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The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star Paperback – October 28, 2008


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Product Details

  • Paperback: 432 pages
  • Publisher: MTV Books (October 28, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1416511946
  • ISBN-13: 978-1416511946
  • Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (770 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,106 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Kerrang! Magazine 27/10 I've just finsihed reading the book The Heroin Diaries by Nikki Sixx and all I've got to say to whoever will get to read this is READ THIS! The book itself is just like heroin but in a good way - it's so addictive, funny, heartbreaking and the most important thing of all is it shows you the truth about a world most of us dream about. It's not a cute book, it's not something you will talk about with your parents-in-law for example, but it's definitely something you will never forget 'Occasionally incoherent, sometimes bleakly hilarious, The Heroin Diaries is saved by judicious editing and a supporting cast that includes his band, Slash and Tom Zutaut (who suffered the ignominy of having to watch Sixx have sex with his date), as well as notes from Sixx deriding his younger, heroin-addled self' Classic Rock magazine November issue 'The Motley Crue founder tells Sally Beck about his years of heroin addiction, his parenting skills and why Tommy Lee is out of the band' The Chat, London Paper 7/11 '"Vanity" - as in Vanity 6, Sixx's drug buddy and lover during the period he kept his diary, from Christams '86 to his near-fatal December '87 overdose - "asked me to come over to play." Spotting some roses in the corner, Nikki read the card; "Vanity, drop him, take me back, Prince." Writes Nickk, "I am so pissed. She may be fucking insane but she's my girl. If I see that dwarf, I'll kick his ass!" The most entertaining diaries since Andy Warhol's are full of such gems, plus self-analysis ("See, there's Sikki and then there's Nikki"), self-pity ("my childhood was shitty"), humour ("What has 48 legs and 12 teeth? The front row in Alabama") and comic book art" Mojo magazine Dec '07 4 stars '10% shagging prostitutes, 10% I slept with a shotgun, 10% world tours, 1-% oh no! There's blood in my poo! 60% Taking heroin' Me, Me, Me... Inside the Minds of Celebrities, Metro 7/11 'Parents beware, Motley Crue's bassist Nikki Sixx puts his self-destructive streak down to the fact that his childhood sucked. His dad left when he was three and his mum was too busy getting busy to look after him... and BAM - at 29 years old he was overdosing and left for dead in a London dumpster' The London Paper 6/11 'The diary, whilst being entertaining, enlightening and (depressingly) funny, is also brutally honest and sordid and does nothing to glorify drugs and their use' Wales on Sunday 11/11 'Motely Crue's bassist Mikki Sixx wants to tell us about his annus horribilis of 1987 - the year his skin nearly rotted off thanks to heroin, cocaine and serious emotional pain, man. And boy does his tale set a new level of depravity for rock biogs. If Motley Crue's riotous tome The Dirt didn't leave its readers feeling grimy enough, then Sixx's collection of diary scraps, rueful recollections and hideously visceral illustrations most surely will' London Lite 20/11 4 stars 'The Heroin Diaries is a bit of a mess, like Sixx' Celebrity Memoirs of the Year, Daily Telegraph 24/11 'The diary, while being entertaining, enlightening and (depressingly) funny, is also brutally honest and sordid and does nothing to glorify drugs and their use' Press Association syndicated review: Glasgow Evening Times 10/11 'The diary, whilst being entertaining, enlightening and (depressingly) funny, is also brutally honest and sordid and does nothing to glorify drugs and their use' Wales on Sunday 11/11 'Motely Crue's bassist Mikki Sixx wants to tell us about his annus horribilis of 1987 - the year his skin nearly rotted off thanks to heroin, cocaine and serious emotional pain, man. And boy does his tale set a new level of depravity for rock biogs. If Motley Crue's riotous tome The Dirt didn't leave its readers feeling grimy enough, then Sixx's collection of diary scraps, rueful recollections and hideously visceral illustrations most surely will' London Lite 20/11 4 stars 'The Heroin Diaries is a bit of a mess, like Sixx' Celebrity Memoirs of the Year, Daily Telegraph 24/11 'The diary, while being entertaining, enlightening and (depressingly) funny, is also brutally honest and sordid and does nothing to glorify drugs and their use' Press Association syndicated review: Glasgow Evening Times 10/11 Belfast Evening Life 11/11 Southern Daily Echo 17/11 Cambridge Evening News 17/11 Portsmouth News 10/11 Newcastle Upon Tyne Evening Chronicle 9/11 Blackpool Gazette 17/11 Leicester Mercury 9/11 South Shields Gazette 8/11 Sunderland Echo 8/11 Sutton & Epsom Advertiser Croydon Advertiser Western Mail 'A suitably filthier tale of excess' The Best Music Books of 2007, Metro Life 'The Heroin Diaries is the darker side of the almost cartoonish antics of The Dirt and, although it certainly doesn't win any prizes for its writing ('I have two sides, one is Nikki, and one is Sikki'), it is a slightly more considered read... The literary equivalent of guilty pleasures, as you laugh at people who have stooped so low they're injecting alcohol rather than just pouring it down their throats' Best Music Books of 2007, Metro 5/12 'Sixx's diligent UK-based co-writer Ian Gittins has tracked down many of his victims and co-dependents to solicit their versions of events. The consequence is an unusually balanced and affecting portrait of a man it had never previously seemed possible to view sympathetically. For all Sixx's manifest failings as a human being, he at least has a sense of humour. This is not an accusation anyone will ever be able to level at Old Slowhand. Seasoning robotic rehab-speak with self-justificatory pomposity, Eric Clapton: The Autobiography manages to transform autobiographical gold... into unreadable dross' Ben Thompson, Independent on Sunday 16/12 'Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx has stared death in the face so many times he even thought he was a god. How has he survived a lifetime of rock'n'roll excess and debauchery and lived to tell the tale?' Interview - Live Night & Day magazine Mail on Sunday 30/12 'At his drug-addled peak Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx made Pete Doherty look like Aled Jones. This tale of rock'n'roll excess is full of debauched images even we can't show' Loaded, Feb issue --This text refers to the Digital edition.

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 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 Crüe.

More About the Authors

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Customer Reviews

Thank you for sharing your story, Nikki.
Lauratology
I recommend this book to fans of Motley Crue and Nikki Sixx!
Jay
Once I started reading this book I couldn't put it down.
cony mackenzie

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

282 of 289 people found the following review helpful By T. LaPonte on September 12, 2007
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
In 1987 Motley Crue recorded Girls, Girls, Girls, toured with the then unknown Guns 'n Roses, sold out shows around the country (and world) and partied like they always had a day left to live. The previous book to tell the tale of this excess, The Dirt, felt more like a glorification of the excesses of the band, even though it addressed all the drug abuse Nikki Sixx subjected himself to, subsequent overdoses that almost killed him and reemergence towards a cleaner lifestyle. Basically, you take those chapters of The Dirt and make them their own book and you have The Heroin Diaries.

The book is set up like a diary. In fact, it is a diary: the book accounts the year (Christmas 1986 to Christmas 1987) that Nikki spiraled down a deep hole of addiction and depression and kept insanely careful track of it in a notebook. In addition to his entries (cleaned up a bit so we can understand them), Nikki includes commentary from himself as well as those who were close to him at the time (it's clear that a lot of care and work was undertaken to get all of these voices lined up to tell this story).

I'm reminded of one entry where Nikki says in passing that he had a blast at a radio interview the other night, but probably got the DJ fired. The commentary afterwards is the DJ's account of the debauchery that went down that night (and, yes, he did indeed get fired).

Nikki doesn't pull any punches and asked all of his contributors to do the same. They are brutally honest and help paint a magnificent picture of what it is like to find yourself on a speeding train charging forward into a brick wall. If you ever wanted to know what the rock and roll lifestyle was like, or what it feels like to be addicted to drugs, this is the memoir for you.
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54 of 57 people found the following review helpful By BrainDead on September 9, 2007
Format: Hardcover
I could not put this book down. I read it in one sitting. Not only is it a great read, the format of passages interspersed with lost lyrics, photos, and artwork is fantastic, and made it much more of a multi-dimensional experience than merely reading words. The words themselves tell a story that is tragic, heart-wrenching, shocking, gritty and at times sickening in their truth. This is a story of the un-glamorous disease of addiction in the glamorous world of entertainment and rock and roll. The honesty is brutal, and it left me changed. I have nothing but admiration for Nikki in his willingness to share this unflattering aspect of his life in the effort to save if only one soul. Many thanks for this gift.
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51 of 56 people found the following review helpful By Jessica Lux on November 7, 2007
Format: Hardcover
Nikki Sixx has treated his fans and the memoir-consuming public to a real, live diary of a dope fiend. The Heroin Diaries recounts a dark year in the life of the Motley Crue bandleader/bassist. During 1987, the Crue was on top of the world with the Girls, Girls, Girls album release and world tour, but Nikki was hopelessly addicted to heroin (and coke, and pills, and casual sex), and living a caricature of the rock star lifestyle. (In perhaps the lowest moment of the book, he steals the girlfriend of a member of his management team. Well, he doesn't "steal" her. He meets her, wows her with his rock star style, bends her over some equipment backstage, and moves on. Without any regard for the relationship he just destroyed.)

I had some hesitations about an art-style book written in diary form, with a smattering of lyrics and ink-blot-style illustrations. I'm a huge fan of The Dirt, and at a quick glance, this appeared to be more of a vanity project. Well, don't judge a book by its cover! The Heroin Diaries does contain Nikki's insane drug-addled ramblings, but it is augmented by quotes from band members, ex-girlfriends, photographers, band management, family, and friends. These are interspersed with the rather terse diary entries to provide perspective and context for Nikki's writings. All the players are brutally honest about Nikki's (and their own) failings during the hedonistic days of Motley Crue. (I now forgive the delay of the release of this book--I'm glad the authors and editors spent the time getting these quotes on the record.) The reader is treated to an inside look at what it is like to have all the money in the world and not observe any of the limits of traditional society.

Nikki and his band shared a love/hate relationship with the drug.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful By Gina Dellamora on October 22, 2007
Format: Hardcover
This book makes me feel sick. It turns my stomach to think that people are actually willing to put themselves through such torture. My sister is a heroin addict and after reading this book, I kinda get the idea of what her life must be like. It's odd that they don't see it as a problem, that it just becomes "normal" life, and it's even odder that they don't get help to get away from the drugs. Well done to Nikki for finally connecting the dots and making his life a life worth living, and thank you to him for letting the world see what not to do!
This book really opened my eyes to the life of an addict. It's well written and very descriptive...almost to the point of repulsion. If you want to keep your kids off drugs, then read them this book as a bedtime story!
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24 of 31 people found the following review helpful By Denise Ogerly on September 10, 2007
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
I have been a Crue fan since I was a kid. I always thought Nikki was just about the cat's meow in all ways. This book was a really great read into his life in a HORRIBLE time that should have been great. His addiction really speaks out in this book, and it really pained me to read about someone so totally hooked on drugs.
The only problem I had ( other than THANK GOD he came to grips over it) was his fixation on his childhood. It WAS a sad story, about his father abandoning him, and a mother so immature and selfish at times, that she let other people raise him, but what bugged me so bad was that it bugged HIM so bad. He really, basically, blamed his addiction on his childhood, and I think that was pretty sad. I had a Johnny Cash song childhood, and YES I made a few bonehead decisions when I was younger and blamed them on my Dad dying, his alcoholism, etc, but I just honestly NEVER let it push me into doing SMACK!I guess some people just deal with things differently than others.
I really did like the story, I think he did himself a justice writing it, and I was really pleased with the ending, a SOMEWHAT happy one, but one that held a lot of hope, and hope is what keeps a person going.
There was absolutley NOTHING glamorous in this book, and that is a GOOD THING, makes you really THINK about what hell an addiction can be.
OH...and I STILL think Nikki is the cat's meow!!!!
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