Nikki Sixx on Concerts & Ozzy’s Impact

After having to postpone its new Las Vegas residency earlier this year, Nikki Sixx is happy to have Mötley Crüe back on stage with its current 10-date run at Dolby Live at Park MGM.

“I’m excited about it,” Sixx tells Billboard. It’s not the Crüe’s first time in Vegas, of course: it follows Mötley Crüe Takes on Sin City in 2012 and An Intimate Evening in Hell the following year. But it is a new venue that, according to Sixx, affords the band a chance to craft something suitably extravagant for the career-spanning 13-song set, which includes a medley of covers the Crüe has recorded, among them its Billboard Hot 100 top 20 rendition of Brownsville Station’s “Smokin’ in the Boys Room.”

“It’s a really super-wide stage, so it gives us an opportunity to do things with set design that are really cool,” Sixx explains. “You’re not in an arena or in a stadium; you’re in an inside environment, so you can control a lot of stuff, and that’s a lot of fun for us. Atmosphere’s such a big part of lighting, and when you can set your atmosphere and it’s a controlled environment, you can get some really cool looks. ”

Sixx says the show is designed to be “a little more fan interactive,” which will include “some storytelling, which we’re excited about, on a couple of our songs,” he says. “A lot of people ask you what came first, the lyric or the (music), and we were talking at rehearsal about a specific song we’re gonna break down how the song happened. I’m bringing my acoustic guitar. I’m by no means what I would call even a good guitar player — I usually write from the bass — but I always have a guitar around and certain chords will inspire stuff…and I had these chords since I was 17 years old, through all the bands I was in…and nothing ever happened with them. We’re gonna talk about how those chords…turned into (a song).”

The residency, which began Sept. 12 and runs through Oct. 3, is Mötley Crüe’s first time back on stage in 11 months, since the Aftershock Festival last October. The run was originally slated for March and April but was pushed back to allow frontman Vince Neil to recover from a then-unspecified medical procedure, which he recently revealed was a stroke that occurred late last December. He told the Las Vegas Review Journal last week that, “I had to learn to walk again, and that was tough. The doctors said they didn’t think I’d be able to go back on stage again. I go, ‘No, no, I’m gonna do to it. Watch and see.’”

Sixx also addressed the ongoing legal battle with former guitarist Mick Mars over his departure from the group in 2022, slamming Mars’ allegations that Mötley Crüe did not play live at its concerts, calling it a “crazy betrayal,” and posting a subsequent social media message that, “I’m actually ashamed of him. So should you be, too.”

Back in Vegas, the Crüe met on Wednesday (Sept. 17) night with representatives of the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth, an outgrowth of Sixx and the band’s previous work with Covenant House in Los Angeles. “Any time I can be involved in any way with kids…that’s something that’s very important to me,” Sixx says, “and it’s something that we will continue doing whenever we can find an opportunity to give back.”

Neil’s stroke recovery also axed the Crüe from playing the Ozzy Osbourne/Black Sabbath Back to the Beginning farewell concert, which took place July 5 in Birmingham, England, two weeks before Osbourne passed away at the age of 76. “It was something we were just unable to do…We couldn’t do it even if we wanted to,” says Sixx, who did watch the streaming concert online. He acknowledges that the band was disappointed to not be available, especially because Osbourne played such an instrumental role in the Crüe’s career when he took Sixx and company on the road as his opening act in 1984.

“Honestly, they broke our band, Ozzy and Sharon (Osbourne),” Sixx notes. “Sharon saw a band that something was happening with and it was a perfect fit for Ozzy, and we just became so close and Ozzy took us around the world and just did everything for us…and of course all the wild and fun stories that is Ozzy. I’ll forever be in debt to Sharon and Ozzy for that.

“And, man, I gotta tell ya — Ozzy, way to f–kin’ go out with a bang. He really did it, and everybody showed up because they loved him and supported him. Unfortunately, we don’t have him anymore, but we got one of the greatest rock stars of all time who came while we were here on this planet and went back to the f–kin’ stars, man. It’s like, ‘I came down there and I kicked some f–kin’ ass.’ Thank you, Ozzy, every day for the opportunity to have a career.”

The Vegas residency coincides with the release of From The Beginning, a new Crüe compilation that features 20 tracks (21 on the two-LP vinyl edition) including a new version of “Home Sweet Home” featuring additional vocals by Dolly Parton. Sixx says it’s part of Mötley Crüe’s deal with BMG, which obtained the band’s catalog during November of 2021. “This is something (BMG) felt was a really nice way to introduce younger fans,” Sixx explains. “It’s not a greatest hits record, even though it’s loaded with hits. It’s a way of keeping our catalog and our music alive.”

From The Beginning does include “Dogs of War” and, on the vinyl edition, “Cancelled,” both of which were part of last year’s Cancelled EP, its first project with new guitarist John 5. But Sixx isn’t hazarding a guess as to when the next batch of new material will come along.

“We’re not in rush mode,” he says. “We only work on music when something inspiring comes, so we’re not on a schedule,” he says. “If a few songs come together we’ll figure out how to get together and record them.”

Sixx, who’s been working on a variety of multi-media projects and has been writing songs with Cinderella drummer Fred Coury, adds that, “I don’t find full-length albums inspirational anymore. I feel like, the way people consume music, you can spend so much of your time and your life and your passion to do 11, 12, 15 songs to only have one or two really cut through. So we would rather do two or three and get them out, and when we feel inspired do another three or four. That’s the path that we’re on. That just feels natural.”