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.