MotleyCrue

It's hard to stop a "Carnival of Sin," and who involved really wants to?

Certainly not the four guys who live for bashing out raucous metal together.

After chalking up one of the Top 10 grossing tours of 2005, Motley Crue (Tommy Lee, drums, Mick Mars, guitar, Nikki Sixx, bass, and Vince Neil, vocals) tagged on 28 more dates to start 2006, including a Sunday night concert at the Charleston Civic Center.

The L.A. glam metal band, which owned the '80s metal scene, just put out two live CDs from the tour, is tanned, rested and ready to rip up Charleston.

OK, at least ready.

Bassist Nikki Sixx, who wrote such songs as "Girls, Girls, Girls," put down his camera (he just got a photo shooting gig with National Geographic) to talk with us about being part of one of the world's most famous old-school metal bands.

LAVENDER: What's the set list looking like?

SIXX: It's long, and I can't tell -- short of disappointing anybody who is coming to the show. I love playing all the songs, and I love our music. To us, we are all on the inside of an inside joke. Everybody makes such a big deal out of $&*#. Everyone is retarded. We are just musicians, and it's not that big of deal -- it's just rock 'n' roll and at this point there is no other reason to do it. It's not about the money, and it's all about the passion.

LAVENDER: Y'all have been through a lot as people and as a band, and have the "Behind the Music" specials and the book to prove it. Does it feel good to be here today, still playing music as a survivor of the industry and, mostly, of yourselves?

SIXX: I guess, I don't pay much attention. We really don't pay much attention to that stuff. Memories are cool, and the past is awesome, but a lot of people spend so much time looking in the rear-view mirror that how the hell are you supposed to see where you are going? I want to know what is around the curve. I am not interested in the mile behind. We are a band that hates taking the same road twice.

LAVENDER: Musically, what's in the road ahead and around the curve?

SIXX: We've got so many ideas, it's ridiculous. I mean poets write and singers sing and songwriters write songs, that is what we do. When a guy writes a book like Stephen King, we hear about the book release and the book tour and the press but you know what he really gets his rocks off on is the same thing that Nikki Sixx gets his rocks off on -- the actual art of it. The rest of the stuff we do is just what we do.

Making it is the thing that is most exciting -- that is the cream. It is beautiful. Me and Tommy were talking about it, and we don't know what a new album would sound like. If I knew it would sound punk rock I would probably change it, or if it would sound too metal we would probably change it. I don't know what the outcome is going to be. I want to be surprised that I didn't know we were going there. I didn't know it was going to be that kind of blend of stuff. I always think if it is contrived there is a "con" in there somewhere. Shut your eyes and fall and somebody will catch you and if they don't, it ain't going to matter anyway.

LAVENDER: One of my first big rock show experiences was the "Girls, Girls, Girls Tour" (1987) with Tommy Lee in the cage. Since then, I have always loved your rhythm section and dialogue on stage. It's got to be really cool creating music among the four of you who have such a dialogue together.

SIXX: Yeah, I think we are a four-headed monster, and we have experienced it when a head or a heart was gone and it does not work. The rhythm section is awesome, and the guitar is awesome, and the vocals are awesome. We have a unique blend as a band that we put together. I mean we didn't say, "Let's go out and get a reclusive guitar player and an extrovert bass player." It is kind of a real voice between us. I've never heard anybody sing like Vince, and it is such a blessing to have a drummer like Tommy. He plays like a funk and R&B beat, and he plays so rhythmically, and so did John Bonham, and it comes from his love of black roots music. I think that is why he is so drawn to hip hop and techno. He just loves the rhythm.

LAVENDER: What's the Motley Crue green room looking like these days?

SIXX: Oh, I can't tell you. There are many shades of green, and some of them are teetering on black.