The brains and lifeblood of infamous hair-metal band Mötley Crüe, bassist Nikki Sixx possesses a full-bore intensity that’s the stuff of legend.

As the Crüe's primary lyricist and songwriter, Sixx has inspired either awe or loathing – sometimes both – polarizing musicians since he first took to the stage nearly 50 years ago.

To fans, Sixx and his Mötley bandmates – drummer Tommy Lee, guitarist Mick Mars, and vocalist Vince Neil – were performance geniuses, their Kiss-inspired outfits and zombified glam imagery scaring the hell out of parents everywhere.

To critics, he epitomized the missteps of '80s hard rock – a commoditized obsession with an over-the-top personal style, and unsurpassed debauchery.

Vince Neil sums up Nikki Sixx best in the biography, The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star: “You know the problem with Nikki Sixx? He can't do anything just a little bit. There's no middle speed for that dude – it's zero or 10. In other words, get on board, or get out of the way.”

Speaking to Bass Player in 2007, Sixx elaborated on his bass guitar style – which, admittedly, has long been overshadowed by his look, sound and antics.

“The one song that could best be dubbed as my bass style is Pray for Me, which I did with Sixx: A.M. – it's straight down the middle, just rock ’n’ roll. That’s the one song where I felt, ‘Okay, this is what I do.’”

“I love bass – a lot. But I'm a bass player in a rock band. I'm not standing in the spotlight seeing how many licks I can fit in.

“There are lots of bass players out there that just blow me away, and if I wanted to play that way, I would. But it's just not my thing – what do I want, a Bass Player of the Year Award?”

What's your biggest weakness as a bass player?

In Mötley Crüe I always used a pick. But at home, I'm a better bass player when I use my fingers – and I did on half of that Sixx: A.M. record. When I play with my fingers, something different happens: a pocket develops, but it's less aggressive. I can play with more subtlety, and I tend to play less.

Are you particular about strings and picks?

I use medium-gauge strings in whatever brand is available. The picks I use are Herco .75mm. That's important to me. When I'm in the studio, I might goof around with the EQ, but I don't like to get stuck in the details of my sound.

My friends can tell me the kind of tubes they've got in their head, and I'm like, ‘Dude, you've got to get a hobby. Trust me, no-one can tell the difference!’

You've always been involved in every aspect of your projects. Is it hard to concentrate on just being the bassist?

If you're a bass player, you're a creative person. And that means you can do everything. You can write songs and lyrics, you can design things for your band. You can be involved in everything.

Ego will tell you that you are everything. If you’re wise and in tune, you'll know you're a part of everything – in music, that's when things get really great. I always say, ‘My ego’s not my amigo.’

I see these cats that say, ‘Man, turn up my snare drum,’ or, ‘I want my guitar to shred all the way through.’ They're missing the whole point. Music is for the listener, not the musician. When it's not about the music, what are you doing?

What have you learned from working in the studio?

For me, it's all about being extremely creative without getting hung up on the little things. I prefer a rough mix to a mix that's been too thought out, and I think the first takes of a song are always the best. Jamming on ideas even when someone hits the wrong note or makes a mistake – inspires me to take the song to the next level.

What else inspires and motivates you?

More and more, it's things like photography or stream-of-consciousness writing – something will jump off the page, and I'll run over and pick up my bass. Or it'll come from a conversation I overhear at the café. I'll sit in the corner with a notepad, jotting down what people are saying or wearing. The interaction of human beings is amazing to me.

Are you driven today by something different than in the early ’80s?

What drove me then was abandon and anger. What drives me now is a thirst for quality and a desire to say something fresh – to be honest and not cliché.

Back in 1981, Mötley Crüe merged glam-rock and metal with their debut album, Too Fast For Love. “I don't know where that one came from!” laughed bassist Nikki Sixx in October 2021 when we asked him if the album title was about premature ejaculation. That set the scene for an appropriately hilarious interview about the crazy times he “enjoyed” with Mötley Crüe.

“Now I look back on it, I was really nailing my influences. I was pretty much blending early AC/DC and Aerosmith with the Buzzcocks, the Sex Pistols and all my pop influences. The shit I loved about Mott The Hoople, lyrically, and Slade – all the stuff that I thought was pretty fucking cool.”

Back then, the glam-metal wave had yet to peak, but when it did, Sixx and his bandmates Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Tommy Lee became associated with a whole slew of lesser-known hair-and-spandex bands. Was this fair?

“No, I thought it was wrong, and we fought it. I still don't appreciate that, to this day, because we were, and are, different, and we always will be.

“The thing is, we were real. It was the real deal. It was doom, gloom, destruction, girls 24 hours a day, the fastest cars, the loudest guitars, it was all the shit that makes Spinal Tap wonderful.”

“It was scary to people on the outside, and frustrating because we wouldn't do what we were told. And to be honest with you, I didn't see that in those other bands. I see them as being a fabricated version.

“Some of them did write good songs: it just wasn't real, that's all. They missed the whole point altogether, so I didn't really pay attention. From that era there's Guns N’ Roses, Mötley Crüe and Metallica. Those are the bands that stand.”

On the subject of bass guitar, Sixx explained: “Thunderbirds have been a big part of my life. I called my Gibson signature bass the Blackbird. It’s a Thunderbird with the pickups screwed directly into the wood. All the foam and everything’s taken out from behind the pickups. It's just flat black and has iron crosses in the neck. We took the volume knob off, I just have a toggle switch.”

A volume control is regarded as unnecessary, we ascertained. “Fuck that! It's on or off. Why bother? I just hit the bass really hard and overdrive it with my hand. There’s no need to have any finesse if you’re a bass player, not in my world. There's no foreplay!”

Nowadays Sixx delivers the low-end on a signature Schecter bass. “Those Schecters are something else, man. I’ll hit a note at the end of a song, and usually, on bass, you can hammer your E, wait for your drummer to come around, finish the song and the bass dissipates. The guitars will sustain and the drummer is filling up space.

“But this fucking bass, man – I could hit an E, put it in the stand, go get a cup of coffee, come back, and it’s still ringing. It allows for the specific way I play bass to really have that openness and big, round, almost piano-like sound.”

Born in San Jose, California in 1958, Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx, real name Frank Carlton Serafino Feranna, was the kid from a tough background who found redemption in playing in a great rock band. But it wasn't an easy start.

He famously stole a guitar from a music store in Seattle thinking it was a bass. It wasn't – and he was soundly ridiculed by his prospective bandmates. Having recovered, Sixx went on to buy his first real bass, a black Rickenbacker 4001.

Then came the Crüe. A rollercoaster ride with Vince Neil, Tommy Lee and Mick Mars, Mötley Crüe ruled the Sunset Strip in the early '80s, before taking their unique mix of glam-metal and punk to the rest of the world.

“I think my role in the band was to just lay in the groove,” Sixx told Bass Player. “To grind the fuck out of it and give it some real dirt.

“My intention has always been to be invisible and be part of the drums, and never really stand out. I just move things around enough to compliment what the guitars and vocals are doing. The bottom line is that it's all about the song.”

It's a selflessness that has its roots in his influences. “I loved Pete Overend Watts from Mott the Hoople and Pete Way from UFO. But I've always been influenced by the simple stuff like the bass playing on the Sex Pistol's Never Mind The Bollocks and bands like the Buzzcocks. I really don't care much for funk – too fussy, dude. I like that ratty punk sound, with some melody in there.”

Dr Feelgood, taken from the 1989 album of the same name, was one of the bands first top ten singles. In addition, the album remains their biggest seller.

The title track's 14-bar intro sets the groove for the whole tune. The most important thing to note is how Sixx never plays on the downbeat of beat one; it's always anticipated. To keep your picking hand from tripping over the swung rhythm, alternate your pick strokes, playing upstrokes on upbeats and downstrokes on downbeats.

While Sixx's bassline in the song's main riff may sound intimidating, it generally matches up with singer Vince Neil's chorus melody. Part of what gives the riff so much momentum is the E-F-F# chromatic movement in beats one and two. To play it comfortably, keep your fingers spaced out so there is one finger per fret.

During the verses Sixx always plays across the bar – that is, he holds notes across beat one. As the verse begins, he pauses during beats three and four, leaving space for drummer Tommy Lee's crushing half-closed hi-hat and snare drum hits. As the verse progresses, he fills out the line by playing eighth-notes on the G and D chords.

The Dr Feelgood album has another of Sixx's finest moments: Kickstart My Heart – 10 years of Mötley Crüe excess squeezed into four minutes 43 seconds, with a huge pounding bassline.

“I’ve never been one that talks about my bass playing because I’m a band member, but I really am proud of my bass playing on that album; it was the first time I was sober.

“But I’m proud of all the albums we’ve made; I’m proud of the tones. I’m proud of the fact that I wrote those songs, and I was able to go, ‘What does this song need?’ Not, ‘What do I need?’ but ‘What does the song need?’”

As a member and main offstage mouthpiece of one of the most notorious bands ever, not much of Nikki Sixx’s life goes unnoticed. As a bassist he’s the target of many shots: some say he’s not performing live on stage; others claim that, although he wrote many of Mötley Crüe’s biggest hits, he didn’t play on them.

But he doesn’t care – as he tells Bass Player: “Very seldom do I step out of the box. I don’t feel that’s what the band needs. You get to a place where you do something for a really long time; you're in fashion, you’re out of fashion, you’re in fashion.

“I’m in the same band for – in January – 44 years. That’s something that’s not falling on deaf ears. We’re still here and we’re still creative. We’re able to tour, and not like in the old days where you’d break the spirit of the human beings. We get to play some badass shows, reinvent the band here or there, and really enjoy this time.”

Behind Sixx is partner in rhythm Tommy Lee, while out front is longtime vocalist Vince Neil. But like the bassist touches on when he speaks of reinvention, he no longer sees the well-worn Strat of Mick Mars across the stage, but the ghost-white Tele of John 5.

His 2023 induction into Crüe was rocky, coming with waves of rumors involving Mars’ health, spats regarding touring and a nasty ongoing lawsuit. No doubt losing a riffmeister like Mars was painful; but Sixx states 5 has held his own.

“His precision on stage is so comforting to me,” the bassist says. “I know John has got it on lock no matter what. That feels great. I love being in a bad with him. He’s a great guy – we’re very fortunate.”

As for the situation with Mars, Sixx says, “Listen, we were forced. Guy’s gotta choose: You want to break up? Do you want to fuck over Live Nation? You want to screw Def Leppard? All those tickets, all that planning that we’d done, because one of your band members is too ill to perform live?”

He admits: “We really had to think about it, bro. Like, do you think we wanted to take the grief we took, and end up in a lawsuit? But what were we supposed to do – go home and fucking mow the lawn? It’s like your fucking football team; if one of your guys can’t play anymore, they bring in another guy.”

Mötley Crüe just dropped the Cancelled EP. What's the story there?

“I’m really enjoying this era of the band. In the case of the song Cancelled, I read an article on cancel culture, and I wrote these lyrics in the style and tempo of Shout at the Devil. It’s very tempo- and groove-oriented.

“We were in South America; I read the lyrics to Tommy and he goes, ‘We should get a beat to that.’ We started working in the dressing room – next thing you know, we're like, ‘Hey, let’s go cut it.’ We also worked on Dogs of War, sent it to Bob Rock, and he goes, ‘I want to do this.’”

Was there thought of a full album, or was an EP always the goal?

“It was a great example of us writing a bunch of songs, but we had no real destination. I told Scott Borchetta at Big Machine, ‘We’ve got these songs we’re working on with Bob Rock.’ He goes, ‘Let’s drop an EP, since you guys aren’t really into doing full-length records at this time.’”

Are more songs in the works?

“We got back into the art process. We got the buzz of working on a record without going into the studio and demoing and writing 20-something songs that you boil down to nine or 10. What we're enjoying doing is feeling our creativity and letting it go as it comes.

“I’m working on a song right now. I just showed the guys and they’re like, ‘That’s really cool.’ We wrote this funny song the other day backstage, and we’re like, ‘Let’s record that.’’ It’s like an old-school country, punk song, and we’ve got a couple of big riffs floating around. At some point, maybe we’ll go and demo it. Maybe it’ll end up on another EP. We’re really enjoying the creativity.”

What’s it like working with John compared to the established template with Mick?

“I’ve been writing music with John for 15 years. One of the first songs I wrote and he played guitar on was The Monster is Loose by Meat Loaf, with Desmond Child producing. Even though John wasn’t a songwriter on that, he played guitar, and we got to know each other.

“I was working on some Sixx: A.M. songs after The Heroin Diaries came out. I had John come out to my little studio. We sat around with a couple of cheap amps and banged out a song called Lies of the Beautiful People – a Number 1 song for that band.

“Then I brought him in on some other songwriting. I was like, ‘We’re gonna release a movie called The Dirt – we should probably have a song called The Dirt.’ We wrote a bunch of songs and he was in the studio for that, and he played some guitar on those songs from the movie. We just spent a lot of time together.”

“I’m a person who has a pretty clear vision, at least starting out – in a band, sometimes it gets diluted or added to, just by team effort. You could be the greatest quarterback in the world, but if you don’t have a good team, you’re going to get fucking sacked every time.

“What I love about John is he’s really good at adapting to the room. On the song Cancelled, we were working on some cool riffs, and he would bring in these ideas that went on top.”

He’s been vocal about being a fan of the band. That must help too.

“I wasn’t aware he was a big fan for all the years we knew each other. I knew he liked the band, but I didn’t know he knew our catalog so deeply. He’ll mention songs to me – like the lyrics from Louder than Hell – and say, ‘Man, those are genius.’ I’m like, ‘That’s 1985! That’s amazing!’

“What I really love about John is he’s able to keep it in the world we’re working on. Yet at the same time, if you’re like, ‘Let’s go off the rails right here,’ we can do that.”

What keeps you inspired in terms of playing bass?

“I have an interesting approach and outlook on bass for this band. I was driving with my wife and Smoke on the Water came on; and I go, ‘Just wait for it.’ All of a sudden you hear it. She looked at me and goes, ‘That’s you!’ I go, ‘Always has been, always will be.’

“Then I put on an AC/DC song. She’s not a musician, right? But she goes, ‘I understand!’ So that’s where I want to be. I want to be on Girls, Girls, Girls; I want to be on Primal Scream. I want to be doing that kind of stuff.

“I just love the pocket, man. We were listening to some music last night and I go, ‘Listen to this bass.’ My wife goes, ‘That bass player is driving the song.’ It was a song by Seal – and it was so different from my approach – but it’s the right approach there. I’m like, ‘What if I had that approach in my band? What would that sound like?’

“When I first learned to write music I had a three-string nylon guitar from my stepfather. I started writing notes – I’m still the weird kid with the notepad, except now it's on my iPhone – and I would always be documenting everything, like fights in the schoolyard.

“I had three strings; I would read my lyrics, play a root note, and try to express my life as a teenager through music. When he gave me that guitar, he actually carved my future out. If I’d had a traditional guitar – which I love – I’d have had a whole different outlook on the bass.

“Then I started fucking around in bands, and I couldn’t really play in those. I tried to be in top 40 bands, but it was boring because I’d say. ‘I’ve got original songs.’ They’d say, ‘No one does originals, dude. There’s no money in it.’ I just stuck to this thing that’s in the pocket and makes room for the melody and the importance of the words.”

With the expanded sound since John joined, are you searching for new sounds on bass?

“I’m constantly searching for the more garage side of it, for me. Like, if I wasn’t 500 years old, I would probably start a garage band! But I’m not doing that at this point.”

Are there plans for any new signature gear?

“Going back to the ‘80s, when I was with Spector, we did a non-reverse Thunderbird shape. I played that around the time of Girls, Girls, Girls. When I was doing a bass solo on Generation Swine they gave me a bunch of Epiphones, which ended up getting destroyed at the end of the bass solo. That’s how I ended up with Epiphone and Gibson at the time.

“But they were also the reverse-style. Every time I get that, it sits on my lap or hangs off my strap, and I’m just like, ‘This feels like home.’ So, I’ve been doing these reverse Thunderbird body shapes with Schecter, and there's something about the way it balances. We all know a ‘Bird doesn't balance the best, but my main instrument on stage is some version of that Thunderbird-ish thing.”

Thunderbirds are notorious for feeling a bit unbalanced.

“I had this talk with my tech, and we believe that Gibson came out with the Thunderbird in the early ‘60s. Then they reversed the body, so the horns are at the bottom, which is the Thunderbird we’ve all seen a million times.

“Some people say the bass I’ve been playing my whole career is actually the non-reverse and not the reverse. To be honest with you, I have no fucking idea! There’s a bunch of photos of me out there playing the new body shape. It makes it easier for me to move around. It holds to my body nicer.”

How does your signature Schecter compare to other basses you’ve used?

“Those Schecters are something else, man. I’ll hit a note at the end of a song, and usually, on bass, you can hammer your E, wait for your drummer to come around, finish the song and the bass dissipates. The guitars will sustain and the drummer is filling up space.

“But this fucking bass, man – I could hit an E, put it in the stand, go get a cup of coffee, come back, and it’s still ringing. It allows for the specific way I play bass to really have that openness and big, round, almost piano-like sound.”

Mötley Crüe is celebrating Dr. Feelgood’s 35th anniversary. What are you most proud of as far as your bass contributions go?

“I’ve never been one that talks about my bass playing because I’m a band member. I’m a team guy. Everything’s a football analogy with me; I'm not the running back or the quarterback – I’m a fucking lineman. People don’t talk about the lineman a lot unless he goes out and crushes people. I probably should a little bit more!

“But I love the Dr. Feelgood album. It was the first time I was sober. I really am proud of my bass playing; I’m proud of the albums we’ve made; I’m proud of the tones. I’m proud of the fact that I wrote those songs, and I was able to go, ‘What does this song need?’ Not, ‘What do I need?’ but ‘What does the song need?’”

What’s the key to the Mötley Crüe bass sound?

“The important part is the dirt and simplicity that gives the opportunity for the song to stand out. Tommy’s such an amazing drummer; to have that pocket with him is so fucking awesome.

“The other night we were playing Same Ol’ Situation, and I straightened out the bassline a bit because the chorus is pretty much driving along. It makes those poppy vocals sound better. I looked back at Tommy and I’m like, ‘This is fucking spiritual, man!’

“You can feel it in your gut and your heart. I don’t know what people can or can’t feel out front, but I’m always so fortunate with Tommy to be able to do what I do.”

Mötley Crüe will soon stage on a Las Vegas residency. How do you prepare for that?

“We’re going to be playing at the MGM, which is a really nice venue. We’re working on making it more intimate for us. We got to go out multiple times, do the Stadium Tour with Def Leppard, and we dug into the songs we wanted to play.

“We did what every band does: rehearsed them and worked on the lights, and so the show was powerful and consistent. We've been running that show, changed the order and added songs here and there.

“But we’re like, ‘Okay – we don’t want to go to Vegas and be doing the same thing we’ve been doing.’ We went back and looked at some songs we haven’t played in a long time. And we’re maybe discussing some reimagined versions of a song or two.”

• The 35th anniversary edition of Dr. Feelgood is available for pre-order. Las Vegas packages for the 2025 residency shows are also on sale.

For over four decades, Mötley Crüe thrived as on-off glam rock mainstays – with the core lineup of guitarist Mick Mars, drummer Tommy Lee, and singer Vince Neil, completed by bassist Nikki Sixx, remaining a near-constant.

Yet in October 2022, Mars publicly announced his retirement due to ongoing health issues, a move that initially seemed voluntary. He was swiftly replaced by John 5.

A series of very public disputes followed, culminating in an ongoing lawsuit over unpaid royalties. Further claims include accusations that the band forced Mars to sell off his remaining share in Mötley Crüe and public comments alleging that the rest of the band mimed their parts during the 2022 stadium tour with Def Leppard, Poison, and Joan Jett & the Blackhearts.

In a new interview with Guitar World, Sixx has shed more light on the circumstances surrounding the lineup change.

“Listen, we were forced. Guy's gotta choose: you want to break up? Do you want to fuck over Live Nation? You want to screw Def Leppard? All those tickets, all that planning that we'd done because one of your band members is too ill to perform live?” Sixx tells GW.

As for the decision to force Mars out after a 41-year career, Sixx insists making the call was far from easy.

“We really had to think about it, bro. Like, do you think we wanted to take the grief we took, and end up in a lawsuit? But what were we supposed to do? Go home and fucking mow the lawn? It's like your fucking football team; if one of your guys can't play anymore, they bring in another guy.”

All the necessary decisions were made to keep the band going – no easy task, considering the group are coming up on its 44th anniversary in 2025.

“We're still here, and we are still creative,” he asserts. “We're able to tour – and not tour to the point in the old days where you break the spirit of the human beings. We get to go out, play some badass shows, reinvent the band here or there, and really enjoy this time.”

Guitar World's full interview with Nikki Sixx will be published later this month.

When it was confirmed that bassist Nikki Sixx would take part in Guitar World’s Mötley Crüe cover story (he agreed to respond to emailed questions), it was requested that we keep the focus on “what’s happening now – the tour, music, nothing about Mick Mars.” 

At the time, this didn’t strike us as outwardly odd or significant (somewhat rock-star quirky, perhaps), and there was nothing to indicate that there was any kind of drama, legal or otherwise, surrounding Mars’ departure as a touring member of Mötley Crüe.

A short time later, news broke of Mars’ lawsuit against the band, and it became clear why Sixx preferred to sidestep the elephant in the room. Seeing as we were very careful to steer clear of asking the bassist even the vaguest question about Mars, we were more than a little surprised when he brought up the guitarist by name and provided his own account of the events.

When and how did John 5 get on your radar? When did you become aware of him?

“I had heard of John years before I met him. Then we met and became friends first. We’d be hanging out and things would come up. I remember working on a Meat Loaf song with Desmond Child, and John’s name came up to work on the song with us. I was like, 'That’s great.'

“As we became friends over the years, I was doing some songwriting, and we wrote Lies of the Beautiful People, which was the Number 1 song for Sixx: AM. We’ve been friends, musicians, just sitting on the back patio playing guitar and noodling around, making jokes about Hee-Haw and the ’70s. He became a really good friend, a collaborator – and now he’s in the band.

What was it about his playing that stuck out to you? How did he seem different from his contemporaries?

“John has the ability to play so precisely, and at the same time he keeps so much emotion in his playing. He obviously can play any style of music, and even blend them together. As a collaborator, it’s amazing with John; you’re like, ‘Could you do…?’ And he’s like, ‘Yes.’ ‘Hey, could you do…?’ ‘Like this?’ 

“He’s fun and exciting to hang out with – whether it’s his guitar playing, as a writer, and now on stage. It’s literally like having your little brother right by your side. It’s such a nice feeling.

“We never saw it coming that Mick wasn’t going to be able to tour and was going to have to quit the band. In the middle – not even the middle – of a huge tour, we had to ask ourselves, ‘Do we want to let the fans down? Do we want to let Live Nation down? Do we want to let Def Leppard down? Do we want to let ourselves down because an original member of our band can’t tour anymore?’ We had to have a deep, deep look into what we were going to do.

“[In regard to] John, knowing all the members of the band, and me having this relationship with him writing and as friends, and even being in the studio with him writing stuff with the band for The Dirt, it felt like a no-brainer in a horrible situation – something we did not ask for or want. And then it was just kind of obvious. If there was 'the guy,' John was the guy. Like I said, we didn’t choose this, but since we had to be put in this position, we’re very happy with where we’re at right now.”

Did you ever think, “If we needed somebody, John 5 would be the guy”?

“No, we’ve never been like that – never, like, ‘Nikki’s not in the band. Who are we gonna get?’ I mean, Nikki’s in the band. Tommy’s in the band. Mick’s in the band. Vince is in the band. It was Mick saying, ‘I can’t be in the band’ that forced us into making a decision – one that we didn’t expect, by the way.”

Take me inside the band discussions about who to bring in. Was John always the top pick in your mind? You said he “checks all the boxes.”

“I sat down with Tommy and Vince and said, ‘We’re in this situation. What do you guys think we should do?’ We kind of talked about it for a while, and John’s name came up. We were all like, ‘I mean, if he’s available.’ It would be like the perfect solution, not only as a friend, just as a human being, as a player – obviously, as a player comes first, being in a band. 

“So I called John, and I said, ‘OK, this is gonna be kind of weird… ‘ And since we talk almost every day, he was like, ‘What could be weirder than some of your off-color humor?’ [Laughs] I go, ‘Well, this one’s gonna top all of our shit.’ There was quiet, and he said, ‘I’d be honored.’ We were like, ‘OK, here we go.’

“You know, we were, ‘This is a major change for us.’ I remember going to rehearsal, and it felt, well, seamless, if that makes sense. It has nothing to do with anything other than John was so prepared. The very first rehearsal, I was like, ‘What do you want to do?’ Vince or someone said, ‘Let’s try a song.’ We were like, ‘Let’s just do the first song in the set,’ which is Wild Side at this point. We played Wild Side – it segues into Shout at the Devil. 

“We ended Wild Side and we’re kind of grinding, and then this sequence with some of the sounds of the ’97 Shout at the Devil remake – a lot of backward loops and swells. John started swelling up. I looked at Tommy and Shout at the Devil started. We ended that, and we didn’t even say anything, and we went right into Too Fast for Love. We played the whole show – seamlessly. And we were like, [Laughs] ‘Well, I guess band rehearsal’s over.’ 

“We started laughing. His personality, his professionalism, his sense of adventure as a guitar player, his understanding of what’s so important about so many of the solos Mick played on; him wanting to honor that, not wanting to do something different during Home Sweet Home; wanting to stick to what fans expected and want to hear and grew up hearing… has been just a really wonderful experience.”

Did Tommy or Vince have any other candidates in mind?

“No, we talked about John, and that was that. I mean, it’s just like we kind of knew. Because we knew him, too. It wasn’t like, ‘We’re in a shitty situation. Let’s just get a guitar player, and then we’ll get another guitar player, and then we’ll get another guitar player.’ We were looking for somebody that wanted to be here permanently with us.”

As for that first rehearsal, what would you have done if, for whatever strange reason, things didn’t click with John and the band?

“[Long pause] We would have been fucked, I guess.”

How much musical leeway are you affording John?

“Within the song structure, it’s important that John delivers what people are used to listening to – the solos, and honoring the songs. Outside of that, complete freedom. If he wants to do a guitar solo or ad-lib at the end of a song, it’s completely free-form at that point.”

Obviously, these are songs the band has played thousands of times. But in some small ways, did you notice anybody making any kinds of musical adjustments to suit how John plays?

“I think, in general, the band – bass, drums and guitar – is a rock band at our core. But any time you play with another musician, it’s going to change a little bit. Such I’ve found being in Brides of Destruction or Sixx: AM… I guess we’re more aware because suddenly John is playing the songs, and we’re hearing John and us… and it’s like, ‘Oh, wow, it sounds right. It sounds tight. It sounds right on the money.’ And it feels energized. It feels positive.” 

One of the biggest guitar stories of 2022 – and, indeed, of 2023 – was the high-profile electric guitar personnel shakeup enacted by Mötley Crüe.

What first seemed to be a straightforward six-string swap turned into a bitter and protracted legal disagreement between outgoing guitarist Mick Mars – who first announced his retirement due to health reasons – and the band, who employed John 5 in his place.

Shortly after the swap, Mars sued the band alleging they conspired to fire him, and accused bass guitar player Nikki Sixx of miming his parts live onstage – accusations that the bassist strongly denied.

There have been various developments over the months, the most recent of which came from the Mars camp: in an extended interview with Rolling Stone, the guitarist claimed Mötley Crüe were “trying to take away my legacy”, and said he never wants to speak to his former bandmates again.

Now, in a new interview with Guitar World, Sixx has offered his own take on the Crüe drama, explaining how Mars’ decision to leave came completely out of the blue.

When asked specifically about John 5’s appointment, Sixx discussed the circumstances surrounding the former Rob Zombie player’s recruitment, and noted the decision was made to fulfil tour commitments.

“We never saw it coming that Mick wasn’t going to be able to tour and was going to have to quit the band,” he explained. “In the middle – not even the middle – of a huge tour, we had to ask ourselves, 'Do we want to let the fans down? Do we want to let Live Nation down? Do we want to let Def Leppard down? Do we want to let ourselves down because an original member of our band can’t tour anymore?' We had to have a deep, deep look into what we were going to do.”

Sixx went on to describe John 5’s appointment as “a no-brainer in a horrible situation”, given their existing relationship to each other.

He continued, “[In regard to] John, knowing all the members of the band, and me having this relationship with him writing and as friends, and even being in the studio with him writing stuff with the band for The Dirt, it felt like a no-brainer in a horrible situation – something we did not ask for or want.

“And then it was just kind of obvious. If there was 'the guy', John was the guy. Like I said, we didn’t choose this, but since we had to be put in this position, we’re very happy with where we’re at right now.”

For Sixx, the swap has been a positive one – one he likens to “having your little brother right by your side” while on stage.

“John has the ability to play so precisely, and at the same time he keeps so much emotion in his playing,” Sixx enthused. “He obviously can play any style of music, and even blend them together. 

“As a collaborator, it’s amazing with John; you’re like, ‘Could you do…?’ And he’s like, ‘Yes.’ ‘Hey, could you do…?’ ‘Like this?’ He’s fun and exciting to hang out with – whether it’s his guitar playing, as a writer, and now on stage. It’s literally like having your little brother right by your side. It’s such a nice feeling.”

Head over to Magazines Direct to pick up the latest issue of Guitar World, which features the full interview with Nikki Sixx and John 5.

Last March, Dolly Parton announced that she was withdrawing her nomination for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the time, the country legend said that she didn't feel she had “earned [the] right“ to be inducted. 

Parton later backtracked though, and even performed – with a $99 mini electric guitar – at that year's induction ceremony, but also noted even as she initially withdrew from consideration that the nomination had inspired her to “put out a hopefully great rock 'n' roll record at some point in the future,“ adding that a more rock-oriented project was something she had “always wanted to do.“

Given how often prominent musicians talk publicly about bucket-list projects without following through in any way, we'd like to tip our cap to Parton, who on November 17 will indeed release an album aptly titled Rockstar.

One of its latest singles, Bygones, teams Parton with an incredible supporting cast that includes Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford, and two members of Mötley Crüe – guitar hero John 5 and bass guitar player Nikki Sixx. 

Now, before you write all this off, keep in mind that John 5 was raised on country. He gives Bygones a snarling rhythm guitar pulse that's 1/3 Eddie Van Halen, 1/3 Mötley Crüe and 1/3 Grand Ole Opry, and works as a brilliant backdrop for Parton, who sounds just as at home here as she would with fiddles and mandolins.

In a statement, Parton described the song as “one of my very favorites on the whole album. 

“The song fits with so many couples,“ Parton says, “and coupling my voice with Rob, one of my all-time favorites, made it even more special.”

Parton also, earlier this year, spoke positively of Sixx's playing on the album, in a letter to the bassist's wife, Courtney Bingham. “Hey Courtney,“ Parton wrote in the letter, which Bingham later shared on social media. “Your hubby played his butt off on my album! Maybe someday I can meet you both. Love, Dolly.”

To preorder Rockstar, visit Parton's website. 

Bob Rock says that an anecdote he told on a recent Talk Is Jericho podcast has been “misconstrued” and that he was not actually suggesting Nikki Sixx did not play bass on the band’s first four albums.

“When I began working with Mötley Crüe on the Dr. Feelgood record, the band was sober for the first time and Nikki particularly was recovering from a very public addiction to heroin," explains Rock in a new statement. 

“We joked around a lot and Nikki, in his very self-deprecating style would say he didn’t even remember playing on their prior records. 

“This was Nikki’s way of saying that for the record we were working on, he was showing up to do the best he possibly could and to make the best record of the band’s career. Which we did. 

“At no time did I ever actually think Nikki didn’t play bass on Motley Crue’s records. He’s one of the most unique and talented players in the world and his approach to the instrument is part of what has made Mötley Crüe great throughout the years.

“Lastly, I was commenting on and commending Nikki because he never stops learning and never stops improving. I respect Nikki for always wanting to be better at his craft and it shows. I have worked with some of the biggest bands in the world and I can say unequivocally that Nikki Sixx is one of the most talented players, lyricists and songwriters I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. 

“And if the internet wants to latch onto a story from one or two sound bytes [sic], its extremely unfortunate because it doesn’t reflect the truth of the contributions he’s made to music over the last 40 years.”

The sound bites Rock refers to were volunteered in a conversation with Chris Jericho on the latter’s Talk Is Jericho podcast and were widely reported. 

“I’ve got to tell you a story about Nikki Sixx, this is funny,” said Rock during the interview. “So, Dr. Feelgood, he says to me, he goes, ‘I don’t think I ever really played on any of the Mötley Crüe records. I think somebody came in at night and replaced all my parts, so I don’t really know how to play bass.’ 

“I said to him, ‘Too bad, you’re playing bass on it. So I worked with him on it through Dr. Feelgood and I did a lot of edits and made him play every note.”

As he says in his statement, elsewhere in the same interview Rock was indeed very complimentary about Sixx’s ability as a bassist and his continued dedication to his instrument, noting “he’s an amazing bass player.”

UPDATED 5/30/23: Bob Rock has issued a statement clarifying his comments about Nikki Sixx’s bass contributions on the first four Mötley Crüe albums, saying his comments were misconstrued and “at no time did I ever actually think Nikki didn’t play bass on Mötley Crüe’s records.” He also notes, “Nikki Sixx is one of the most talented players, lyricists and songwriters I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with.” 

In a recent interview, Bob Rock recalls a conversation in which Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx allegedly told him he suspected someone had replaced his parts on the band’s first four albums, including Shout at the Devil and Girls, Girls, Girls.

Speaking to the Talk Is Jericho podcast, Rock was discussing his recent work with Mötley Crüe when he brought up a conversation he had with Sixx during the sessions for the band’s landmark record, Dr. Feelgood. 

“I’ve got to tell you a story about Nikki Sixx, this is funny,” says the super-producer, around the 40 minute mark. “So, Dr. Feelgood, he says to me, he goes, ‘I don’t think I ever really played on any of the Mötley Crüe records. I think somebody came in at night and replaced all my parts, so I don’t really know how to play bass.’”

Rock makes the remark in a pretty off-the-cuff manner in the interview and seems to have been otherwise unperturbed by it. 

“I said to him, ‘Too bad, you’re playing bass on it,’” explains the producer. “So I worked with him on it through Dr. Feelgood and I did a lot of edits and made him play every note.”

The album was regarded as a new high for the band and Rock notes in his chat how lucky he felt to get them out of LA and sober. Indeed, in Mötley Crüe’s biography, The Dirt, Sixx recalls the process of working with Rock as an (uncharacteristically) healthy challenge for the unwieldy group.

“Bob whipped us like galley slaves,” wrote Sixx. “His line was, ‘That just isn’t your best.’ Nothing was good enough… Before we walked into the studio each day, we never knew whether we’d leave that evening feeling like the best band in the world or four angry clowns who couldn’t even play their instruments. 

“In eight years together and with millions of albums sold, we had never recorded properly. No-one had pushed us to the limits of our abilities before.”

It seems that it was a turning point for Sixx’s playing and in his interview with host Chris Jericho, Rock says he respects Sixx’s continued dedication to his instrument. In particular, he notes the bassist had taken a huge leap when he came to work with him again on the soundtrack to The Dirt biopic, in 2019.

“He picked up the bass and started playing, and I said, ‘Woah, woah, woah. What's going on here?”” says Rock. “He had been taking bass lessons for five years. All of a sudden, he's an amazing bass player. And I think that's so cool [that] in that point of his career, he wanted to be better. You know what I mean? I admire that.”

Sixx recently reported that the sessions for Mötley Crüe’s first album with John 5 –also set to be produced by Rock – were “100 percent officially done and ready for mix.”

Head to Talk Is Jericho to hear the full podcast interview with Bob Rock.

Read Bob Rock’s full statement, clarifying his comments about Sixx’s bass contributions. 

Nikki Sixx has revealed that Mötley Crüe have finished tracking their first studio album with John 5 on electric guitar, signaling that the long wait for a new record from the band has almost come to an end.

Sixx took to his Twitter account last Saturday (May 13), to share the news that the record was “100 percent officially done and ready for mix," with the finishing touches polished off in a London studio alongside frontman Vince Neil. 

Sixx and Crüe decamped to London this past weekend, in advance of their world tour with Def Leppard picking up (at the latter’s hometown), on May 22 at Bramall Lane, Sheffield. 

And besides roaming around and taking in the sights, the Los Angeles rock institution put the finishing touches on what will be their first studio album since 2008’s Saints of Los Angeles, and their first without co-founder Mick Mars on guitar.

That chapter of Mötley Crüe’s oft-combustible history has, of course, ended in acrimony, with Mars suing the band. 

Mars had announced his retirement from touring with the band last October, with his long-standing struggle with the debilitating condition ankylosing spondylitis causing him too much pain to handle rigorous touring schedules. 

He was, it seems, planning to remain in situ when it came to the studio, with latter-day master of the Fender Telecaster John 5 thought to be joining as only the Crüe’s touring guitarist. Now following the lawsuit, it looks like we’re officially in a new era.

“The [new Mötley Crüe] songs are fucking heavy,” John 5 told Eddie Trunk on his Sirius XM show, recently (via Blabbermouth). 

“I sound like a little excited kid right now, but they're heavy and they’re mean. I can’t wait for them to come out. I’m just so excited... All I can tell you is that it’s heavy and it’s aggressive, and I think people are going to dig it because, talking as a fan, it’s fucking badass.”

There are no further details as to the new Mötley Crüe album’s title or track listing. The band’s setlist for their epic stadium run with Def Leppard has been front-to-back classic Crüe. But there is one tantalizing detail for long-time fans; Bob Rock returns as producer. 

Having captured the ur-Crüe sound on the band's 1989 smash-hit album Dr. Feelgood, who better to deliver a 21st-century hard-rock blockbuster? As a long-time fan and new-start guitar player, John 5’s perspectives are instructive. He describes working with Rock as “one of the most incredible experiences ever." 

“I’m thinking, ‘We've got so much great technology today’… but we got in that room and it was like being in a garage working on a song when you were in high school,” he told Trunk. “It was incredible, and we documented a lot of it too.”

Maybe some of that heaviness John 5 speaks of will be coming from Rock and his approach to capturing guitar tone. His proclivity for multi-tracked guitars, layering parts using many different guitar amps, not only helped Crüe reach their commercial zenith on Dr. Feelgood, but Metallica too, with the Black Album (1991) ushering in a new stadium-packing era for the band.

Meanwhile, the Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard co-headlining juggernaut rolls on. After Sheffield, they hit mainland Europe and return to the UK in July. 

See Mötley Crüe for full dates and ticket details. And then take a look at John 5’s Crüe live rig – it’s a surprisingly minimalistic setup for what is arguably the most maximalist gig in rock.

Dolly Parton is ready to rock and roll – and she’s got Sting, Nikki Sixx and The Beatles back together to help her. The legendary US country singer has enlisted Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr for a cover of the groups’ classic break-up song Let It Be, which will feature on her forthcoming album, Rockstar. As well as the Fab Two, the track also features Peter Frampton and Mick Fleetwood.

Mötley Crüe's John 5 and Nikki Sixx also appear on an original track, Bygones, while Sting guests with a cover of his hit single, Every Breath You Take. Speaking on The Rachel Ray Show, Dolly Parton said: “I’ve got a lot of wonderful iconic songs that people love and wonderful iconic singers joining me on them. Paul McCartney sang with me on Let It Be.” Parton debuted the album's lead single, World on Fire, at the 2023 ACM Awards. 

“I’m so excited to finally present my first rock 'n' roll album, Rockstar,” Parton said. “I am very honoured and privileged to have worked with some of the greatest iconic singers and musicians of all time and to be able to sing all the iconic songs throughout the album was a joy beyond measure. I hope everybody enjoys it as much as I’ve enjoyed putting it together.”

For her new project, Parton also enlisted Elton John, Stevie Nicks, P!nk, Miley Cyrus, Lizzo and many more. The full tracklist – along with the names of each guest star and their respective spots – can be found below.

1. Rockstar (special guest Richie Sambora)
2. World on Fire
3. Every Breath You Take (feat. Sting)
4. Open Arms (feat. Steve Perry)
5. Magic Man (feat. Ann Wilson with special guest Howard Leese)
6. Long As I Can See The Light (feat. John Fogerty)
7. Either Or (feat. Kid Rock)
8. I Want You Back (feat. Steven Tyler with special guest Warren Haynes)
9. What Has Rock And Roll Ever Done For You (feat. Stevie Nicks with special guest Waddy Wachtel)
10. Purple Rain
11. Baby, I Love Your Way (feat. Peter Frampton)
12. I Hate Myself For Loving You (feat. Joan Jett & The Blackhearts)
13. Night Moves (feat. Chris Stapleton)
14. Wrecking Ball (feat. Miley Cyrus)
15. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (feat. P!nk & Brandi Carlile)
16. Keep On Loving You (feat. Kevin Cronin)
17. Heart Of Glass (feat. Debbie Harry)
18. Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me (feat. Elton John)
19. Tried To Rock And Roll Me (feat. Melissa Etheridge)
20. Stairway To Heaven (feat. Lizzo & Sasha Flute)
21. We Are The Champions
22. Bygones (feat. Rob Halford with special guests Nikki Sixx & John 5)
23. My Blue Tears (feat. Simon Le Bon)
24. What’s Up? (feat. Linda Perry)
25. You’re No Good (feat. Emmylou Harris & Sheryl Crow)
26. Heartbreaker (feat. Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo)
27. Bittersweet (feat. Michael McDonald) 
28. I Dreamed About Elvis (feat. Ronnie McDowell with special guest The Jordanaires)
29. Let It Be (feat. Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr with special guests Peter Frampton & Mick Fleetwood)
30. Free Bird (feat. Ronnie Van Zant with special guests Gary Rossington, Artimus Pyle and The Artimus Pyle Band)

Rockstar is available to pre-order now.

Nikki Sixx has alleged that Mick Mars is “confused and being misled” by his team, according to an interview with Planet Rock.

Mars retired from touring with Mötley Crüe due to his ongoing struggle with Ankylosing Spondylitis (A.S.) – a painful degenerative disease that affects the spine – in October 2022, and was replaced in the band's live line-up by longtime fan and friend of the group John 5. 

The founding guitarist has since filed a lawsuit against Mötley Crüe, alleging that the band were attempting to “gaslight” and fire him. In the process, the suit alleges the group attempted to divest Mars of his 25 percent stake in the band’s business interests in exchange for a 7.5 percent take in their 2023 world tour takings. 

Speaking to the UK radio station’s host, Wyatt, Sixx commented on the situation and the reasons the band decided to continue without Mars.

“If a member of a band tells you that they can’t tour because of health reasons, you have two choices,” says Sixx. “You can quit as a band (after) 42 years of work. Or we could look at each other and go ‘are we done yet?' 

“We’re really peaking and we understand (Mick’s) health issues. We wish him the best and we know that he’s a little bit confused and being misled by representatives right now. But we still have to stay focused on why we’re here.”

Amid the more salacious claims in Mars’s lawsuit are allegations that the other members of Mötley Crüe mimed onstage during their 2022 stadium tour with Def Leppard, Poison and Joan Jett & the Blackhearts. The band have firmly denied the accusations.

This isn’t the first time Sixx has pointed the finger at Mars’s representatives. At the time of the band’s initial response to the lawsuit, he took to Twitter, writing: 

“Sad day for us and we don’t deserve this considering how many years we’ve been propping him up. We still wish him the best and hope he find’s [sic] lawyers and managers who aren’t damaging him. We love you Mick.”

Elsewhere in his Planet Rock interview, Sixx discusses his warm relationship with new guitarist John 5. 

“I’ve been friends with John forever and I would make jokes [like] ‘as long as you’re a 5, I feel good being a Sixx.’ Y’know, stupid best buddy jokes,” says Sixx. 

“He’s just a great guy and a great musician, and he gives us a great opportunity as a three-piece, so to speak, to really lock in. He’s just such a great guitar player.

“It’s nothing against any other musician that you play with,” Sixx continues, referring to Mars. “[It’s] just that when you play with new musicians you play differently… It kind of, like, re-inspires you. And I’m sure the same thing would happen if they got a new bass player. [They'd be] like ‘oh wow, he’s attacking it differently.’ So it’s never about how bad anybody was.”

Mötley Crüe are currently between dates on their 2023 world tour with Def Leppard. Mars, meanwhile, has been recording his first solo album, involving drummer Carmine Appice and guitarist Paul Taylor, as well as Canadian country rocker Cory Marks.

Dolly Parton may be better known for country hits like 9 to 5 or Jolene, but following her 2022 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the country star confirmed that her next record will be a rock album in order to "earn her keep” in the Rock Hall. “I always thought I might want to do a rock record, because my husband is a rock and roll freak,” said Parton. “So I thought, 'Well, if I'm ever gonna do it, now's the time.’ I have to live up to all of that hype!”

A lineup of rock stars will reportedly appear on the album, with Mötley Crüe's Nikki Sixx having recently revealed that he played bass guitar on one of the songs. Parton said in a letter to Sixx's wife Courtney, that Sixx had "played his butt off" on her upcoming album, which is tentatively titled, Rock Star.

"Hey Courtney," Parton wrote in the letter, which Courtney later shared on social media. "Your hubby played his butt off on my album! Maybe someday I can meet you both. Love, Dolly.” Sixx also shared the news in his own tweet. “Played bass on a song for Dolly Parton yesterday. What a class act Dolly is.”

Mötley Crüe guitarist John 5 also shared news of his participation in a tweet. "I'm so honored that I got the opportunity to play guitar on one of the songs on the upcoming @DollyParton album. I've been listening to Dolly ever since I can remember. Words cannot describe how exciting this is."

Other rumoured guests include P!nk and Brandi Carlile who will reportedly feature on a cover of The Rolling Stones (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, while the likes of Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Cher and Stevie Nicks have also been name-checked in recent interviews. 

Speaking with USA Today, Parton said she had been keen to recruit Mick Jagger: “I wanted a song for just me and Mick – ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ – but Brandi and P!nk are now singing on it. I’m still waiting for Mick to come on back. He might come through. If not, I’ll kick his bony ass when I see him!”

Dolly Parton's Rock Star is rumoured for release in the fall of 2023. For more details on Mötley Crüe's world tour with Def Leppard visit motley.com

"I don’t buy into the idea that the bass player is the quiet one,” said New Order and Joy Division bassist Peter Hook in an interview for MusicRadar. “I’ve never liked to be hidden and I don’t like to be patronised.”

Frequently viewed as the quietest member of any band, bass players have historically been pigeon-holed as reluctant rock stars. “This is an important thing to remember,” said Duff McKagan. “If you are a bass player and you want to be the front-centre guy… Well, let’s just say that usually won’t happen for you. Unless you’re Lemmy! If you want to do that, use him as your guy.”

While many bass players choose to blend into the background rather than take center stage, there are some with a hard-earned reputation for going overboard. From Gene Simmons, to Nikki Sixx, to Duff McKagan. In their prime, this elite group became icons of spectacularly bad behavior. Luckily their bass playing was always a thing to behold. You can make your own mind up as you peruse this list of the 5 most notorious bass guitarists in rock and metal.

1. Nikki Sixx – Mötley Crüe

Never has one man left such a slipstream of carnage in his wake as Nikki Sixx, bassist for metal icons Mötley Crue. Reflecting in Neil Strauss’s book The Dirt, Sixx recalls swallowing light bulbs, biting Eddie Van Halen on the stomach and nailing someone’s head to a table. The band were thrown off a KISS tour, and banned from drinking by Sharon Osbourne while playing alongside Ozzy.

Finally after one titanic hit, Sixx’s heart stopped. Pronounced medically dead, he was shocked back to life by doctors. His reaction to his near-death experience was to slip on a pair of leather trousers and discharge himself from hospital.

Heroin made Sixx a somewhat patchy songwriter, but his bass playing was always tight and in the pocket. “I get grief sometimes,” he told BP. “Some people say, ‘Oh you’re not a real bass player because you’re not all over the place’, but my job is to support the song.” He might be humble in his outlook, but Sixx still rates himself highly as a bass player. Back in 2020, in response to a tweet asking who the most underrated bass guitar player ever is, he replied, “Me”. 

2. Duff McKagan – Guns N’ Roses

Nicknamed the ‘King of Beers’ by his bandmates, Duff McKagan moved to Hollywood in the mid 80s, joined Guns N’ Roses and became a huge rock star. As the band’s success snowballed into the '90s, Duff claims he was drinking a gallon of vodka a day. Something had to give, of course, and it turned out to be Duff’s pancreas, which burst in 1994 due to the abuse.

“The amount of alcohol that I drank wasn’t just a nice go-to-the-pub-for-a-couple-of-pints type of thing,” said Duff. “It was full-on. A gallon of vodka a day, plus whatever drugs I could ingest. That will take its toll on your body pretty quick.”

Fortunately, Duff was in control of his intake during the band’s glory years, resulting in Appetite For Destruction and Use Your Illusion double albums, on which the bass playing always stood out among the layers of screaming guitars. “My drinking somehow never got in the way of writing bass parts. I was writing with other drunks at the time, ha ha! So we were all on the same playing field.”

3. Lemmy – Motörhead 

“Many of us play rock ‘n’ roll, but a rare few among us are rock ‘n’ roll,” said Dave Grohl when asked about the contributions of Ian ‘Lemmy’ Kilminster. “His bass playing was just so insane,” added Duff McKagan. “You can’t talk about distorted bass guitar without mentioning Lemmy.”

After his spell with psychedelic rock group Hawkwind ended in Canadian jail, Lemmy returned to England to form Motörhead in 1975. Describing his new band as ‘the kind of band that if we moved in next door to you, your lawn would die,’ Lemmy began a heady program of alcohol abuse, running up a bar tab that could be seen from space.

The crunch came in 1980. Having applied for a blood transfusion, Lemmy was told by doctors that he couldn't. Lemmy recounted the story in his autobiography, White Line Fever. "Pure blood will kill you," the doctor said. "You don't have human blood anymore. And you can't give blood either. Forget it, you'd kill the average person, you're blood is so toxic." While others may take this as their cue to hit the treadmill, Lemmy merely saw it as confirmation of his immortality. He remained the yardstick for anyone who thought they could handle their drink until his death in 2015.

4. Sid Vicious – Sex Pistols

Without question, Sid Vicious is the worst technical bassist on this list. Generally regarded as the worst bassist of his generation, even Lemmy couldn’t teach him to play. "I tried to teach him to play bass one time," he told Classic Rock, "it was fucking hopeless. We did two days and I said, ‘Sid, you can’t play bass,’ so he said, ‘I know,’ and he went off all sad. The next thing I know, I was in The Speak[easy], and he comes up to me and says, ‘Hey Lemmy, guess what? I’m in the Pistols.’"

Drafted into the Sex Pistols to replace Glenn Matlock, Vicious reputedly learned his instrument by playing along to Ramones records on speed. While gigs would often find him playing the wrong song, in the wrong key, often with his amp turned off.

Lemmy recalled Vicious squaring up to The Jam bassist Bruce Foxton at the Marquee club, an encounter that ended with Vicious picking shards of pint glass out of his face, and later battering a bouncer who tried to stop him entertaining a groupie in a venue toilet.

In February 1979, aged just 21, Sid was found dead from an accumulation of fluid on the lungs, prompted by a heroin overdose. A suicide note requested he be buried in his boots, jeans and leather jacket. 

5. Gene Simmons – KISS 

Ever since making their debut in 1974, Kiss’s blood-spitting, fire-breathing, make-up slapping, six-and-a-half-foot-tall bassist, Gene Simmons has always had a keen interest in blood. For years the group’s stage show featured Simmons – in full devil regalia – puking up lungfuls of it. It was fake, of course, but convincing enough to have America’s Christian fundamentalists denounce him as the devil.

Simmons has always abstained from alcohol and drugs, but his serial womanising, as Simmons attests, is precisely why he formed the band in the first place. Not a master technician, but puking up blood while keeping the rhythm takes some doing.

As you probably know, Gene also has his own line of bass guitars, including the Axe and the Punisher, and a range of basses in collaboration with Gibson. How else does a bass player amass a personal fortune said to be in excess of $300m?

Nikki Sixx’s autobiography, The First 21: How I Became Nikki Sixx, is available now.

John 5 made his highly anticipated debut with Mötley Crüe in Atlantic City on Friday night (February 10), using a number of custom Fender Telecasters to tear through an epic set culled from all eras of the Los Angeles metal institution’s career, and it looked like he had been there for years.

Fan-shot footage has emerged of the set that confirms what everyone suspected all along; that John 5 was the smart choice – perhaps the only choice – to replace long-standing Crüe guitarist and co-founder Mick Mars, who announced his retirement from touring in October. 

Mars, who has had the painful and degenerative condition ankylosing spondylitis since he was a teenager, remains a member of the band, but decided that after years of managing the condition, it has become too much on his body to tour.

That John 5 – aka John William Lowery – was to replace Mars was one of the worst-kept secrets in rock. He has always been close to the band. And his playing style, all OTT theater and spectacle, is to the manor born.

Once it was confirmed, John 5’s social media feed was soon building anticipation  for what Crüe fans could expect once they saw him onstage. Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx said the lineup’s first full rehearsal together “was fucking epic”.

Mötley Crüe lit up a cold New Jersey evening on Friday with a hard-to-beat opening trifecta of Wild Side, Shout at the Devil and Too Fast For Love – John 5 using his custom ‘Ghost’ Tele. 

As revealed a couple of weeks ago, John 5’s guitar rig for the blockbuster tour is relatively straightforward. He has his Telecasters running into a series of Marshall JVM tube amp heads, and only a small pedalboard populated with Boss Compact Series pedals. 

His ‘board features an SD-1 Super Overdrive, CH-1 Super Chorus, OC-5 Octave, NS-2 Noise Suppressor and DD-8 Digital Delay, with a Radial Engineering SGI-44 line driver for good measure.

John 5 might be new to the band but the set did feature The Dirt (Est. 1981), a track he co-wrote for the soundtrack from the 2019 Crüe biopic of the same name. And, of course, there was a guitar solo. After all, what’s the point of hiring all that technical excellence and not putting it on display? 

The band played a second night in Atlantic City with an identical setlist – though expect this to change over the course of the tour. Although they did not play Bastard on either night, that old Shout at the Devil favorite was one of a number of tracks John 5 had been teasing online.

Crüe are on the road with Def Leppard on the World Tour. Their two-night stand at Atlantic City’s 7,000 capacity Etess Arena will be followed on February 18 in Mexico City. Saturday afternoon, in Mexico, at a Crüe show… Should be a lively one. See Mötley Crüe for full dates.

Nikki Sixx took to social media yesterday (January 24) to update fans on Mötley Crüe’s first rehearsal with John 5 yesterday, deeming the experience “fucking epic.”

Writing on Twitter, Sixx said: “Well that was fucking epic. @john5guitarist walks into rehearsal and we just rip the set from top to bottom seamlessly. 🤘🏽 That took 90 minute’s and then the next few hours we just laughed and told dumb rockstar war stories…”

The smart money was on just that happening. John 5 has a long-running love affair with Mötley Crüe’s music and contributed three original tracks to the group’s recent biopic, The Dirt. 

Indeed, even back in November last year, Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger was telling people he’d personally heard John 5 play “every single Mötley Crüe riff that's ever been written and recorded – flawlessly.”

Mötley Crüe have long stood by the choice of John 5 as a worthy onstage replacement after Mick Mars announced his retirement from touring. At the time of the announcement, Sixx said: “He checks all the boxes. He's an insane player. Has respect for our music, is funny as fuck and has history with us…”

It’s a good thing John 5 has done his homework, as the band will launch their world tour with Def Leppard in a matter of weeks, kicking things off in Mexico City on February 18.

For a full list of tour dates, head over to Mötley Crüe’s website.

Last week, months of intense speculation was put to bed when it was confirmed that John 5 would be joining Mötley Crüe as the glam-metal outfit’s new live guitarist.

The Rob Zombie electric guitar star was drafted into the Crüe crew shortly after it was announced the band’s co-founding and original guitarist, Mick Mars, would be taking a step back from touring duties.

Many suspected that John 5 would be the man to fill Mars’ boots, with the guitarist recently adding Mötley Crüe covers to his setlist, posing for a photo alongside the band’s drummer Tommy Lee and seemingly leaving the Rob Zombie lineup.

He also has a musical history with the band, having received writing credits for three original Mötley Crüe songs on the band’s The Dirt film soundtrack.

Now, Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx has shed some light on the decision to choose John 5 as Mars’ replacement, labeling him an “insane player” while answering fan questions on social media.

“He checks all the boxes,” Sixx wrote. “He's a insane player. Has respect for our music, is funny as fuck and has history with us and we've written some pretty big hits together.”

The hits Sixx references include The Dirt (Est. 1981), Ride with the Devil and Crash and Burn. As for their “history”, John 5 has played alongside Sixx as part of the L.A. Rats supergroup, and once told Outburn that Sixx is “one of the most inspiring people” he’s ever known.

Sixx also tapped John 5 for an episode of his My Favorite Riffs video series, which saw the pair record a version of Zombie’s I’ve Been Everywhere.

When news of John 5’s appointment broke, the guitarist issued a statement that said, “I'm honored to carry on Mick's legacy and am looking forward to playing these songs.”

Prior to John 5’s appointment, it was announced that Mars would be retiring from touring as a result of his struggle with Ankylosing Spondylitis – a form of inflammatory arthritis he has battled since his late teens.

A statement shared with Variety read, “Mick Mars, co-founder and lead guitarist of the heavy metal band Mötley Crüe for the past 41 years, has announced today that due to his ongoing painful struggle with Ankylosing Spondylitis (A.S.), he will no longer be able to tour with the band.

“Mick will continue as a member of the band, but can no longer handle the rigors of the road. A.S. is an extremely painful and crippling degenerative disease, which affects the spine.”

As such, John 5 will replace Mars when Mötley Crüe head out for their The World co-headlining tour with Def Leppard next year.

Mars played his last show for Mötley Crüe in September this year, with footage capturing the guitar hero tearing through Kickstart My Heart.

For a list of upcoming The World tour dates, head over to Mötley Crüe’s website.

Recently, Hanoi Rocks guitarist Andy McCoy hit out at Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx, accusing the bassist of not being thankful after he “saved [his] life” from a near-fatal heroin overdose years ago.

In an interview with Indie Power TV conducted earlier this month, McCoy dubbed Sixx a “second-class citizen” for allegedly making up stories in his books, adding, “I’m not a farm boy like Nikki Sixx; I’m from the inner city. And I can’t stand bullshit – like his books; [they’re] full of lies.”

Mentioning a specific story he claims Sixx made up, McCoy said: “I saved the guy’s life… I fucking got him revived, got his heart beating again. And the thank you I’ve gotten has been de nada. I mean, de nada. And that makes him a second-class citizen in my eyes. ‘Cos he only thinks about the buck.”

And now, Sixx has taken to social media to offer a retort to McCoy’s comments.

“Andy McCoy has been on a rant saying I never thanked him for saving my life after a heroin overdose,” he writes. “It’s true. I also never thanked him for getting me the drugs during my deadly addiction that night. I get it, he’s just trying to sell a book, album or club tour.”

Sixx’s comments echo those he made earlier this month – also on Twitter – seemingly taking aim at McCoy without mentioning his name.

“Whenever other musicians start to slag us I usually look them up and realize they are in the middle of trying to sell a book, music, tour or something to you using my or our name.”

McCoy, for his part, has had plenty to say about Mötley Crüe's tours. “What is it? Their 52nd comeback tour? It's pathetic,” he said. “They don't have anything to give.” 

Mötley Crüe are presently touring the U.S. with Def Leppard, Poison, and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. They take the stage this afternoon at the Lucas Oil Stadium, in Indianapolis.

Back in July, Nikki Sixx told Guitar World about his approach to playing bass guitar with Mötley Crüe.

“I get grief sometimes from people who say, ‘Oh you’re not a real bass player because you’re not all over the place’, but I’m not like that,” he said.

“My job is to support the song and be super tight with my drummer. If there’s any room in there, I might throw in something melodic, but generally I stay in the pocket, which I believe has something to do with that three-string guitar. 

“I want to take one note and I want to maximize it, like how John Lennon wrote Strawberry Fields Forever. The melody in that song is relatively simple, but it changes and grows, taking you on a journey. I try to do that with our songs: To me, that’s so important.”

See Mötley Crüe for full tour dates.

There are few people alive who can truly boast the title of ‘rock star’, but Frank Feranna, otherwise known as the infamous Nikki Sixx, bassist and founding member of metal icons Mötley Crüe and Sixx:AM, is one such person. 

As well as being one of the most recognized bassists in rock, a best-selling author and photographer, Sixx has lived one of the loudest lives of any human in modern history.

Tales from this unique bassist’s life were graphically detailed in his previous memoir, The Heroin Diaries, in 2007. However, little is really known of his earlier years as a teenager and young adult before he hit it big with Mötley Crüe in 1981. 

Not any more, though. The First 21: How I Became Nikki Sixx is the real autobiography fans have been waiting for. It was released last year alongside his band Sixx:AM’s Hits album.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the book was written by Frank Feranna and Nikki Sixx, so it’s a little psychotic – but I like to have fun with it,” laughs Sixx when we ask him about the new book.

“We moved to Wyoming a while back, and we have a lot of land and a big backdrop of the Teton mountain range; it’s something else. I grew up on the other side of those mountains in Idaho. 

“I fell in love with music there, and when you find something you love, you can’t get enough of it, especially in those early years. I was out back looking over these mountains, and I just had this thought; it’s been 45 years since I was 17, back when I headed into the belly of the beast that was Hollywood.

“I’ve always been inspired by my surroundings and by things that I see. I always jot things down, whether it be lyrics, an idea for a short story or a poem. I just really like to write. Back in the Seventies, I would have original songs: The guys would say at auditions, ‘There’s no money in original music!’ but I didn’t care. That’s when I found out that I wasn’t a basic bassist who stuck to doing Top 40 music covers.

“I formed my own bands, I started writing my own songs and my own lyrics, and I wanted to share to the world that a small-town kid could make it in Hollywood. That’s where the book ends, just before Mötley Crüe.”

Practice, practice, practice

As Sixx conjures up old memories by replaying his life, even he’s a little surprised by his own antics. Rather than sweeping his misdemeanors under the rug, he embraces all parts of his life, bad haircuts and all.

“Yeah, there’s a lot of lessons in the book. There’s a lot of mistakes I made when I was a kid and young adult. There are parts in there that got me thinking that I really sound like a criminal,” he says. “Moving from job to job, hustling door to door selling vacuum cleaners and all that, but I needed to pay for rehearsals and equipment. 

“When I was in one of my earlier bands, London, we asked ourselves, ‘How are we going to make a small stage in a club look like an arena show?’ That isn’t cheap, but when you’re young you could go days without eating.

“Every day was about practice,” he continues. “Just practice, practice, practice, which is still one of my favorite things. When you’re at practice you don’t have big bombs going off, or lighting or video to worry about. You’re just standing in a circle, banging out the song, dusting off the bones, and getting the rust off. That’s my favorite feeling ever, man.”

Since we’re already down memory lane, does he remember his first steps into bass guitar? “My mom had this boyfriend way back when. He had this old flamenco gut-string guitar which he gave me, but it only had three strings. 

“He had these big speakers and he would be playing everything under the sun – Sly & The Family Stone, Led Zeppelin, Olivia Newton John, Kiss. I was just blown away, so when I got this guitar, I would be mapping out notes that I would hear – it was really interesting to me.

“I get grief sometimes from people who say, ‘Oh you’re not a real bass player because you’re not all over the place’, but I’m not like that,” he continues.

“My job is to support the song and be super tight with my drummer. If there’s any room in there, I might throw in something melodic, but generally I stay in the pocket, which I believe has something to do with that three-string guitar. 

“I want to take one note and I want to maximize it, like how John Lennon wrote Strawberry Fields Forever. The melody in that song is relatively simple, but it changes and grows, taking you on a journey. I try to do that with our songs: To me, that’s so important.”

Ideas man

“For me, there’s always been a barrier between being traditional and following rules,” he says. “I play guitar badly, and I’ve written songs that are just three chords but which sound interesting. I’ve learned to try and be nobody else but me, which comes right from that simplicity. 

“In general, I like adding all the layers to a song and that’s really exciting – watching it turn into something bigger. I’m not one of those musicians who has a full-blown studio in their house, and finishes everything and give it to the band. With Sixx:AM, we’re all in a band, which means we’re all in this together. I’ll come up to them and have a few ideas and then we just go from there. That’s my process.”

How has he managed to stay creative after so long, we wonder? “It’s different for everybody,” he explains. 

“I always carry a notepad and a pencil or something to write on, and I always have a camera. I feel like I’m open all the time. Say for example, I’m watching TV and see something interesting, I’ll pick up my bass and be like, ‘What is that?’ and then it turns into an idea.

“I run with it and show the guys, who will say, ‘Yeah, that’s great – how about we try adding this?’ It all builds from there. If I write seven songs in a week, even if I don’t record them, I’ll just write them down. Not because it’s my job: I just like to create stuff. This is my life and I love it. My friends say to me, ‘Hey Nikki, are you always going to be doing this?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I don’t know any other way.’

Sixx remains as much a student of bass as the next player. “I think it’s important to listen to the music which you like – and maybe listen to music that you didn’t grow up with. If you didn’t listen to ABBA, Led Zeppelin or hip-hop, opening your ears now to anything and just listening makes a world of difference. 

“It doesn’t mean I’m going to be a rapper or anything, but I’m always curious about what these other creative people are doing that’s different. In my case I’m really clear in what I want, which was one of the problems I had with auditioning for those Top 40 cover bands back in the day.”

Student of life

“I remember this one audition: We’d break into Cold As Ice by Foreigner, and the guy would be like, ‘You’re not playing it exactly like the record’. I didn’t even bother listening to the bass part before going in. My mentality was the song is in A, drops to D and it opens up on an F – what more do I need to know? 

“I always got fired because those bands were playing the songs exactly like they were on the record. I wasn’t very good at doing cover songs. In Mötley Crüe we would do a few here and there, but in general we didn’t really do that. I don’t want to go into band rehearsal to be like ‘Learn this and learn that’. That’s never been my thing.”

There’s just one more thing we have to ask. If he could go back and sit face to face with his 21-year-old self, what would he tell Frank Feranna to do differently? 

“I feel if I could have done anything different, I wish I had gotten lessons when I was younger. It would have been one of the best things for me. I wish I could have had that kind of support musically, which I don’t mean in a negative way. People always ask me if they’re starting bass, what should they do, and my answer is always the same. Play to a metronome and take lessons.

“As a musician, you need to be in a position where you can go into any kind of session and fit in. When you take lessons, all the information is right there,” he concludes. 

“I was taking lessons from this site called Scott’s Bass Lessons. I would go into the beginner’s section and I’d be like, ‘Okay sure, I know that, but what’s that interesting piece of information which I’ve never had?’ Then I’d wade through the more advanced stuff, and that’s where I started playing with my fingers more. I really enjoy that. I’m not sure I’ll be playing fingers with the band – but I enjoy it anyway.”

• The First 21: How I Became Nikki Sixx is out now via Little, Brown.
• Hits is out now via Better Noise Music.

Mötley Crüe's Nikki Sixx started taking bass lessons again before the pandemic, in a bid to become more adept at playing using only his fingers.

The bassist – a staunch pick user – explains in a new episode of My Mom's Basement With Robbie Fox that he “got into this lesson thing” right before the pandemic, and was inspired to further his skills with the instrument.

“I started taking bass lessons online, [and] eventually in person,” Sixx says. “Then I was pushing myself to play with my fingers.”

He continues: “On The Dirt soundtrack, all those songs I played with my fingers, which was the first time. And It took some adjustments with the audio because I'm an aggressive pick player.

The Dirt – a biographical comedy-drama detailing Mötley Crüe's rise to success – was released on Netflix in March 2019. It features Douglas Booth as Nikki Sixx, Machine Gun Kelly as drummer Tommy Lee, Iwan Rheon as guitarist Mick Mars and Daniel Webber as vocalist Vince Neil.

Sixx adds that he also tried to further his six-string playing abilities, revealing that he “started taking guitar lessons online”.

“I just pluck away on the guitar, and I can write an okay song on the guitar, but I don't know a lot about the instrument other than I like to write from root notes.”

“[I know] simple chords,” he continues, “[but] all the suses and all the interchangeable notes that work within that chord, I don't have a ton of knowledge [about], [though] I can kind of figure it out.”

But bass and guitar aren't the only musical disciplines Nikki Sixx has pursued. As he recalls, he also took vocal lessons in the hopes of becoming a “better background singer”.

“I was surprised at the range that I had, but it was a little bit in the lower register – I like to sing more of a falsetto-y thing,” he says.

He might be taking lessons and improving his skills, but Nikki Sixx still rates himself highly as a bassist. Back in 2020, in response to a tweet asking who the most underrated bass player ever is, he replied, “Me”. 

Nikki Sixx and Sixx:A.M. have shared a new song, Maybe It’s Time, featuring guest spots from Slipknot’s Corey Taylor, Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott, Guns N’ Roses electric guitar player Slash, Five Finger Death Punch’s Ivan Moody, Bad Wolves’ Tommy Vext, country singer Brantley Gilbert and AWOLNATION. 

The song, timed to launch with National Recovery Month in September, is part of a music industry-wide initiative to draw attention to the opioid crisis and raise funds to serve the recovery community and save lives.

All artist royalties are being donated to the Global Recovery Initiatives Foundation (GRI) to support those in early recovery, with a matching contribution from SIXX:A.M.’s label, Better Noise Music.

The song was conceived by Sixx, a GRI board member, who said, “I am proud to bring together these artists to help raise funds for the Global Recovery Initiative Foundation. The opioid epidemic did not go away when the pandemic came along. Just the opposite...those in early recovery became even more at risk than before so it's more important now than ever to raise awareness and support them.

“I really believe that united we can make a difference and save lives.”

Maybe It’s Time is also featured on the soundtrack to the upcoming Better Noise Films release Sno Babies. 

Out on video on demand September 29, the film “depicts the grim realities of teenage addiction and its effects on a middle-class suburban town.” Better Noise Films’ share of profits is also being donated to GRI.

You can check out Maybe It’s Time above, and stream or download the track here.

Ever wonder who the most underrated bass player is? According to Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx, the answer is easy: he is.

After Twitter user @TonesofMusic posted the question, “Who is the most underrated bass player ever?” on August 13, another user, Jody Bednar (@jlbednar), replied by tagging the Crue man’s Twitter handle.

Which led to Sixx himself chiming in with a one word answer: “Me.”

In a 2015 interview with For Bass Players Only, Sixx, who is also Mötley’s primary songwriter and lyricist, elaborated on his bass guitar style – which, admittedly, has long been overshadowed by his band’s look, sound and antics.

“I feel my spot is somewhere between a bass player and a rhythm guitar player," he said. "I play with a pick. I play very aggressively. I always have a distortion pedal in line, and I play less melodies and do more stuff against the guitars that create melodies.”

Sixx continued, “Song is king for me, so as long as the song is soaring I’m in my pocket, and then I figure out what I can do to make the song better. In a song like Too Young To Fall In Love, for example, the bass moves from the A to the G to the F, and then towards the end it does the A to the B to the C and it walks up – the same melody line but we just kind of wrap it around a different way.

“It’s those simple little things that are what people remember.”

Here, you can listen to two new tracks from Motley Crüe.

The two new songs, "Ride with the Devil" and "Crash and Burn," were written for the soundtrack of the new Netflix biopic on the band, The Dirt. You can listen to the former track above and the latter track below.

"During the filming of our movie we got excited and inspired to write new music," bassist Nikki Sixx said. "Getting back in the studio with Bob Rock just fueled the creative fires for us. To me, the music sounds like classic Motley. The lyrics were written for the movie and are a reflection of our life."

The Dirt was directed by Jackass’s Jeff Tremaine, and stars Daniel Webber as Vince Neil, Douglas Booth as bassist Nikki Sixx, Machine Gun Kelly as Tommy Lee and Iwan Rheon as guitarist Mick Mars, as well as Tony Cavalero as Ozzy Osbourne and David Constable as former Crue manager Doc McGhee.

The film premiered on Netflix Friday, March 22, with the soundtrack released on the same day.

Motley Crue have shared a new song, “The Dirt (Est. 1981),” the title track to their forthcoming Netflix biopic, The Dirt. You can check it out above.

“The Dirt (Est. 1981),” which features Machine Gun Kelly, who also plays drummer Tommy Lee in the film, is the band’s first new music in four years, and one of four songs the Crue recorded for The Dirt. The remaining three are "Ride With The Devil," "Crash and Burn" and a cover of Madonna's "Like A Virgin." The Crue recorded the songs with producer Bob Rock, who helmed their 1989 smash album, Dr. Feelgood.

Said Crue bassist Nikki Sixx: "During the filming of our movie we got excited and inspired to write new music. Getting back in the studio with Bob Rock just fueled the creative fires for us. To me, the music sounds like classic Motley. The lyrics were written for the movie and are a reflection of our life."

The Dirt was directed by Jackass’s Jeff Tremaine, and stars Daniel Webber as Vince Neil, Douglas Booth as bassist Nikki Sixx, Machine Gun Kelly as Tommy Lee and Iwan Rheon as guitarist Mick Mars, as well as Tony Cavalero as Ozzy Osbourne and David Constable as former Crue manager Doc McGhee.

The film will premiere on Netflix on March 22, with the soundtrack released on the same day. You can check out the full track list for the album below.

The Dirt Soundtrack track list:
1. The Dirt (Est. 1981) (feat. Machine Gun Kelly)  
2. Red Hot
3. On with the Show
4. Live Wire
5. Merry-Go-Round
6. Take Me to the Top
7. Piece of Your Action
8. Shout at the Devil
9. Looks That Kill
10. Too Young to Fall in Love
11. Home Sweet Home
12. Girls, Girls, Girls
13. Same Ol' Situation (S.O.S.)
14. Kickstart My Heart
15. Dr. Feelgood
16. Ride with the Devil
17. Crash and Burn
18. Like a Virgin

John 5 and the Creatures have unveiled the official video for their new song, "Zoinks!" The clip features a slew of guest voices, among them Motley Crue’s Nikki Sixx. You can check it out above.

In the tradition of Scooby Doo and Groovie Goolies, the "Zoinks!" video features a blend of 2D hand-drawn animation, 3D computer-generated imagery and live action. The video was written and directed by Disney animator Brett Broggs (Frozen, Wreck-It Ralph), with live footage shot by Matt Zane. In addition to Nikki Sixx, the video also features the voice acting talents of Susan Olsen (Cindy Brady on The Brady Bunch), and Cinderella drummer Fred Coury, who also scored the video with John 5.

“Zoinks!” will appear on John 5 and the Creatures’ upcoming album, Invasion, due in 2019. 

The band will kick off the second leg of the North American Invasion tour on February 22 in Anaheim, California. The tour will feature support from Jared James Nichols. 

Tickets and VIP packages are available now at John-5.com.

John 5 has shared a preview of his upcoming “Zoinks!” video, which features a slew of guest voices, among them Motley Crue’s Nikki Sixx. You can watch the teaser clip above.

In the tradition of Scooby Doo and Groovie Goolies, the "Zoinks!" video features a blend of 2D hand-drawn animation, 3D computer-generated imagery and live action. The video is written and directed by Disney animator Brett Broggs (Frozen, Wreck-It Ralph), with live footage shot by Matt Zane. In addition to Nikki Sixx, the video also features the voice acting talents of Susan Olsen (Cindy Brady on The Brady Bunch), and Cinderella drummer Fred Coury, who also scored the video with John 5.

“Zoinks!” will appear on John 5 and the Creatures’ upcoming album, Invasion, due in 2019. 

The band will kick off the second leg of the North American Invasion tour on February 22 in Anaheim, California. The tour will feature support from Jared James Nichols. 

Tickets and VIP packages are available now at John-5.com.

Motley Crue’s Shout at the Devil was released on September 26, 1983—35 years ago today. 

Their second full-length overall, the record, which arrived in stores with a controversial black-on-black pentagram-emblazoned cover, proved to be the band’s mainstream breakthrough—elaborate videos for “Looks That Kill” and “Too Young to Fall in Love” were mainstays on MTV, and Motley’s stint as the opening act for Ozzy Osbourne on his Bark at the Moon tour has become legendary both for their performances as well as the band’s offstage hijinks.

In recognition of the album’s 35th anniversary, check out this live performance of “Shout at the Devil” from Motley’s set at the US Festival in San Bernardino, California. Filmed on May 29, 1983, it predates the release of the song and record by roughly four months. Indeed, Vince Neil introduces "Shout" by calling it the “title track from our up-and-coming album.”

As previously reported, Motley Crue, who wrapped up their Final Tour in 2015, have been in the studio with producer Bob Rock working on new material that is likely to be included in the film adaptation of their 2001 autobiography, The Dirt—Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band.

"Exciting news!" wrote Vince Neil on Twitter earlier this month. "I'll be going back in [the] recording studio in a few weeks with the boys to record four brand new Mötley Crüe tracks! Rock on!"

A photo of former Motley Crue band mates Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee together in a recording studio was posted to the band’s official Facebook page yesterday, accompanied by the caption, “28th August 2018.” It can be seen above.

The pic, which also includes producer Bob Rock, who helmed Motley Crue’s smash 1989 effort, Dr. Feelgood, as well as their 1994 self-titled album, has led to speculation that the drummer and bassist are collaborating on new music together, quite possibly for the film adaptation of the 2001 Crue autobiography, The Dirt—Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band.

Motley Crue wrapped their Final Tour on December 31, 2015.

Additionally, Tommy Lee posted a video to his own Instagram of him playing drums, with the caption, “Boomz!!!!!!”

In 2014 Nikki Sixx spoke to Guitar World about potential future opportunities for Motley Crue following their final tour:

“[I]t’s not like, ‘Hey, Mötley Crüe’s gonna quit touring and then we’re going to start releasing full-length records every two years!’ ” Sixx said. “That’s not what we’re looking to do. Our plan is to cease touring and then see what else is out there. One thing we’re going to do is explore different licensing opportunities.”

He continued: “But the only way to take advantage of those opportunities is to end things with dignity. If you crumble and you fall apart at the seams and then try to do that stuff, people are like, ‘Oh, look, Mötley Crüe. They were cool once.’ But I want the fans to have more than that. I want them to have the pride that they have in certain bands and that I have in certain bands that left at the right time. So it’d be real easy to slap our name on anything and everything that comes our way, but we’ve always been very careful to not do that.”

Over the past few months or so, My Favorite Riff with Nikki Sixx has quietly become one of the more interesting outlets for guitarists to discuss their influences and their approach to playing.

On it, Sixx has played host to everyone from Steve Vai and John5 to Joe Bonamassa and Zakk Wylde. Sadly, the series has apparently come to an end, but not before Sixx had the chance to invite one last guitarist onto the show; his good friend Slash.

Slash—who is set for a busy 2018 with Guns N' Roses—discusses his love for Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith, and how those bands inspired him to pick up the guitar (a Gibson Les Paul specifically).

You can watch the full discussion above.

Over the past couple months or so, My Favorite Riff with Nikki Sixx has quietly become one of the more interesting outlets for guitarists to discuss their influences and their approach to playing.

Sixx has already played host to everyone from Steve Vai and John5 to Joe Bonamassa, and this week, he invited Zakk Wylde onto the show.

Wylde—who has both Black Label Society's new album and Ozzy Osbourne's farewell tour on the docket for 2018—talks to Sixx about how bands should stick to what they love, and what it's like to play with Osbourne.

You can watch the full interview above.

Last week, on his web series My Favorite Riff with Nikki Sixx former Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx sat down with Steve Vai to talk riffs, gear and Led Zeppelin. For this week's episode of the show, Sixx sat down with another virtuoso guitarist, former Marilyn Manson and current Rob Zombie axeman John 5.

In the episode, John 5—who recently released a cover of Metallica's "Enter Sandman" with his band, The Creatures—discusses how the television show Hee Haw, of all things, inspired him to pick up a guitar at a young age and how he was able to get hard rock tones out of his Telecaster through customization.

He also, naturally, shows Sixx some of his favorite riffs, and how he has been able to take standard country-style licks and mold them into powerhouse, hard rock riffs.

You can watch the insightful interview in its entirety below.

Yesterday, former Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx sat down with Steve Vai to talk riffs, gear and Led Zeppelin on his series, My Favorite Riff with Nikki Sixx.

Vai also tells Sixx some anecdotes about his time working with Frank Zappa, discussing both an instance in which he transcribed one of Zappa's famously lewd stories into a guitar piece, and how Zappa would push his bandmates into challenging, uncharted musical waters.

You can watch the insightful interview, and a longer, even more in-depth follow-up to the interview—"Deeper With Steve Vai"—below.

Sixx:A.M., the supergroup featuring singer James Michael, guitarist DJ Ashba (Guns N’ Roses) and bassist Nikki Sixx (Motley Crue), have premiered a new song, “Let's Go.”

Check it out below and let us know what you think in the comments or on Facebook!

"That’s a great, heavy song," Ashba recently told Revolver. "It's just balls-out. It's got this cool riff where I play this harmonic part and it comes in with the vibe of a song like Marilyn Manson's 'The Beautiful People.' The guitars sound like an army. It's super high-energy and the solo is really neat. And right when the solo kicks in, the whole entire band breaks down and does this classical-influenced part."

The band’s third album, Modern Vintage, will be released October 7.

Yesterday, Sixx:A.M. released a new song, “Gotta Get It Right” on iTunes.

Today, the band, which features singer James Michael, guitarist DJ Ashba (Guns N’ Roses) and bassist Nikki Sixx (Motley Crue), have premiered the music video for the track. Check it out below and let us know what you think in the comments!

The band’s new album, Modern Vintage, will be released October 7.

Sixx:A.M. have released a new song, "Gotta Get It Right," on iTunes.

Check it out below and let us know what you think in the comments or on Facebook!

The band's new album, Modern Vintage, will be released October 7.

Sixx:A.M. have announced that their third album (cover art pictured to the left and below), Modern Vintage, will be released October 7.

The band also will release a new single, "Gotta Get It Right," next week.

Sixx:A.M. includes bassist Nikki Sixx, vocalist James Michael and guitarist DJ Ashba.

Modern Vintage Track list:

• 01. Stars
• 02. Gotta Get It Right
• 03. Relief
• 04. Get Ya Some
• 05. Let’s Go
• 06. Drive
• 07. Give Me A Love
• 08. Hyperventilate
• 09. High On The Music
• 10. Miracle
• 11. Before It’s Over

This is an excerpt from the June 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the rest of this story, plus features on Mick Mars, Pantera, Carlos Santana, the history of MXR pedals, Nergal, columns, tabs and reviews of new gear from EVH Gear, Dunlop, Randall, Taylor Guitars and more, check out the June 2014 issue at the Guitar World Online Store.

Crüe Cüt: After more than 30 years together, Mötley Crüe are calling it quits. Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx talk about their past excesses and achievements—and what the future holds for them all.

“After this, Mötley’s done!” proclaims Mick Mars. He’s talking about Mötley Crüe’s recently announced Final Tour, which will see the band crisscross the globe—with Alice Cooper in tow for the North American leg—for one last hurrah. It’s a farewell celebration of the highest order, and one that is, Mars assures, truly a farewell.

Indeed, lest anyone think the guitarist and his Mötley mates—singer Vince Neil, bassist Nikki Sixx and drummer Tommy Lee—are, like too many bands before them, merely setting the stage for their next reunion, think again. This past January, the Hollywood-bred foursome staged a press conference under the banner “All Bad Things Must Come to an End,” at which they signed a legally binding “cessation of touring agreement.”

The document prohibits the band members from hitting the road, individually or in any configuration collectively, as Mötley Crüe after 2015, effectively putting a cap on what has amounted to more than three decades of onstage decadence.

Why now? According to Sixx, the idea is to end it the way it began, all the way back in 1981. “We want it to be the same four guys,” he says. “We want it to be while we’re still at the top of our game. We want to go out with dignity.”

Below is an excerpt of the Nikki Sixx portion of the interview. The entire interview — including the Mick Mars portion — can be found in the new June 2014 issue of Guitar World.

EXCERPT: With the Final Tour, Mötley Crüe will be bringing down the curtain on performing live. But there is still a future for the band. For one thing, we can expect to hear some new Mötley music soon, correct?

Yes. Mick Mars and I just recently wrote a really cool track that we’ll probably release sometime in the near future. But it’s not like, “Hey, Mötley Crüe’s gonna quit touring and then we’re going to start releasing full-length records every two years!” That’s not what we’re looking to do. Our plan is to cease touring and then see what else is out there. One thing we’re going to do is explore different licensing opportunities.

But the only way to take advantage of those opportunities is to end things with dignity. If you crumble and you fall apart at the seams and then try to do that stuff, people are like, “Oh, look, Mötley Crüe. They were cool once.” But I want the fans to have more than that. I want them to have the pride that they have in certain bands and that I have in certain bands that left at the right time. So it’d be real easy to slap our name on anything and everything that comes our way, but we’ve always been very careful to not do that.

What would be an example of something you wouldn’t want to attach your name to?

Well, look at the bands who were involved in [the 2012 film] Rock of Ages. Their people came to us early and they showed us the movie and we said, “This is a complete farce. It’s a cheesy movie. It has nothing to do with rock. This is like Mamma Mia! with pretend guitars.” We said we didn’t want to be involved. And then you saw all these other bands line up and do it. They did it for the money. And the thing is, we don’t have to do things for the money.

Plus, with The Dirt, you have your own movie coming out.

Right. We knew we were going to make our own movie about our own story, and we knew that it was going to be a real movie. It’s going to be a cross between movies like Boogie Nights and Goodfellas. It’s going to have a lot of bite to it, like Sid and Nancy. It’s going have the same kind of credibility as Walk the Line and the Doors movie. So that’s already in the works. And we’re also going to put together a very in-depth documentary about the history of the band, from the very beginning all the way to the final farewell bow. So why would we go and attach ourselves to something just for the money?

But you know, musicians mishandle their money all the time. And because they don’t usually have any kind of financial education or knowledge about how to build security, what they do is they live from album to album. Then when the steam runs out, desperate people do desperate things. And it starts to get a little bit embarrassing. Our legacy is too important to us to let that happen.

Speaking of legacy, Mötley Crüe’s was to a large extent built on your reputation for over-the-top antics. Do you feel that the band’s extracurricular activities sometimes overshadowed the music?

At times. But then again, was it also not the spoon that served the oatmeal to your mouth? So all the antics—that was not part of a master plan. We were just out of control and it was a time on Earth where, you know, debauchery was king. And we embraced it. But at the same time, music was everything to us. When we sat in the studio, we didn’t talk about how much we drank.

We talked about the great bands that came before us. We talked about great songs and great lyrics and great melodies. We talked about wanting to be the biggest band in the world, wanting to be the best band in the world, wanting to have the best songs in the world. Are there things we could have done better? Sure. But I think every artist will look at things they’ve done and say, “I think we could have done that better.” But at the time you’re doing your best.

For the rest of this story, plus features on Mick Mars, Pantera, Carlos Santana, the history of MXR pedals, Nergal, columns, tabs and reviews of new gear from EVH Gear, Dunlop, Randall, Taylor Guitars and more, check out the June 2014 issue at the Guitar World Online Store.

Photo: Jeremy Danger

Late last month, Nikki Sixx got Slash on the phone for a great interview for his Sixx Sense radio show.

The pair discussed Slash's latest solo album, Apocalyptic Love, which came out last year. They also delved into Slash's new horror film, Nothing Left to Fear, and lots more.

From IMDB.com:

"Stemming from folklore surrounding the actual town of Stull, Kansas, generations of residents and outsiders alike have proclaimed Stull to be one of the seven known gateways to Hell, where once a year, the Devil will rise from the town’s modest graveyard to walk the Earth.

"For decades, television, music, movies, and more have cautiously addressed the town; its horror is so infamous, even Pope John Paul II refused to fly over its grounds. Nothing Left to Fear finally pulls the folklore to the forefront and reveals the unsettling fact and fiction rumbling beneath the surface."

Check out the entire interview below!

Slash recently announced that he and singer Myles Kennedy have begun working on music for the guitarist's next album, which will be recorded this year.

Guitar Center has posted another exclusive At Guitar Center with Nic Harcourt podcast, this time featuring Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx.

Sixx and Harcourt discuss a little bit of everything, including the passion required to be successful in every facet of the music business and its many related spinoff pursuits.

You can hear the complete interview at this location.

At Guitar Center with Nic Harcourt is an ongoing podcast series created by Guitar Center that delivers unique music, and the stories behind it, as told to Harcourt. The series features exclusive performance videos and audio podcasts of these interviews.

For more information, head here.

Here's a Guitar World video from the 2013 Winter NAMM Show, which took place January 24 to 27 in Anaheim, California.

During the gear- and rain-filled weekend, we paid a visit to the guys at the Schecter Guitars booth to check out some new basses. This video profiles the company's new Nikki Sixx and Johnny Christ (Avenged Sevenfold) signature model basses.

"It was an exciting and creative process to work with Schecter on the new Schecter Sixx Signature Series Bass," Sixx said in a statement before the NAMM Show started. "It was important to all of us to design a bass that would feel right as well as sound amazing in the hands of all players, not just me. Every detail about the new Schecter Sixx comes from all of our collective experiences — whether it's my 30 years of playing live and recording or Schecter's unprecedented standards for making quality instruments for players of all genres. Simply said, this bass rocks!"

The new Johnny Christ model features EMG Active MMCS/81 MMCS dual-coil pickups with wide bobbins — combined with a large coil surface area — that give the MMCS an amazing bass tone. MMCS is a great mixture of design, with ceramic magnets for a transparent high end with steel added to increase the inductance for a powerful and warm low-end.

For more about Schecter (including the basses profiled here), head to schecterguitars.com.

Thanks for following along with GuitarWorld.com's continuous NAMM 2013 coverage on the site, Facebook and Twitter! Even though the NAMM Show is over, be sure to follow Guitar World on Twitter right here.

For more GuitarWorld.com NAMM 2013 gear news, visit and bookmark our dedicated NAMM 2013 page here.

[[ Guitar World at NAMM 2013: Gear updates, photo galleries, videos and more! ]]

Dean Markley USA has teamed up with Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx to create Nikki Sixx Helix HD SS Bass Strings.

The strings, which are made of a stainless-steel alloy, feature the same custom gauges Sixx uses -- and Dean Markley's new Helix patent-pending hyper-elliptical windings.

As Sixx puts it, “Dean Markley puts the bite back in the bass sound.”

From Dean Markley:

"With over a year of research and development, the Helix string uses a precise elliptical shape for the winding wire. The shape then had to be paired with the correct winding process. The hyper-elliptical winding process results in an increased number of wraps along the length of the string.

"This increases the mass of the string without changing its diameter or material. More mass makes a fuller tone; more windings give a smoother feel as well as a brighter, more resonant tone. Additional benefits of the hyper-elliptical windings are a relaxed feel and less unwanted noise. The strings are designed to last much longer without sacrificing tone and performance."

The custom gauges are:

First String: .050 / Second String: .070 / Third String: .090 / Fourth String: .110

MSRP: $49.50 US

For more information, visit DeanMarkley.com.

Last night, Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx appeared on CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight to expound upon a controversial Tweet over the weekend.

After the death of Whitney Houston was announced over the weekend, the often outspoken bassist took to his Twitter account and wrote the following: "You know what's scummy about the music industry? Everybody all of a sudden loves you when you’re dead."

Sixx was then invited to appear on Piers Morgan Tonight to further clarify his remarks, and took the opportunity to criticize certain aspects of the music industry.

"We have a long list of artists who fall prey to enablers. I was hoping people would be saying 'we tried…we stood beside her,' and instead I'm hearing people just stood by and let her be an addict," he said. "We need to educate young artists to not fall victim [to handlers, agents, road mamagers, lawyers, etc. who continue to enable addicts in fear of losing their own revenue stream]."

You can watch full video of Nikki's appearance on the show below.

This month, Motley Crue will become the first hard band to hold a multi-week residency in Las Vegas at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, with 12 shows over a three-week stint.

Bassist Nikki Sixx recently spoke with Huffington Post about his feeling on the Crue coming to Las Vegas.

I'm looking forward to it, but -- to be honest -- I don't love Vegas," he said. "I'm sober so it doesn't make sense for me. It is hard for me to appreciate. There are so many people there and so many people are drunk. Still, if you get outside of the city, the place gets pretty hip. We played a show outside the city last time around and it was very different. Not everyone was drunk. It seemed a long way from all that."

You can read the full interview here.

In other Crue news, a new commercial from Kia set to air during this year's Super Bowl has appeared online, and features Motley Crue along with supermodel Adriana Lima and former UFC champion Chuck Lidell. Head here to watch.

Sixx:A.M. will be releasing a special acoustic EP on December 13. The EP, which is titled 7, is streaming right now in its entirety over at AOL Music.

7 features the band performing acoustic versions of tracks from each of their two albums, 2007's The Heroin Diaries and 2011's This Is Gonna Hurt, including "Life is Beautiful," "Pray For Me" and "Lies of the Beautiful People."

The announcement of the EP was meant as a surprise to fans, who were teased fans with cryptic messages and a one-minute video (see below.) On the EP, vocalist James Michael had this to say:

""A couple of months ago, I asked all of you what songs from The Heroin Diaries soundtrack and This Is Gonna Hurt you would want to hear stripped down, pulled apart and reconstructed from a different perspective... your response was amazing and passionate... as a result, 7 was born.

"This was an incredible experience for the three of us because it caused us to explore way beyond the initial creations and rediscover the songs in a light that you helped us find.

"We are so excited to share this with you.

"Thank you for all of the love and support.

"By the way... 7 isn't the only SIXX: A.M. surprise coming your way!"

From a young kid in Indiana whose first concert was Motley Crue’s Girls, Girls, Girls tour to playing Brazil’s massive Rock In Rio Festival, DJ Ashba has taken his creative talents and become an integral part of two of the most successful bands on the planet.

With a top 10 album in This Is Gonna Hurt with Sixx:A.M. earlier this year and now playing live beside one of rock’s most iconic vocalists, Axl Rose, you could say Ashba is having a pretty good 2011.

While on a day off in Paraguay, he took time to talk to us about his career and the return to the United States for the notorious Guns N’ Roses.

Growing up was there any particular guitarist that you really looked up to and studied?

I cut my teeth on guys like Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai, and Joe Satriani and was so into the guitar and good, good guitarists. Stevie Ray Vaughan, of course. My aunt and uncle got me into a lot of stuff like Foghat, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Rolling Stones and bands I never would have really listened to because I was too young at that time. They really schooled me in stuff like Meat Loaf. I just love those big, theatrical songs.

I really got into classical music because my mom plays classical piano. There was always classical music on. That tends to be why I’d like to get into movie scoring. I fell in love with it when I did the Sixx:A.M. stuff. I got a chance when I co-produced Neil Diamond’s Christmas record. Actually, for the first time I got to create all the orchestra stuff and he had the budget to bring in the orchestra. It was like, “Wow, they’re playing my stuff,” and it sounded amazing.

Now live you're a Les Paul and Ovation guy still?

Yes, I have my own collection with Ovation called the Demented collection. I’ve been with them for many, many years. Gibson has been insanely good with me. It’s really weird. I always recorded with Gibson because, as funny as it sounds, I never got the two-volume-knob thing. It was really awkward to me. I’d be turning one down and it’d still be one. The way I did it, I had them all rewired and had the three-way (pickup selector) put where the second volume was. It keeps it simple. Then I kept the two tone knobs so I could roll one back on the neck pickup for songs like “Sweet Child O’ Mine." Then I just put a kill switch where the pickup selector was. Once I set them up like that, I had my dream guitar.

I’ve used Morley pedals for years. I love that you put your foot on, and it’s on, and if you take your foot off, it’s off. And it’s spring loaded so you can do really cool kick drum patterns with them. Sometimes for me, I just have to simplify things.

Sixx:A.M. has made two fantastic albums. The new record, This Is Gonna Hurt, is a phenomenal album. Is there a next phase or touring plans for the band?

There is. There is talk of us finally doing some shows and getting out there, which is exciting for everybody. Sixx: A.M. has always been a labor of love. We are a band but we are lucky as it is what music was always supposed to be about, fun. We’re not writing for radio, we’re writing for the message. It’s amazing to all of us that Walmart and Target are carrying us.

How is the Guns N’ Roses tour going thus far?

It’s going amazing. Rio was amazing. It was a big dream to do that. Argentina was outstanding. We had a nice reception at the airport from the fans at the airport.

Live, as far as the Chinese Democracy material goes, how do you and Ron (Bumblefoot) split the material?

Live, how it breaks down is that I pretty much take all the Robin [Finck] parts. Bumblefoot is the shred-master so he takes most of the Buckethead’s parts. I play a couple Bucket solos. I do more of the Robin parts. On the catalog material, I take the Slash parts and Richard [Fortus] takes the Izzy parts. All of our styles are so different. I have more of that melodic-blues type feel. Bublefoot has the “blazing saddles." He’s just insane on guitar.

Now this is the million dollar question: Is there new material in the future of Guns N’ Roses?

Absolutely! That’s our main focus. Obviously with me being a song writer and producer, when I got the phone call, I knew I could bring something to the table because I grew up on this music. I cut my teeth on guys like Slash and have the utmost respect for his guitar playing and style. I feel I get where he was coming from. No one will ever replace him, and that’s not why I’m here. I felt I could do the gig justice and stay true to the vision. That’s why I got involved. I really wanted to work with Axl and I thought I could bring something to the table. Axl has a lot of material. I’ve written a bunch of stuff for him.

I can see where having you in the band could be quite an asset. You produce material at a feverous pace. You are like having the producer, guitarist, art director and technologies in the band all at the same time.

I don’t sleep much (laughs)!

For more about DJ Ashba, check out ashbaland.com. Guns N’ Roses begin their US tour Friday, October 28, in Orlando, Florida. Get more details at gunsnroses.com.

Sixx:A.M. have hust premiered their new video for their song "This Is Gonna Hurt." You can check out the video below.

"This Is Gonna Hurt" is the title track off the band's new album, and also the title of the new book from Nikki Sixx, which was released back in April of this year.

We recently caught up with Sixx:A.M./Guns N' Roses guitarist DJ Ashba to talk about both bands, and the latest happening in "Ashbaland." You can read the full interview here.

Nikki Sixx hasn't exactly been kind to Poison on the bands' current tour, even going so far as to admit that Motley Crue fans picked Guns N' Roses and Def Leppard ahead of Poison to tour with the band. Now, he's got some choice words for Poison fans.

Earlier today, Nikki posted the following message to his Twitter account: "You can tell the die-hard CRUE-heads from Poison fans because they run like scared little mice when the blood comes out....sadly, they've lost the plot on why rock 'n' roll exists. It's not built on fear, it's about pushing buttons."

Of course, Sixx has never claimed to be anything but opinionated, telling the Boston Pheonix: "I am the fucking broodiest, moodiest, crankiest . . I am a fucking rock and roll snob."

• Video: Motley Crue Bassist Nikki Sixx Jumps Into Crowd at Show to Confiscate Camera
• Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx: "I Am a Rock and Roll Snob"

This past weekend, Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx pulled what can only be described as an "Axl Rose," diving into the audience at a show to confiscate a video camera from a fan.

Sixx was apparently pretty upset when he saw a fan filming the band's set at Maryland's Outlaw Jam, and after the band finished playing "Saints of Los Angeles," the bassist took matters into his own hands. You can watch the incident (and Axl's, for reference) below.

After the incident, drummer Tommy Lee proclaimed simply: "Taking care of fucking business!"