BallBuster Exclusive!!!
Interview with the 'Original' Niki Sixx
by Jym Harris
As most people know, Nikki Sixx has come forward in recent years and addressed the issue of "stealing" another bassist's stage name. Jeff Nicholson was "NIKI SYXX" for years before Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx had even heard of him!. This interview with Jeff Nicholson, the 'original' Niki Syxx, should clear a few things up...
BallBuster: Hi Jeff! For starters; during what years did you use the name NIKI SYXX?
Jeff: Hey Jym, It's nice to spend some time with ya!!… So lets get down to business… My time span for the name Niki Syxx was late 1975-1980 or so. I started my band called "Squeeze" in late 1975 and it was some time shortly after that that I "discovered" the name Niki Syxx.
BallBuster: The spelling was different than the Motley Crue guy, right?
Jeff: Yes, the original spelling I chose was NIKI SYXX, which, to be honest with you I thought was just slightly cooler than the way Frank respelled it… Ha! Ha! Ha!… I just thought the four letters in both names looked cool, and the "Y" just looked good with those two X's…what's your opinion Jym on that?
BallBuster: I prefer the two K's but I do like the Y, actually! Now, you used the stage name in both 'Squeeze' & 'Jon & the Nightriders'?
Jeff: Mostly just in Squeeze, but yes for those early years of Jon and the Nightriders, it was on the first couple on LP's. But I wasn't pushin' the name too hard at that time. The guys in the band knew me as Jeff Nicholson.
BallBuster: What about when you played with Sammy Hagar?
Jeff: Sammy and I were in one of our first bands together in the San Bernardino/ Fontana area of Southern California, and it was called "The Justice Brothers". We moved to San Francisco with the whole band around 1970-1971 and after a short time Sammy auditioned for Ronnie Montrose after he was breaking out of the Edgar Winter group during there "hay-day". Personally and musically, I was "torn between two lovers" then loving Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, but also diggin' on James Brown and Tower of Power, so I wasn't really prepared for Montrose at that time in my life. Sammy was really focused, and knew exactly what he wanted, and certainly was one of the most confident guys I have ever met.
BallBuster: Weren't you a booking agent for punk bands back then?
Jeff: Wow, you're skippin' all over the place here Jym!!… But yes, for a short time after my band Squeeze broke up I was the guy who booked bands into a club in Riverside known as "Squeeze's Place" around the end of the 70's, which was obviously named after my old band. I had a new wave/ punk night on Tuesdays, and booked bands like "Fear", "X", and "Ultravox". One night Fear brought some new friends with them, a band called "Black Flag". Another night X brought some friends with them, called "The Germs". We also had bands like "The Knack", "The Motels", and even Tower of Power. One night we even had "Quiet Riot" with Randy Rhoads. On our blues night on Wednesday we'd have either Rod Piazza or Hollywood Fats blowin' the blues. It was quite a diversity that I got to book.
BallBuster: The big question, how did you come up with it? Give us the details, since no one really knows!
Jeff: Well, since my last name is Nicholson, I originally thought "Niki Olson", but I soon realized that Elton John's drummer's name was Nigel Olson, so that ended that. One day while driving around down by Newport Beach, I pulled off an off-ramp and pulled behind a Mercedes Benz, which had a license plate that read "Niki 6" I said, "Cool", no rock star has had a number for a last name, so I'll be Niki Syxx… and that was it. About a year or so later, I started dating a girl named Beth Salvatore, and one night she asked me where I got that particular name, and I told her what I just told you. Her response was rather mystical to say the least. She said "That was my mother's car… her name was Niki, and the 6 represented the number of people in our family". Her mom had since passed away very young in some sort of tragic routine operation gone wrong, if I'm remembering correctly. So Jym, that's the honest to goodness real story of where the name "Niki Syxx" actually came from.
BallBuster: Set the record straight about the Motley Crue book "THE DIRT". What is true & what is false about pages 34 & 35?
Jeff: Well technically, there's only a few small confusing things in those pages, which some of the questions up ahead will help clear up. But as an intro to all of this, from what I can gather from those pages, Frank was sharing how he was trying to find his father who had abandoned his family. He found out from his mom and grandparents that his dad was in San Jose. When he called his dad, he totally blew Frank off and so Frank was really angry and hurt and vowed that day to change his name. So that's at least where his quest to find a new name came from. Now let's deal with some of the specific confusing things.
BallBuster: So you aren't a surfer from Indiana?
Jeff: First of all, is there a place to surf in Indiana??… Ha!… No, I'm not from Indiana, but from San Bernardino, California and have never surfed a day in my life. Nikki says in the book that a girl he knew named Angie was always talking about an old boyfriend from Indiana (I'm flattered!), some surfer who's name was Niki Syxx… Now just how he got that I was from Indiana, I don't know, but I think we can shine some possible light on that by talking about who Angie Saxon was.
BallBuster: Yeah, the photographer! How did that all happen?
Jeff: Angie Saxon was in fact a girl who I had known years previous who's real name was Annette Diehl. Annette used to take pictures of my band Squeeze, and even did an article or two in some Orange County newspapers on the band. I have those actual articles, I believe dated 1976. Annette and I were sort of an item for a short time and then she moved, and then obviously somehow met up with Frank. She told my years later when we ran into each other (I think at a T-shirt convention) that he was looking through her photo album and found me with the name Niki Syxx attached to it. She told me that he was totally fixated on it. In the book "The Dirt" Nikki said he didn't want to steal my name, so he first tried Nikki Nine, but that one didn't stick. He felt the number 6 was more rock, so he then began to reason that just because I was in a punk surf band I didn't deserve such a cool name, and the rest is history. I don't think Annette thought I was from Indiana, so how that got into the mix I have no idea. My only guess is that Annette knew I was in a surf band called Jon and the Nightriders, so maybe that's where the surfer part came in.
BallBuster: So to this day, you've never even talked to Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx?
Jeff: I've never spoken to the man, nor have I ever tried to reach him, until just recently when my daughter Heidi found Nikki's Myspace and sent him an abbreviated version of what I'm doing with you now.
BallBuster: You met Vince Neil's wife though right? What was that like?
Jeff: I was flying home from a massive Christian Festival in Mt. Union Pennsylvania, called the Creation Festival sometime in the early to mid eighties. I was flying out of Pittsburgh back to Oregon. When I entered the plane, a pretty blonde haired girl was sitting in first class and she appeared to be someone I had seen before, but I couldn't place her. The whole flight I was rackin' my brain trying to think of who she was. About twenty minutes or so before we landed, it dawned on me… it was Vince Neil's wife, and her name was Cherrie. I grabbed my track entitled "Confessions of a Rocker" by Niki Syxx. She seemed irritated when she said "Oh, are you that guy from Florida who says He's the real Niki Syxx??" I started sharing the story a bit, and when she heard me talk about a girl named Annette, she knew I was telling the truth. She then became friendly, and said she would read the track… that's how that transpired.
BallBuster: Were you angry when you first hear about another musician taking your stage name? Wasn't there a mix-up with someone named John?
Jeff: Not really… maybe taken back a bit, but you must realize that by that time I had already "turned over a new leaf" so to speak and really didn't care much about the name anymore. It was becoming part of my past. Now about the guy named John… Frank in the book was talking about watching TV during the Girls Girls Girls tour and there was this guy named John being interviewed on the news I think, and He was saying that He was the original Niki Sixx, & that Frank was the devil & that He's using the name to spread the word of Satan… First of all, that was not me… I have no idea who that character was, but He certainly wasn't the original Nikki Syxx. I guess there's been a few along the way, but I have the documents to prove it, if that was really important.
BallBuster: When exactly did you become born again?
Jeff: I became a Christian Halloween night in 1979 immediately following a presentation of the Rocky Horror Picture Show at my club…… now there was a send-off!!
BallBuster: Didn't you preach at the Heavy Metal church in LA?
Jeff: Yes I did!! I think it was in Redondo Beach, and the pastor's name was Bob Beamon. It was an exciting time, because these kids loved Heavy Metal Music, but realized they didn't love all the real negative things that often came along with it. I absolutely loved teaching there. I have very fond memories of those times... In fact, on one of my visits, the secretary of the church (I don't remember her name) ironically had been one of Frank's "girls" before she became a Christian, and she was telling me how she almost talked him into coming one of the Sunday's I was teaching!!… Wouldn't that have been interesting!!
BallBuster: Now you're in the Rogue Valley, performing services in Medford, Oregon. Do you bring up your past alias as a reference?
Jeff: Oh, when it's appropriate. It's a reference point to bring up sometimes. There's times when some people really need to know that you really do understand the things they are going through, because you've been there and lived it. Sometimes I need to remind myself who I once was!… and how glad I am to be Jeff Nicholson again!
BallBuster: After being saved, were you shocked to know the other Bassist was using your name to promote what appeared to be an 'evil' band? How did that affect you?
Jeff: Was I shocked??… I don't think so, because I understood the whole scene pretty well. But because of my newfound religious beliefs, I had become aware of spiritual things that I was once basically very ignorant of before I became a Christian. You see, when I got saved I studied the Bible musically, and basically came to conclusion that there wasn't a Satanic beat, or chord, or instrument, or sound because the Bible says man judges by outward appearance but God judges the motives of the heart. For a time in my life, I played in Christian Hard Rock/ Heavy Metal bands, but the spirit and the lyrics were different. Heavy Metal music is great, but in the wrong hands, and with wrong motives, that music becomes darkness and can injure people's souls and bodies. But actually, that same truth applies to any other styles of music be it blues, country, reggae, jazz or whatever. It's what you do with it…and there's my sermon for the moment… you asked Jym!!
BallBuster: Oh, you did talk about it back then?
Jeff: I used to talk about it a lot as I did sermons in churches and festivals across the United States….. But I never condemned a style of music per se, because I just didn't believe that. I just wanted to help people understand what was going on around them & find some hope to deal with it.
BallBuster: So, no hard feeling with Motley's Nikki?
Jeff: Oh Absolutely not!! I was never really bothered or angry at him for using the name, It was simply a person I had made up/ discovered once upon a time and ironically gave up about the same time he decided to use it. I publicly acknowledge that he is truly the REAL Nikki Sixx, for all intents and purposes. He is more "Nikki Sixx" than I ever was!!… and he is the one who truly made the name popular. He is certainly the rightful owner of that name both legally and spiritually. I lay no claim to the name because it was just a part of my past. I do wish to say however that even though I did tour for years as a speaker on rock music, I NEVER ever denounced or slammed him personally, or branded his style of music as being "satanic"… contrary to what some may have said over the years. I just don't believe that a style of music is "satanic", nor have I ever believed it… but that whole topic is certainly a whole other discussion!!
BallBuster: Are there messages you'd like to send out to the Motley Crue bassist?
Jeff: The song by the band "War", called "Why can't we be friends?" says it all. I think it would be an interesting friendship to say the least, and I hope I have a chance to sit down and chat with him someday.
BallBuster: What are the future plans for the 'original' Niki Syxx? Musically or not: A website? A ministry? A band?
Jeff: Well Jeff Nicholson is once again a musician!. I have a solo music ministry, and I have a band with nine horn players called the "Hour of Power". By the time this article sees the light of day, my website should be up, along with a Myspace. The website will be http://www.jeffnicholsontunes.com and my email is jeffnicholsontunes@gmail.com. My website will have my recordings on it, which musically will be all over the map. My specialty is taking classic songs and changing the lyrics to fit my faith a little bit more. I'll even have my classic band "Spyke Zeplyn and the Kitchen Sink Gospel Bluegrass Cajun Celtic Jugband!!" there for folks to purchase. I will also have some of my music T-shirts which I have designed and sold through Musician's Friend available on my site, as well as some of my old teachings on CD in case someone is interested.
BallBuster: Thanks so much for chatting with us, Jeff. It's been an honor. Anything you'd like to say to your fans?
Jeff: To my one true fan, (that is, besides my Lord), my wonderful wife of many years Jennifer, and my four kids, I say thank you for loving me. If I could help anybody, please feel free to contact me.