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Motley Crue biopic The Dirt saved the former bandmates' friendships, according to bass player Nikki Sixx.

The rockers split at the end of 2015 and vowed there would never be a reunion but the quartet regrouped last year to work on new music for the movie adaptation of their 2001 biography - and Sixx insists the project brought them all back together as pals, and reminded them of the good old days.

It was just what the bassist needed because he exited the band feeling like he and his old pals were no longer connected.

"I think I was just detached in a lot of ways," he tells Billboard. "I wasn't detached onstage, but it just didn't feel like a camaraderie backstage. We would do our meet-and-greets and we all would be cordial, but it just didn't feel the same. Since the movie, it has felt like it used to in the old days."

Sixx reveals that all the "crazy, amazing presents" he received when his daughter Ruby was born this summer were from his former bandmates.

"They were the first things that showed up. We were a little bit late, and Mick (Mars) was texting me like: 'When's that girl coming?' This is from guys who didn't talk to each other.

"I don't know what the future holds musically, but it's the best feeling to at least know that we're brothers and friends through all this. Rock 'n' roll tears your f**king heart out sometimes. It's hard."