling someone is the same as killing them -- it's just the dull side of the blade and it's a slower, more painful death for everybody involved.

Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Keith Moon, Kurt Cobain ... Oh, God, the list goes on and on, and it will continue to grow (and grow). I was on that list and now I'm off. So, if I have just one thing to say to another artist, it's remember that dream. And if I have one thing to tell the music business, it's to stop kissing the addicts' asses. Get some balls and find your hearts. Stand up for artists and not for money. Let's make music, not coffins.

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24 Comments

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tawny

My mom is a big fan.We love your music.My mom says she will be a dork if she sees you.I just want to see you and your bands I was thinking Thursday please.My moms coming so by Nikki Sixx.
BY:
Tawny

October 30 2007 at 1:15 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Anthony

Iv'e been a Motley Crue fan since 1982. I am 30 now and I'm still a CRUE! Fan! And will always be a CRUE! fan till I DIE!

August 27 2007 at 11:37 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
shotgun cat


"I'm now a still frequently-carded 39-year-old, and though I've expanded my musical tastes quite a bit I still love metal.

And of all the musicians young and old, dead and alive, legendary and forgotten which I've been smitten with...I still have the hots for Nikki Sixx."

Love ya still, babe! ;-)

beautyandbrains at 2:12AM on Aug 27th 2007

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
HA! "frequently carded 39" my ass!

maybe she thinks "hots" means herpes?

I smell a skanky hosemonkey!

(most likely a bleached blond silicone sister)

August 27 2007 at 6:53 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
shotgun cat

N6 has never been one of my favorite people, but that list is rather sparse anyway-go figure; BUT
he addresses a viable point,and should get credit for this if nothing else. Rock is a nasty business,and it is easy to feel the backsplash of
refuse if you stand too close and don't watch your back: Facts- even your best friends can end up being your downfall: Never sign anything you don't understand: Here is a reflection on how nasty rock can be-every year Spin mag. runs a Death Pool..betting on which rocker will kick it
this year-such a nice bunch of people.The Leeches will suck you dry if you let them.Wanna make a Quick Buck? write a book about someone without their consent,make it so slanderously laughable that it would stick to the wall if you threw it: we know your names,same degree of filth
only difference is the size and shape of the game being perpetrated.Licking Vomit off a dead hamster would be more honorable than befriending some leeches and hangers-on that masquerade as part of the rock music scene.

August 27 2007 at 6:41 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Shannon

bvcbc

August 27 2007 at 4:06 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Shannon

I really believe beauty and brains thinks Nikki Sixx is going to read this and find her, (just like a fairy tale)because after all, she is a 39 yr. old (soon to be 40 AN "OVER THE HILLY HILL HILL" that still gets carded.... SURE SWEETHEART IN YOU DREAMS!!!! Just one more funny thing, to say you looked at his photo and just knew they were on their way to Heavy Metal Heaven.....OMG smoke another one you obsessed FREAK CHICK!!!! I am sure you are a fake bleach blonde with tan wrinkled skin and fake oobs-bay "THAT IS STILL LIVIN' IN THE 80'S!!! Give it up crow your wet dream has just dried up Beauty and Brains you are not!!!!!

August 27 2007 at 3:06 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Shannon

39 and still carded yeah right HAHAHAHA

August 27 2007 at 2:39 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Kate

Actually, everything Nik says is basically fact. I worked for a competing label in promotion. All that mattered was airplay/sales...very competitive. The top execs were tone deaf; we travelled around our territories, trying to promote the records that we knew which stations would be into...since we all worked in different cities, we had weekly conference calls, where basically a lot of yelling (by our bosses) went on.
Anyone remember Stevie Ray Vaughn? His record sales skyrocketed after his death. Our Rock Radio PVP made a "joke" about how "maybe we could get some friggin' airplay and sales on one of our up & ccoming artists, if while on tour his plane might crash...the worst part? He was serious. Drugs? they were everywhere. A lot of my coworkers, eventually ended up in rehab since the stress was so intense. We'd trade pills at conventions, drink too much, just to be able to "stand" being there and around our management team, who were a bunch of overpaid morons. It was the most exhausting job I ever had...the money was good, but at what expense? It was so cutthroat, it got to be unbearable...Great artists were signed to be "write offs" (meaning dropped very quickly and money spent on video's and promotion, was "written off at tax time as a loss". Very sad, I became jaded by the time I was 22. I still love music, but it took years of being out of the industry to be able to appreciate it, again.

August 27 2007 at 2:27 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
beautyandbrains

I saw a small black and white pic of Nikki in some metal mag before they got really hot, around '83-'84. All the caption said was his name, his position in the band and the band name, Motley Crue.

From that one pic alone I was hooked! I've loved rock/metal all my life yet seeing that pic was the first time I ever got really excited about a band. In fact, it was the first time I really felt something big was about to happen in the world of music; I somehow knew Motley Crue was going to be the accelerant of what would later become known as the '80s metal explosion.

As soon as my feet could carry me to the mall I went to the record store, looked up "Motley Crue" and found the rosetta stone of my ongoing love affair with metal - 'Too Fast for Love.'

And I was only 14.

I'm now a still frequently-carded 39-year-old, and though I've expanded my musical tastes quite a bit I still love metal.

And of all the musicians young and old, dead and alive, legendary and forgotten which I've been smitten with...I still have the hots for Nikki Sixx.

Love ya still, babe! ;-)

August 27 2007 at 2:12 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Shannon

I always loved Motley Crue. And I can remember when I was 16 I had the biggest crush on Nikki Sixx!!! I think he is very talented and I can't wait for his book to come out, I will be buying myself one. Well I just want to say best of luck in the future and I still adore you Nikki Sixx!!!!

August 27 2007 at 1:39 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply