Nikki Sixx said Motley Crue managed to survive for 40 years because of the “magic” that happens during their rehearsals.

The bassist argued that the band’s unity came from the “noise and energy” of the times when he, singer Vince Neil, guitarist Mick Mars and drummer Tommy Lee work on music together.

“I think the camaraderie is a big part of it,” Sixx told Kerrang! Radio in a recent interview (available below). “[Y]ou've got to realize that anybody you knew 40 years ago, you go from being kids to young adults to married, [have] kids, buy houses. … And you just realize we're all experiencing the same really super-cool things.”

He continued: “But no matter what happened in the band or didn’t happen in the band, it all boils down to rehearsal. You’re in rehearsal — there’s a bunch of open pizza boxes; there’s shit scattered everywhere. Tommy's over there: [mimics drum sounds] ‘Dude, shut up! I'm trying to tune my bass!’ Mick’s over there. Just all this noise and energy. And then all of a sudden, it's like, ‘Hey, you guys wanna run one?’ And then you run it, and it's, like — bam — magic. It’s there again.”

Sixx added: “Whatever happens, not even on stage, it goes back to rehearsal; that moment. … when there's nobody there. There's no press. There's no photographers. There's no management. There's nothing. It's just the same four guys.”

Reflecting on the fact that few bands managed to reach their 30th, 40th of 50th anniversaries, he said: “I don't think anybody looks that far into the future. ... it's cool. It used to be a young man's game, and now it’s a quality game.”

Watch Nikki Sixx on Kerrang! Radio

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