In a new interview with Joann Butler In Studio With…, Mötley Crüe bassist and main songwriter Nikki Sixx spoke about recording albums.
Sixx said, as per blabbermouth.net, “Honestly — I know fans don’t wanna hear this, but I don’t believe in making full-length records anymore at this time on the planet, for me. The amount of work that goes into… If you’re doing 10 songs on a record, you gotta write 20. And you better hope five of ’em are stellar. It’s a lot of lyrics, a lot of notes, a lot of chord changes, a lot of time in the studio, which is all fine. That’s what we do. We work hard. But what I don’t like is that when people hear one song, and you recorded 10 or you recorded 20, and then 10 of ’em were demos and 10 was an album, they only hear one. Radio’s changed, streaming is changing and evolving as we go. So I’m really into the idea of lightning strikes, something comes down, I call the guys. I got this song, it’s just sitting on the tip of my tongue right now. I told [drummer] Tommy [Lee] about it a year ago. I just told my friend, and he goes, ‘You told me to write a song called that 25 years ago.’ And I go, ‘Okay, I’m gonna finish the song and then show it to the band.’ But it’s like having a song and a whole team behind a song and being able to get the fans to really understand what the song is about. It’s just not something that they just pass by, or they go to the new Mötley Crüe album, and they only listen to one song. So I love the idea of like we did The Dirt [film soundtrack in 2019]. We did five [new] songs from The Dirt. We did three songs on this EP [Cancelled} we just did [in 2024]. I mean, that’s already a full-length record. So I think we’re just gonna keep going, like whenever something comes up, you feel something — heartbreak, joy, rebellion — let’s write a song about it, and let’s go cut it in the studio.”
Mötley Crüe‘s last studio album was 2008’s Saints Of Los Angeles, which was followed by a 2009 Greatest Hits compilation.
7 Responses
I just put together an 80s hard rock playlist with over 3500 songs and guess what? There is NO Motley Crue in it! I can’t stand any of that music anymore besides maybe 2-3 songs. They have done so much damage to their own legacy with the fake farewell tours and fake singing/playing on stage. Plus the songs haven’t aged well as all the other bands. I’m not including the John Corabi record. When I was in high school Motley Crue were the absolute #1 band that all the rock music kids like. I wonder what they feel about the band now
I still like the same songs, I liked back then. I think it stands up in the same manner, it was never meant to be complicated.
It’s hard pounding party music, meant to be blasted from a 80s sports car. 🙂