Nikki Sixx Says Motley Crue Is Changing Their Set List for 2026

Because everyone loves a sequel, Motley Crue is bringing the Return of the Carnival of Sins tour to the masses next summer. The 33-date outing will feature support from Tesla and Extreme.

Naturally, Motley fans are always curious to know what the set list will look like. Without fully showing his hand, cofounding bassist Nikki Sixx indicated that there will be some changes for the upcoming run. “A big part of the conversation is like, you know, obviously the fans want to hear the hits,” he explained during an interview with Corey of WMMS. “But also, what can we bring in there [that fans haven’t heard as much]? Like, there’s so many cool songs.”

Motley Crue Wants Fans to Help Choose Songs for the ‘Return of the Carnival of Sins’ Tour

“At some point here, we’re going to get an opportunity to ask the fans, actually, what they [are interested in hearing],” he added. “We can kind of pick and choose through that and salt and pepper our set with some, you know, [deeper] songs. We just did the Vegas residency, and we’ve been playing ‘On With the Show’ and it’s such a fun song. Some of these songs are really fun that not everybody knows. You know, ‘Live Wire’ was a breakout off our first record. There’s a lot of people [who] didn’t get into Motley Crue until Girls, Girls, Girls or Dr. Feelgood.

READ MORE: How Motley Crue Hit a New Peak With ‘Dr. Feelgood’

“They might have heard a couple tracks [from the earlier years]. So when you play something like ‘On With the Show’ and ‘Starry Eyes,’ [it makes an impression],” he added. “We haven’t figured out the set list, because the set list will also dictate some things that we do with the show. [But] we’re really excited. This is the fun part for us. There’s two parts, the creation of something that we’re really excited to do, and then [we can’t wait] to get it out there and play it for the fans.”

Listen to Motley Crue Perform ‘Starry Eyes’

The Motley Set List is an ‘Interesting Conversation’

During a 2024 interview with UCR, Sixx drilled down even further on why it’s so difficult for them to put together a set list each time they go out. “This is the interesting conversation in the sense that you have those fans to the left that [say] you guys should only play [deep] tracks,” he explained. “And then there’s the fans to the right that don’t want to hear the [deep] song [instead of] the hits. They only want to hear the hits and they’re really disappointed. I love [David] Bowie and one of my disappointing Bowie moments was he went out and did a tour and didn’t play any of his hits.”

“So we don’t ever want to be that band. We try to [balance] with new stuff and some old stuff and be aware of what people want,” he added. “It is a little difficult…..but it’s fun to do those old songs. I wish we could do more. But then you have to take something out to add something and what are you going to take out? We added ‘On With the Show’ and took out ‘Don’t Go Away Mad,’ which is a massive hit, but they’re kind of the same tempo. You know, it’s a struggle.”

What Has Motley Crue Been Doing This Year?

In addition to the residency in Las Vegas, the band also celebrated the 40th anniversary of their landmark Theatre of Pain album by releasing an expanded box set featuring bonus material, including a previously unreleased live concert from Long Beach, California on vinyl. It was a relatively quiet year for the group, which they eventually revealed was in part, due to a series of strokes that Vince Neil suffered in recent years that required an extended period of recovery.

READ MORE: Motley Crue Add 1985 Live Album to ‘Theatre of Pain’ Box Set

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