Nikki Sixx: I was ready to call time on Motley Crue

Nikki Sixx (Image credit: Getty)

Nikki Sixx says he was “just ready” to call time on Motley Crue.

The bassist is focused on his other band Sixx AM after Crue played their last ever gig on New Year’s Eve in Los Angeles. And he reveals he, Mick Mars, Tommy Lee and Vince Neil had been planning their farewell for years.

Sixx AM released Prayers For The Damned Vol 1 last month – the first part of a double album, with the second part due later this year.

Sixx tells Metal Hammer: In Residence on Spotify: “Some people were like, ‘Were you sad, were you mad, were you glad?’ I think I was just ready.

“We were at a place where we had decided about four or five years ago that we’d said most of what we’d wanted to say. We couldn’t really produce music together anymore. We had somehow just ceased to be a creative animal and it had become a production animal.

“We were playing these songs that we were really proud of, but we weren’t writing anything new. The band was all in different head spaces and different places.

“And that happens. But we said, ‘Well how are we gonna do this? Are we gonna keep doing this or are we gonna call it a day and go out on our terms?’”

He continues: “Once we decided that, it was about going around the world and playing those songs, with that production and the original four band members and then, on a certain night, December 31 in Los Angeles where we started - ending it and never looking back.

“I’d looked back fondly, but at the same time I was already looking forward. We had already recorded the double album. The next morning I went on vacation for two weeks with my wife and just checked out. I came back re-energised and ready to go.”

Sixx AM have a string of tour dates lined up for this year. Last month, they called on YouTube to pay artists a fair fee for streaming their music and videos.

Metal Hammer: In Residence is available on Spotify now, and includes interviews with Iron Maiden, Ghost and Bring Me The Horizon. A Spotify Premium account is required to hear the interview segments.

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Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.