Comprised of Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx, vocalist James Michael, and DJ Ashba, Sixx: A.M. was founded as an audio accompaniment to Sixx's autobiography The Heroin Diaries. Employing a mercurial sound that draws from spoken word and multiple heavy metal and hard rock sub-genres, the trio debuted in 2007 with The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack, which included the mainstream rock hit "Life Is Beautiful." Sixx: A.M. adopted a more refined hard rock sound on subsequent efforts This Is Gonna Hurt (2011), Modern Vintage (2014), Prayers for the Damned (2016), and Prayers for the Blessed (also 2016). In 2021, the group issued the career-spanning overview Hits.

The 13 tracks that make up The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack, the group's 2007 debut, coincide with the book's chapters, painting a surreal musical portrait that utilizes the over the top theatrics of '80s hair metal, spoken word pieces, electro-industrial beats, and the occasional burst of circus music to tell the tale of Sixx's rise to stardom and legendary fall from grace. The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack was released on Eleven Seven Records in August of 2007, spawning a gold-selling hit single with "Life Is Beautiful." Two more songs also fared well on the modern rock charts, prompting Sixx to turn the band -- originally conceived as a one-off recording project -- into a full-fledged touring group.

Sixx: A.M. hit the road in 2008 and eventually returned to the recording studio, where they began working on material for a sophomore release in April 2009. As it turned out, the second album (like its predecessor) was a companion soundtrack to Sixx's second book, This Is Gonna Hurt, which combined photographs with self-penned passages about the musician's career. Sharing the same title as its source material, This Is Gonna Hurt debuted at number ten on the Billboard 200. Although Sixx returned to Mötley Crüe for a farewell tour in 2014, he also finished the third Sixx: A.M. album, Modern Vintage, that same year. Appearing in October of 2014, Modern Vintage was a lighter, glammier record than its predecessors; it peaked at 20 on Billboard's Top 200. Two years later came the two-part Prayers for the Damned, whose first installment showed up in the spring of 2016. The second volume, Prayers for the Blessed, Vol. 2, arrived in November of that year. 2021 saw the release of Hits, which featured four new songs alongside 16 of the band's best-known tracks. ~ James Christopher Monger