Penelope Spheeris working on a new Decline of Western Civilization, Nikki Sixx is a scumbag
The Wayne’s World director, now 70, sets the record straight in a new interview with Pitchfork and mentions that a new Decline of Western Civilization chapter is on the way.
If you’ve never seen The Decline of Western Civilization you are bad and wrong. Filmed in 1979/1980 Los Angeles, it provides a brilliant snapshot of the insane punk culture that had taken the city, ushered in by punk legends Black Flag, Circle Jerks, and Fear. If you’ve never seen The Decline of Western Civilization Part II you are bad and wrong and depriving yourself of the joy of seeing a bunch of 80s metal assholes make themselves look like colossal idiots. If you’ve never seen The Decline of Western Civilization Part III you are… most of the world. For the first time, the third installment of this wildly entertaining series is commercially available in a convenient package with the absolutely essential first two documentaries (available for purchase now). They’re great. Watch them.
To promote this new box set, Decline and Wayne’s World director Penelope Spheeris spoke with Pitchfork about her life, the documentaries, Mike Meyers, and the perils of Nikki Sixx dating your daughter. I’ve included a particularly strange excerpt below:
Pitchfork: The sexual identity of the men in Decline II is really interesting. There’s a huge drag aspect to their attire, but they’re so aggressively masculine and predatory.
Penelope Spheeris: I believe the reason that they dressed so feminine is so that so that they didn’t intimidate the young girls; the guys with the makeup and the fluffy hair were going to get laid a little quicker. And the key there is young girls. When Anna was working on Decline II, she was going out with Nikki Sixx—it was one of the worst times of my life! All my rock’n’roll lifestyle had come back to bite me in the ass because—how old were you, darling?
Anna Fox: 17.
PS: And from the story I heard, he might have bragged that you were younger.
AF: Yeah, he told everybody I was 15.
Pitchfork: I can’t imagine the stress of your child going out with Nikki Sixx.
PS: I made him come over to the house to meet me because that was the rule. So he came over and that was, you know, [sarcastically] fun.
Pitchfork: Did he behave himself?
PS: No. [laughs]
AF: He was all done up because he had just done a photoshoot: full make-up, full costume, hair teased out. What did he say to you?
PS: “You said that you didn’t want your daughter going out with a 40-year-heroin addict, and I don’t like that.” I told him, “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to insult you. How old are you?” He couldn’t dispute the heroin addict aspect.
If my hypothetical child ever asks to date this, I’m locking him/her in a castle.
So that’s gross! The whole interview is worth a read, so check it out here.
(Black Flag is always the best.)
(Depending on how your day is going, this is either hilarious or heartbreaking. I lean towards the latter.)
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