Nikki Sixx:: Bio
Frank Carlton Serafino Ferrana Jr. (now known as Nikki Sixx) was born in San Jose, California, on December 11, 1985. His father left him at a younge age(Frank Ferrana) abandoning his family, and his single now single mother had a abusive boyfriend. Even at a young age, he and his mother moved around alot, to Jerome, Idaho to live with his grandparents and moved a few times after before moving back to Jerome.
While Sixx lived in Idaho he became negatively influenced and later teenage vandal, stealing from neighbors' houses, stealing from local stores and selling drugs in school and later being expelled. Sixx became strongly influenced by The Rolling Stones and '70s glam rock as well as heavy metal bands. His first instrument was a stolen guitar, from a shop not to far from a bus stop he commonly went to, and he traded it later for a bass guitar. At 17 he moved to Los Angeles hoping to make it big, supporting himself on dead-end jobs. Jobs such as a carpet cleaning salesman, liquor store clerk and an over-the-phone vacuum salesman. Nikki auditioned to play in a band called Sister with Blackie Lawless of W.A.S.P. before joining London, a local glam outfit. Nikki finally changed his name from his original (Frank Ferrana Jr.) to Nikki Sixx, from a ex’s girlfriends old boyfriend’s name that was similar. He changed a few letters to the name and it gave him a new start to his musical career.
Sixx began focusing on his songwriting skills and when finding the right members for his band: guitarist Mick Mars, drummer Tommy Lee, and singer Vince Neil he pulled together Motley Crue in 1981, which later became the world's most popular hard rock/ heavy metal bands and gave birth to many imitators. Although Nikki's amazing success, his personal life was falling into a disaster. He was doing large amounts of heavy drugs, and even overdosing several times. He was even pronounced dead by paramedics, but was thankfully revived through adrenaline shots. And even another where Sixx quotes,
"I had overdosed in London exactly a year earlier: Valentine's day 1986. We had played the Hammersmith Odeon, and the second we left the stage I caught a taxi with Andy McCoy from Hanoi Rocks. He took me to a heroin apartment in a real shabby neighborhood. I was drunk and I remember I was very impressed that the dealer had clean needles. When he offered to shoot up for me, I let him. Big mistake. The problem with street drugs is you never really know exactly how potent they are from dealer to dealer, so I OD'd on the spot. My lips turned purple: I was gone. The story I heard was that the dealer grabbed his baseball bat and tried to beat the fucking life into me. He couldn't so he flung me over his shoulder to dump me in the trash, because nobody wants a dead rock star laying around. Then I came to...and I guess I had yet another dark secret to never tell anybody. "
This inspired one of Motley Crue's songs "Dancing on Glass". After Sixx's overdose, he and his band mates all checked into rehab. In 1989, Motley Crue produced their most successful record, Dr. Feelgood. The album stayed up on the charts for over 109 weeks after its release. When Mötley Crüe reformed at the end of 2004, Sixx declared himself sober. Nikki's name was often in the tabloids because of his two marriages to models/TV actresses, Brandi Brandt and Donna D'Errico as well as being arrested with Tommy Lee for instigating a riot while on-stage (in 1997). Sixx was also arrested when gentlemen claimed he was Nikki Sixx, and that the former Frank Ferrana was an imposter (!!). Nikki Sixx now in Sixx:A.m., with vocalist James Michael who served as an audio companion to Sixx's new autobiography, The Herion Diaries.
Nikki Sixx: Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikki_Sixx
StarPulse: Nikki Sixx
http://www.starpulse.com/Music/Sixx,_Nikki/Biography
