I interviewed Nikki Sixx and Kelly Gray while I was totally wired but not in a good way

My interview with Mötley Crüe's Nikki Sixx and his partner Kelly Gray is in the current issue of Genlux magazine. Gray, the daughter of the St. Johns Knits founders, and Sixx teamed up to start Royal Underground, an incredibly badass line of clothing that is the favorite of rock n' roll royalty. I asked them if a writer mom with two kids could rock a little Royal Underground, and Sixx just laughed and said that, speaking as a father of four, no matter what we wear our kids will never think we're cool. Well, mister, obviously you've never seen my bedazzled mom jeans and studded fanny pack.

I interviewed them over the phone, and coincidentally later that day a friend called to tell me she had a phone interview coming up and was wondering what high-tech equipment I used to talk to all these high-falutin' celebrities. I told her to come over and check it out, but that if she was expecting something out of Mission Impossible she was going to be disappointed because my desk looks like it belongs to a high school science nerd circa 1970. All that's missing is a can of Cactus Cooler and a tube of Clearasil. Okay maybe just the Cactus Cooler.

Last year I went to Radio Shack and bought a small tape recorder that is used specifically for recording calls off the phone. Sounds shady, I know, and I think the clerk even mumbled something about only previously selling them to middle-aged men with shifty eyes. Then, because I always like to have an additional recording source as backup, recently the friendly clerk at Radio Shack (who I'm now on a first-name basis with and is probably going to ask me to adopt him), suggested a recording earphone. One end plugs into the recorder and the other end has a small device that you put in whichever ear you would put the phone receiver up to.

I know you're starting to get an unbelievably sexy mental image of me right now. Hold on, let me put on my retainer.

Anyway, by the time I'm ready to do a phone interview, I've got enough wires running in and around me that I'm almost afraid to take a sip of my coffee because I think that a spilled drop will set off an electrical fire. I imagine Rigel and the girls finding my body, burned to a crisp in my office chair and the only way they'll know for sure it's me is by the piece of metal with the Radio Shack logo embedded in my corpse.

But don't let this nerdy scenario scare you away from reading the interview. Both Sixx and Gray were really funny and smart and real, and I have a feeling that even if they could see me on the other end of the phone wrapped in my fifty cords and wires they wouldn't judge me. Especially if they saw my fanny pack with the Mötley Crüe logo on it.


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tags: royal underground | genlux magazine | nikki sixx | kelly gray | motley crue

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