10 things Ray Bradbury and musician Nikki Sixx have in common: #10 - Motley crew in L.A.

#10. Both SF&F author Ray Bradbury and Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx are Angelenos who once palled around with a motley crew doing crazy things.

Ray Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Illinois, in 1920 and moved to Los Angeles as a teenager with his family in the mid 1930s. Initially living “about four blocks from the Uptown Theater,” he has lived in the City of Angels ever since. As a young man, Bradbury palled around with members of the now legendary Clifton’s Cafeteria Science Fiction Club: Forrest Ackerman, Leigh Brackett, Fredric Brown, Ray Harryhausen, Robert Heinlein, Henry Kuttner, Emil Petaja, and Jack Williamson. According to a 1975 interview published in Conversations with Ray Bradbury (2004), he and Ray Harryhausen “became fast friends. I used to go out to his house. He made a life mask of me and put together a liquid latex horror-mask for me to wear on Halloween back in 1938. And I went to the Paramount Theatre with Ray Harryhausen and Forrest Ackerman, wearing this liquid latex green Martian sort of mask, and had a wonderful time. So you see how crazy we all were.”

Nikki Sixx was born in San Jose, California, in 1958 and lived in Los Angeles as a child with his mother, “on the ninth floor of the St. James Club -- then known as the Sunset Towers -- on Sunset Boulevard.” After moving around various states, Sixx moved back to L.A. from Seattle as a teenager in the late 1970s. He has lived in and around L.A. ever since. As a young man, Sixx palled around with the other three members of the now legendary band Mötley Crüe: Vince Neil, Tommy Lee, and Mick Mars. According to The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band‎ (2002), Sixx “bought my first real car, a Porsche, after landing a publishing deal with Warner/Chappell. It was my pride and joy. Tommy [bandmate Tommy Lee] and I would drive down Sunset Boulevard with the pedal to the floor at 2 A.M., swigging off fifths of Jack. We didn’t realize how stupid drunk driving was until a year later.”

Pictured: Photograph of Ray Bradbury & Forrest J Ackerman, in Los Angeles, 1938. Ackerman is wearing the mask Ray Harryhausen made for Bradbury.