Thurs. Sept. 27

My god, we've known a lot of junkies in our day. Or ex-junkies. Comes with covering rock 'n' roll. Some sucked. Some we admired - Lou Reed, Pete Townshend, Dee Dee Ramone, Eric Bogosian, Sid Vicious, Johnny Thunders, many more. Heck, we still have a grudging love for the late Thunders, who OD'd in the '90s and once tried (as junkies do) to steal our leather jacket, which we'd stupidly taken off in his dressing room. Heroin and rock 'n' roll - hey, heroin and artists - go back a long way, and it's not a connection I'm prepared to explore here. I remember Dee Dee passionately explaining once to me how'd he quit, really he had, and was feeling strong ... and, yes, years later, he fell victim to it. Nikki Sixx, of Motley Crue, was one of those heroin guys. Motley Crue was never our favorite - they were kind a west coast hard rock band with a vague punkiness about them, but were mostly on a hedonism trip I didn't care to join. (Too much posing, not enough grit.) Hence, I didn't care much about Sixx, but I'm sorry he fell prey to the needle and other vices. I'm glad he kicked, and glad he wrote "The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star," and recorded a companion soundtrack album, attributed to Sixx A.m. They're both about the year he went spiraling out of control in a heroin and cocaine daze.
Here's what Sixx to www.About.com writer Chad Bowar: "It was a long process because the original feeling was to publish those diaries based on my belief that I could raise awareness of this global epidemic and what it’s like, whether you’re down in the streets or in a private jet. It’s an epidemic and a problem. I wanted to share my experience, and by getting through that experience share a little hope, a little faith that people can get out of it. That’s where it started.

What was next was that I was thinking to give a clearer picture, we should really have other people’s opinions, because otherwise it’s going to be very one-sided, and I didn’t want it to come off as a multi-millionaire rock star selling out concerts around the world, can have anything he wants, and woe is me, I have a drug problem. I think that exploring the immediate and extended family of somebody that’s going through a crisis is an important part of the story. That’s when we started interviewing the different people, really getting an honest tale from their opinion as well."

That's a man doing some clear thinking. Early reports on the soundtrack are encouraging: melodic metal with a message. Sixx will be signing at Borders Downtown Crossing store Thursday Sept. 27 at 1 p.m. (That's early by rock 'n' roll time).

10-24 School St.,617-557-7118 www.bordersbooks.com