A Mötley Crüe fan recently brought up on Twitter the early days of the band when Nikki Sixx would light his pants on fire. When the fans asked whether the bassist did it for fame and press, Sixx replied:
“We did it for the show and knew the media would b*tch and complain about us (same as now) and make our band even bigger.”
Sixx and Vince Neil admitted to Classic Rock in a 2020 interview that they did everything to get people’s attention especially when they were first starting in the industry. Neil recalled their first year as a band and explained:
“We still gave it our all, even in a sandwich shop with like 20 people there. We didn’t care, we were still lighting Nikki on fire and shit like that! We had the drive. We didn’t care if we didn’t have any money, because any money we made we put into our show.”
Setting Nikki’s pants on fire was just the beginning for Mötley Crüe to hit the headlines, these days they’re on the metalheads’ radar due to their feud with ex-guitarist Mick Mars.
For example, after Mars filed a lawsuit against the band and claimed that the band didn’t play live and used backing tracks, Sixx decided to mock the guitarist on social media. Nikki tweeted his Instagram story, which featured a photo of him playing bass. He also jokingly added ‘Here’s a photo of me playing live bass,’ on top of of the picture to make his point.
You can read Nikki Sixx’s tweets below.
We did it for the show and knew the media would bitch and complain about us ( same as now ) and make our band even bigger. https://t.co/wA2tKxaZSg
— 📷 (@NikkiSixx) August 9, 2023
Can’t make this shit up or can you? 😂 Have a killer weekend. pic.twitter.com/ih1nnHO80P
— 📷 (@NikkiSixx) April 16, 2023
