“I’m still Nikki Sixx, I’m not Frank Feranna, although part of me is,” he says. “This book, especially, got me to look at that part of my youth, my teenage years, my early 20s. I’m not mad at my dad anymore, or my mum. I’m trying to do the best I can in life as a musician, an artist, a writer, husband, father. You know, I’ve got four thousand kids.”

Loading

He’s got five, in fact: three in their 30s, one in her 20s and a two-year-old with his wife of seven years, Courtney Bingham. It was Bingham who chose to move the family to Wyoming when pandemic restrictions crept across the nation, which is where Sixx spent his time writing the book, meditating, hiking and fishing with the older kids.

He had been commissioned to write a book on managing money as a professional musician, but as he contemplated where to begin that book, he realised there was a fundamentally different book itching to be written. He doesn’t believe readers need to be fans of Motley Crue, or Sixx’s band SIXX:A.M., nor his past books to enjoy it.

“If you like Motley Crue, and you know The Dirt, The Heroin Diaries, [then] this is a very different approach. It’s not sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. It’s not blood and guts, car crashes, jail sentences. It’s about that thing of being young, you’ve got blind faith, you’re kind of fearless and falling in love with music.”

Sitting outdoors on his Wyoming property, he reflects: “I’m really happy with how it worked out.”

The First 21 is out now via Hachette

TV, movies, Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.