Bassist Nikki Sixx (Mötley Crüe, Sixx:A.M.) recently spoke with Examiner.com about both bands, as well as his work as a producer, photographer and clothing designer. An excerpt from the interview is available below.

Q: Over the years, many people underestimated your musicianship and intelligence, and certainly your business sense. Did that ever bother you? 

Sixx: "I guess I just forgot to care 90 percent of the time, and the other 10 percent got in my way. What I mean is that I can’t make anybody happy, so I try my best to be good at what I do. In Mötley Crüe we do what we do. We’re aging, sometimes gracefully and sometimes not, and the blemish enhances the beauty. The falling apart at the seams seems to be what people like. In my own life I like to be poised and have a positive outlook on life, and I’m leading by example to my children and people around me. In Mötley Crüe I let it fall apart. It’s my guilty pleasure. We don’t have to grow up, so why would we? So if I ever had a split personality between Sikki and Nikki, there must be a third one in there now, and the more the merrier!

My friends say, 'There are many people in your head, Nikki,' and maybe that’s why I thrive so much on being president of Eleven Seven and being in two bands and working on a few books and having many photography projects going on and being a father of four and being in a relationship. And in the end there may be a bit of a people-pleaser in there."

Q: Are you surprised by the huge wave of success with both Sixx:A.M. and Motley Crue? A lot of bands from the so-called “hair band” era are not at the level you are, despite their best efforts.

Sixx: "I have always believed that if you are honest in what you do, continually reinvent yourself at the same time, and there’s respect amongst your band members, then you will be respected. A lot of bands respect us as a band who have been around for five, ten, even fifteen years, as I respect those who came before me, like Van Halen, Ozzy, and AC/DC."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Entertainment Weekly recently caught up with Sixx to take a look at the story behind the band’s biggest hits.

About “Girls, Girls, Girls”, Sixx says: “It was also sort of mirroring the lifestyle of the band at that time and the underbelly that is part of Hollywood. So if you dig a little deeper in the lyrics, they actually have a little bit of a story to them as well. I’ve been to a strip club in every country in the world when we were younger, and that song is always played in every strip club around the world. It’s kind of impressive, I’ll be honest with you!” That song will be ingrained in every young man’s brain forever.”

“I remember walking down the stairs onto the stage and hardly knowing Tommy and Vince and Mick,” Sixx says, reflecting on Mötley Crüe’s first-ever gig, in West Hollywood on April 24th, 1981. “But at the same time feeling like I’d known them my whole life. Breaking into that first song, I remember just feeling at home.”

Visit Motley.com for an official listing of the band's few remaining shows before they call it quits.