WEBVTT - Nikki Sixx 0:00:01.960 --> 0:00:04.880 Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Inside the 0:00:04.920 --> 0:00:08.119 Studio on iHeart Radio. My name's Jordan runt Dog. But 0:00:08.280 --> 0:00:11.680 enough about me. My guest today needs no introduction, but 0:00:11.720 --> 0:00:13.400 we're going to give him one because he was in 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:16.560 Motley Crue and he deserves it, damn it. In addition 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:18.960 to being a bona fide rock legend, he's also a 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:22.160 writer and an activist. He showcased both talents with his 0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:25.360 two thousand seven memoir The Heroin Diaries, A Year in 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:28.600 the Life of a Shattered rock star. The brutally honest 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:31.360 self portrait top the New York Times bestseller's list and 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:35.440 helped change the conversation around addiction and recovery. Now he's 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:37.960 back with a new book about his early years, entitled 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:41.519 The First twenty one How It Became Nikki six. It 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:44.960 chronicles his tumultuous youth, being shuttled among family members in 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:48.000 the Midwest before heading the Los Angeles at age seventeen 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:51.720 to seek his fortune. Sure, they're hedonistic tales of l 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:54.360 a at its most deboshed in the late seventies, but 0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:56.880 The First twenty one is also a story about hope, 0:00:57.160 --> 0:01:01.000 hard work, and endurance. I'm so happy to welcome NICKI six. 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:08.720 First off, every superhero needs their origin story, and that's 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:11.160 what the first twenty one is. Your new memoir focuses 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:14.280 on your early years. What kick started this project, What 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:17.280 made you decide that to share this part of your story. Now, 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:22.639 one thing that really concerns me and has for years, 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:31.200 is that athletes, musicians, you people, entrepreneurs that come into money, 0:01:32.200 --> 0:01:34.880 a lot of times they end up broke. So you know, 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:37.040 I have this this way that I do it, and 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:40.240 I've done it since day one. I save and of 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:43.760 everything I ever make, that's after taxes, after commissions, and 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:46.440 I have to adjust my life around that. So I 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:48.520 wanted to kind of write a book and like help 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:54.360 other people like um. You know, they have these ideas 0:01:54.400 --> 0:01:56.920 and dreams, spend their whole life and then they get 0:01:56.960 --> 0:01:58.680 a deal with the m b A and then five 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:02.880 years later they're broke. Um And and I was really 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:06.320 excited about the idea. And we have property where we 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:08.800 live here in Wyoming, and the back part of my 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:11.280 property is like twenty acres. I go back on the 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:14.760 back part and I'm sitting on this kind of the 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:17.320 end of the property goes down into a gulch and 0:02:17.360 --> 0:02:23.120 I was sitting at the crow Flies. I'm literally two 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:25.760 hours from where I grew up in Idaho, right across 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:29.000 the grants. So I'm looking out and I'm just I'm 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:33.800 thinking to myself, Um, you know, just how beautiful and 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:36.960 difference this is that Hollywood and it reminds me of 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:40.520 my childhood. And then I had this fleeting thought and um, 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:45.160 it was like where did everybody go? And UM, I 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:48.440 came in the house and I wrote this like couplet, 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:52.320 like a short poem, and it said, um. One of 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:55.160 the lines was, you know, once once I, once I 0:02:55.240 --> 0:02:59.840 started to fly, I forgot up. And it wasn't you 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:04.800 that lost out. It was me, in a lot of ways, 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:11.240 losing connection to childhood friends and two family. And that's like, 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:15.160 you know, the the Financial Book is something I'd like 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:18.400 to do sometime in the future. But it doesn't sound 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:21.680 very sexy. You know, it doesn't sound very it's you know, 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:25.440 it does really anybody that book? Now during the pandemic, 0:03:25.480 --> 0:03:28.960 there's enough stress, and you know, I'm sixty two. You know, 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:31.799 maybe in you know, eight ten years, that's something that 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:38.640 might be more interesting. And UM, I called up our say, UM, 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:41.280 I want to tell my story from birth to twenty one. 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:43.960 But the day I changed my name to Nikki six, 0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:47.880 we started talking about it and we got really excited. 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:52.480 It's it's a prequel speaking. Also, it was an opportunity 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:54.480 to not only tell a story of a small town 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:57.240 boy that fell in love with, you know, music of 0:03:57.400 --> 0:04:01.760 first on AM radio and then FM and then vinyl 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:06.880 and the small four thousand people uh and took that 0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:11.000 that passion and went for it. And it's it's the 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:14.280 obstacles along the way, It's the lessons you learned, it's 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:18.080 everything that was able to put together in the first 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:22.440 twenty one years. I believe that whether you're talking to 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:26.200 Lebron James, or if you're talking to top race car 0:04:26.320 --> 0:04:31.520 driver or if you're talking Richards, probably somewhere in their 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:34.400 first twenty one years they're going to have that kind 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:36.760 of like aha moment, like this is what I want 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:41.240 to do. People in radio tell me, yeah, remember the 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:43.680 moment I'm going to be in radio. People that are 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:47.360 podcasters were like telling me that they were influenced by 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:50.000 these people. And then when podcasting came along, gave an 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:52.600 opportunity and a lot of this happens in our youth 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:56.680 because in our youth, we throw into the wind. And 0:04:56.760 --> 0:04:59.719 if you're Tony Hawk now you probably don't want to 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:03.039 jump off the top of a house on a skateboard. 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:05.839 But when he was in his first twenty one years, 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:09.200 I'm sure it's what one of the greatest he was, 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:12.080 you know, felt invincible, and so I wanted to capture 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:16.120 some of that innocence and the discovery of music. Yeah, 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:18.520 what was that aha moment for you? What did success 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:20.400 look like for you as a kid growing up in 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:25.200 in Idaho, Um. I never really knew there was such 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:29.280 a thing as success when money or any of it. 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:31.240 I just wanted to be in a band. I wanted 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:35.640 to people that wanted to do the same thing I 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:39.839 wanted to do, which was to play music. And my 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:42.520 my idea of what I wanted for music was is 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:45.160 not the same as that guy or that guy and 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:49.680 uh San slugging it out and going through auditions and 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:53.400 trying to put together musicians were like minded. And I 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:58.240 was very, very strategic and very organized in my heads, 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:01.200 like I am in a band with a guy that 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:04.080 like that, and a guy like that, like I gotta 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:08.440 have a band with four stars in the band, five 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:11.160 stars like that's what I want, That's what I grew 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:16.120 up with, UM, And so it was the that the 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:19.039 focus of what I wanted while I was learning to 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:23.240 be a songwriter, UM and copying the greats, whether it 0:06:23.279 --> 0:06:26.800 was the Cheap Tricks or the Miss Sweets or the 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:30.240 Slaves and the Pistols and putting it all into my 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:35.560 own blender and coming up with the ideas. So then, UM, 0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:39.680 it was really hard for me because nobody in Angulists, 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:41.839 well that's not true, not nobody. A lot of people 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:44.640 Los Angeles didn't want to play original music. So I 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:47.440 would go to auditions and it was a top forties 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:50.039 circuit back then, so you had to be able to 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:54.080 play Summer analyd Zeppelin, you had to be able to 0:06:54.080 --> 0:06:58.680 play Tennessee See and uh you know, I don't know, uh, 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:03.760 Parliament in Cadelic and these musicians got fantastic because of 0:07:04.520 --> 0:07:07.880 Mark came up through that playing four sets, and I'd 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:10.360 being able to play everybody's music. That's why it's such 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:13.920 a great player. I would go to these auditions and 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:16.440 they would be um, like, well, you know, you're not 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:21.600 exactly playing designs by foreigner exactly like on the record, 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:23.760 and I'd be like, yeah, I mean, you know, I 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:26.320 don't know. I kind of play the way I play. 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:29.240 And by the way, I have a bunch of original music. 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:34.080 We don't original music. There's no money in it. And 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:36.800 I was like, the best, what's the purpose of being 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:40.240 a musician if you don't. I was young. You don't 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:42.560 write your own music, you don't write your own lyrics. 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:48.200 If you don't, whatever you're going through And um so 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:51.880 I just eventually had to start putting bands together. So 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:53.440 this would have been you got to to l A 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:56.760 when you were seventeen and what around seventy five? What 0:07:56.880 --> 0:07:59.160 was l A like at that time? This is post 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:02.160 Laurel can you sort of post the Troubadour club type 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:05.640 of stuff? Like what was the scene like then? It 0:08:05.760 --> 0:08:10.239 was great? It was really great because, um you punk 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:14.320 rock and it was kind of faltering and new Wave, 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:18.640 which was in retrospect, had some bands with some really 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:23.720 good songs. But as a young kid that was watching 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:27.880 Don Kirschner's concert Midnight Special and seeing the New York 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:31.720 Dolls and see an Aerosmith on a stage this big 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:34.280 and just doing train cap rolla and I'm like, this 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:38.800 is not again. It just reinforced what I wanted, but 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:42.520 that there was There was rock bands, and there was 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:46.120 some kind of hippie rock bands, and there was punk rock, 0:08:46.800 --> 0:08:51.320 and there was new way. I just felt like none 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:54.280 of it fit me. I wanted to push. And that's 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:58.520 where eventually, uh, you know, getting together with Blackie law Las. 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:03.520 We were like minded. Uh you know, we formed a 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:06.640 band which was Blackie's band if you if you read 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:10.679 the book called Sister and Um, then it was all 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:14.079 original music. I remember sitting there with Dane Range and 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:19.160 come John st John on keyboards, Lizzie Graham guitar, Blackie 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:22.960 on guitar and vocals, and me on bass in a 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:28.120 studio and I, uh, it was first pretty you know. 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:32.439 And I called my grandparents back in Idaho and I said, Um, 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:37.920 I found the people, right, I found the people, um, 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:42.640 and I knew that was the right path. Blackie is 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:46.800 a leader. I'm like naturally like a band leader because 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:49.440 I had to become. Otherwise I would have been on 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:52.120 the top forty circuit and i'd I'd still be playing 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:57.800 cold as I in Orange County. Um and so. But 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:02.960 Blackie fired me and Lizzie and Dane because we were green. 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:06.920 We weren't very good in the studio and that I 0:10:07.040 --> 0:10:09.880 already been writing all these songs, but it's Blackie's band 0:10:10.040 --> 0:10:13.120 is Blackie's songs, which later went on to become WASP, 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:17.760 and he's a great songwriter and very talented musician. Um 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:21.400 and we formed again. It was like, well, we don't 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:24.800 want to be the Plimsils or the go Gos or 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:27.960 the Knack, and we don't want to be Fear or 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:34.880 Dead Kennedy's we want cheap trick a meats, you know, 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:38.880 Matta Hoople queen And that's where the band London. That's 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:42.000 how it formed. And then we got really big on 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:46.719 the scene because there was nothing like it, and I 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:48.320 knew I was on the right path, you know what 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:51.120 I mean. I wasn't playing other people's music or I 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:54.520 wasn't in someone else's band, because you were being true 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:57.360 to your own voice. I mean, was that ever scary 0:10:57.400 --> 0:10:59.680 for you though? Were there ever moments when you thought, okay, 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:02.040 this this might not work out? Or did that not 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:05.079 even cross your mind? At that point? It didn't even 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:08.400 cross my mind. I never even thought about it, and 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:14.319 I never considered quitting. Um No, if that's uh courage, 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:17.079 you know, you say, oh, that young kid had courage 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:22.200 or or if he was just had blind faith. But 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:25.960 I wanted what I wanted lived in twenty four hours 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:28.360 a day. It's all I thought about. All the way 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:31.280 back in Idaho. I would draw pictures of bands. I 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:34.360 would draw the you know, the amps and with the 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:38.440 stage that would look like in in in the writing 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:41.520 this book, we went all the way back and like that, um, 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:46.679 you know, reconnected with old friends, my first girlfriend, and 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:51.480 a couple of the people said, yeah, the thing we 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:55.239 were on in Jerome, Idaho, population four thousand. On Fridays, 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:58.720 they would have an auditorium. Some musicians would come in 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:02.280 from wherever or and I remember there was this like 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:07.160 bass player, huge h afro and bell bottoms, and this 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:10.200 guitar player that had this long, shaggy hair and a 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:13.040 weird mustache and a drink. And I was just like, 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:17.360 that is what I'm talking about the band last week. 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:20.720 And everybody would always say I would leave these things, 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:23.840 whether it was in Los Angeles or in Idaho or 0:12:23.840 --> 0:12:26.640 in Seattle. And I made my notes of what they 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:31.120 did wrong, what if they they did this, if that 0:12:31.320 --> 0:12:34.640 been that hook should have started and and and they 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:36.840 all laughed. They were like, oh my God, it was 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:41.840 like torture. You know, notebooks full of what the perfect band. 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:45.679 It's all I thought about. And it was the songs 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:51.720 and the lyrics and the visual and and um. Anything 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:56.280 short of that I wasn't interested in. It's so fascinating 0:12:56.280 --> 0:12:58.840 to me going through sort of the list of influences 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:01.240 you've cited. I mean, you've got Queen and Sabbath, but 0:13:01.280 --> 0:13:04.480 also you've got like Harry Nielsen and Elton John and 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:08.360 these people that really are amazing songwriters. I mean, the 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:10.960 craft that goes into their their pieces are so interesting. 0:13:11.000 --> 0:13:13.240 I mean, who are some people like that that are 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:16.360 you know, maybe not people that people would necessarily expect 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:19.000 to be influences on you, but folks that really taught 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:20.960 you what it is to make a good song and 0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:25.000 a good melody and really craft that. It was about studying. 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:29.200 It was about studying, constantly studying. I was bad in school, 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:31.640 but great in front of that record player. I would 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:36.200 sit there and I figured out, like listen to on 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:39.680 the headphones and get ideas of my own. Everything that 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:42.520 I was absorbing. I was like, oh, I could put 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:44.920 that into this idea, or I could put it into 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:49.600 that idea. And I hadn't become a really good songwriter yet. 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:54.040 I was just learning and it was really exciting, exciting. 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:57.600 It's funny, Harry Nielsen you bring up Harry um My 0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:02.440 son Decker's middle name is is. I was in Idaho 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:07.520 and we made money by, uh doing all kinds of jobs, 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:10.760 and I saved up enough money. I was at my 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:15.920 friend's house to go down to the local like drug 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:20.280 store that sold you know, everything from milkshakes to vinyl. 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:23.720 And I said, I'm gonna go down there and I'm 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:27.600 getting the new Deep Purple record, and everyone, yeah, whatever. 0:14:27.640 --> 0:14:32.080 It was five dollars and cents from mowing lawns. I 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:38.040 got on my bike and my my friend sister was 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:42.040 a couple of years now, you remember this the seventies. 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:48.120 She had on Daisy dukes, a tube top and this 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:52.600 long all one's length there. And I would literally when 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:56.080 I was house, I'd be like, you know, but she 0:14:56.200 --> 0:14:58.640 wanted nothing to do with the dweeb like me. You know, 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:01.520 I was, oh game, I had no nothing that I 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:03.800 couldn't even really talk to her. That she's probably like, 0:15:03.920 --> 0:15:06.920 your friend is weird. And then all of a sudden 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:11.960 she paid attention to me. She said she said, hey, um, Frankie, 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:15.320 can I can I ride down to the vinyl shop 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:19.600 with you? And I was like yeah, and so she 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:23.800 wrote down and I went to the section D and 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:27.040 there it was Deep Purple and I got it. I 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:30.240 heard it on the radio. I'm gonna absorb everything on 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:33.640 this record. She goes, you know, you should find this one, 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:36.200 and I was like, no, I'm I'm good with this one. 0:15:36.280 --> 0:15:41.000 She goes, batted her eyes and said you should get 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:45.480 this record, and it was Harry Nielsen Nielsen Schmill has 0:15:45.560 --> 0:15:48.800 jumped into the fire on it without you on it. 0:15:50.080 --> 0:15:54.760 And I went back and my friends were like, why, 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:58.720 where's the Deep Purple record? And so then I fell 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:02.640 in love with Harry's music, and as the years win, 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:06.840 I found that he was a great influence. So if 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:13.520 I was doing a riff, uh the banana banana da 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:17.560 da on um two two fast too fast for love, 0:16:17.600 --> 0:16:20.400 you have two fast for love the verse, I would like, well, 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:24.720 what would Harry sing over this? What would John Lennon said, 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:28.320 what would Robin Robin Zanders sing over this? And then 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:32.240 well how would Tony Iomi play this? So you know 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:34.840 I was I was a train wreck as far as creativity, 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:39.400 it was pick a lane, but I just couldn't. I 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:42.800 couldn't get enough. And uh it was It was funny 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:46.600 because years, years, years, decades later, I went to an 0:16:46.600 --> 0:16:50.320 a A meeting. Uh. We went around the room and 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:52.560 one of the things they do is, you know you, 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:57.120 you say who you are, and uh, if you're an 0:16:57.120 --> 0:17:00.280 alcoholic or a drug addict. So I'd be like, I'm 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:04.920 Nicky six all of them, you know, alcoholic, I'm a 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:07.640 truck addict, I'm this some of that, and I'm here 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:10.760 to get better. Right. Next guy says, you know, I'm John, 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:15.240 I'm an alcoholic. Next guy goes, I'm here scalp b 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:20.719 m I And I'm looking at this older gentleman and 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:23.399 I'm like, kind of looks like Harry. It can't be 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:26.040 Harry meals anyway. Next guy, so it comes up to 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:32.280 me after the meeting. It says, hey, hey, kid, hey kid, 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:35.680 I guess I was a kid. I was like thirty, right, 0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:39.280 and he was probably I don't know, fifty five or something, 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:43.360 and just give me a home. And I said, yeah, 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:48.040 and you know where depends where do you live if 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:51.800 you live in like, you know, uh, Beverly Hills. No, 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:55.399 because it's like two live in hidden hills, Like, oh, 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:57.760 I live in hidden hills too. So on the drive 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:01.200 over we started talking. Came so obviously it was Harry Neils. 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:03.800 So we started talking about music that were in me 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:07.560 and Harry became good friends. Harry would my house and 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:11.159 there'd be on the door out of nowhere, just a 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:13.719 weird time of day, and Harry would be standing there 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:15.440 and he goes, this is my friend Richard. That would 0:18:15.440 --> 0:18:17.920 be Ringo Starr and they would come in. They would 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:22.240 sit in. Would you know. I don't smoke, and I 0:18:22.480 --> 0:18:24.840 never really dug it with people smoked in my house, 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:27.760 but they were both smoking, and they were sitting in 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:32.480 my front room telling stories about the Beatles and about 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:35.320 this and this thing that John did with Harry at 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:38.160 the Troubador or that that, you know, so those famous 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:41.320 stories we've read about, and I'd be like, smoke all 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:44.199 you want, man, because I'm just absorbing this and it. 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:47.280 You know, he kind of got to understand who I 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:50.639 was and that I was a songwriter and Motley Crewe, 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:55.240 so we kind of talked about possibly me producing a 0:18:56.640 --> 0:18:59.720 for him, and I was just like, wow, thank God 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:02.920 to you know, for that girl at the tube top um. 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:08.720 Look how life life is. And unfortunately Harry did pass 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:10.840 and I got to do that, but I named my 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:13.840 my son's middle name after him. But you know that 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:17.280 that's how music is. Man. You you meet people and 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:21.560 they say be careful, you know, meeting your heroes. Everybody's 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:24.200 had that happen. I'm sure you've interviewed people and got 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:26.080 off and was like, Wow, that guy wasn't what I 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:29.360 thought he was or that girl. But at the same time, yees, 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:33.600 you can cultivate all this positivity from people, whether sing 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:36.600 the records or reading their interviews or if you're lucky 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:39.399 enough to meet them or become friends. And you know, 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:42.119 guys like Steven Tyler had a big effect on me. 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:48.560 That's my Rolling Stones and Steven messages on my voicemail 0:19:48.640 --> 0:19:52.560 when I was struggling with addiction and and he would 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:54.959 sing into my mind. You know, I would just be like, 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:59.800 this is like one of my you know, childhood heroes. Uh. 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:04.080 You know, the whole the whole experience of discovering music 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:07.400 is uh one of the most exciting things for me. 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:21.119 Thinking of everything you're telling me now, I mean, do 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:26.440 you is there a separation between you Nikki and and 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:30.080 Frank Jr. Did they almost feel like like two separate 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:34.000 people do do they sort of coexist in you? Well, 0:20:34.000 --> 0:20:37.679 that's a really great question. Um. So I changed my 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:41.240 name because the information that was downloaded into my head 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:43.800 when I was a kid by my mom about my dad. 0:20:45.080 --> 0:20:47.960 That's why I changed me. It could be Frank Farron 0:20:48.080 --> 0:20:51.080 and Motley Crue or in London or in anything else 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:55.120 I would have done, but it was about I'm not 0:20:55.160 --> 0:20:59.440 going to carry on your name the way than me, 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:03.919 and that information was not all her percent true. We 0:21:03.960 --> 0:21:07.720 found out and going back and going through this talking 0:21:07.760 --> 0:21:13.560 to family members, uh, talking to people there. But my 0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:19.520 dad did leave. But why did he leave? So I 0:21:19.560 --> 0:21:23.800 think that there was a separation of I create my 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:28.399 own family, my own legacy, which I've done. But in 0:21:28.480 --> 0:21:33.840 retrospect um I realized that that Frank and Nikki are 0:21:34.400 --> 0:21:40.480 the same person. Now sicky that the other guy, he's 0:21:40.480 --> 0:21:43.320 a little different, but I think he exists. He might 0:21:43.359 --> 0:21:46.920 only come out every now and then, But in general, 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:54.840 I'm enjoying to know myself as a child. Uh, not 0:21:55.040 --> 0:21:57.840 through the lens of Motley Crewe or through the lens 0:21:57.880 --> 0:22:02.080 of anything, just through the lens of family members. Story. 0:22:02.240 --> 0:22:06.520 The things that I realized now were so important to me. 0:22:07.440 --> 0:22:12.119 When I hit the seventies, I had a foundation of 0:22:12.359 --> 0:22:16.400 family that I never I blamed it all of my dad. 0:22:16.560 --> 0:22:19.280 So I split, you know, and I did. I had 0:22:19.280 --> 0:22:23.000 a great grandmother, a great grandfather, a great family members 0:22:23.040 --> 0:22:26.800 that were around, but it was something in me. You know, 0:22:27.359 --> 0:22:33.760 you be away from that life. I mean, it's something 0:22:33.800 --> 0:22:35.520 that I feel like I'm coming to grips with now 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:38.840 my own life in my early thirties. You grow up, 0:22:38.920 --> 0:22:41.320 you leave home, you start putting your head down and 0:22:41.359 --> 0:22:43.359 working hard and trying to build your own life with 0:22:43.400 --> 0:22:46.359 your own people and your own connections, and all of 0:22:46.400 --> 0:22:49.199 a sudden you sort of realize that you want to 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:51.679 reconnect with your past. That you want to, you know, 0:22:52.080 --> 0:22:54.639 sort of learn more about about who I don't want 0:22:54.680 --> 0:22:56.720 to say who you were, but but sort of what 0:22:56.840 --> 0:22:59.199 what's what's deeper inside of you. It's almost like the 0:22:59.240 --> 0:23:01.560 inverse of that John Lennon line. You know, life's what 0:23:01.680 --> 0:23:05.320 happens when you're busy making other plans. Suddenly you realize 0:23:05.359 --> 0:23:07.160 that there was this whole other history that you had, 0:23:07.800 --> 0:23:10.119 was this cathartic for you getting in touch with with 0:23:10.160 --> 0:23:13.080 these family members and your first girlfriend. What was that 0:23:13.119 --> 0:23:15.560 experience like for you? I mean it was it was 0:23:15.640 --> 0:23:20.600 definitely cathartic in a lot of ways. Uh couldn't have 0:23:20.640 --> 0:23:24.920 happened in a better time and the worse time obviously 0:23:25.000 --> 0:23:27.800 during the pandemic. But I got a lot to spend 0:23:27.800 --> 0:23:31.680 a lot of time talking to people and I couldn't 0:23:31.720 --> 0:23:36.400 spends with a lot of zooms, a lot of interviews, 0:23:36.560 --> 0:23:39.439 a lot of things that I would hear that I 0:23:39.520 --> 0:23:41.560 forgot about, and you would hear from three or four 0:23:41.560 --> 0:23:43.560 different people and you go, wow, I do the same 0:23:43.600 --> 0:23:47.199 thing now. You know. It's these visual things and a 0:23:47.200 --> 0:23:50.800 lot of them are positive and there's obviously always negatives 0:23:50.800 --> 0:23:53.920 in there too, and you try to grow from that. Um. 0:23:54.359 --> 0:23:59.240 I I feel that when people read the and this 0:23:59.400 --> 0:24:02.080 information and from like ten or twenty people that I've 0:24:02.200 --> 0:24:06.159 I've more like twenty or twenty five people that I 0:24:06.320 --> 0:24:08.400 are very close to it. I've sent the book too, 0:24:08.960 --> 0:24:13.000 and they were like, I see my own child, I 0:24:13.000 --> 0:24:15.879 I see like wow, when I was that age and 0:24:15.920 --> 0:24:20.160 I discovered this band, it really changed my life. And 0:24:20.520 --> 0:24:25.159 when it's got me to think I wanted to we 0:24:25.280 --> 0:24:27.040 were like, you know, when I was going through my 0:24:27.040 --> 0:24:30.919 first twenty one. Now I'm like a professional photographer and 0:24:30.920 --> 0:24:32.560 I shoot some of the biggest bands in the world. 0:24:32.600 --> 0:24:35.360 They didn't end up picking up an instrument, they ended 0:24:35.440 --> 0:24:40.199