Nikki Sixx Was ‘Barely Functional’ On Stage Before Near-Fatal Heroin Overdose
June 12 2019, Published 4:30 p.m. ET
On December 23, 1987, days after returning from touring Japan, Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx found himself at a hotel with members of Guns N’ Roses.
“Nikki parties with Slash and Steven Adler from Guns N’ Roses, who were into heroin,” recalls Mötley Crüe biographer Malcolm Dome in REELZ’s new docuseries, Mötley Crüe: Breaking the Band.
Years later, Nikki, 60, confessed: “I needed to go out to escape from my own decay and loneliness.”
“Now that he was this big, bada** rock star, it wasn’t making him feel as good as he thought it would. Everything more and more just started becoming about heroin all the time,” says Billboard Magazine’s Christa Titus.
His escalating heroin addiction started threatening his ability to perform.
“He was barely functional, and other people in the band were getting pissed off about it,” says former Mötley Crüe manager Doug Thaler.
At a party, Nikki was offered pure Persian heroin, and as he was too out of it to inject himself, the dealer did it for him. Within seconds of the hit, he fell unconscious, was rushed into an ambulance, and pronounced dead.
“Vince freaked out and called me. He was sobbing: ‘They’re saying that Nikki’s dead!’” recalls Thaler.
Miraculously, Nikki was brought back to life minutes later by an emergency medical team.
He is now sober and married to model Courtney Sixx, who is expecting his child.
Mötley Crüe: Breaking the Band airs Sunday, June 16 at 9 ET / PT on REELZ.
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