THE FIRST 21

The Mötley Crüe bassist recalls his rough-and-tumble childhood and early days on the metal scene.

Early in his second memoir, following The Heroin Diaries (2007), Sixx writes this about a Mötley Crüe reunion tour that was postponed due to the pandemic: “We were all watching our intake of proteins, carbs, and greens and keeping track of the calories we burned.” There’s no sanctimony about clean living from the founder of a band that exemplified its exact opposite. Rather, this earnest and often dark book emphasizes how hard he's labored, sober or not, despite tough odds. Born in 1958 as Frank Feranna (credited as a co-author), he spent his childhood bouncing around the West—California, Texas, Idaho, Washington—thanks to an absent father and intermittently engaged mother. His grandparents offered some stability, but he drifted into his teens dabbling in drugs and petty thievery. By his account, he had two saving graces. One was books, particularly Beat-aligned authors like Burroughs and Bukowski, whom he credits for inspiring his band’s sometimes sinister lyrics. Second, of course, was music. The book’s liveliest portions follow Sixx in LA early in his career, largely because his story is one of constant bungling and near misses: musicians treating his early band London like a revolving door, drug-addicted promoters stiffing him for payment, getting on James Caan’s bad side during a thankless pool-cleaning gig. Sixx is never more than a workmanlike writer, and dishier stories fill Mötley Crüe 2001 group bio, The Dirt. But Sixx ably explores how his hand-to-mouth upbringing made him hungry to see his rock-band dreams come to fruition. Proof of his commitment comes at the end of the narrative, when he formally changes his name to Sixx, merging his identity with his stage persona.

Fans-only reading, but with some thoughtful glimpses into the backstory of a very determined musician.