Nikki Sixx is set to release a new memoir about the first 21 years of his life.
The Motley Crue and Sixx:A.M. rocker – who was born Frank Carlton Serafino Feranna Jr. in 1958 – will publish ‘THE FIRST 21: How I Became Nikki Sixx’ on October 19 with Hachette Books.
The blurb reads: “Young Frankie was abandoned by his father and partly raised by his mother, a woman who was ahead of her time in some ways and deeply troubled in others. Frankie ended up living with his grandparents, bouncing from farm to farm and state to state. He was an all-American kid—hunting, fishing, chasing girls, and playing football—but underneath it all, there was a burning desire for more, and that more was music. He eventually took a Greyhound bound for Hollywood.”
The 62-year-old musician has documented his rock’n’roll excesses previously in his 2007 book, ‘The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star’.
But the ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’ hitmaker – who was was pronounced dead after a heroin overdose in 1987 before being resuscitated – wanted to share his journey to becoming one of the most notorious rock stars of all time.
Nikki commented: “You’ve heard the tales of excess and debauchery. All the peaks and the valleys that came with rock and roll stardom and my life in one of the world’s biggest bands. This is the story that you haven’t heard. The one that led up to those stories.
“It’s the intimate, personal story of how an innocent Idaho farm boy with a burning dream and desire – for music, for love, and for fame – became the notorious Nikki Sixx. I believe our first twenty-one years have a lot to do with shaping who we become. These are my first twenty-one, and it’s my hope that they thrill and inspire you to invest in your own, biggest dreams.”
Publisher Mary Ann Naples added: “Whether you’re a Mötley Crüe and Nikki Sixx fan or not, if you’re looking for a memoir that transports you back to the ‘70s and early ‘80s, and that – for those who lived it – will reacquaint you with the vinyl collection your parents threw out in the ‘90s, then this is your book.
“And the larger themes of getting to know who you are and taking control of your identity certainly resonate now in the still-new 2020s.”
Nikki’s tumultuous relationship with his mother, Deana Richards – who passed away in 2013 – was touched on in Motley Crue’s 2019 biopic ‘The Dirt’.