Nikki Sixx Says His Path to Fame Was ‘Not the Smartest Idea’
Nikki Sixx said the way he set out to follow his dream was “not the smartest idea,” but that he’d do it again anyway if he had to.
The bassist arrived in Los Angeles on a Greyhound bus in the ‘70s, working countless low-paying jobs while he assembled the band that would become Motley Crue.
In a recent interview with Marci Wiser of KLOS-FM, Sixx recalled: “Listen, I didn't have the best support system with a mom and a dad. My grandparents did the best they could. […] I’m quite surprised that I got out, that I survived." He continued: “It’s nothing that I recommend, getting dumped on the corner of Hollywood and Vine with a dream — people are a little smarter now. It was a different time. I had a different upbringing, and in the end […] I guess if I was to say, ‘Would I do it again?’ Of course I would say, ‘Yes’ — but it's probably not the smartest idea.”
Reflecting on changes in the music world, he argued in favor of putting bands together in the traditional manner. “I can't even imagine trying to carve out a niche in the laptop world right now,” he said. “Everyone is just making records on laptops. I mean, we would rehearse like 10 hours a day, and we lived for it. We woke up and just went straight to rehearsal; that's all we all did — we rehearsed. [...] Human interaction, imagine that!”
He added: “[I]f you want to be a great football player, you got to go out there and take your licks. You gotta get out on the field; you gotta learn from your mistakes, and it's the same thing being in a band. I’m happy that that's coming back because that's been some of the most exciting times of my life. […] I love rehearsal, like, 'How can we get better?’”