It was May 10, 1986. The air in Santa Barbara was probably expensive.
At the Four Seasons Biltmore, a scene was unfolding that felt like a glitch in the simulation of 1980s pop culture. On one side, you had Heather Locklear—the "Dynasty" darling, the blonde-haired, blue-eyed personification of the American Sweetheart. On the other, Tommy Lee, the spindly, tattooed drummer of Mötley Crüe, a man who essentially lived in a cloud of hairspray and bad decisions.
People didn't just gossip about the Tommy Lee and Heather Locklear wedding; they stared at it like a car crash made of lace and leather.
And right in the middle of it all was Nikki Sixx.
Most people assume the wedding was just another chaotic chapter in the Crüe’s "The Dirt" era. They picture Nikki Sixx as the bad influence, the best man causing a riot, or the guy passing out in the cake. But the reality of Nikki’s role in this marriage—and that specific wedding day—is actually a lot more nuanced than the tabloid headlines ever suggested. Honestly, it’s kinda touching in a weird, rock-star way.
The Best Man and the White Leather Tux
Let’s talk about the visual first. Tommy Lee didn't wear a standard penguin suit. No, he showed up in a white leather tuxedo with lace trim. It was peak 1986. Heather was in a mermaid-style gown that cost more than most people’s cars.
There were 500 guests.
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Nikki Sixx stood by Tommy as the best man. If you know anything about the Crüe, you know Nikki was the architect, the brains, and the emotional anchor for Tommy. At this point in time, Nikki wasn't just a bandmate; he was the person Tommy trusted most in the world.
Despite the band’s reputation for being "devil worshippers" (a label Heather famously dismissed by saying, "Tommy doesn't worship the devil; he worships me"), the ceremony itself was surprisingly traditional. It was an outdoor affair, very "old Hollywood" meets "Sunset Strip."
But the bachelor party? That was a different story.
Before the "I dos," the group had a bash that reportedly involved 15 bikinied mud wrestlers. Nikki was, of course, right in the thick of it. Yet, when the actual wedding morning rolled around, he was the one making sure Tommy actually made it to the altar. There’s a weird brotherhood there that transcended the drugs and the groupies.
Why Nikki Sixx Actually Cared About This Marriage
You might think the bassist of a heavy metal band would hate seeing his drummer get "domesticated." Usually, that’s how the story goes—the band hates the wife. But Nikki was actually one of the biggest supporters of the Tommy Lee and Heather Locklear wedding.
Why? Because Heather was "good" for Tommy.
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Basically, Tommy was a loose cannon. He was impulsive. He was high-energy. Heather brought a sense of stability that the band’s management loved. Nikki saw Heather as a stabilizing force that might actually keep Tommy alive long enough to finish a world tour.
In fact, Nikki was so moved by the early days of their romance that he wrote the lyrics to the power ballad "Without You" about them. He literally sat down and penned a song about his best friend’s relationship.
"That was a very simple idea for a song, which I had written a lyric about Heather Locklear and Tommy," Nikki later told Rolling Stone.
It’s one of the few times Nikki admitted to being a "romantic" for a moment. He saw something in them that felt real, even if the rest of the world thought it was a PR stunt or a temporary obsession.
The Cracks in the Porcelain
Of course, we know how it ended. They divorced in 1993.
The primary reason? Tommy couldn't stay faithful. Years later, Tommy’s current wife, Brittany Furlan, even called Heather "the one that got away," noting that Tommy admits he "messed up" by cheating.
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During the marriage, Nikki Sixx was often the one Tommy would turn to when things got rocky. But Nikki had his own demons. By the late 80s, Nikki’s heroin addiction was spiraling. There’s a strange irony in the fact that while Tommy was trying to play house with a TV star, his "best man" was literally dying and being brought back to life in an ambulance.
The dynamic shifted. The wedding was the peak of their "clean" public image, but the reality was that the band was fracturing. Nikki wasn't just the best man at a wedding; he was a man trying to hold a crumbling empire together.
What Most People Get Wrong
People think the wedding was a circus. It wasn't.
- The Vibe: It was surprisingly elegant.
- The Guests: It wasn't just rockers. It was "Dynasty" stars and Hollywood elites.
- Nikki's Role: He wasn't the "villain" trying to pull Tommy away; he was the one cheering them on.
The Tommy Lee and Heather Locklear wedding remains a time capsule of a specific moment when heavy metal and primetime soap operas collided. It was the last time things felt "innocent" for Mötley Crüe before the darker years of the 90s took over.
Actionable Insights from the Locklear-Lee Era
Looking back at this relationship—and Nikki Sixx's role in it—gives us a few "real world" takeaways about high-pressure relationships.
- Stability requires more than "worship." Heather famously said Tommy worshipped her, but worship isn't the same as respect. Tommy's later admissions of cheating show that even the most "perfect" looking celebrity weddings can be hollow inside.
- The "Best Man" effect. Having a friend like Nikki Sixx who supports your partner is huge. If your inner circle hates your spouse, the marriage is basically on a countdown.
- Endings don't have to be ugly. Remarkably, Tommy and Heather are still friends today. Heather even commented on Tommy’s social media recently, supporting him and Brittany. It’s a lesson in "post-divorce" maturity that few celebrities (or regular people) actually master.
If you’re looking into the history of Mötley Crüe, don't just look at the scandals. Look at the moments like this wedding—where for a second, the wildest drummer in the world tried to be a husband, and his best friend tried to help him get there.
To understand the full scope of this era, it's worth revisiting the Theatre of Pain and Girls, Girls, Girls eras of the band, where the tension between their domestic lives and their "road" lives finally snapped. You can find most of these archival details in The Dirt, though the book definitely glosses over some of the softer moments Nikki shared with the couple.