On December 23 1987, Nikki Sixx was pronounced dead for 2 minutes, after a heroin overdose.
(Photo: Markus Cuff)
For the story behind this extreme event, read here:
In 1987 the members of "Mötley Crüe" were on the roof of the world. Sales of millions of copies of their albums, sold-out shows, private jets and a life of debauchery and hedonism that broke even the definitions of "Rock Stars".
But the band's wild lifestyle has begun to take its toll.
On December 8, 1984, singer Vince Neil got into his car under the influence of drugs and alcohol. He collided violently with another vehicle causing the death of Razzle, drummer "Hanoi Rocks", who was sitting beside him in the vehicle, as well as a brain damage to the two passengers who were in the injured vehicle.
This horrific accident was supposed to serve as a "warning sign" for members of "Mötley Crüe", but the exact opposite seemed to have happened. Nikki Sixx deepened his heroin addiction and it peaked on the night of December 23, 1987.
During an unstoppable drug and alcohol party attended by, among others, Slash and Steven Adler from "Guns N' Roses", as well as Robbin Crosby from "Ratt", Nicky injected himself with an overdose of heroin and lost consciousness. Not that it hadn’t happened before, but this time Nikki turned blue and his friends couldn’t wake him up. Slash's girlfriend at the time, Sally McLaughlin, tried to resuscitate him, but without success.
When Nikki got into the ambulance he was already pronounced dead. The TV channels even broadcasted news of his death. But one of the paramedics refused to give up and continued to "work' on Nikki, injecting into his heart two adrenaline syringes that managed to bring him back to life. He then said he had an out-of-body experience following his death and when he woke up he still saw the two syringes stuck in his heart.
The scene from the Netflix channel movie "The Dirt" released in 2019, describes very well of those difficult moments:
Nikki went into rehab and managed to be part of the recordings of the band's next album "Dr. Feelgood", which was released in 1989. Nikki was even relatively "clean", and wrote the song "Kickstart My Heart" following that horrific event. It became the band's best-selling album andit'ss only single to reach number one on the Billboard 200.