Nikki Sixx shed light on why David Lee Roth didn't want to join Mötley Crüe's “Stadium Tour,” which will now play next spring. The 30-date stadium run will also feature Def Leppard, Poison, and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts. Nikki Sixx has just published his third memoir, The First 21: How I Became Nikki Sixx.
Sixx, surmised why the Van Halen frontman decide to pass on the run, telling Forbes, “Yeah, well, he probably influenced everybody. (That band) is a monster. But, y'know, understandably. We all get to make our choices and stuff. I just thought with the body of work that he has with a lot of people, it could be really exciting. I understand his position, too.”
Nikki Sixx spoke about shifting into the role of an elder statesman rocker, explaining, “As you get older, you have to work harder. And I wanted to be transparent about that. I don't want to be like, 'Hey, look at me, I got 400 injections of Botox and I'm 22 years old!' They're like, 'Wait a minute, no you're not! You're 62, and the 22-year-olds are trying to eat your lunch.' That's what you've got to worry about. It's the young wolf that I'm worried about.”
He added, “I'll stay toe-to-toe with the big boys, but the young wolves are coming for us, and they've learned from us, just like I learned from all the great bands. They get to look at the Metallicas, the Mötleys and U2s and GN'Rs . Name it, whatever it is, and they're like, 'Okay, this is what's worked, this is what doesn't work, and we're gonna start our own band.' And I wanted people to understand the hard work that we have to go into. Especially if you're a young band, you could read that first chapter (of The First 21) and go, 'Okay, this is how it's done. And if we want to have a career that's 10, 20, 30 years old, this is a good little roadmap.'”
Nikki Sixx admitted to us that he's astonished at his productivity since getting sober: “It's insane. It's insane. And y'know what? If you manage it well, you can achieve so much on the planet, more than what I used to be able to achieve, which was, 'Let me write ten songs, record an album and go on tour.' That's it. That's all I did. That's like, ridiculous. If all I had to do was make a Motley Crue album and tour, I'd feel like I was gonna slit my wrists, I'd be so bored now.”
The 30-date “Stadium Tour” kicks off on June 16th, 2022 at Atlanta's SunTrust Park and marks Motley Crüe's first live dates since its 2014 / 2015 farewell tour.
