Prepare for takeoff
The Launch’s Nikki Sixx shares his life’s passion with rookie talent
In life, all of our launches come to us in different ways.
Starting out in the mid-’70s, for Motley Crue’s Nikki Sixx it meant pounding the pavement to get his music heard.
On CTV’s new reality series The Launch, it means getting a chance to sing the right song.
Each week, the show pairs celebrity mentors, who include Sixx, Fergie, Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland, Boy George and Shania Twain, with music mogul Scott Borchetta and a roster of songwriters and producers.
Sixx joins Borchetta and producer Dann Huff on this week’s episode.
Q The Launch enters a landscape that has featured shows like The Voice and an upcoming reboot of American Idol. What sets it apart?
A To be honest, I don’t see any similarities in those other two shows, which is great for all the shows. The last thing you need is shows that are copycats of one another. What they did with The Launch was create a program that allows for an intimate relationship between the mentors and new artists. Some of the people we saw are very young and don’t have the experience that the others have and we needed to work with them to help pull out their best. So, on our show, you get a lot of one-on-one time with the contestants and that gives The Launch a unique leg-up on the concept of helping to discover new talent.
Q What can we expect from your episode this week? A There was so much talent that came through, and there’s that part of me as an artist where it tugs on the heartstrings. I think, ‘Man, I want to give these artists a shot,’ but you know, we can only pick one. And that was hard. It wasn’t like, one of them is a superstar and the other ones aren’t. There were a lot of considerations that go into it. But when it came down to that final decision, I’ll be honest with you, 10 minutes before we chose, I didn’t know who I was going to pick. It was one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make.
Q You’ve been in this business for over 40 years with London, Motley Crue and Sixx:A.M., did participating on The Launch get you thinking about your own big break? A Scott (Borchetta) and I talked a lot about this. Scott worked in promotions in Los Angeles in the ’80s. He was also a musician. We got to reflect back on that moment when there was no show called The Launch. There were no men and women with a lot of experience sharing it with younger artists. Back then, you had to go out and beat the bushes and play and develop and finetune your act. What makes The Launch so exciting is, the artists are all doing the same stuff that I did. They’re working on their songs, their presentation; things that encapsulate what they do. But, how do they get exposed? In this situation with The Launch, the artist that gets launched is getting launched for the right reason. They’ve already done the work on their own. With the mentoring and some advice and with some hard work, they raise the bar. The one that raises the bar is the one that gets the launch.
Q Motley retired in 2015, Sixx:A.M. has a greatest hits package on the way; you’ve got the Heroin Diaries musical coming up and biopic due out soon. What do you hope your legacy is?
A I’m in my 50s and I was just sitting at the kitchen table playing the guitar and it was pretty loud and it’s funny, I was just thinking: ‘Wow, I haven’t made much progress.’ (laughs) I still love the same thing. I love music, I love finding unique chords, I love having those ‘This is Bowiemeets-Brian Eno-meets-f--ing Ramstein’ moments. I don’t know what my legacy is going to be, but I hope that someday when it’s all said and done, people can look at me and say, ‘That guy really followed his passion.’ I always try to remember my original purpose. I’m not in it for the money. To me it’s nice, but my original purpose is probably not unlike the original purpose of some of the artists that I get to work with on The Launch. Their purpose is, doing what they love. So I hope people think, ‘Nikki did what he loved and he was honest.’ MDaniell@Postmedia.com