NIKKI SIXX: 'MÖTLEY CRÜE Is A Dysfunctional Band'

BRIDES OF DESTRUCTION bassist Nikki Sixx (of MÖTLEY CRÜE) fame and guitarist Tracii Guns recently spoke to Pitriff.com about the much-rumored CRÜE reunion/farewell tour and the early lineup changes that plagued BRIDES OF DESTRUCTION before the group settled into their current four-man format.

Regarding the possibility of a MÖTLEY CRÜE tour in light of the fact that singer Vince Neil keeps changing his tune on whether he wants to be part of it, Sixx said, "MÖTLEY is a dysfunctional band, at best! Communication is not always really open. One of the biggest problems is that Vince has his own manager, and [drummer] Tommy [Lee] has his own manager, very much like a lot of bands. MÖTLEY CRÜE has a manager who manages me and [guitarist] Mick [Mars] and MÖTLEY CRÜE. So, when we're making decisions for MÖTLEY CRÜE, we're making the decisions, and a lot of times, Vince is out of the decision process. Being out of the band really is being out of the decision process. A lot of things that are done for the betterment of the group aren't always individually based. They aren't self-serving, but they're all of us serving. So, what happens is that people start feeling like, 'What do you mean we're doing a movie?' Then we sit down and we talked about doing a movie. We said we were going to take a hiatus, and three years later, we have gone and got the movie and all this stuff. Vince is like, 'I'm not involved, so I'm not doing it.' Then I have to sit down with Vince and show him that this is all the stuff that we said we were going to do. A lot of it is his management not being involved in the process, because they don't manage the band. Now, we've sort of gotten rid of his manager and Tommy's manager. They are sort of on the sidelines. They still manage those guys as solo artists, but now everyone is in the same camp, and we've kind of gone, 'Yeah, OK,' and now it's all making sense."

When asked about the departures of early BRIDES OF DESTRUCTION members John Corabi (ex-MÖTLEY CRÜE) and Kris Kohls (ADEMA),Sixx said, "Kris came in at first, and we really liked Kris. He was the original drummer, and Tracii introduced us to Kris and brought him in. We thought he was a really good fit. Unfortunately, or fortunately however you want to look at it, he, like me and Tracii, was in another band. His band was getting ready to ramp up and start doing stuff, not like us, with MÖTLEY being completely off and Tracii in kind of a limbo position with L.A. GUNS. So, he had to go back and start working. We had just gotten started working, so we needed another drummer. Fortunately, or unfortunately, who knows, because then we met Scott Coogan.

"[As for Corabi], John was kind of coming down to rehearsals. We were just kind of feeling it out. You know, what happened was that the first set of songs that we wrote were just us kind of getting to know each other. Some of the songs on the record like 'Natural Born Killer' [and 'Revolution'] . . . are kind of a more pop flavor with a little punk and metal thrown in there. Then as the band started to get to know each other, then we became more metal and punk with a pop overtone. In other words, it was backwards. I think that John, being a singer and a songwriter in his own right, kind of was like, 'You know, I'm not sure where this is going. This isn't really where I'm coming from.' I think the first set of songs was about where he was coming from. I think he was just striving to be his own musician too. He kind of wanted to do his own thing. He kind of organically kind of came in, and then he just kind of came out. He never really officially came in. It's kind of like a really nice splinter. We've known him for so long, and we really were just kind of jamming."

"All of a sudden, we just got really aggressive, I think," Tracii added. "We were rehearsing for a couple of months and writing and changing drummers. Me and Nikki always knew where we wanted to go, and everyone around us just had to kind of be patient. All of a sudden, about two months in, I brought in music for stuff like 'I Don't Care' and 'Shut The Fuck Up'. Nikki was like, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's do it.' Those aren't the only heavy songs we wrote. We wrote all these songs in a period of time. John…he's like a classic ZEPPELIN rock guy. He likes the really heavy stuff, but it's not really his cup of tea. He just bowed out and said, 'You know guys, this is your thing. Go rock!' "

Pitriff.com's entire interview with Nikki and Tracii is available online in streaming audio at this location.