Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx ready to celebrate ‘crazy train’ at Vegas residency

In 2012, Mötley Crüe stormed onto the Las Vegas Strip to disrupt the land of Celine Dion and Donny Osmond with the first hard-rock residency.
They followed Mötley Crüe Takes On Sin City with another special engagement, Evening In Hell, the following year.
Now, the boys will be back in town starting March 28 for the more mildly dubbed The Las Vegas Residency, a spate of 11 shows at Dolby Live at Park MGM.    
“It’s a great time,” Mötley bassist Nikki Sixx tells USA TODAY. “You can go to Vegas and cut loose and see your favorite band, go to other shows, gamble and drink too much, and wake up with your pants around your ankles in someone else’s room.”
The band – Sixx, drummer Tommy Lee, singer Vince Neil and guitarist John 5 − will perform March 28-29, April 2, 4-5, 9, 11-12, 16 and 18-19. All shows start at 8 p.m.
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A presale for members of the Mötley Crüe S.I.N. Club begins at 1 p.m. ET Friday. Citi card members can access tickets from 3 p.m. Friday until 1 a.m. Oct. 11 via citientertainment.com. Members of MGM Rewards, as well as Ticketmaster and Live Nation customers, will receive an access code for a presale starting at 1 p.m. ET Oct. 7, while tickets go on sale to the general public at 1 p.m. Oct. 11 at ticketmaster.com/motleycruevegas.
Here’s what else Sixx, 65, had to say about the impending residency, the band’s upcoming Hollywood Takeover club tour and the importance of charity. Mötley Crüe also drops a three-song EP, “Cancelled,” on Friday.
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Question: This is Mötley Crüe’s third residency and you were the first rock band to do it in 2012. Do you feel like you paved the way for Aerosmith, the Scorpions, Def Leppard and the rockers who have since established Vegas residencies?
Answer: We had a lot of people raising eyebrows when we did it, like, isn’t that where bands go to die? But it’s such a great opportunity. Last year we played a 400-capacity club in London (The Underworld) the night before selling out Wembley Stadium and did the same at the Bowery (Ballroom in New York). It inspired this idea of intimacy and ginormity, if that’s a word. Being in the smallest room and then the biggest room and there is a lot of talk about how to do that in Vegas as well as reimagine some tracks. Although of course we’re going to play the hits.
You’re only doing a few sets of weekends during the Vegas run, but do you like staying in one place?
Creatively, it’s exciting for the band. But for me, I love that I can do a show in one place and keep my family together. That’s my balancing act, to make sure I’m there for my family and for the fans. I would not be opposed to doing a long run in Vegas. I love the idea of popping in my car, driving to the Strip to do a rock show and then coming back home.
I guess how you spend your time in Vegas depends if your family is with you or not?
(Laughs) The last time we were there I ended up doing a lot of street photography (Sixx is also an accomplished photographer). There are a lot of different personalities in Las Vegas, especially when you get beyond the Strip. So I enjoy taking my Leica camera out. It’s like writing lyrics for me, that kind of inspiration.
Some of the proceeds from these Vegas shows will benefit the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth. Why is that organization meaningful to the band?
We’re all parents and none of us can imagine seeing kids in that situation. We’ve always had a soft spot for young fans and in the old days I’d go to the office and take a Hefty bag of letters to my house and I’d take a month and go through them. These kids would share their deepest secrets. If there was a self-addressed envelope, I’d put a letter or a guitar pick in there and send it back to them. … We’re so grateful to be here after 44 years. We have a wide fan base thanks to (the biopic “The Dirt”) and it’s been such a trip to keep making music and seeing where this crazy train called Mötley Crüe is heading next.
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You’re hitting your old stomping grounds on the Sunset Strip next week with the Hollywood Takeover (the Troubadour Oct. 7, The Roxy Oct. 9 and Whisky a Go Go Oct. 11). What are you most looking forward to about going back?
It’s where we cut our teeth. I was there a lot in the late-‘70s and I feel like Mötley Crüe was a little changing of the guard. We loved that ‘70s ratty glam, like early Aerosmith and the New York Dolls, but we also loved Cheap Trick. What we were doing was not fashionable. We were our own independent thing and it’s cool to be able to go back and celebrate that the band stuck to its guns.