10 things Ray Bradbury and musician Nikki Sixx have in common: #6 - Exploded on stage

#6. Both SF&F author Ray Bradbury and Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx have exploded on stage.

Ray Bradbury exploded on stage in 1993 when he spoke to a gathering of the country’s leading editors and publishers about the abysmal state of the magazine industry. Here’s a 1996 interview with Playboy magazine in which Bradbury describes the explosion:

"Let's say the slow burn grew hotter the more I thought about what a chance I had. So I took along my props - copies of Forbes, Fortune, Good Housekeeping, McCall's, Vogue and People. I went up onstage and said, "Let's talk about the real problems with your magazines." I held up Good Housekeeping, flipped through the pages and said, "Find the articles -- you can't." I held up McCall's and Vogue and said, "Look, the same thing." I held up Forbes and Fortune -- "Look at this," I said. "You've got a half-page article here, you've got the start of an article on the left, then you look to the right and it's a full-page ad." I threw them off the podium. Then I held up an issue of People and said, "Do you really want to read a magazine like this? To hell with Time Inc.!" and threw it down. I paused and lowered the boom, saying, "The magazines of this country have to take over education -- even more than the corporations -- because you want readers in the future, don't you? Can you keep downgrading people's intelligence and insult them with the shit you're publishing? You should make sure the schools teach reading, or you're out on your ass in a couple of years. You won't have any readers -- doesn't that scare you? It scares me. Change your product and invite me back to talk to you again." I stopped and waited, figuring that maybe they would do something if I managed to scare them enough."

Nikki Sixx has exploded on stage many times, most notably at an October 1997 Mötley Crüe concert in Greensboro, North Carolina, in which he hurled profanity and racial slurs at an African American security guard from the stage and encouraged the audience to attack the guard (watch a two-minute video of the incident posted on YouTube). Claiming he was provoked when he saw the guard roughing up some fans, Sixx and bandmate Tommy Lee were arrested after the concert. Sixx was charged with a felony count of riot with ethnic intimidation, assault, and disorderly conduct. After pleading no contest, Sixx was given a 30-day suspended jail sentence and placed on probation. The security guard filed a $75,000 civil suit against Mötley Crüe. The matter was settled out of court.

Previous entries on the Ray Bradbury-Nikki Sixx 10 list:

#10. Both are Angelenos who once palled around with a motley crew doing crazy things

#9. Neither attended college

#8. Both are intimately familiar with Playboy magazine

#7. Both created an illustrated man