Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are strapping
in for a ride that is, quite frankly, a little
bit louder, a little bit faster, and a whole
lot more chaotic than our usual fare. That's
putting it mildly. We are looking at a figure
who essentially wrote the rulebook on rock and
roll excess. And then, arguably, tore it up and
rewrote it for the reality TV generation, and
then rewrote it again for the internet age. Exactly.
We are talking about a man known just as much
for the tabloid headlines. I mean, the whirlwind
marriages, the arrests, the leaked tapes, as
he is for his undeniable technical prowess behind
a drum kit. Absolutely. We are diving deep into
the life of Thomas Lee Bass, better known to
the entire world as simply Tommy Lee. It is a
fascinating case study, and we have a massive
stack of sources here today, biographical records,
discographies, legal histories, media summaries.
And our mission really is to peel back that bad
boy image. We want to understand the musical
evolution, this relentless need for reinvention.
I mean, from glam metal to rap rock to becoming
an electronic DJ and, you know, how his tumultuous
personal life really defined an era of celebrity
culture. It's such a wild story. And honestly,
when you look at the raw. data, the image you
have of Tommy Lee, you know, the tattoos, the
leather, the screaming fans. It actually starts
in a place you would never expect. Right. It
doesn't start on the Sunset Strip. It starts
in Athens, Greece. That is right. He wasn't born
in Hollywood. He was born October 3, 1962 in
Athens. His birth name is Thomas Lee Bass. And
his parentage is this really, really interesting
mix of discipline and glamour right from the
very start. OK, let's unpack this family tree
because it feels like it explains a lot about
his future. His father. David Lee Thomas Bass
was a sergeant in the U .S. Army. Correct. So
you have that military structure, the discipline,
the order, you know, a very regimented world.
And then on the complete other side of the spectrum,
his mother, the Saliki Vula Papadimitriou, was
a contestant in the 1957 Miss Greece beauty contest.
Talk about a genetic intersection, right? You
have the rigid structure of the military on one
side and the world of aesthetics, pageantry,
performance, and, you know, being in the spotlight
on the other. It's incredible. When do they come
to the States? The family moved to the U .S.,
specifically California, when Lee was about two
years old. But you have to wonder if that duality,
the sergeant and the beauty queen, played a role
in his psyche from day one. It's the classic
nature versus nurture debate, isn't it? Yeah.
You have the drive for this like regimented.
precision, this almost military drumming style.
Fighting against or maybe working with the drive
for the spotlight, for the showmanship. For the
spectacle. Exactly. And the music started early.
The sources say he got his first drumsticks at
age four. That's, I mean, that is barely out
of toddler's clothes. At four years old, most
kids are, I don't know, playing with blocks and
he's holding the tools of his trade. And he got
his first proper kit as a teenager. But here's
the detail that always, and I mean always, gets
people. The detail that just doesn't Doesn't
fit the Motley Crue persona. Oh, I think I know
where you're going with this. It's not the rock
club, is it? Not even close. It's the high school
football field. Tommy Lee was a marching band
kid. Get out. Really? The guy who spins upside
down in a cage was in the high school marching
band. He attended Royal Oak High School and was
right there in the percussion line, the drum
line. And if you think about it musically, it
makes perfect sense. How so? Well, marching band
drumming requires... incredible precision stamina
and you know rudimental skill it's not just bashing
away it is incredibly technical you have to be
locked in with like 10 other people perfectly
that is a great point it explains why even amidst
all the chaos of his later career the beat was
always solid He wasn't just a thrasher. He had
actual legitimate training. Precisely. And at
the same time, he was soaking in all the rock
gods. He was listening to Led Zeppelin, Van Halen,
Cheap Trick, Kiss, ACDC, all the greats. And
his idols. Who was he trying to be? His drumming
idols were John Bonham. Tommy Aldridge, Alex
Van Halen and Terry Bozzio. So he was soaking
in that big theatrical arena rock sound, but
he had that discipline foundation from school.
It's a killer combination. But obviously the
classroom couldn't hold him. He dropped out of
Royal Oak High to pursue music full time. He
did. He left in his senior year to focus on his
band. And he started hitting the L .A. club circuit.
This was the late 70s, early 80s, the Sunset
Strip. It was the place to be. He was in a band
called Sweet 19. Sweet 19. That is just the most
perfectly era appropriate name I can imagine.
Isn't it? And they were playing alongside these
rising acts like Van Halen and Quiet Riot. This
was the incubator, the primordial suit for what
became glam metal. Right. The whole scene was
just exploding right there. And this is where
he physically transformed, too. He earned the
nickname T -Bone because he was six foot two
and a half inches tall and incredibly lean. He
was the striking larger than life figure even
before the fame. So he's on the strip. He's got
the look. He's making it. a name for himself
as a drummer. And then he meets the guy who would
become his partner in crime for the next few
decades. This is the pivotal moment. Nikki Sixx.
What was Sixx doing at the time? Nikki Sixx was
playing in bands like Sister in London. He was
already a known quantity on the scene. And Sixx
had a vision. He didn't just want a rock band.
He wanted a theatrical experience. He was borrowing
from, you know, occult imagery, shock value,
Kiss, Alice Cooper. He wanted the whole package.
The whole package. He saw Tommy Lee play and
realized this is the engine. This is the drummer.
So what happened? Did he poach him from Sweet
19? Essentially, yeah. Yeah. When Six's band
London broke up in 1981, he and Lee decided to
form a new band together. They had the rhythm
section locked down. And then they found Mick
Mars. Right. They put an ad in the paper, loud,
rude, aggressive guitarist, and Mick Mars answered.
So they had the bass, drums, and guitar, but
they needed a singer. And this is where that
high school connection comes back, right? The
marching band pays off again. It does. Lee remembered
a casual acquaintance from Royal Oak High School,
this charismatic blonde frontman named Vince
Neil, who was playing in a cover band called
Rock Candy. So Tommy recommends him. Yep. He
recommended him. Neil came in for an audition
and that was it. Muttley Crew was born. It's
just amazing how serendipitous that is. Just
four specific guys in L .A. at that specific
time. And suddenly they're forming a unit that
would basically dominate the entire decade. And
the rise was, I mean. Meteoric doesn't even do
it justice. They released their debut album,
Too Fast for Love, in 1981 on their own independent
label, Leather Records. Leather with an umlaut,
of course. Naturally. It's a requirement. And
it sold, I think, around 20 ,000 copies just
on its own. Which is huge for an indie release
back then. Huge. And a guy who let your records
hurt it saw them play and signed them almost
immediately. He reissued the album in 1982 and
then, boom. The floodgates opened. Completely.
Shout at the Devil in 83, which went four times
platinum. Theater of Pain in 85, Girls, Girls,
Girls in 87. And then the big one, Dr. Feelgood
in 89, which was their only album to hit number
one. They were essentially printing money and
platinum records for 10 years straight. They
were the kings of the decade. Absolutely. But
it wasn't just the music, was it? We touched
on this earlier. Lee wasn't content to just sit
back there and keep time. He had to be the show.
He had to be the center of attention, even from
the back of the stage. This is where the Terror
Twins nickname comes in for Lee and Six. They
were the engines of chaos. But on stage, Lee
revolutionized what a drum solo could be. It
wasn't just about the notes. It was about gravity
or, you know, defying gravity. The spinning drum
kit. The spinning drum kit. The revolving drum
kit. He had a kit that could be suspended on
a track above the crowd and go end over end.
I remember seeing footage of that. It's insane.
He's upside down playing the kick drum, blood
rushing to his head, just wailing away. It is
performance art mixed with heavy metal and like
an amusement park ride. It was dangerous. Things
went wrong. He got stuck upside down once. No
way. Yeah, for a while. But it was part of the
appeal. You didn't know what was going to happen.
And of course, there was the lowbrow humor. He
was known for mooning the audience at nearly
every show. It was this perfect mix of high tech,
expensive stagecraft and just, you know, juvenile
rebellion. And the offstage lifestyle was. Well,
decadent is a very polite word for it. Decadent
is the word the sources use. Yes. Yeah. The book
they wrote, The Dirt, it's legendary for its
honesty about that period. Excessive amounts
of cocaine, heroin, pills, alcohol. They were
living the lifestyle that most bands only pretended
to have in their songs. And that kind of pace
is just not sustainable. You can't live at that
speed forever. No. And it started to show. The
band started to fracture. The music in the 90s
changed. Grunge came along. whole scene they
had built just kind of vanished overnight. So
what did they do? Well, they tried to adapt.
Vince Neil left. They got a new singer, John
Carabi, made a much heavier album in 94 that
fans, well, they didn't really embrace it. They
got Vince back, but the dynamic was broken. And
the timeline of breakups and reunions from then
on is complex. Let's walk through it. So Tommy
Lee actually quits the band at one point. He
does. Lee officially left the band in 1999 after
the Greatest Hits tour. He was burnt out on that
specific dynamic. He wanted to do something new.
Which we'll get to. But the allure of the crew
is strong. They can't stay away from each other
for long, can they? They can't. They reunited
in 2004 for the Red, White & Crew anthology and
a massive reunion tour. Which made a ton of money.
A ton. $33 million gross. They were number eight
on the top concert money earners list that year.
But the friction remained. The old problems didn't
go away. And it blew up again. It did. In 2007,
Nikki Sixx publicly announced Lee was out of
the band after a lawsuit involving Lee's manager,
Carl Stubner, over conflicts with reality TV
shows that Tommy wanted to do. So it was a business
dispute. A business and creative dispute. But
then, to make it even more confusing, Vince Neil
immediately denied the resignation and said Tommy
was still in. So nobody even knew if he was in
the band or not. For a while, no. No, it was
classic Muttley Crew chaos. But they patched
it up again. They came back with Saints of Los
Angeles in 2008 and then the big farewell tour
in 2014. Ah, yes, the one where they literally
signed a contract on stage saying they'd never
tour again. A legally binding cessation of touring
agreement. Which, as we know, didn't stick. They
eventually tore it up and returned for the stadium
tour. It just shows that the bond or perhaps
the business model of Metley Crew is stronger
than any of the interpersonal conflicts. Now,
I want to pivot a bit because you mentioned he
left in 99 to do something new. And while Crew
is the headline, Tommy Lee has always been a
bit of a musical chameleon. He didn't just want
to stay in that glam metal box. That is a crucial
insight into who he is as a musician. If you
look at his solo career, he is constantly trying
to break the mold. He's always chasing the next
sound. And the first big break was Methods of
Mayhem. Right. In 1999, think about what was
happening in music then. Rap metal and nu metal
were exploding. Corn, Limp Bizkit. That was the
sound of the moment. And Tommy didn't fight it.
He embraced it. He formed methods of mayhem.
That was a huge departure. I remember people
being really, really confused. The Motley Crue
drummer is rapping now. And who was involved
in that project? He collaborated with a rapper
named Tilo, and the style was pure rap metal.
It was very of the moment. It was a clear signal
that he wasn't just the girls, girls, girls guy
anymore. And he kept pushing that with his solo
records. Absolutely. His solo album, Never a
Dull Moment in 2002, had a lot of that rap metal
sound, but it also started to bring in electronica
tones. He had a song called Blue with a guest
vocalist named Rodleen Getzik that was, you know,
very atmospheric and different. He was experimenting.
Then came Tommyland, The Ride in 2005. Which
was actually the soundtrack to his book of the
same name. And then his latest, Andro, from 2020,
continues that exploration of different genres.
He's never stood still musically. And then there
was that whole supergroup phase with Rockstar
Supernova. Do you remember that reality show?
Vividly. This was 2006. This was peak reality
TV era. And the idea was to form a supergroup
with these legendary musicians. You have Jason
Neustad from Metallica on Days and Gilby Clark
from Guns N' Roses on guitar. An incredible lineup.
And they used the TV show Rockstar to find their
lead singer. Which they did. A guy named Lucas
Rossi. Correct. And they actually recorded an
album and went on tour with that lineup. It's
wild. Did they bring the other contestants on
tour, too? They did. They included the runners
up like Delana and Toby Rand as opening acts.
It was a fascinating moment where, you know,
old school rock credibility met this brand new
reality TV format. And we can't ignore his DJ
career. He really, genuinely dove headfirst into
electronic dance music. He did. This wasn't just
a hobby. He partnered with DJ Arrow, also known
as Chester Dietz. They went by the name Electro
Mayhem. Electro Mayhem. OK. And they were legit.
They debuted. viewed on the main stage at the
Ultra Music Festival in Miami back in 2004. That's
a huge deal in the EDM world. So this wasn't
just a rock star pressing play on a laptop. Not
at all. They toured with Deadmau5 in 2011. Lee
was taking it very seriously, performing with
guys like Cherum from Deep Dish. It's impressive.
Most rock stars from the 80s just stick to playing
their old hits. Lee was out there spinning house
music. It speaks to a genuine curiosity about
rhythm, about the beat. It doesn't matter to
him if it's... John Bonham or a drum machine
or a four on the floor house beat. Lee seems
fascinated by what makes people move. And that
curiosity leads to some really surprising collaborations.
He's popped up on some records where you just
would not expect to see his name. For sure. Like
in 2014, he played drums on almost the entire
Smashing Pumpkins album Monuments to an Elegy.
That's a collaboration I never would have guessed.
Yeah. Billy Corgan and Tommy Lee. Right. But
it works. And then much more recently, he played
on a Post Malone track. The song Over Now in
2018. Exactly. And that Post Malone connection
is key. It shows he's still relevant, that he's
still on the radar of the younger generation
of artists. He's also worked with Nine Inch Nails,
Rob Zombie, Jack's Mannequin. The list is incredibly
eclectic. He bridges that gap between generations.
Absolutely. He does. Now, we touched on reality
TV with Rockstar Supernova, but Lee was actually
a pioneer in that space way before most celebrities
jumped on the bandwagon. He was. In 2004, he
starred in and produced a show called Tommy Lee
Goes to College. The premise was exactly what
it sounds like. It was. The whole show was him
enrolling and attending classes at the University
of Nebraska. He tried out for the golf team.
He studied chemistry. And bringing it full circle.
He played in the marching band there. He did.
He joined the drum line. It must have been completely
surreal for the other students. Hey, isn't that
the guy from Metley Crew next to me in the tuba
section? But it showed he had a sense of humor
about himself, about his image. Totally. And
he did another one in 2008 called Battleground
Earth. This one I don't remember. It was an eco
-friendly show on the Planet Green channel, of
all places. And he co -hosted it with the rapper
Ludacris. Wait, wait. Tommy Lee and Ludacris.
Saving the planet. It's a real thing that happened.
They would challenge each other to green -themed
competitions. It was an odd couple pairing, but
it showed he was willing to try anything. And
he's done some acting too, right? Not just playing
himself. Yeah, a few things. He had a guest spot
as a professor on the TV show The Goldbergs.
He played the devil in a musical horror podcast
called Halloween in Hell. And he was a strip
club DJ in a horror movie called The Retaliators.
It seems like he's just very, very comfortable.
in front of a camera, regardless of the context.
I think that's fair to say. He understands the
media game better than almost anyone. Which brings
us to the part of his life that arguably garnered
the most camera time, whether he wanted to or
not. His relationships and his life in the tabloids.
Yeah, this is a dense section of the biography.
Lee has been married four times. Who was the
first? His first wife was Elaine Starchuk from
1984 to 1985. A very brief marriage right as
the ban was taking off. And then came the big
one. At least for the 80s. Heather Locklear.
He married the actress Heather Locklear in 1986.
That was the ultimate 80s power couple. The heavy
metal drummer and the primetime TV sweetheart.
It was. You'd see them everywhere in all the
magazines. They were together for seven years
and they divorced in 1993. The book The Dirt
goes into that relationship in a lot of detail.
But the relationship that really defined an era
of pop culture was his marriage to Pamela Anderson.
Without a doubt, the timeline on that is just,
it's wild. It's insane. How quickly did it happen?
He met the Playboy, Playmate and Baywatch star
in February of 1995. They got married just four
days later. Four. Days. That is beyond impulsive.
It is the absolute definition of a whirlwind
romance. They had two sons together, Brandon
Thomas Lee and Dylan Jagger Lee. But the relationship
was incredibly tumultuous, just a constant storm.
The timeline is messy. Very. They officially
divorced in 1998, but that was just the beginning.
They had bitter custody battles that went on
until 2002, and they had several brief reunions
and breakups over the years after that. It was
a constant on -again, off -again saga. He was
also engaged a few other times, wasn't he? He
was. He was engaged to a model named Bobby Brown
before he met Anderson. He was engaged to Prince's
ex -wife, May Garcia, from 2002 to 2003, and
to a singer named Sofia Tufa for a few years.
And he's married now. Yes. Fourth wife is the
social media personality, Brittany Furlan. He
proposed on Valentine's Day 2018, and they got
married on Valentine's Day 2019. But going back
to the Anderson years, right in the middle of
that storm was... The tape. The sex tape. Yeah,
we have to discuss this because its cultural
impact was and is immense. What's the story behind
it? The sources are pretty clear on this. It
was a private home video. They videotaped it
on a houseboat on Lake Mead during a vacation.
In 1995, their safe was stolen from their home.
And the tape was in the safe. Correct. The story
that has since come out is that a disgruntled
electrician and former porn star named Rand Gauthier,
who was doing work at the house, stole the entire
safe. And he found... the tape and saw an opportunity
he saw a huge opportunity and you have to remember
this was before streaming before broadband was
even common the internet was still kind of the
wild west a company called internet entertainment
group or ieg got a hold of it and released it
in 1997. it became the first true example of
viral pornography it spread like wildfire and
what was the legal fallout Anderson sued IEG
to try and stop it, but it was too late. The
cat was out of the bag. They eventually reached
a settlement, but the sources say Lee and Anderson
never received any money from it. It's crazy
to think about now, but that tape really changed
how we view celebrity privacy, the Internet.
you know, what was possible online. It was a
complete watershed moment. And it's something
that has followed both of them for their entire
lives, recently dramatized in that Hulu series,
Pam and Tommy. Now we have to move into the more
serious side of things. We can't talk about the
chaos without talking about the consequences.
And there are some very dark chapters here. Yes.
And it is important we handle these factually
based on the legal records. The bad boy image
often glosses over real legal and ethical issues.
And the first major one. is a domestic violence
conviction in 1998. That's correct. This was
involving Pamela Anderson. He pleaded no contest
to felony spousal abuse. What were the details
of the incident? According to the reports, he
kicked her while she was holding their infant
son Dylan. The altercation was apparently over
her refusal to call her parents and ask them
not to come over to the house. And she was injured.
Yes. The reports state she was left with bruises,
a torn fingernail, and she told police she was
in fear for her son's safety. And he served time
for this. He did. Six months in county jail.
And it's a stark reminder that the rock and roll
lifestyle isn't a fantasy. It has real victims
and real world consequences. And he got into
more trouble after that jail time. He did. In
2000, he served another five days in jail for
violating his probation by drinking alcohol.
And that wasn't the only serious legal issue.
There was the incident with the swastika tattoo.
That came to light also in 1998. It stemmed from
a 1996 incident where he was facing a lawsuit
for battery. He and Nikki Sixx were accused of
attacking a Jewish photographer outside the Viper
Room in L .A. During the civil suit depositions,
it was revealed that Lee had a swastika tattoo
on his arm. And what was the explanation for
that? Lee's camp claimed it was a stupid tattoo
obtained several years ago out of drunken ignorance,
not a reflection of any Nazi beliefs. His lawyer
argued strenuously that showing it to the jury
would be unfairly prejudicial. But it became
a huge story. A massive story. He eventually
had the tattoo removed, but it was a major. controversy
at the time. And there were other riots and fights,
things that went beyond simple rock star antics.
Yes. The Greensboro riot in 1997. During a concert
in North Carolina, Lee and Nikki Sixx allegedly
made racial remarks to a black security guard,
then poured beer on his head and instigated the
crowd to attack him. And they were arrested.
They were arrested and charged with inciting
a riot and assault. The charges were eventually
dropped, but it was another ugly incident. Then
there was the very public feud with Kid Rock.
Right. In 2007 at the MTV Video Music Awards,
it was a full -on brawl in the audience during
the show. What was that about? They both have
a connection to Pamela Anderson. That was reportedly
the source of the tension. Kid Rock was cited
for assault after the incident. It just seemed
like for a long period, trouble followed Lee
where he actively invited it. There was also
a terrible tragedy at his home in 2001 involving
a child's death. A truly awful situation. It
was during a birthday party for Lee's son, Brandon.
A four -year -old guest, Daniel Carvin Veers,
was found in the pool and later died. He had
drowned. And the parents sued him. They did.
The parents sued for negligence. It went to trial
and a jury ultimately cleared Lee of responsibility
in April 2003. They ruled it was a tragic accident,
but legally he was found not liable. It really
is a life of just extreme highs and the absolute
lowest of lows. Yeah, it is. But then you flip
the page in the biography and you see him writing
these passionate letters for PETA. This is the
complexity of the man we're talking about. He's
a staunch supporter of animal rights. Very much
so. In 2010, he wrote a scathing letter to the
president of SeaWorld protesting the treatment
of Tilikum, the orca involved in the death of
a trainer. What was his specific argument? He
was appalled by the sperm harvesting methods
they used on the whale and argued that the animal's
aggression was a direct result of the frustration
and misery of captivity. And he took on the Calgary
Stampede as well. In 2013, yes. He wrote an open
letter to the premier of Alberta regarding the
deaths of horses in the chuckwagon races at the
Stampede. Do you remember what he said? He had
this really pointed quote. He said something
like, it was a time when cowboys respected their
horses instead of riding them to death just to
show off. That's a surprisingly thoughtful and
articulate take from the guy who was famous for
instigating riots. It shows that people are rarely
one dimensional. There are always these contradictions.
So bringing us up to the present. What is his
legacy now? The Muttley Crue movie, The Dirt,
came out on Netflix in 2019. That had a huge
impact. That movie really reignited interest
in the band's history, for better or worse. It
introduced them to a whole new generation. And
Lee is still very much active, still making music,
still touring. And he's still connected to the
drumming world in a very deep way. Poignantly
so. In 2022, it came out that Lee had a phone
conversation with the Foo Fighters drummer Taylor
Hawkins just hours before Hawkins' tragic death.
Wow. Yeah. Lee called Hawkins my dear friend
and later appeared at the big Kia Forum tribute
concert in Los Angeles to honor him. He's still
part of that community. So what does this all
mean? We've looked at the Athens birth, the marching
band, the Sunset Strip, the spinning drum kits,
the platinum albums, the jail time, the reality
TV, the activism. How do you tie it all together?
If we synthesize this, I think we see a man who
is a perfect mirror of the media landscape he
lived through. He started in the era of vinyl
records and rock radio. Mastered the era of MTV
and the music video. Pioneered the celebrity
reality TV show and became the subject of the
first major viral internet video. And is now
navigating the streaming era with Netflix biopics
and collabs with Post Malone. He really has surfed
every single wave of pop culture for the last
40 years. He's always managed to stay relevant.
And he did it by being loud. By making noise,
whether that noise was musical with a drum solo,
legal with a court case, or relational with a
tabloid headline. It brings us to a final provocative
thought. In a life that has been so defined by
noise, by spectacle, has the larger -than -life
character of Tommy Lee overshadowed the musician?
Or... Is the spectacle itself the true art form
he created? That is the question, isn't it? Is
the drumming the main event or is the drumming
just the soundtrack to the ongoing four decade
long performance art piece that is Tommy Lee?
Something for you to think about next time you
hear Dr. Feelgood or Home Sweet Home on the radio.
Thanks for joining us on this deep dive. Until
next time.