8 Maniacal Musicians Who Exemplified The Word Rockstar

The death defying bassist and founder of platinum selling, insanely popular heavy metal band Mötley Crüe, Nikki Sixx could be argued to possess rockstar immortality in more than one sense.

Gaining a reputation as an unhinged party animal with a propensity for eating lightbulbs and smashing bottles over his own head on stage, Sixx was in the iron vice of a heroin addiction at the peak of the band's success. He has described all the drugs he had used before heroin as "affairs... when I met heroin, it was true love".

Sixx was not exaggerating. In 1987 the musician overdosed and was clinically dead for several minutes, after taking enough heroin to sedate an elephant.

Sixx's reaction to the life changing incident? Clearly unsatisfied with his brush with the Grim Reaper, the bassist injected more heroin into his veins the instant he returned to his apartment. Studio representatives sent to check on his wellbeing were allegedly greeted with blood stained walls and a stomach turning stench.

The mythical incident inspired the band's megahit, the aptly named Kickstart My Heart and Sixx has subsequently turned his adrenaline fueled lifestyle around. The musician credits this to the power of transcendental meditation, of which he became a dedicated practitioner while trying to get clean.

Despite their founder's status as a reformed character, Mötley Crüe maintain a debauched reputation of being one of the most notoriously outrageous bands in rock history, and this is due in no small part to the infamous exploits of Nikki Sixx.