WITH Motley Crue back out on the road, bassist Nikki Sixx has been doing the media rounds and addressing a couple of music’s most pressing issues.
One of them is backing tracks and the ceaseless allegations around the Crue using them in a live setting.
The other is the future of full-length albums and specifically whether there will ever be a follow-up to 2008’s Saints Of Los Angeles.
On backing tracks, Sixx was drawn into a conversation with a fan on X/Twitter.
“Since we saw Queen using some to help during the song Bohemian Rhapsody live, we understood that we could bring in elements that we could not do live,” the 67-year-old wrote.
“…like orchestras, saxophones, etc., etc. and sync them up with what we are playing.
“And we do play 100 percent live and it’s better for the fans and we enjoy being able to do what we did in the studio live.
“It’s a win win for us.”
On whether the Crue will make another album, Sixx was being interviewed on a podcast called Joann Butler In Studio With …
“Honestly – I know fans don’t wanna hear this,but I don’t believe in making full-length records anymore at this time on the planet, for me,” he said.
“The amount of work that goes into … If you’re doing 10 songs on a record, you gotta write 20. And you better hope five of ’em are stellar.
“It’s a lot of lyrics, a lot of notes, a lot of chord changes, a lot of time in the studio, which is all fine. That’s what we do. We work hard.
“But what I don’t like is that when people hear one song and you recorded 10 or you recorded 20,and then 10 of ’em were demos and 10 was an album, they only hear one.”
“Radio’s changed, streaming is changing and evolving as we go. So I’m really into the idea of lightning strikes. Something comes down, I call the guys. I got this song, it’s just sitting on the tip of my tongue right now. “
“It’s like having a song and a whole team behind a song and being able to get the fans to really understand what the song is about.
“It’s just not something that they just pass by, or they go to the new Motley Crue album, and they only listen to one song.
“So I love the idea of like we did The Dirt. We did five [new] songs from The Dirt.
“We did three songs on this EP we just did. I mean, that’s already a full-length record.
“So I think we’re just gonna keep going, like whenever something comes up, you feel something – heartbreak, joy, rebellion – let’s write a song about it,and let’s go cut it in the studio.”