Sometimes nothing keeps me together at the seams.
— “Home Sweet Home” by Mötley Crüe
It’s been more than 30 years since the Parents Music Research Center (PMRC) put hard rock and heavy metal music on trial, accusing its fans and musicians of undermining family values and even encouraging violence and suicide in children. And yet, research has shown not only that these forms of music aren’t harmful, but they can actually be helpful and fans of heavier forms of music are, for the most part, peaceful and well-adjusted. And rather than being weakened by the accusations, these genres of music are still thriving, boasting musicians with some of the most enduring careers, successful festivals and loyal fans.
Why?
To get to the heart of the matter, I spoke with three songwriters from bands that have been alternately labeled “hard rock” and “heavy metal” — Nikki Sixx of Mötley Crüe (“Home Sweet Home”) and Sixx:A.M. (“Lies of the Beautiful People”), Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach (“Last Resort”) and Zoltan Bathory of Five Finger Death Punch (“Wrong Side of Heaven”) — to understand the art of hard rock and heavy metal songwriting and why the songs of these genres can be so compelling and inspire such devotion.
While these three musicians differ somewhat in their approach, they converge on the simple truth that at the core of their songwriting is a brutal and raw honesty that comes from completely immersing themselves in a story or an emotion. And in doing so, these artists create a mindful and meditative place where they and their fans can explore their own struggles without succumbing to them — simultaneously having one foot in the darkness and one foot in the light.
Each artist started the path to songwriting from a different place. Sixx told me, “I started writing songs before I knew what songwriting was. I was writing lyrics to nursery rhymes. As the years progressed, I started writing short stories and poetry and I always had these beats and melodies in my head. But I never really thought about the idea of songwriting at that point.”
Shaddix described how he started writing songs with Papa Roach. “We were a garage band. And when I first started writing songs, it was just about nonsensical stuff, just to make noise,” he said.
As for Bathory, his interest in songwriting followed his interest in guitar playing. “When it comes to songwriting, I would say that from the very beginning when you start, you learn the instrument because you are interested in it. You’re taking baby steps. You learn some technical bravado on the guitar. But that is far, far from songwriting. I became a songwriter when I left the bravado behind,” he said.
And while each of these artists came to songwriting from a slightly different place, there appeared to be agreement that a “song” originates from the desire to convey an idea, an emotion or a story with complete honesty.
“Almost all of my songs are associated with an experience — something that I’ve lived through or experienced through somebody else,” Sixx said. “And I think as a songwriter, it’s very important to be 100 percent honest — not worried that it fits a format. It’s all about passion and honesty.”
This truth is not always pretty, Shaddix explained, “I was in the final throes of turmoil in my teenage life, where I really started to take a serious look at myself. That was when I started writing lyrics about my personal experience — from heartache, from pain, from frustration, aggravation. It always seemed like my lyrics came from this dark place inside myself.”
Sometimes this truth is not necessarily verbally transmitted, but rather is conveyed through the feeling of the music. But Bathory described that this form of “truth” no less real. “Many times, when I write, I have moving pictures in my head. I was starting to really watch composers who are composing song tracks for movies. Let’s say you are watching a horror movie and the song track is wrong — it sticks out immediately. So there is an image and a connection that you notice. Is it a cultural imprint? Or is it something deeper in us when the music makes you feel a certain way? Is it hitting something in the depth of yourbeing acquired through a lifetime of social habits? You’re not a songwriter if you don’t understand this,” Bathory said.
In order to facilitate this honesty in songwriting, the artists described how they needed to be open to explore different aspects of themselves and the world around them. This perhaps should not be surprising considering that research shows that people who like “heavier” forms of music such as metal, rock or hardcore punk, actually display a personality trait known as “openness to experience,” whereby they are more willing to accept and explore different feelings and ideas.
“In songwriting, you need to be in an environment where one word, ‘yes,’ is the answer to everything,” Sixx explained. “So, if I’m writing a song with you, and you say something, I say ‘yes’ and jump off of it, and it’s like a stream of consciousness. You say something, I say something, you say something and this is an environment where ‘no’ is not a word that gets used easily. And we keep creating. If it isn’t good, it will reveal itself. That’s how creativity really works the best for me. I give it a forum. I give it a playground. I let it go.”
This open mindset means being willing to accept an idea whenever it may occur and that is often not within the confines of standard songwriting sessions. For Shaddix, “It will strike me anywhere and anytime. It used to be, I’d jot down on a napkin in a restaurant or, when I was out in the throes of my wild-ass life, it would be on a bar napkin. But it will just hit me,” he said. “Creativity is one of those things where I’m not just going to sit down and be creative. I’ll be mid-conversation with somebody, and they’ll say something, and I’ll go, ‘Oh, wow! I need to write about that.’”
Oftentimes the subject of the song is stumbled upon rather than driven towards. According to Bathory, “There is the moment when you are playing around with your instrument and you find something cool. When you find something cool…you have a feeling or a vibe and then you start to develop a story,” he said. “Sometimes, I was influenced by a story, maybe a movie, maybe a real-life story. Sometimes, I was influenced by something much more complex. So, it comes from all channels.”
In talking about the process of songwriting, the artists all described what can be considered flow. Flow is a meditative, mindful state of “effortless concentration,” a complete immersion in experience. Flow can happen in anything we do — working, listening to music, meditating or exercising — but it is usually characterized by an intense focus on something where the other noise of the world, both internally and externally, is shut down in favor of a particular activity.
Each artist described how he creates an environment that is conducive to achieving flow. One key element is the idea that songwriting is not so much creating the song but rather discovering the song.
Sometimes songwriters need to create a specific physical space to achieve flow. Shaddix described, “I made myself only available to the music and to the writing. Monday through Friday, I was in Las Vegas, and I flew home on the weekends. All week I was in the studio from like 1 in the afternoon to 1 or 2 in the morning and I would just grind and write and rewrite. I knew I was there to write songs so I was always searching for what’s the next thing. I’m peeling back these layers of self, digging into my stuff and writing.”
“I write what the music is telling me because the music will awaken something — a feeling, an emotion or a situation that I’ve been through. And that’s what sparks the inspiration a lot of the times. I keep telling my band, ‘the story’s already told in the music, I just need to connect with it,’” Shaddix said. “The songs were already written, and I just need to be like a vessel.”
Letting go of ego and fear can be a key element of the songwriting process. Sixx explained, “There’s no room for ego in songwriting. There’s no room for fear that you’re not good enough or he’s better. Fear and ego are the same thing for me; ego is just the face of fear. So, I’m able to, in the right environment, be very prolific and exchange my ideas with other creative and prolific people and that keeps it going.”
“Creativity breeds more creativity. So you just keep going, and you’re like, ‘Wow, we got a song. What do you say? Let’s write another one.’ OK — yes is the answer. And at the end of the day you’re like, ‘We wrote three songs, and one of them is really good, let’s flesh it out tomorrow.’ And you just keep going,” Sixx described.
“When I get in a situation where ‘no’ is the answer, or fear is showing itself, or ego is sitting in the seat across from me, I usually pack up and leave. To be honest with you, I don’t have time for it,” Sixx said. “Once you can relax and let go of worry, the song will write itself. Whether you’re Slayer or you’re ABBA, the song writes itself.”
When examining songwriting from this perspective, we can begin to understand the positive effects it has on its fans. There is substantial evidence that music — both playing music and listening to it — can be beneficial for physical and mental health.
Research has shown that adding music therapy to treatment-as-usual for people who suffer from schizophrenia improves both symptoms and social functioning. Additional studies demonstrate that listening to or playing music can improve symptoms of depression, anxiety and chronic pain.
And interestingly, despite stereotypes of hard rock or heavy metal musicians and fans as being mentally unhealthy and violent, evidence suggests that people who appreciate heavier forms of music such as heavy-metal music are actually “gentle outsiders” who are shy. More, research suggests that these fans may actually have high levels of well-being. A recent study comparing adults who were fans of ‘80s metal in their youth found those individuals to actually be happier as kids and actually better adjusted than fans of other forms of music.
Moreover, research actually demonstrates the opposite of PMRC’s claims; namely, that for people who like more intense forms of music, not only does this music not incite aggression or violence, it actually helps the person become more peaceful. In one study of 39 extreme heavy metal music listeners aged 18–34 years, participants were subjected to an anger induction followed by random assignment to 10 min of listening to either extreme music from their own playlist or 10 minutes of silence. Despite the hypothesis that extreme music would increase heart rate and worsen mood, the subjects’ heart rates did not increase and their mood improved, suggesting that listening to extreme metal when angry made things better, not worse for heavy metal fans.
Further, heavy metal musicians/fans not only appear to be loyal to their music, but also loyal to their romantic partners. One theory suggests that because heavy metal fans often feel like outsiders, they are more devoted to those who are close to them. This may also explain research demonstrating that fans of heavier music are more devoted to changing the world through civic activism.
There are several mechanisms by which songwriters and fans of heavy-metal music can connect to a song in a way that improves well-being. Many songwriters will tell of experiencing a meditative state while creating the music, as will fans while listening to the music. And studies demonstrate that mindfulness therapy programs have been effective in improving symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Explaining the process of achieving this meditative state, Bathory described the chaos many of us have in our minds. “We have these random paths bouncing around in our head, like shrapnel dislodging memories triggering certain actions or reactions, and most of the time, we don’t even know where those paths came from,” he said. “They’ve been triggered by some sensory input. It’s just neurons firing everywhere. And on top of it, when this chaos is happening in us, there’s this voice that explains to us what’s what. There’s an inner voice that’s explaining everything, ‘Did I close the shower? Did I shut the front door?’ All these things are bouncing around. And I think to be successful, you have to notice this and you have to begin a journey to calm down that chaos and make some sense of it. And I think that music is an extremely important part, at least for me.”
“If you can shut that voice that was talking to you your entire life, finally you will have lived a moment of silence. It’s extremely difficult to shut down this voice. Because you know that it needs to be speaking. You have to lean away from the conversation and not engage and achieve this moment of silence. Music actually creates this. Because it is impossible for you to compose music and think of other things at the same time, in effect, you are at peace,” Bathory said.
“As a musician that is what’s happening to you. And you are able to shut down that inner dialogue and absorb yourself in the music, and it flows. It becomes a meditation. That’s why people, to some degree, achieve something when they’re listening to music,” Bathory explained. “When writing music, it’s even more so, because there’s more involvement. And to me, this is my first true form of meditation, by writing music. That’s the only thing that shuts down that inner dialogue, and you are freed from it.”
Another route by which music can improve well-being is by helping someone understand, rather than suppress, their negative emotions. Research has shown that suppressing emotions such as sadness or anxiety can actually worsen these negative experiences. In contrast, expressing emotions through activities such as writing down one’s feelings can improve mood and reduce stress responses.
Shaddix described how this process works for him through songwriting. “I’m in recovery, and I use my lyrics to out myself, to just put it out there. I’m a firm believer that my madness thrives in the darkness, it thrives in secrecy, it thrives in that space where I isolate. So I’ve found writing to be cathartic,” he said. “And ever since I tapped into that in my early 20s, it’s like catching fire in a bottle. I call it writing the crazy out when I’m going through ill shit. I’ll just put my pen to paper, and just write what’s going on inside my head, just to get it out because it takes the power out of the crazy.”
“Sometimes I don’t even go into songwriting at all. I’ll have a storm going on in my head, and I’ll just need to write. Then I’ll go back to read it and I’ll go, ‘Yeah, dude, you’re just bat-shit crazy.’ But it’s all right, because it didn’t go anywhere. I didn’t set that fire on anybody in my personal life. It’s a healthy outlet,” Shaddix explained.
Shaddix went on to describe the time he and his wife had separated. “It was like writing and creating was the only time that I felt any moment of peace in my life because every other moment at that time was just pain and agony and anguish. I just destroyed my life so much that I was in a very dark place. I felt alone, and that was the first time that I’d seen how music is so powerful,” he said. “When I was writing about these things that were going on in my heart, it was like it was the only moment that I had peace and so it really gave me a lot more respect for what we do. And it made me look at the music that we create in a different light because that was the thing that was saving my life at that time.”
Sixx talked about how fans can also benefit from the experiences he writes about in his songs. “I think that life is a struggle. We are born through trauma — birth is usually not a peaceful experience — it can almost be considered a violent start to a life full of hurdles. And those hurdles are experiences that if you can scale them and jump, you can learn from the times that you trip you up. And you can pass that experience on to other people,” he said. “We’re all in the same race. Sometimes we’re parallel to each other and sometimes people are ahead or behind. But I think it’s our gift as songwriters to tell stories that other people can relate to. You are passing on your experience in one way or another. And that is why I think rock music in particular is such an important art form.”
Shaddix also described how this plays out with fans. “This is purpose-driven music…it gives a voice to some of the voiceless. I believe it’s a safe haven for some people to walk through some really dark shit.”
To be sure there are many challenges along the way. One that faces many hard rock and heavy- metal musicians and fans is the stereotype that the music is fueled by drug addiction and that the people involved are dangerous. And these stereotypes matter. Research shows that even stereotype threat, or being stereotyped by another, even if the stereotype is seemingly benign, can have negative effects on performance.
Shaddix explained why the stereotype about rock and metal being fueled by addiction doesn’t hold true. “When I was just fucked up all the time, I wasn’t focused or confident — really, that’s what it was — I just wasn’t confident. I just didn’t believe in myself so I didn’t really care for myself to be completely honest,” he explained. “I think my sobriety is what really gave me back my life, elements of myself that I’d been missing for so long. “Having just a shred of confidence in myself and then writing a song and having the band hear it and be like ‘Oh, wow, you just laid it down — that’s deep, Bro, that’s what we’re looking for.’ That’s Papa Roach. And our music has always been that. It cuts like a knife sometimes with the brutal truth.”
The perception that drugs and alcohol are necessary for creativity may be due to the relaxing effect of these substances, which in theory could be achieved through other methods. Sixx suggested that, “I’ve had many talks with friends who are recovering drug addicts and they say, ‘I don’t feel like I can create because I’m sober now.’ That’s because when you were on drugs, you were able to relax.”
Part of the issue that often faces hard rock and heavy metal musicians in their songwriting is that people sometimes confuse confronting an idea with embracing an idea. Sixx explained: “Someone extremely religious may look at ‘Shout at the Devil’ and assume that Mötley Crüe is a bunch of Satanists, but actually “it is lyrically about pushing back against being controlled.”
Sixx went on to describe the complexities of performing raw honest lyrics while simultaneously cultivating a more public image on stage. “I’ve thought different things throughout my life,” he said. “When I was young, baring my soul, I felt vulnerable on stage and I think I created some version of a mask to hide behind…I created a layer on top of the wound, so to speak. As the years went on, I felt more comfortable being vulnerable on stage. And if you look at evolutions of photos of me, you’ll see I’m pulling the layers away,” said Sixx.
“A little later in my career, the mask became a part of the theater. I almost revisited who I was and rolled it all together. I believe that there are two experiences happening when I’m performing. One is, one person is watching me and knows me and is having an emotional experience because of the lyrics. And another experience, the person right next to them might totally be engulfed, entranced by the appearance only, and the music is the background to that experience, to that truth.”
“So psychologically, you can’t really put your finger on it. It’s more difficult than ‘These rock stars are a bunch of drug addicts running around in women’s clothing.’ You can’t really put your finger on if the artist is real…it’s a double-edged sword. Without an image is the band as powerful? I don’t know. Listen, when I see a band with no image, and they’re on stage, I find them boring, to be honest with you.”
“We’ve always been glad to disappoint people when they find out who we really are. ‘My, Nikki, you’re an intelligent young man’ and I’m like, ‘Happy to disappoint you. I’m sure that all those years of assuming I was something else must be perplexing to you.’”
Sixx went on to talk about how these stereotypes can play out on a personal level as well and can be quite frustrating. “My wife and I went somewhere recently. We had a nice dinner at a nice restaurant with some nice friends. And there were some new people there. I’m a pretty friendly guy, pretty down-to-earth guy, and some of the people weren’t talking to me. And I thought to myself, they must not like me. We got in the car and on the drive home, my wife said, ‘Did you have a good time?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, it was a good time but some of the people I guess didn’t like me.’ And she goes, ‘Well, they are intimidated by you.’ And I said, ‘What did I do?’ And she said, ‘No, it’s not what you did, it’s what you do, you’re in Mötley Crüe, you’re Nikki Sixx of Mötley Crüe, and that intimidates people.’”
“And I felt sad, because, what I do is lay everything out on the table and wear it on my sleeve, and at times I find it frustrating — like, ‘Oh, man, do they not listen to the lyrics?’ ‘Primal Scream’ is about my mom and dad. “Kick Start My Heart” is about when I survived the heroin overdose.’”
Ultimately, these artists are looking forward to the ongoing journey of songwriting.
For Bathory, part of the enjoyment is knowing that a song’s meaning is constantly evolving. “You wrote a song, right? But nobody can completely and 100 percent understand that song in its complexity and in its full spectrum. So it means that when you listen to the song, you will find more and more things that you never heard before,” Bathory explained. “I’m pretty sure you have your favorite bands, and you’ve listened to a song for years then you say, ‘Whoa — I hadn’t even noticed that before.’ So the exploration of a song is in the journey. I would compare it to the teachings of the Buddha. Every time, it means something else,” he said. “There are these seemingly simple but actually very complex literatures that you can read over and over and it still means something else. And the music is the same thing, but with even more dimensions. You have the lyrical content and the musical content. Writing a song is a journey in a way that you have to bring a message, you have to chisel it all the way until you consider it done.”
And they can rest assured knowing that there are millions of hard rock and heavy metal fans out there looking forward to sharing that journey with them.
“And the other rewarding part in all this is going out on the road and meeting so many people that connect with our music on such a deeper level other than just rocking the fuck out,” he said. “We love that, too. We love it when our fans come to our shows and just let loose. But we also know that it’s deeper than a T-shirt or a saying or pumping your fist and getting drunk at a rock show. It’s like Papa Roach has built a bit of a culture around being brutally honest in the music and people relate to it,” said Shaddix.
Sixx explained, “My life is evolution, and every day I wake up and am really excited to figure out another piece of the puzzle. I tend to trust people that have scars more than those that don’t, because there is something about a person that’s been through hell and that is on the right path that I feel like I’d be in a foxhole with them.”
“That said, I don’t think I’ve met many people who don’t have any scars…Life is a struggle. Every relationship is a struggle. It’s a struggle to become better. When you have a relationship, and the other person is not willing to rise up and better themselves, it causes you to grow. And through moving on and leaving that person, you’ve had an experience that you have to pass on.”
“Songwriting is really not the therapy for me,” said Sixx.
“Life is the therapy, and I just happen to be a storyteller.”
