Phil Soussan has apologised to Nikki Sixx after criticising Mötley Crue‘s recent performance in Las Vegas.

Mötley Crue wrapped up their 2022 North American ‘Stadium Tour’ at Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium on September 9. Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Poison and Def Leppard all opened for the group at the gigs.

Soussan – who formerly played bass for Ozzy Osbourne, and currently performs in Last In Line – was among those in attendance at the final concert in Sin City. Taking to social media afterwards, the musician shared a message and a series of images from the show.

“Went to see these guys yesterday at #allegiantstadium 2nd row center was pretty awesome!” Soussan began (via Blabbermouth).

“#poison were literally nothing but a good time – Bret [Michaels, frontman] and CC [DeVille, guitarist] were terrific. #defleppard of course we’re spectacular and pristine!”

He added: “Motley sadly not so much…never seen a place empty out so fast after only a few songs.” Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx subsequently responded to the dig on Instagram, writing “Thanks Phil” alongside a middle-finger emoji.

Soussan has since deleted the sentence about Mötley Crüe, and personally apologised to Sixx. In a new interview with Adika Live, he explained: “It was a great show. It was good. Where I was, the sound wasn’t that great.

“I was actually right in the front, but the sound was… either [because of] where I was sitting or [they had a] bad sound man. I said something about that inadvertently, without thinking, just really stupid, and I think I might have offended Nikki.”

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A post shared by Phil Soussan (@philsoussan)

Soussan went on: “So I wrote to him. I said, ‘Man, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to say anything.’ It wasn’t bad; it was just, like, [I was] hoping it was gonna be better [than it was].

“I’ve always tried to go through this world just trying to say something positive, bring something positive… You’ve gotta say something nice about things. And then sometimes you don’t think and you say something without thinking. And mea culpa; I have to own that stuff. My bad – totally my bad.”

He added: “It’s just one of those silly things. You say a thousand nice things and nobody remembers them; you say one bad thing and everyone still makes a comment [about it].”

Last month, Nikki Sixx revealed that Mötley Crue were planning a huge run of shows in Europe, Asia and South America.

Tommy Lee, meanwhile, had responded to the criticism he faced for asking concertgoers to expose themselves during the recent shows on the North American leg of ‘The Stadium Tour’.

“The world is too soft!” he wrote. “Been doing this shit for years! Mötley Crüe concerts aren’t PG and never have been!!!! Grow the fuck up!”

The drummer was responding to one fan who’d told ABC7 that they were planning to file an indecent exposure police report following a “traumatising” experience in the audience at a gig in San Francisco.