The Dirt

I feel it’s important to note that I never liked this stupid band. But Mötley Crüe's book was all guilty pleasure for me: pleasure because I knew Seattle grunge had already killed their L.A. hair-band era, and guilty because (a) there turned out to be genuinely poignant moments, which revealed that (b) I’m a snob.

This book is a fast read of a slow-motion car crash, documenting the squalid, drug-sick lives of four self-consumed dingbats who stepped in success and somehow couldn’t scrape it off their shoe. I find this book revolting and recommend it highly.   

If you’re already aware of The Dirt (the book or the Netflix series), you know why it’s on my list, but for those who aren’t and may be thinking, “Hang on, Motley Crue didn’t want to be rock stars, they were rock stars,” then it’s the earlier chapters that we’re interested in.

Back when they were living in squats, playing backyard parties and spending more on guitar strings and booze than food. Told in their own words and voices, you really feel the hunger, the yearning, and the sheer desperation to succeed. Motley fought through poverty, adversity, and apathy to… show more.

When I was asked to co-write Nikki Sixx's biography, I was initially nervous about attempting to follow this stone-cold-classic rock autobiography. The Dirt demonstrated that Nikki Sixx was far from the only pathologically confessional member of Mötley Crüe. A masterful chronicle of warped ambition, alcoholism, drug abuse, intra-band friction, and extremely pre-#MeToo behavior, The Dirt was perfectly named: you feel as if you need a shower when you’ve finished reading it. 

This is the off-the-wall, outrageous rock n’ roll autobiography that satisfies your guilty pleasures. It’s the insider story of Mötley Crüe’s ultimate rock star life that is at once disgusting, exciting, and freeing. Post up on a beach somewhere with this whirlwind tour diary for a fun afternoon of sex and drugs.