MÖTLEY CRÜE's NIKKI SIXX And TOMMY LEE Talk About DIMEBAG DARRELL: Video Available

MÖTLEY CRÜE's Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee were interviewed by Fox News on Thursday (Dec. 9) about the tragic death of DAMAGEPLAN/ex-PANTERA guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott and their upcoming tour. Download video of the four-and-a-half-minute interview here (Windows Media, 5 MB). An excerpt from the interview follows:

Fox News: Nikki, tell me a little bit about your reaction, first of all, to the loss of Dimebag Abbott and what it means for your part of the music industry.

Nikki: "Actually, Tommy called me last night — it was, like, right when I walked in the door. I was blown away. 'Cause I just spent a day with Dime in London. We were just tearing it up, having a great time. The thing is, he's just… it's the wrong guy for something like that to happen to. He was a sweet soul — one of the few guys who doesn't care about the business, just cares about being a musician.

"For me, I think politicians are gonna start looking at gun control, stuff like that. I think the real issue that should be looked at is mental illness. 'Cause why would somebody do something like this?"

Fox News: Tommy, there's been some speculation that when PANTERA broke up that maybe this fan was disturbed and upset about them abandoning PANTERA. What do you think about that? Is that something that other bands and you worry about in terms of creating such an ardent fan base that someone might do something like this?

Tommy: "You know what?! I'd rather not even comment right now. Darrell is a very close friend of mine, and I'm just gonna leave it out for now. Sorry."

Nikki: "It's kind of hard to talk about it. Most important thing is, we'd like to wish his family, and his brother, obviously…

Fox News: …who was right up there on stage with him. He must be just devastated today. Nikki, let me ask you this. When outsiders, people who aren't that familiar with them or their music, look at it, and they look at the web sites and the posters and read lyrics from songs about death and violence, you know that a lot of people will look at that and say, "Well, this is a culture that created something like this." How do you respond to that?

Nikki: "The people that would say something like that would be on par with the mental illness that I was talking about. That's completely ridiculous. That's…"

Tommy: "…retarded."

Nikki: "That's retarded."

Fox News: Tommy, let's talk a little bit about your upcoming tour and your own music. With regard to this incident, does it change how you feel security as you launch your upcoming tour?

Tommy: "[spends 8 seconds searching for the right words] Maybe we should just get onto another subject."