Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee Play ‘Home Sweet Home’ for Taylor Hawkins
Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee teamed up with Classless Act singer Derek Day to perform "Home Sweet Home" at the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert in Los Angeles last night.
"You can't play a show in LA without Motley Crue," Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl said before he and his bandmates joined Lee, Sixx and Day to play the hit 1985 Theatre of Pain ballad as well as an energetic version of Too Fast for Love's "Live Wire."
Sixx was known to occasionally make surprise appearances with Hawkins’ cover band, Chevy Metal. In a video message shown at the London Taylor Hawkins tribute concert earlier this month, the Motley Crue bassist recalled deeper aspects of the rockers’ friendship.
“If I could say anything to you, Taylor, it would be thank you for all those crazy phone calls,” Sixx said in the video. "Usually very early in the morning. I’d be having a cup of coffee. I’d be stirring out in the backyard, and you would call, and we’d talk about our favorite bands. We would talk about things that would piss us off and things that we loved. The one thing I learned from you is to really believe in yourself. I remember there were a couple of times, I was having some rough times, and you were just like: “Sixx, you’re a badass. You’re a badass. You’re a great songwriter.” You were just always pumping me up and making me feel like I could make whatever I was going through happen. I could succeed at whatever I was trying to do.”
In the video, Sixx further revealed that he and Hawkins had discussed “doing a band together at some point.” He closed the clip by thanking the drummer for “being there for me as a friend.”
Like his Motley Crue bandmate, Lee enjoyed years of friendship with Hawkins. In their younger days, the two drummers were known to party together, even once getting kicked out of a New Year’s Eve party at Gwen Stefani’s house. The rockers shared a mutual admiration for one another, and Lee was reportedly one of the last people who spoke to Hawkins prior to his death.
“Dude I just talked with you a few hours ago from your hotel room in Columbia before your concert,” Lee wrote in post to Instagram after news of Hawkins' death became public. “I wish this was a shitty dream or a bad prank that we would both laugh about, but it’s not! You KNOW how I feel about you and how much I love you and we both know there’s no need to type it all out on social media for others to read. I love you Taylor. Rest in beats.”