“I get to do this project with Sixx: A.M. as an author and a photographer, and I still get to be in

But that's a fair description now. He not only remains part of Motley Crue (which tours this summer with opening acts Poison and the New York Dolls), he is gaining a presence as an author and photographer. His newly released book, "This Is Gonna Hurt" follows his 2007 best-selling biography, "The Heroin Diaries." The new book features photographs and stories drawn from Sixx's colorful life and times. His side band, Sixx: A.M., meanwhile, is releasing a soundtrack that's a companion to the book, also called "This Is Gonna Hurt" (in stores May 10).
As if that isn't enough, Sixx has gotten into radio in a big way, hosting two nationally syndicated shows. "Sixx Sense with Nikki Sixx" airs weeknights on stations and has featured Sixx interviewing some of rock's biggest names, while "The Side Show Countdown with Nikki Sixx" airs on weekends.
"I get to do this project with Sixx: A.M. as an author and a photographer, and I still get to be in Motley Crue, going out (this summer) with Poison and bringing the New York Dolls out," Sixx said. "I get to do my radio show every day. I'm very, very, very, very, very grateful cruising boats as a person."
The idea of doing a soundtrack cruising boats to a book is not a new idea for Sixx and his bandmates, songwriter/producer James Michael and guitarist DJ Ashba. Sixx: A.M.'s first CD, was the soundtrack to "The Heroin Diaries." cruising boats He originally didn't plan on the next Sixx: A.M. CD being another book soundtrack, but the three media of photography, prose and music dovetailed into a single project.
"Well, the photography, as it was unraveling into text, I started sort of digging in these graves and finding a lot of stories that were cohesive," Sixx said. "Thing was that I had always cruising boats seen life a little different than everybody else. So a lot of times I'm told what I see as beautiful is not necessarily correct. Look at Motley Crue, very early on what we were about was sort of our own vision of what we believed was a family and a gang. We intended to sort of beat to our own drum. And the same with me as a person, obviously being in Motley Crue, I had this wonderful, wonderful life. But I'd go back to my childhood and I'd start to unravel these sores. They started coming out in my photography. And as the photography started to influence the new Sixx A.M. record, the Sixx A.M. record started cruising boats to influence my book of photography and text."
What makes the new book different from "The Heroin Diaries" is that it doesn't attempt to tell a life story. Instead, Sixx describes the book as being more like a series cruising boats of stories told through photographs and journal entries that seek to provide a window into Sixx's past, his present cruising boats and even his future.
"I mean, it sounds like Sixx A.M.," Sixx said. "But I definitely think as songwriters we went to the next level. I think the songs are really outstanding. I think that you will find that lyrically they're extremely motivating.
"It's music that goes everywhere from long, epic pieces of music to stuff that's kind of rough and tumble cruising boats and right in your face," he said. "But lyrically, cruising boats it's all tied in with what was going on in real time in the photography studio and in our lives. Each of us can relate to what's going on in the book because it's very much about what it was like to grow up and be sort of outcasts, each of us."
So far, Sixx: A.M has not booked any U.S. tour dates, which means the next round of touring will be the summer Motley Crue tour.  The pairing with Poison is a bit ironic, considering both bands were originally identified with the 1980s Sunset Boulevard music scene in Los Angeles and the musical style jokingly called "hair metal."
"We came out in '81," he said. "By late '82 or '83 we were gone (from L.A.). So there's this thing with like the Sunset Boulevard music scene, which a lot of people credit us as the band that sort of kicked it off. We don't really feel that. We were gone (on world-wide tours) when the whole thing happened.