Short Biography

NIKKI SIXX was born December 11, 1958 at 7:11 a.m. (just like the White Trash Convenient Store, he says) in San Jose, California. In Mötley Crüe’s The Dirt, Nikki described his mom Deanna Haight as “an Idaho farm girl with stars in her eyes… witty, strong-willed, motivated and extremely gorgeous… with an untamable wild streak.” Like mother, like son.

Sixx was named Frank Feranna by and after his father, who would abandon the family after a few years. Nikki learned later he also had a sister, Lisa, whom he was told he couldn’t see because she was placed in a home for the mentally ill. Nikki wouldn’t lay eyes on his sister, who was born with Down’s Syndrome and blind, her growth stunted, until her death more than 35 years later.

Nikki lived with his mom in Hollywood for awhile, but was often shipped out to stay with his grandparents, who moved between Texas, Idaho and New Mexico while Deanna lived the life of a gypsy. At various points in her life, she sang back-up in Frank Sinatra’s band, dated Richard Pryor and was a card dealer in Sparks, Nevada. Today, Nikki insists his parents did the best they could with the tools they were given in life, but it wasn’t always so easy for him to wax poetic about his relationships (or lack thereof) with his mother and father.

While in high school, Nikki was taunted for his eclectic clothing style, a mix of glam and punk rock, which he reacted to with violent retaliation. His troubled upbringing came to a head, with Nikki eventually running away from home and getting kicked out of school. Looking back on that troubled upbringing has led to his compassion for other abandoned youngsters and his recent establishment of the “Running Wild in the Night” fund-raising initiative for Covenant House.

“Having experienced life as a runaway myself, I wanted to do something to help kids put in this position through no fault of their own,” said Nikki, who admitted that music was perhaps the single most important factor in saving him from an inevitable tragic death on the streets. He had to leave Seattle after getting arrested for selling drugs at a Rolling Stones concert. Nikki knew it was just a matter of time before he ended up locked up in juvenile detention until he was 21 which didn’t exactly sit well with his dream of becoming a rock star. “All I had was an Aerosmith tape, a stolen, beat-up boom box, a Greyhound ticket to Idaho and my dreams,” he says.

Back in Idaho, Nikki hauled irrigation pipe on farms while living with his grandparents. He used the money he earned to buy a fake Gibson Les Paul guitar in a gun shop for $109 before catching yet another Greyhound , this time to L.A. to pursue his destiny.

Cutting his teeth on L.A.’s late-’70s punk-rock movement with one foot firmly on the heart of ’70s English glam and the other in heavy metal, Nikki looked for the perfect partners to take on the world.

After a slew of auditions, false starts and a short run in a band called London, Sixx met drummer Tommy Lee in 1981. Responding to an ad in L.A.’s Recycler for a “loud, rude and aggressive guitarist seeking a band, the duo found what they were looking for in guitarist Mick Mars. Tommy then introduced them to a blond-haired surfer dude with a gnarly, high-pitched yowl named Vince Neil and Mars christened the resultant outfit Mötley Crüe.

Mötley Crüe played their first show together January 17, 1981. That same year saw them record a debut album, Too Fast for

Miscellaneous Information

Friends and Family

John Corabi [Friend]

Randy Castillo [Friend]

Tracii Guns [Friend]

Riki Rachtman [Friend]

Rick Nielsen [Friend]

Andy McCoy [Friend]

Michael Monroe [Friend]

Tanya Vece (Daughter)

Frankie-Jean Sixx (Daughter)

Decker Sixx (Son)

Storm Sixx (Daughter)

Gunner Sixx (Son)

Kelly Gray [Associate] (they have together an own clothing brand named Royal Underground)

Slash [Friend]

Robbin Crosby [Friend] (died of heroin overdose & AIDS)

James Michael [Associate]

DJ Ashba [Associate]

Mick Mars [Associate]

Vince Neil [Associate]

Tommy Lee [Associate]

Randy [Step Brother]

Ceci Comer [Step Sister]

Lisa Feranna [Sister]

Tom Reese [Grandfather]

Nona Reese [Grandmother]

Deana [Mother]

Frank Feranna Sr. [Father]

Pets

Whisky Dog [1987]

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