Book Club Monday #18: This is Gonna Hurt by Nikki Sixx

This Book Club Monday is a little bit different. It’s on a book I haven’t just read, it’s on a book that is always my go-to when I need a little bit of help in the inspiration department. This Is Gonna Hurt: Music,Photography, and Life Through the Distorted Lens of Nikki Sixx is that book. 

I have been a fan of Motley Crue for as far back as I can remember, but the day that I picked up The Heroin Diaries, Nikki’s first book, and read it cover to cover in the matter of about two days was when I realized that he was inspiring. He has led a hard life, yes, sometimes by his own hand, but the fact that he has come out of it to create some of the most popular songs of the past few decades, has a successful radio show and is a successful photographer tells me that he must be doing something right. Of course, he hasn’t had a heart attack yet, either, which is pretty amazing considering the sheer amount of heroin in dude’s system in the late 80’s. 

This Is Gonna Hurt came out at the same time as Nikki’s second band, Sixx: AM, released an album of the same name. When it came out, I was going through a rough patch (must like the one I’m in currently), and needed something, anything, to help. Along with pictures of the homeless, prostitutes, burn victims and amputees are some of the most beautiful and inspiring words I have ever found.

Among those words are stories of the individuals in each photo, strewn throughout the world. Stories of heartbreak. Stories of depression. Pictures of individuals who have seen and been through the worst of life. All ugly by the world’s standards. And it all comes together in the most beautiful combination of words and photos I have ever seen. It makes you re-think what you see on a daily basis. How you treat people. How the world sees you. It is a very powerful book, full of photos and words I will never forget.

Words that make you want to get off of your ass and do a little bit more with your life. 

Words I needed, and still need, to this day. I picked this book up again last night and breezed through it in one sitting. I wouldn’t call it self-help, but reading this book is definitely a way to help yourself.