Nikki Sixx Understands Why David Lee Roth Passed on ‘The Stadium Tour’

by | Oct 20, 2021 | DJ Blogs, Erik | 0 comments

Nikki Sixx shed light on why David Lee Roth didn’t want to join Mötley Crüe‘s “Stadium Tour,” which will now play next spring. The 30-date stadium run will also feature Def Leppard, Poison, and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts. Nikki Sixx has just published his third memoir, The First 21: How I Became Nikki Sixx.

Sixx, surmised why the Van Halen frontman decide to pass on the run, telling Forbes, “Yeah, well, he probably influenced everybody. (That band) is a monster. But, y’know, understandably. We all get to make our choices and stuff. I just thought with the body of work that he has with a lot of people, it could be really exciting. I understand his position, too.”

Nikki Sixx spoke about shifting into the role of an elder statesman rocker, explaining, “As you get older, you have to work harder. And I wanted to be transparent about that. I don’t want to be like, ‘Hey, look at me, I got 400 injections of Botox and I’m 22 years old!’ They’re like, ‘Wait a minute, no you’re not! You’re 62, and the 22-year-olds are trying to eat your lunch.’ That’s what you’ve got to worry about. It’s the young wolf that I’m worried about.”

He added, “I’ll stay toe-to-toe with the big boys, but the young wolves are coming for us, and they’ve learned from us, just like I learned from all the great bands. They get to look at the Metallicas, the Mötley​s and U2s and GN’Rs . Name it, whatever it is, and they’re like, ‘Okay, this is what’s worked, this is what doesn’t work, and we’re gonna start our own band.’ And I wanted people to understand the hard work that we have to go into. Especially if you’re a young band, you could read that first chapter (of The First 21) and go, ‘Okay, this is how it’s done. And if we want to have a career that’s 10, 20, 30 years old, this is a good little roadmap.'”

FAST FACTS

  • Nikki Sixx‘s The First 21: How I Became Nikki Sixx, follows his previous memoirs, 2011’s This Is Gonna Hurt, 2007’s The Heroin Diaries, and Mötley Crüe‘s joint band tome, 2001’s infamous, The Dirt.

CHECK IT OUT: SIXX: A.M.’s 2021 lyric video for “The First 21”: