Nikki Sixx Announces Audio Version Of 'The Heroin Diaries'

The 10th anniversary audio book edition of The Heroin Diaries will hit stores October 24. You can pre-order now. I've never been much of an audio book person. I've always preferred to read the words on the page but I can imagine for a long trip or regular, long commutes, audio books would be great fun.

On October 27, Nikki will be doing an in-person book event at the Barnes and Noble at The Grove in Los Angeles at 7p.m. Get in line for an autograph if you're in the area.

The Darkness 'Solid Gold'

The Darkness released a new album called Pinewood Smile on October 6. One of the tracks from the album is "Solid Gold" and it's a riot. Basically, it's a parody of the entire record industry and it seems pretty spot on to me. The riff on this song is killer, too and the video is just classic. I wish The Darkness much success with this new album - they deserve it. I'd love to see them live in concert someday.

Europe Streams New Song 'Election Day'

You can now stream "Election Day" the new song by Europe. The track is off the upcoming album Walk the Earth due out Friday.

I'm finally starting to feel better. My voice is back and I had some actual energy yesterday. I'm hoping to take it easy again today. I'll probably catch up on TV and listen to some music. My Bengals are on a bye, so I'll skip football. Thanks to everyone who messaged me with tips on how to get my voice back. It's been one long week.

Hardcore Superstar Back With New Video

One of the best bands going is Hardcore Superstar. The band just released the video for "Have Mercy On Me" which is a great track. The band hits the road with FOZZY later this month for dates all over Europe. Good fun.

Nikki Sixx To End Radio Show 'Sixx Sense'

This one surprises me. Nikki Sixx will end his nationally syndicated radio show "Sixx Sense" on December 31 of this year. He is moving on to work on other projects. It will be interesting to see if Nikki ends up on satellite radio at some point.

Letting Go, Getting 'Rocks'

I've been sick for over a week now. It started with horrible stomach pains and progressed to exhaustion, the worst sore throat of my life and now day three of laryngitis. In short, it's been the pits. I'm mainly a marketer at my day job, but I'm also the PR person when there is a crisis and yesterday, sadly, we had one of those. Sometimes things happen that put everything else in to perspective, you know? You're reminded that life is really short and there's no point wasting time on people who suck, jobs you hate, bands you don't like... or diet ice cream. Don't even get me started on diet ice cream.

So I made it through my day of hell, keeping in mind things were much worse for many others. After dinner I watched some episodes of M*A*S*H and then Survivor. My husband and I talked about Eminem - Eric has always been a huge fan. While I've always been into Metal, Eric really loved rap in the 90s and early 2000s, especially Notorious B.I.G. and Eminem.

So anyway, I was reflecting on all the stuff that Eric and I like and I realized I hadn't listened to an actual Aerosmith CD in my car... in ages. Aerosmith is my favorite band and I listened to them while working last week but it struck me as odd that I didn't have a single CD of my favorite band in my car. How is this possible? I tend to take things in the house, file them away and then forget about it. I don't like clutter, so everything is "away" - either on a shelf or in a box, etc. This time, "away" means a giant CD zip binder that should probably really live in my car. The thing holds like 200 albums or something. It's just sitting in the top of my closet, not doing anything other than collecting dust. All because it's more "orderly" there.

So after a week of hell and day of chaos, I vowed to live a little: take down the CD binder, let it live in my car and be slightly messy. Who cares if the CDs won't always be in order or the binder takes up space in the backseat? I don't ever drive anyone else, anyway! Live a little. I'll be listening to Rocks on the way to work tomorrow.

Remembering Happiness

Some of the happiest times in my life always revolved around music. Basically, a huge part of my childhood and adolescence was spent on the floor of my bedroom, listening to new CDs. I had one hell of a music collection. I started working at 14 and used every check to buy music. Looking back, I probably should have put that money in an IRA but whatever, the music made me so happy. I could sit for hours, read liner notes and just... listen. Or I would have friends come over and we would literally just sit and listen. I mean, that was it. We weren't scheduled to be somewhere, we didn't have to do anything. We just listened to music and then talked about it. If the weather was warm, we'd sometimes take a walk and get an ice cream and that was the extent of it, I swear.

The older you get the more responsibilities you have and the more stuff you acquire. Basically, it's all junk that really separates you from what really matters most in life. For me what matters most, beyond my family of course, is my music. I can't even remember the last time I listened to an album from start to finish. That's not to say anything about listening to music that wasn't playing as background noise when I'm doing something else, usually working. I don't even have a proper stereo anymore! I have an awesome Bose bluetooth speaker that connects to my phone, but still. My Mac laptop doesn't have a CD drive so the only way I can listen to CDs now is in my car. I subscribe to Amazon music so I don't even have to buy individual albums anymore, although I still do on some occasions to support the musicians I love.

Then there is the giant time suck of social media. Basically it's all garbage and everyone is addicted, including me. I've started to tune out. I'm limiting myself to 30 minutes a day. There are no more social accounts on my phone. Sadly, I can't just completely delete my accounts because I do marketing professionally, including account maintenance for all my organization's feeds, but still. People scroll through feeds like a junkie looks for his next hit. It's insane. You can't have a conversation with anyone anymore because they always have their face buried in their phone screen! I can understand why musicians go off on fans for having their phones out at shows. No one is experiencing anything in the moment anymore. I have so many fond memories of shows from before the iPhone destroyed the world. Now it's true: you can't even see the damn stage because some idiot has their phone on "video" mode, their arm shoved right in front of you.

It's no wonder the music industry is so screwed. Artists give their songs away as loss leaders to really make a living off T-shirt sales. People can't tell you the name of an individual song and forget about recounting the album name. Liner notes and cover art don't matter. Everything is digital and throwaway and garbage and wasteful excess. Artists will always create because they must, but it sure is a shame the kids of today won't have the same fond memories of sitting on their bedroom floor, listening to an album from start to finish and just being in the moment, no selfies required.