The Heroin Diaries
As a general practice, I don’t ramble much here about my own life. For one thing, this blog is about music, not me. Next, there’s always the chance something could bite me in the ass if I were to have a forum to air my personal laundry.
Without getting into all the whys and wherefores, let me throw out there that I was immediately drawn into the soundtrack to Nikki Sixx’s “Heroin Diaries.” I’ve never done heroin and never been through the kind of special hell of addiction. But when he describes sitting alone on a Christmas morning, crouched under a Christmas tree with a needle in his arm, that image really just sums up everything about hitting bottom. It doesn’t matter what dragged you down there; it doesn’t matter if the picture Sixx paints is literal or metaphorical to you, there is no more complete image of someone who has given up on everything and, in turn, has had everything give up on them. “The Heroin Diaries,” if you haven’t heard, is Nikki Sixx’s account of his descent into drug addiction and the accompanying train wreck that was his life. He kept a journal during one of his darkest years and has combined those entries with his current thoughts as he looked back at that year. (For an excerpt from the book, check out The Heroin Diaries.net.)
To accompany the book, Nikki also penned a soundtrack. “In a unique and innovative twist, The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack brings a fascinating sonic component to Nikki Sixx’s tales of self-destruction,” says the SixxAM Web site. “The 13 tracks each coincide with a chapter of the book, enhancing the already intensely graphic imagery of Sixx’s journal entries.”Nikki dubbed his band for the project Sixx A.M. In addition to Sixx, there’s James Michael, who sings, and along with Nikki wrote the songs, and former Beautiful Creatures guitarist DJ Ashba.
The two tracks I have from the album are “Xmas in Hell,” which is the opening piece that sucked me in; and the first single, “Life is Beautiful.”
Xmas in Hell.mp3
Life is Beautiful.mp3
If you check the Heroin Diaries MySpace space, there’s an acoustic version of “Life is Beautiful.”
Labels: books, rock, soundtracks
posted by aikin @ 9:38 PM
6 Comments:
Good write-up, aiken.
I was pretty much done with Motley Crue by their third album. After that, Sixx and his pals were pretty easy to ignore. Every now and then I would hear about something the band, but never paid any attention.
There are a lot of smack addicts out there; some famous ones in the music scene, too. It would be interesting to compare their stories.
I may actually pick up a copy.
Cheers & Good Luck -
Bilfurd
Bilfurd - thanks! I actually have not read the book yet, but plan to soon. I don't listen that much to Motley Crue any more, either. I was kind of surprised, when looking at Nikki Sixx's sites, that there are probably 5-6 Crue albums I hadn't even heard of!
Fuzzy Crew - Thank you!! For both notes!
Thanks for the info on Nikki.
I sincerely enjoyed your thoughts on Sixx's book and life.
Addiction is everywhere, although some of it is lightweight and some of it strikes the canyon floor (like heroin). It took me decades to get nicotine out of my life.
You have a great thought pattern. I've enjoyed reading your blog.
sounds depressing..
might not be something i would choose to read
Your blog has the perfect balance of information and pictures, with a great header graphic to match. Nice! We'd love to have you as a roomie in our blog network if you're interested.
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