Few of us have experienced life with the intensity, fury, and reckless
abandon of Nikki Sixx, the wild rock star, driven entrepreneur, devoted father,
former addict, bestselling author, and gifted photographer.
“This Is Gonna Hurt” is part photo, part journal – but all Nikki Sixx.
It is a collection of compelling snapshots and stories that capture the rage,
love, optimism, darkness,and determination that shape his work.
Told with the raw authenticity that defined his “New York Times”
bestseller “The Heroine Diaries”, “This Is Gonna Hurt” chronicles
Sixx's experience, from his early years filled with toxic waste to his success
with Motley Crue, his death from an OD and rebirth to his addictions to music,
photography, and love. Love story, bad-ass rock tell-all, social commentary,
family memoir, “This Is Gonna Hurt” offers the compelling insights of an
artist and a man struggling to survive, connect, and find a happy ending-a
search that fuels Sixx's being.
‘I want to take you on the journey I am on, in real time’, Sixx writes.
If you don't deal with your demons, they will deal with you, and
it's gonna hurt.
Review
“In this, his second book, MÖTLEY CRÜE and SIXX: A.M. bassist NIKKI SIXX
aims "to show people life through different-colored lenses,” and that he
certainly does by way of photographing “the oddities in life.” In fact,
nearly 150 photographs of amputees, midgets, drug addicts, prostitutes, the
obese, the disfigured, the homeless, and the generally decrepit – all shot by
Sixx – are featured in this lavish 220 page book. Ultimately, this is Sixx's
“struggle to make people see that different isn't always bad.” The
accompanying text is comprised of personal life lessons, journal entries and
musings on sobriety, creativity and music. Refusing to hold anything back, Nikki
questions how Mötley “went from being best friends… to not really knowing
one another.” In fact he states, “The only thing bigger than my love for
this band is the heartbreak it can bring me.” Further revelatory details
include Sixx's daily transcendental meditation, his belief that “your ego is
not your amigo” and that “pain is a gift. It's an opportunity to make
things better.” A therapeutic process, Nikki is adamant that “this book has
uncorked me in places I didn't know were stuck.” Arguably the most profound
statement contained within This Is Gonna Hurt reads as follows: “Don't waste
your death on a half-assed life.” By Aaron Small
Author Biography
Born Frank Feranna, Nikki Sixx grew up in Seattle and moved to Los Angeles at
the age of seventeen. There, in 1981, he became the bassist for Motley Crue, the
legendary rock band he started with friend Tommy Lee. Today he is a family man
with many projects on the side, including songwriting, film, a new band, a
clothing line, as well as ongoing work with the Crue. He is the author of the
New York Times bestseller The Heroin Diaries.