Tommy Lee
Planet Green/David Johnson
READ MORE ABOUT:
While rock historians imagine what Keith Moon or John Bonham could have achieved had they not checked out early, another legendary drummer is enjoying a heap of midlife success. Rather than slowing down, Tommy Lee is about to embark on yet another tour with Mötley Crüe, recently completed a new Crüe studio album, Saints of Los Angeles, continues to tour with DJ Aero as one of the world's premier DJ teams, and is also co-starring in Battleground Earth, an environmental-themed reality series that pairs him with hip-hop's Chris "Ludacris" Bridges.
This summer's Crüe Fest tour, headlined by Mötley Crüe, will also feature Buckcherry, Papa Roach, SIXX: A.M. and Trapt, and is certain to deliver the goods for longtime fans who have witnessed their epic live performances. The North America tour kicks off July 1 in West Palm Beach, Florida and will travel to more than 40 cities before wrapping up August 31 in Pittsburgh. Summer 2008 will also see the once-indulgent Lee working to minimize if not his appetites, then his carbon footprint, as co-star of Battleground Earth on Planet Green. In each of its ten episodes, Tommy and Ludacris compete with each other in a Rock vs. Rap battle as they travel across the country while working to keep their high-wattage acts eco-friendly.
Battleground Earth is not Tommy's first appearance on the small screen, In 2006 Tommy joined the second installment of CBS's reality challenge Rock Star, in which Tommy, Jason Newsted (Metallica) and Gilby Clarke (Guns N' Roses) and millions of viewers elected unknown Lukas Rossi to front the band Rock Star Supernova. The group recorded an original album and toured in 2007. Comfortable with poking fun at his own celebrity, Lee offered a sympathetic profile on 2005's NBC reality show Tommy Lee Goes to College. The fish-out-of-water series, which Lee produced, found him spending a semester in middle America at the University of Nebraska: finding a roommate, trying out for the marching band, struggling with coursework, struggling not to hit on an attractive tutor, and, of course, managing to find time to party.
Lee's most recent solo album, Tommyland: The Ride, released in August 2005, offered a highly listenable collection of rock-driven tunes. Featuring such guest artists as Dave Navarro, Joel Madden and Butch Walker, the album generated the hit singles "Tryin To Be Me" and "Good Times" (the theme song of "Tommy Lee Goes to College"). Tommyland: The Ride follows two distinctly different solo efforts: Methods of Mayhem (1999), a mélange of rock, hard house, industrial and hip-hop that reflected Lee's desire "to do everything I ever wanted to do" after 20 years with the Crüe; and Never A Dull Moment (2002), a more focused, "from the heart" album including the tune "Blue," written for his father who had just passed away.
In addition to being a rock star and reality television star, Lee also earned kudos as an author for his best-selling 2004 memoir, Tommyland. Requiring no embellishment in the vein of A Million Little Pieces, the autobiography landed on the New York Times best-seller list soon after its publication in October 2004, remaining in Amazon.com's Top 100 Memoirs for more than seven months. The candid memoir recounts the personal details of an iconic rock rebel: from his childhood in suburban California to his meteoric rise as the drummer for Mötley Crüe, from his headline-making life in the fast lane to his role as a devoted father. Previously, all four original members of Mötley Crüe contributed to their 2001 autobiography, The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band, which spent a record-breaking ten months on the New York Times best-seller list.
A native of Athens, Greece raised in Southern California, Thomas Lee Bass teamed with bassist Nikki Sixx, guitarist Mick Mars and singer Vince Neil, naming themselves Mötley Crüe. With a knack for creating fists-in-the-air anthems, the band recorded their first album, Too Fast for Love, released in 1981 on their own Leathür Records. An insanely catchy, riff-driven record, TFFL turned rock fans' expectations upside-down and ultimately led to the formation of an entire glam-metal movement based in L.A. Picked up by Elektra, the Crüe released a string of classic albums in the '80s, beginning with Shout at the Devil (1983), controversial for its satanic elements, and Theatre Of Pain (1985), a slightly darker, more introverted record. However, Girls, Girls, Girls (1987) was as rock 'n roll as anything they'd done before and, together with 1989's enormous Dr. Feelgood, catapulted the band into the mainstream. By the 1990s Mötley Crüe was a full-blown stadium act, and they continued their success with 1994's Mötley Crüe, 1997's Generation Swine, a greatest hits compilation in 1998, Live: Entertainment Or Death (1999), and a rarities collection, Supersonic and Demonic Relics (1999). By New Tattoo (2000), the band was working at full steam again, but with the exception of Tommy Lee, who was recording and touring with his own band, Methods of Mayhem, and ducking the paparazzi with then-wife, Pamela Anderson.
Lee currently resides in Los Angeles and devotes his free time toward his two children, Brandon and Dylan.
-
- {}
