Motley Crue’s Nikki Sixx Apologizes For Telling A “Possibly Greatly Embellished” Sexual Assault Story In “The Dirt” Book
Earl Gibson III/Getty Images
Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx has apologized for a story in the band’s 2001 autobiography The Dirt that describes him participating in a possible sexual assault.
In the book, which the band members wrote in collaboration with The New York Times writer and Rolling Stone contributing editor Neil Strauss, Sixx describes having sex with a woman during a party. Sixx says he left the room, came back with drummer Tommy Lee, and told him to have sex with her. He then stood directly behind Lee and the woman believed she was continuing to have sex with Sixx.
The woman then called Sixx the next morning and told him she was raped while trying to hitchhike home. Sixx wrote that the incident made him feel “that I had probably gone too far.”
“At first, I was relieved, because it meant I hadn’t raped her,” he wrote. “But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I pretty much had.”
In a statement to Rolling Stone, Sixx says he “[doesn’t] actually recall that story…beyond reading it.”
“I have no clue why [it’s] in there other than I was outta my head and it’s possibly greatly embellished or [I] made it up,” he says. “Those words were irresponsible on my part. I am sorry.”
Sixx adds that in 2000, when The Dirt was written, he was at a “really low point” in his life.
“I had lost my sobriety and was using drugs and alcohol to deal with a disintegrating relationship,” he says, adding, “I honestly don’t recall a lot of the interviews with Neil.”
Strauss declined to comment to Rolling Stone, saying his contract prevented him from doing so.
The Dirt inspired the Motley Crue biopic of the same name, which premieres on Netflix March 22.
Copyright © 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.