NIKKI SIXX REFLECTS ON ADDICTION

The Heroin Diaries, Nikki Sixx’s memoir of the darkest days of his addiction in the eighties, is now celebrating a ten-year anniversary. There’s also a graphic novel adaptation of the book that will be released before the end of the years.

Variety reports that a new edition of the book will be released with new chapters, and Sixx has met with many fans who were scared straight by the book. “Over the last 10 years, I’ve met so many people who have thanked me for The Heroin Diaries, and say that it saved their lives,” Sixx said. “But the truth is, writing The Heroin Diaries saved my life too.”

The Motley Crue album that was recorded during this dark period, Girls, Girls, Girls, is also celebrating its 30th anniversary. As Sixx told Rolling Stone, “I used to go down to western Sunset Boulevard and I had this beautiful black Mercedes with black-tinted windows. The guys would be down there on the corners with Persian heroin in balloons that they would keep in their mouth. You’d drive up and say what you want, and they would spit it out and give it to you however much the balloons are.”

Sixx eventually had a near fatal overdose and finally got sober with the help of famed drug counselor Bob Timmins, who also helped Aerosmith get clean.

“The two constants in my life have been writing and having a guitar in my hands,” Sixx continues. “So whether I was high and going through turmoil or not, those two things were an anchor. Motley Crue was the family I never had [but] the addiction was something I had to deal with. No one was going to do that for me. I was really grateful I did have people around me who were supportive of me getting clean, because I couldn’t have kept going at the time.”