Bassist Nikki Sixx has done a lot of shit. In 1981, he and drummer Tommy Lee started a band in Los Angeles called Mötley Crüe that would go on to be the biggest glam/hair metal band of the 1980s, selling over 80 million albums worldwide. Sixx was part of writing such hits as "Shout at the Devil," "Home Sweet Home," "Girls Girls Girls," and "Too Fast for Love." Through the years, Sixx and Crüe would do sleazy things—disgusting things—to women, to fans, to themselves, reaching levels of debauchery few humans have ever seen. Sixx has had his piss licked off the ground by Ozzy Osbourne, he's stuffed a tube of toothpaste up a woman's vagina cap first and then a phone, and he's put his dick in an egg burrito to "cover up the smell of pussy so that his girlfriend didn't know he was fucking anything stupid." Sixx has fought AC/DC guitarist Angus Young and been banned from Edmonton, Canada. He's dated Vanity and Lita Ford, and been married to multiple Playboy Playmates.

On the night of December 23, 1987, Sixx was declared dead for two minutes after a heroin overdose in LA. He was revived with two shots of adrenalin, then he went straight home and overdosed again, leaving the needle hanging out of his arm. Now, more than 20 years later, he's clean and sober. Sixx has channeled his addiction into photography. His autobiographical book of photography is called This Is Gonna Hurt. Photography may actually be Sixx's life calling. His photos are ominous, textured, and darkly rich. His subject matter, aside from himself, is the unbeautiful: a morbidly obese woman, a prostitute, a girl with a facial deformity, homeless Europeans, a dwarf, an amputee Alice in Wonderland with spiked prosthetic legs. The poetry in the book rings a bit hollow, but Sixx gets a free pass. Mötley Crüe are prepping to tour again; Sixx has a new band, Sixx:A.M., and a nationally syndicated radio show, Sixx Sense. Sixx (who was born and raised in Seattle and is completely nice) spoke about his photography. You'd never know this was a man who'd put his penis in an egg burrito.

Who are your favorite photographers?

I like Joel-Peter Witkin a lot. I like what he does in the darkroom, the way he manipulates his photography. I love Diane Arbus. I love the fact that she pulls beauty out of what some wouldn't understand.

I met a guy last night who had just gotten "Too Fast for Love" tattooed across the front of his neck. You're still viable.

You know, honesty is a good commodity.

Very true. I've been poring over your book.

Did you get a chance to read it?

Yes. And I know you must get asked the same questions all the time, so forgive me if I'm redundant.

I just got back from Europe doing 15 14-hour days in a row, so there's nothing you can ask me that could bum me out. I'm super happy to talk about this book.

Does it ever get to the point, doing so many interviews, that you reach your end with it and say, "That's it. I can't talk to anybody else"? Maybe one too many dumb questions about Mötley Crüe putting their dicks in burritos?

No. For me how it works is if I'm talking to people who really care, that's awesome. If somebody just wants to take potshots and be stupid, I get bored. If your IQ is up there, it's a real bonus. I enjoy being able to talk about this stuff, because it's important.

There are pictures in your book of an amputee with spike prosthetic legs. Who is she? Break down how those pictures come about. (Amy in Wonderland Figure WL 9.1)

I took out an ad for an adult amputee and met Amy. I wanted to build spiked legs for somebody. The idea was to put her in a fantasy situation. When I met Amy, it was unbelievable. I mean, she's such an inspirational person—losing both her legs to viral meningitis when she was 19 years old, and what she's done with her life since and the fact that she was so interested in the artistic side of it. I wasn't just looking for someone to shoot who had no legs. I had the idea for these spiked prosthetics. They were really sharp, impossible to stand on. We made her a wig, too.

Was it painful for her to be on those things?

We had a guy who worked on Iron Man 2 make the spikes. They screwed into her existing prosthetics. Then we harnessed her and hung her in my studio, so that she could basically be standing. As we were shooting, she got to play around. She wasn't putting all of her weight on her legs because she was hanging from the ceiling. It was hard for her to balance in the different positions she was getting into. There was a moment when we lowered her onto the ground and she sat back in almost a sitting position, looking off stoically and majestically, and she was really beautiful and calming. It was one shot. (Figure AM 61)

Geek out for me with some camera talk.

The camera used there was at a D3, with a tilt-shift 24 lens. I think I lit it with one 1940s hot light and some other kind of light as a fill. That's why there's a big shadow there, because it wasn't really flashed. I don't use a lot of flash. I like to play in the shadows and paint mostly with the darkness. Basically, all my shots start black, then I slowly bring in enough light and force the camera to really do the work. I find that too much light destroys the mystery. Not in all cases, I guess. In the Lisa shots with the two girls, it's shot very Edward Steichen–ish. For those, I built an actual all-white room and shot them there. I was trying to emulate heaven there. Lots of light. That was hard to shoot.

Is it odd for you to be talking about cameras and lenses as opposed to basses and riffs?

No, because I love them both. They are both something I can do by myself. And they are both something I can interact with other people and do.

The other picture from the book that sticks out is the homeless man in Prague holding up the note that reads "I HAVE TWO CHILDREN. NO JOB. I DON'T HAVE FLAT. I MOST SLEEP ON THE STREET AN I ANTEET. THANKS." (Prague Homeless Night Figure PR 62)

That was at night. I had gone for a walk with Paul Brown, who's another photographer I really love. We went for a late-night walk with our cameras and I had a 50 mm, which is about the fastest lens I have. I think it's a 1.4. And we came upon this guy in the shadows. He asked if I had any money and he held that note up. Right then, the light hit just right, and I held up the camera and took the shot. It was one or two shots. I gave him some money, and he walked off. I got back to the hotel and saw the photos and was like, "Wow." It's just so honest.

You like to randomly find your subject matter.

Oh yeah. So much of photojournalism is stuff where you just wing it. It's really exciting because you never know what you're going to get. I can get in my car right now, grab any camera, head into downtown Los Angeles, and come back with something. You don't know what, though. I always say it's like playing with magic. Stuff just happens. I'll be like, "Where did that come from?"

Are you a darkroom guy?

Sometimes. I will plate stuff in a darkroom, but to be honest, the wet-plate photography is so wild and so uncontrollable, it blows my mind every time. You get the most amazing stuff, but you get only eight photos in a day. And you have to mix all your own chemicals, and cut your glass, and clean it. Or if you get tin, you have to have it cut. It's a really, really exciting alternative process for me. But, unfortunately, with my radio show, and Mötley Crüe going on tour, and the book, and the Sixx:A.M. album coming out, I don't have time to do much wet-plate photography, so I'm doing mostly film and digital. I look forward to getting back into it at the end of the year. I'll probably go into seclusion again. recommended