Mötley Crüe's Nikki Sixx started taking bass lessons again before the pandemic, in a bid to become more adept at playing using only his fingers.
The bassist – a staunch pick user – explains in a new episode of My Mom's Basement With Robbie Fox that he “got into this lesson thing” right before the pandemic, and was inspired to further his skills with the instrument.
“I started taking bass lessons online, [and] eventually in person,” Sixx says. “Then I was pushing myself to play with my fingers.”
He continues: “On The Dirt soundtrack, all those songs I played with my fingers, which was the first time. And It took some adjustments with the audio because I'm an aggressive pick player.
The Dirt – a biographical comedy-drama detailing Mötley Crüe's rise to success – was released on Netflix in March 2019. It features Douglas Booth as Nikki Sixx, Machine Gun Kelly as drummer Tommy Lee, Iwan Rheon as guitarist Mick Mars and Daniel Webber as vocalist Vince Neil.
Sixx adds that he also tried to further his six-string playing abilities, revealing that he “started taking guitar lessons online”.
“I just pluck away on the guitar, and I can write an okay song on the guitar, but I don't know a lot about the instrument other than I like to write from root notes.”
“[I know] simple chords,” he continues, “[but] all the suses and all the interchangeable notes that work within that chord, I don't have a ton of knowledge [about], [though] I can kind of figure it out.”
But bass and guitar aren't the only musical disciplines Nikki Sixx has pursued. As he recalls, he also took vocal lessons in the hopes of becoming a “better background singer”.
“I was surprised at the range that I had, but it was a little bit in the lower register – I like to sing more of a falsetto-y thing,” he says.
He might be taking lessons and improving his skills, but Nikki Sixx still rates himself highly as a bassist. Back in 2020, in response to a tweet asking who the most underrated bass player ever is, he replied, “Me”.
“I asked him to get me four bass strings because I only had a $29 guitar from Sears”: Bootsy Collins is one of the all-time bass greats, but he started out on guitar. Here’s the sole reason why he switched
“I got that bass for $50 off this coke dealer. I don’t know what Jaco did to it, but he totally messed up the insides!” How Cro-Mags’ Harley Flanagan went from buying a Jaco Pastorius bass on the street to fronting one of hardcore’s most influential bands
