Nikki Sixx
Biography

Nikki Sixx (Frank Carlton Ferrano), an American bassist, was born December 11, 1958. Nikki was raised in Jerome, Idaho, by his grandparents. As a teenager Nikki started living his life on the wild side, stealing from house's, vandalizing, selling drugs, and shoplifting. He was then sent to live with his mother in Seattle. As a teenager he bought his first bass guitar after selling a guitar he had stolen and while living with his mother, for a short time, had learned to play the bass. At age seventeen, he set out on his own and moved to Los Angeles, California.



In Los Angeles, Nikki worked at a liquor store and as a vacuum salesman. In his spare time, he was the bassist for London (featuring Lizzie Grey and Mott vocalist Nigel Benjamin), a glam pop / rock band. London later went on to feature other artists such as Izzy Stradlin & Slash of Guns n Roses, Nadir D'Priest, Fred Coury (Cinderella, Arcade), and Blackie Lawless (W.A.S.P.). Nikki also auditioned for bands such as Quiet Riot (w/ Randy Rhoads and Kevin Dubrow) and Sister (featuring Blackie Lawless). But it wasn't until 1981, when he and drummer Tommy Lee (Thomas Bass) formed the band Motley Crue, that success began to finally come to the bassist.



The final additions to the band came when Mick Mars (Bob Deal) and Vince Neil (Vincent Wharton) joined, completing the Motley Crue lineup. The band self-produced their debut album "Too Fast For Love" in 1981. The independent release sold so many copies that they were able to sign a recording contract with Elektra Records. Elektra repackaged and reproduced "Too Fast For Love" and released it on their label. However, it wasn't until their second album, "Shout at The Devil", that Motley Crue attained national fame. Along with that fame came drug and alcohol problems for Nikki and his bandmates.



Nikki was said to be a heroin addict and in 1987 overdosed on the drug and was dead for two minutes. He was rushed to a hospital and was revived by two adrenaline shots to the heart. Once he awoke, Nikki escaped from the hospital and was picked up by two girl fans. Later, on the same night, Nikki used again and woke up in his bathroom with a needle dangling from his arm. He did not attempt to get sober until 1989 when all Motley Crue members checked into a treatment center.

After the band completed treatment, they released their most successful album to date. "Dr. Feelgood" stayed on the charts for 114 weeks after it was released. Although Nikki has never been considered a great bassist, he has excelled as a songwriter and wrote many of the bands biggest hit songs such as "Live Wire", "Looks that Kill", "Shout at the Devil", "Too Young to Fall in Love", "Dr. Feelgood", "Kickstart my heart", and "Girls,Girls,Girls".



Motley Crue Post 80's
Since then, Motley Crue has released several subpar recordings, including the recent, "Saints of Los Angeles". Their most successful album, since "Dr. Feelgood", was the self-titled recording, released in 1994, featuring new vocalist John Corabi. Although Corabi was blamed for the album only going gold (all previous Crue albums had gone mutli-platinum), it was still quite an achievement. At that time, all bands from the 80's glam era were considered dinosaurs and outdated, after the Seattle grunge movement all but killed that genre.



Nikki Sixx Current News
Nikki Sixx has wavered very little in his determination to make Motley Crue and himself relevant. He has written and published a book, "The Heroin Diaries", about his 1986 to 1987 heroin addiction. He also co-wrote a soundtrack to go along with it. The band Sixx A.M. was formed and released their album August 21, 2007. The album broke Billboard's Top 100 chart and featured the hit single, "Life is Beautiful". The latest creation by Nikki is "Cruefest", a touring concert / festival featuring several hard rock bands.