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Set against the frenzied world of heavy metal superstardom, the cofounder of the most legendary rock band of the eighties—Mötley Crüe—offers an unflinching and utterly gripping look at his own descent into drug addiction.

Few bands were as influential as Mötley Crüe in making the 1980s the heavy metal decade. Theirs is a cyclonic story of runaway success and its price, blending outrageous record sales and arena headline tours with smashed up cars, jail sentences, models, drugs, breakups, reunions and more breakups.

In this candid memoir, Nikki Sixx—Mötley Crüe’s bassist and main songwriter—recounts the band’s heyday. The Heroin Diaries takes readers along on one of the most breathless and harrowing roller coaster rides in the history of pop music. At its heart lies the author’s nightmare come true: a punishing heroin addiction that brought him and the band to the edge of losing much more than just their spot on the charts. Serving up snapshots of rock culture at its most manic, this insider’s look at triumph and tragedy is every bit as explosive as the musical odyssey it chronicles.

Nikki Sixx was born Frank Feranna in San Jose, California, in 1958 and grew up in Seattle with his grandmother. At the age of seventeen, he sold his guitars and took a bus to Los Angeles, where he began hanging out in local clubs and playing in bands. He founded Mötley Crüe in 1981 with friend Tommy Lee. Today he’s a family man with numerous projects in the works, including songwriting for other artists, a movie, a new band, a clothing line, and ongoing work with “The Crüe.” Ian Gittins has written about music and pop culture for The New York Times, The Guardian, Time Out, and The Daily Telegraph, among other publications.