This Is Gonna Hurt: Music, Photography and Life Through the Distorted Lens of Nikki Sixx
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Music
This Is Gonna Hurt: Music, Photography and Life Through the Distorted Lens of Nikki Sixx Details
From the Back Cover This Is Gonna Hurt: Music, Photography, and Life Through the Distorted Lens of Nikki Sixx is part photo, part journal—but all Nikki Sixx. It is a collection of compelling photography and stories that capture the rage, love, optimism, darkness, and determination that shape his work. Combining the raw authenticity that defined his New York Times bestseller, The Heroin Diaries, with a photographic journey, This Is Gonna Hurt chronicles Sixx's experiences—from his early years filled with toxic waste, to his success with Mötley Crüe, to his overdose and eventual rebirth through music, photography, and love. Read more About the Author 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 Mötley Crüe, the legendary rock band he started with Vince Neil, Mick Mars, and Tommy Lee. Today he is the New York Times bestselling author of The Heroin Diaries and This Is Gonna Hurt, and a coauthor of the Mötley Crüe book, The Dirt. Nikki Sixx is also a nationally syndicated radio host of Sixx Sense, writer, artist, photographer, and still loyal member of the Crüe. Read more
Reviews
Seemingly seeking to continue the majesty of his sublime and profound "Heroin Diaries," Motley Crue founder and bassist Nikki Sixx pens this rather oblique narrative, with very dark and oftentimes disturbing photographs, to accompany his bands (Sixx AM) similarly named soundtrack.My belief though after reading this is that for an overall appreciation of this work, the prospective reader simply MUST be a fan of Motley Crue, Sixx AM or of Nikki himself. There is no way, in my opinion, in which this book appeals to a wider, more diverse readership. It is so centralized on his post sobriety that anyone not familiar with the entire story gleans very little other than a really bizarre visceral experience.Nikki starts the narrative with a bridge from The Heroin Diaries into his post-sober realization of photographic passion. But while meandering through these philosophical musings, he manages to present an often surprising life-view that actually transcends the photography, all the while giving us a true insight to his current psyche. To me, any anarchic youth who would deem to read this could get true meaning from these digressions...here is a guy who's actually lived the worst of any rebellious youth existence and survived to describe it. It is these perhaps unanticipated digressions that really make this book work.Toward the end, and clearly looking for filler material, we get the details of Nikki's rather aesthetic and short-lived romance with LA Ink's Kat Von D. In a breakup almost predictable from the start, Sixx nevertheless delivers eloquent and heartfelt tribulations while attempting to manage a Crue tour. Again, much of this shows a depth of character unseen in Diaries while also being surprisingly moving. He then ends the book with his current projects for fashion, radio and Covenant House, a private agency that assists homeless teenagers.To me, "This Is Gonna' Hurt" is an almost inadvertent philosophical success. Nikki Sixx, in an attempt to conceptualize his post Heroin Diaries sobriety, has delivered a marvelous treatise on maturation and personal enlargement. There is much to take away from these renderings of a veteran rock star and I for one found them quite inspiring. Again, not a work for the general reader, but if you have or had any interest in Motley Crue or with the current expansion of its founder, you'll be rewarded with a read of true inspiration and, after a listen to the soundtrack, a mark of how he's progressed. I, as a fan, really enjoyed this.
