As chief songwriter and bass slayer for one of rock’s most surlyand hedonistic acts, Mötley Crüe, you could say that Nikki Sixx hasseen and done it all. The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star,a dark and in depth look into Sixx’s ravenous two-decade long battlewith drugs and alcohol, is a haunting tale of someone who had the gutsto beat the rock’n’roll cliché. And he’s proud to talk about it, havingtaken the book to the American road for cross-country book signingsthis fall. Sixx also created a few rumblings on Capitol Hill inSeptember when he was invited to speak at the 18th Annual NationalAlcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month luncheon. Nikki Sixx? Rubbingelbows with government officials? You better believe it.
Totally sober for six years now, a very candid Sixx sat down with SPIN.com to discuss the exploration and impact of The Heroin Diaries(“It is brutally honest, it’s gruesome, but it ends in a really greatplace”), his new band, Sixx A.M. (“It was important to write what itfelt like then…”), which composed the book’s accompanying soundtrack,his stint on Capitol Hill (“Politicians really worry about beingpolitically correct”), and his priorities as a rocker Dad (“You justgotta do what you know is right … I’m just honest with them”).
