Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx has admitted that he always wanted to be far from the spotlight in the band and during the live shows.
In a new interview with Bass Player, the bassist explained why he wanted to be ‘invisible.’ “I think my role in the band was to just lay in the groove. To grind the f*ck 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,” he admitted.
“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,” the bassist revealed. “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?’”
Earlier, Sixx responded to the comments saying he isn’t a great bassist because he isn’t a shreddy bassist. “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 told Guitar World in 2022. “I want to take one note and I want to maximize it, like how John Lennon wrote [The Beatles’] ‘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.”
“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,” he added.
Although Sixx has been accused of lacking the skills to play bass in the studio, names like Tommy Henriksen and John 5 backed the bassist, telling the naysayers to ‘f*ck off.’
