"When the time is right, put us in a coffin and fire up those avatars": Nikki Sixx is up for Mötley Crüe continuing as avatars once the band are dead

Nikki Sixx and Kiss avatars — (Image credit: Christopher Polk/Billboard via Getty Images, Kiss)

Nikki Sixx has declared that he would be up for Mötley Crüe becoming an avatar band, once the real members are no longer alive.

The bassist revealed his thoughts on Mötley Crüe's potential virtual future in a new interview with Rockklassiker, stating how he believes it would be a great way to make their music available to fans for years to come.

He says, “I love technology. I think [it’s good] as long as it’s coming from an artist that says, ‘I have something I wanna do and this technology is gonna help.’”

Sixx continues, "At some point, we’re not gonna be here anymore.… not to be a Debbie Downer, but it’s just not gonna happen. And how great for your band – or whatever it is that you do – to be able to go forward for generations and generations. So I think, when the time is right, put us in a coffin and fire up those avatars.”

Noting how Crüe have always been in favour of using technology to enrich their performances, he adds: "We did some stuff with holograms years ago, before the technology was really fleshed out.”

Following the end of their live career, in December 2023, Kiss revealed their collaboration with Industrial Light & Magic and Pophouse and that they would be moving forward in avatar form.

Their first avatar shows are set to take place in 2027, and will see the band follow in the footsteps of the hugely successful Abba Voyage show in London, in which the four members of the Swedish pop icons perform as lifelike 3D projections.

Other bands who have deliberated over the idea of doing their own virtual performance include Led Zeppelin, with Jimmy Page revealing in 2022 that the band were approached with the idea of staging their own.

According to Page, Zeppelin were in discussion to do “that sort of thing” long before the idea of Abba's show was revealed, but, according to a report in The Guardian, he admitted that he and the band's two surviving members, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones weren't totally keen on the idea, so the project “didn’t really get moving."

Last year, Krist Novoselic said that Nirvana doing a virtual 'reunion experience' isn't totally out of the question. “You never know!” the bassist said to MOJO. “I’ll say ‘no way’, then it’s like, ‘How much?? When do we start?!’”.

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Liz manages Louder's social media channels and works on keeping the sites up to date with the latest news from the world of rock and metal. Prior to joining Louder as a full time staff writer, she completed a Diploma with the National Council for the Training of Journalists and received a First Class Honours Degree in Popular Music Journalism. She enjoys writing about anything from neo-glam rock to stoner, doom and progressive metal, and loves celebrating women in music.