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Drug Abuse
Through the entire 1980’s when Motley Crue started getting widely known and famous, Nikki Sixx began to get heavily into drugs, specifically heroin, cocaine and alcohol. His downward spiral is documented in his book The Heroin Diaries, which goes through his struggle with addiction, suicide and his long road to recovery. Throughout the book his thoughts, feelings and actions are written while he was addicted to heroin and he even got other people’s opinions and sides of the story throughout his drug induced year.

While there is no question that Sixx was headed down a road that would have some serious consequences, including losing relationships and seriously deteriorating his health, on a cold night on December 24th 1987, Sixx legally died for two minutes. While hanging out one night with Slash, Steven Alder from Guns N’ Roses and Robin Crosby of Ratt, Sixx was injected with a needle of heroin and immediately passed out cold. This was unlike any overdose that had occurred before, Sixx had turned blue and could not be woken up. Pandemonium immediately ensued and when the others failed to resuscitate Sixx, they called an ambulance. Paramedics gave Sixx a shot of adrenaline to the heart and he was rushed to the hospital, this is where Nikki got the inspiration to right Kickstart My Heart in Crue’s album New Tattoo. While Nikki was experiencing his overdose, he has said that he had an out of body experience which has stayed with him years later. Thankfully, Sixx woke up in the hospital a few hours later and he promptly ripped the tubes out of his arm and dragged himself out of the hospital. He ended up getting a ride from two teenage girls who had heard the news on the radio. While in the car they begged Nikki not to do the drugs anymore and gave him a jacket to keep him warm. Although this was a scary near death experience, Sixx did not seem phased at all because after the girls had dropped him off he immediately went inside and began to do even more heroin.

Although Sixx had endured repeated failed rehab attempts, he was finally able to kick his addiction and has since worked hard to advocate for rehabilitation and for people all around to get clean. In an interview with CNN Nikki made a comment about his drug abuse, “25 years ago today I had two almost fatal drug overdoses that changed my life forever. I can’t even see myself these days as that kid who was running head strong into the abyss but I know he taught me how to live when he finally decided to do it for himself. I would of never seen the birth of my four beautiful children and had such a wonderful life (even with its adversity) if I had not kicked drugs. I can’t say it loud enough if you’re into them or considering doing them DRUGS DON’T WORK. The downside is NEVER pretty.” Within Sixx’s recovery, the music has helped him the most and he has written songs with his other band Sixx A.M. as a soundtrack for his book The Heroin Diaries which has been an inspiration to many of his fans.

Original Article Nikki Sixx