Post #9: The Heroin Diaries
Post number nine is for Nikki Sixx's autobiography, The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of A Shattered Rock Star. The following will contain spoilers, although if you're interested at all in this book, or have read The Dirt, you probably already know the gist because you're more than likely a fan of Nikki Sixx, and he's never been shy about telling you what he's done in his life.
Anyway, here is the obligatory spoiler space!
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This book was very O_O-inducing, as I'd expected it to be, having read portions of The Dirt. It is really amazing that this guy is still alive today. There were several parts that made my jaw drop open (including a line from a Canadian DJ who got fired the day after having Nikki and Tommy on his show during the Girls, Girls, Girls tour) but one entry just cracked me up completely (the book was literally Nikki's diary that he kept from December 1986-December 1987 that they turned into a book, with notes and things added in by people who were a part of Nikki's life during this time). It was from October 1, 1987, when the big earthquake hit LA.
I didn't know what to do so I ran outside, pipe in hand, and the door locked itself behind me. I was naked and had to run around the back of the house and break the window to get in. Then the alarm went off, and the security company called. Days like this I wish I didn't get out of bed.
5 p.m. Flushed the coke in case there is another quake. I don't think my heart can take it...
While the first part of this is what made me laugh out loud, it was the line about how he didn't think his heart could take another shock that kind of made me sit up. His diary is full of lines like this: "I've got to stop, this is going to kill me", "I've got to get help", "I've got to get a grip", etc. He knew he had a serious problem, but just didn't know how to stop. And his lifestyle - and that of his bandmates - just made it even worse. I did like seeing the entries that were written while Guns N' Roses was touring with Mötley - compared to them, GN'R was downright tame. And it amused me that Nikki thought Axl was a twat because he wouldn't party with them; say what you will about the man, but he, at least, managed to stay clean.
It was kind of interesting to see just how smart Nikki was when he wasn't high. He wrote several things in his diaries that have since come true (the downfall of the Hair Metal genre due to all the copycat bands that followed in Mötley's footsteps and the fact that Dr. Feelgood, the album that Nikki wrote once he got clean, went to #1) and there was also a note about how he managed to get Mötley's back catalogue out of the clutches of their record label - something no other band (to my knowledge) has ever accomplished. (In fact, there was something like a gag order on Nikki and anyone else related to the coup that said they couldn't tell how they did it in the book because the label didn't want anyone else taking a page out of Nikki's book.) And the fact that he did it while he was drugged out of his mind was pretty damn amazing; just think of everything he could have accomplished if he'd spent more time being sober.
It also amazes me that Nikki Sixx turned 50 this month! The man doesn't look it. In fact, I think he's even better to look at now than he was when he was younger. Observe!
Sigh. He's so pretty. :-P
Anyway, if you're at all interested in Mötley
Crüe or Nikki Sixx I recommend the book. But be forewarned; there are
definitely plenty of parts that are downright dark and nasty.
