NIKKI SIXX Says MÖTLEY CRÜE's 'The Dirt' Movie Is A 'Cautionary Tale'

MÖTLEY CRÜE and SIXX:A.M. bassist Nikki Sixx recently appeared on Virgin Radio UK's "Chris Evans Breakfast Show". The complete conversation can be streamed at this location (interview starts at the 4:40 mark). A few excepts follow (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On the debauchery captured in the new film adaptation of the band's 2001 memoir, "The Dirt":

Nikki: "It's been over 30 years since I was a heroin addict. That time was unbelievable. The stories go on and on and on. When I was a kid, I grew up in the '70s. Those were my bands — mostly, that British bands were the ones [that] somehow connected with me, and a lot of that, I was emulating and the band was emulating when we first started out. Whether it was the [SEX] PISTOLS or BLACK SABBATH, it was the same thing — it was like, more is more, and we just kind of lived that life, but there are repercussions from that. That, I think, might be the cautionary tale in the movie."

On the point at which things started to "go off the rails":

Nikki: "The movie really does a great job of giving each individual band member's back story, so you sort of understand. The thing that was always fun about being in MÖTLEY CRÜE was that we were all so different. One guy was into the blues; one guy was into punk; one guy was into more rhythm stuff. We all met somewhere — like, all agreeing on CHEAP TRICK and T.REX and stuff like that, but we wanted to play heavier than that. It was all great, but because of the lifestyle that we lived, it catches up with you. When it really was at is worst was, maybe, '86. We came out in '81, so by '86, we were selling out — we'd been probably four years of selling out arenas and stadiums, and the thing about the '80s, because this movie is really era-specific, is every time we did something wrong, we got, like, a cookie for it. It was like, 'Hey, good job — you guys rolled a car. Your album sales went up. You just threw more televisions out of the window.' As a young kid, you're like, 'This is great'... You would hear things, I remember, about a lot of the guys I was drawn to — more of the outlaw-type artists — and that's where drugs came into play for me. When I was first introduced to heroin, I thought, 'Well, Johnny Thunders does heroin. He's super-cool, so I'll give it a shot.' That's how it starts."

On his addictive personality:

Nikki: "I get obsessed with things, and that's part of why I'm successful in a lot of different areas. I threw myself headstrong right into it right away, because that's the people I was surrounded [with]. It was like the more, the better. It was through multiple overdoses and then finally hitting bottom... I'm really lucky that I was at my worst with heroin addiction for one year. That's why I ended up writing the book 'The Heroin Diaries', and that also not only shows a little bit of a backstory for me and my relationship with my parents — or [rather], the one I didn't have with my parents, and sort of feeling abandoned and trying to fill that hole. It also talks a lot about recovery, and that's what we're working on right now — a musical that will be coming out next year, and it really shows the recovery side of it. We're hoping that 'The Heroin Diaries' musical will do for the opiate epidemic what 'Rent' did for AIDS. That's kind of our goal."

On whether he's straight edge nowadays:

Nikki: "I have nothing. I don't think it would be a good idea. A lot of people go out to dinner [with me], and they're like, 'I'll have an iced tea.' I'm, like, 'Drink what you usually drink. I'm not 'sobo cop' here.'"

"The Dirt" will premiere on Netflix on March 22. The soundtrack will arrive the same day and features a string of CRÜE classics, as well as three new songs and a cover of Madonna's "Like A Virgin". The first of the new tunes, "The Dirt (Est. 1981)", a collaboration with rapper Machine Gun Kelly, was released last month.

Machine Gun Kelly — whose real name is Colson Baker — plays MÖTLEY CRÜE drummer Tommy Lee in the movie. "The Dirt" also stars Daniel Webber ("The Punisher") as singer Vince Neil, Douglas Booth as Sixx and Iwan Rheon ("Game Of Thrones") as guitarist Mick Mars.

"The Dirt" was picked up by Netflix after being previously developed at Focus Features and before that at Paramount.