A pervasive theme throughout the book and throughout the lives of the Motley Crue members is family dysfunction. Each one of the boys comes from either a fragmented or abusive home life which fuels their rebelliousness and anger. Nikki has an alcoholic mother who stifles him after Nikki's father abandons the family. As a young boy, Nikki even sues his mother for abuse hoping the courts will let him live on his own. Nikki finds much later that he had a disabled sister living in a sanitarium but his mother always kept Nikki from her.