Nikki Sixx: Shout at the Devil, Home Sweet Home and the songs behind Mötley Crüe | Highway to Hell

Why fans still care

NIKKI SIXX writes the songs. Kickstart My Heart has passed a billion plays on Spotify. Shout at the Devil has been played at more than 1,500 Mötley Crüe shows, more than any other song. Home Sweet Home was remade with Dolly Parton in 2025. And he plays bass like a rhythm guitarist, with a pick, hard.

Early life

Before Mötley Crüe he auditioned for Quiet Riot, whose guitarist was Randy Rhoads, Ultimate Guitarist Reunion number 28, in the late 1970s. Everyone agrees the audition happened; accounts differ on whether he was ever offered the job. The players he names are Mott the Hoople’s Overend Watts and UFO’s Pete Way. He describes his mix as early AC/DC and Aerosmith run through the Sex Pistols and the Buzzcocks.

Career chapters

1. 1981co-founds Mötley Crüe with Tommy Lee, Too Fast for Love
2. 1983Shout at the Devil
3. 1985Theatre of Pain, with Home Sweet Home
4. 1987Girls, Girls, Girls
5. 1989Dr. Feelgood, US number one
6. 1990Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away) reaches number 19
7. 2006Hollywood Walk of Fame star
8. 2007The Heroin Diaries reaches number 7 on the New York Times list
9. 2013the Schecter Sixx bass at NAMM
10. 2025Home Sweet Home with Dolly Parton
11. 2026Return of the Carnival of Sins tour

Shout to Girls 1981 to 1987

He started Mötley Crüe with Tommy Lee in 1981, with Vince Neil, Who’s Who number 17, singing. Too Fast for Love is now Platinum in the US. Tom Werman produced the next three, Shout at the Devil, Theatre of Pain and Girls, Girls, Girls, and all three are now 4x Platinum. Girls, Girls, Girls reached number 2, and its title track number 12 on the Hot 100.

Dr. Feelgood 1989 to 1990

Bob Rock produced Dr. Feelgood in Vancouver. It went to number one on the Billboard 200 and is now 9x Platinum. The title track was a top 10 hit, Kickstart My Heart reached number 27 and Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away) reached number 19 in 1990.

Beyond the band 2006 to 2025

In January 2006 the band got their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His book The Heroin Diaries debuted at number 7 on the New York Times non-fiction list in 2007. With singer James Michael and guitarist DJ Ashba he made records as Sixx:A.M., until the other two announced an indefinite hiatus in 2018. In 2025 Dolly Parton recorded a new Home Sweet Home with the band, which he calls a career high, and he appeared on her song Bygones.

Forty-five years 2026 to 2027

“We weren’t even supposed to make it a year,” he said in October 2026. The 33-date Return of the Carnival of Sins tour ran from 17 July to 26 September 2026. A residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas is announced for 19 March to 3 April 2027. A 45th-anniversary edition of Too Fast for Love is due on 30 October 2026. “You never know what’s next,” he said as the tour ended.

Craft, sound and style

Song is king

“Song is king for me,” he says. He starts with the simplest form of a song, often on acoustic guitar, and says a song has to be “hummable and memorable”. Duane Baron, who engineered Girls, Girls, Girls, says most of the lyrics and melodies came from Nikki.

Between bass and rhythm guitar

He plays with a pick in Mötley Crüe and calls himself “somewhere between a bass player and a rhythm guitar player”. “I just hit the bass really hard and overdrive it with my hand,” he told Guitar World. Guitar World points to the chromatic E, F, F sharp movement that drives the Dr. Feelgood bass line. Bob Rock says he “never stops learning and never stops improving”.

The basses

After years with Gibson, at NAMM in Anaheim on 26 January 2013 he showed the Schecter Sixx, his signature bass with an active EMG P/J pickup set and a kill switch. He said he wanted it less neck-heavy. He named a Schecter as his main bass in 2015 and was still praising its sustain in 2021.

Stories people still tell

1. Dolly.

   Of all the things he has done, he calls the Home Sweet Home remake with Dolly Parton a career high.

Legacy

The songs are still the set: Shout at the Devil, Live Wire, Looks That Kill and Home Sweet Home have each been played more than 1,300 times. Duff McKagan, Who’s Who number 3, another bassist in this painting, calls him “the real article”.