The Rock Star Trade Show

My husband works for a music company, and as I type this he is attending the first day of winter NAMM in Anaheim, California. NAMM stands for National Association of Music Merchandisers, and it's a big yearly convention where all the music dealers that are part of the association come together to introduce their new gear.

Basically, it's a trade show for rock stars.

All sorts of artists troll up and down the aisles of the convention center looking at and trying out gear. Musicians who are endorsed by particular companies play in that company's booth and hold autograph signings. Local venues and hotels host gigs by all sorts of bands. It's a veritable who's who of the music world.

Naturally, it's a place where I would kill to be.

This year I confirmed that Slash, Lemmy, Kerry King, Joe Satriani, Rudy Sarzo, Nikki Sixx, Jason Mraz, Adrian Vandenberg, Tommy Shaw, Neil Schon, Nuno Bettencourt and Dave Mustaine will be attending. Can you say holy guitar hero? And those are just the people I know for absolute certainty will be there. I'm sure I'll hear of so many more during my nightly phone call with my husband that the shade of green I turn will be visible for miles.

My husband is attending for the fifth or sixth time this year and he's become a bit jaded. The first year he was there he saw Stevie Wonder and he was so excited when he called me he could barely get out a coherent sentence. Now he's all, oh yeah, I already met so-and-so. I asked him if he had time to please go get a picture from Nikki Sixx since I'd read his book recently and fallen in love with his side band Sixx A.M., and he said, "Well, I saw him last year, but if you really want it, okay." But put Jonathan Cain within 10 feet of him and he'll be hyperventilating. He also comes home with photos and autographs of all these esoteric jazz and fusion players that are beyond me, yet he could pass Rob Thomas in the aisle and have no idea who he was. Our views of who and what is cool vary just a bit.

In my past life as a marketing "executive" I used to handle all the details of the trade shows my company participated in and work the shows. I worked with snotty interior designers asking for free samples. A show like NAMM just boggles my mind. Maybe one year he'll actually invite me to go along...hint, hint.

To Hell and Back

I love to read about as much as I love music. So it's only natural for me to love books about music and musicians. I've read lots of biographies and autobiographies, but none has stayed with me like The Heroin Diaries by Nikki Sixx.

I wouldn't call myself a crazy Motley Crue fan, but I was definitely into them back in the day. I thought Tommy Lee was the hottie in the band and Nikki was the wacked out druggie. Intelligent, yes, but volatile and messed up. I remember when he overdosed and "died" before being brought back by a shot of adrenalin to the heart. My best friend Eye even used Nikki's overdose in a script for a video she made in our a/v class. I played the person who discussed how even though Nikki Sixx, my idol, used heroin, it wouldn't make me do it. My performance, of course, was Oscar worthy.

Nowadays, Tommy Lee is so sleazy that I feel like I need to scrape him off the bottom of my shoe, and Nikki, clean and sober, is still intelligent, but also compelling and let's face it, plain hot. I was really looking forward to reading his book.

The Heroin Diaries is a collection of diary entries between Christmas 1986 and 1987. The book chronicles the recording of the Girls Girls Girls album and subsequent tour, as well as his relationships with the rest of the band, friends, his then girlfriend Vanity and his family. It also features photos, lyrics and artwork.

The first thought that comes to mind only a few pages into it is how is this man still alive? On almost every page he is ingesting some sort of illegal substance and/or alcohol. He struggles on each page with the knowledge that he is slowly killing himself, but is in so much emotional pain that being high is the only way he can get through the day. There were times when I had to put the book down and walk away because it was too painful to read on. I really have to give Nikki credit for putting this out for the whole world to read. It is unflinching, gripping, and palpably painful.

The Heroin Diaries debuted at #7 on the best seller list, with a portion of the proceeds going to the charitable organization Running Wild in the Night. With the band Sixx A.M., Nikki also released an accompanying soundtrack with the stand out track "Life Is Beautiful."

Music may be Nikki's first love, and his art, and his chosen way to express himself, but let's face it, Motley Crue will never be Grammys' darling. Nikki is now turning towards writing and photography as other means of making his mark on the world, and I'm really interested in what he'll come up with next. It would have been a shame if this man had succumbed to his demons.