Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx recently opened up about his feelings on the band’s continuation for the past four decades during an interview with Kerrang! Radio and stated that it sounds unbelievable to him as well in addition to feeling natural since all four members basically grew up together and the friendship made the whole longevity possible.
The story of how Mötley Crüe was formed is like any other rock and metal band in the 1980s, through newspaper ads and previous bands. The band was initially formed on January 17, 1981, when bassist Nikki Sixx left the band ‘London’ and began rehearsing with drummer Tommy Lee and vocalist, guitarist Greg Leon with whom Lee had previously worked in a band called ‘Suite 19.’ After Leon eventually decided not to continue with the band, Sixx and Lee started to look for new members.
That’s when they met Mick Mars through an advertisement he placed in The Recycler and the only two members of Mötley Crüe auditioned the exceptional guitarist, subsequently, Mars was hired as the band’s lead guitarist. While looking for a lead vocalist for the band, drummer Tommy Lee came up with auditioning Vince Neil whom he knew previously from their high school days at Charter Oak High School in Covina, California, as they both had performed in different bands.
After seeing Vince Neil perform with his band, ‘Rock Candy’ at the Starwood in Hollywood, California, Mars suggested they have Neil join the band which was a brilliant idea, however, Neil refused the offer at first, only to join the band on April 1, 1981. The original lineup and the only lineup of Mötley Crüe performed its first show at the Starwood nightclub on April 24.
Since then, Mötley Crüe has been performing all around the world, had released 9 monumental studio albums, countless chart hits for the past forty years and during a recent interview, Nikki Sixx opened up about his feelings after impressively working with the band for four decades and apparently, Sixx himself is also surprised that it’s been 40 years.
Mötley Crüe bassist’s words during the interview:
“I don’t think any of us ever really looked… I don’t think anybody looks that far into the future. But then you start seeing some of the bands that you grew up with hitting their 30th birthday, and you’re, like, ‘Woah. These guys have been around 30 years. That’s amazing.‘ And now 40 years. And now bands that meant so much to me growing up, like Aerosmith, I think they just hit 50 years. In my head, I’m, like, ‘Are they even 50 years old?’ ‘Cause I still see the album cover to ‘Toys In The Attic.’ So it’s cool. It used to be a young man’s game, and now it’s a quality game.”
In addition to revealing his emotions about being with Mötley Crüe for such a long time, Nikki Sixx also opened up about the rare fact that the band’s original lineup still exists to this date which is incredibly unique since most bands experience a number of lineup changes. According to the Mötley Crüe bassist, it’s their friendship that kept them together since all four members grew up together and kept the same energy whenever they had been in the studio.
Nikki Sixx’s statements during the podcast follow:
“I think the camaraderie is a big part of it. And also you’ve gotta realize that anybody you knew 40 years ago, you go from being kids to young adults to married, kids, buy houses. I mean, we were all kind of pretty much living together, and then, at some point, we were going to each other’s houses to visit each other and hang out. And you just realize we’re all experiencing the same really super-cool things.
But no matter what happened in the band or didn’t happen in the band, it all boils down to rehearsal. You’re in rehearsal, there’s a bunch of open pizza boxes, there’s shit scattered everywhere, Tommy’s over there. ‘Dude, shut up. I’m trying to tune my bass.’ Mick’s over there, just all this noise and energy.
And then, all of a sudden, it’s, like, ‘Hey, you guys, you wanna run one?’ And then you run it, and it’s, like, bam. Magic. It’s there again. So whatever happens, not even the stage, it goes back to rehearsal, that moment. ‘Cause, that’s when there’s nobody there. There’s no press. There are no photographers. There’s no management. There’s nothing. It’s just the same four guys.”
You can watch the interview down below.
