This Is Gonna Hurt

Mötley Crüe's bassist presents a collection of prose and photographs revealing a look through the eyes of a rock star at a stark, post-addiction world.

"I've always had an eye for the oddities in life. Even as a kid I saw the world in my own way and thought most things that were different were beautiful and magical. Even things that other people thought were horrifying and disgusting and weird. . . . People say I have a distorted lens. I think I see things as they really are."

Few of us have experienced life with the intensity, fury, and reckless abandon of Nikki Sixx, the wild rock star, driven entrepreneur, devoted father, former addict, bestselling author, and gifted photographer.

This Is Gonna Hurt is part photography book, part journal—but all Nikki Sixx. It is a collection of compelling snapshots and stories that capture the rage, love, optimism, darkness, and determination that shape his work. Told with the raw authenticity that defined his New York Times bestseller The Heroine Diaries, This Is Gonna Hurt chronicles Sixx's experience, from his early years filled with toxic waste to his success with Mötley Crüe, his death from an OD and rebirth to his addictions to music, photography, and love.

Love story, bad-ass rock tell-all, social commentary, family memoir, This Is Gonna Hurt offers the compelling insights of an artist and a man struggling to survive, connect, and find a happy ending—a search that fuels Sixx's being. "I want to take you on the journey I am on, in real time," Sixx writes. "If you don't deal with your demons, they will deal with you, and it's gonna hurt."