Having a serious conversation with Tommy Lee presents one of the biggest challenges a person can experience. His abject JOY in everything he does is infectious and you can’t help but come away with a grin and a more positive outlook on life. His openness and charisma speak volumes to him as a person, performer and producer.
The longtime Motley Crue drummer has just produced and recorded a new solo record, “Andro,” that is about to challenge virtually everything you thought you knew about him and his musical proclivities. True, he hinted at some of the complexity behind the chaos, when he formed “Methods of Mayhem,” but holed up in his state of the art studio for the better part of the last two years, Lee has emerged with a new set of very relevant tracks that seem to truly represent the music that’s he was meant to make, and that definitively reveals the depth and range of his musical fascinations.
“It was me sitting around writing like a maniac,” he recalls. “I would just go down to the studio and tweak out - it would be like, “Whoa, he’s been down there for fucking days.” But I would just be banging on the keyboard, and a sound would inspire me, or suddenly there would be this beat, and it all just followed.”
Just as telling are the many collaborations he managed to impressively cultivate for the project, eschewing the superstar names for a head-turning collection of vocal conspirators, many called up from the underground to lend their burgeoning fire to Lee’s new creations. And those songs effortlessly borrow from hip-hop, funk, industrial, electro, and even dream pop, the last few indeed being genres not generally associated with one of the most notorious drummers of the last four decades.
Of course, with a massive Motley Crue stadium tour getting underway next summer, it’s hard not to focus on the history of one of rock’s genuinely iconic bands, who have sold more than 100 million records since they broke out of the Sunset Strip scene in 1981 with Too Fast For Love. But for dedicated fans with a thirst for the new, what will probably be most surprising is Lee’s ability to step out from behind the kit and play musical impresario. He gushes with genuine enthusiasm about the thrill of discovering new talent.
And that thrill is evident right from the start of “Andro,” as the album opens with the first single “Knock Me Down,” a paint-stripping industrial-metal stormer featuring the currently-unknown rapper Killvein, who gives a scorching performance.
“I heard his shit on the internet,” Lee recalls, “and I thought, this dude is badass, ‘Knock Me Down’ had his name all over it. He raps like a beast, is super talented, and actually says something. He’s going to blow up.”
Another singularly fierce pairing up is with female South African rapper Push Push, who raps like lightning in her unique accent over a cool Afrobeat groove on another single, “Tops.”
Elsewhere, he brings some wicked funk grooves on tracks like “You Dancy” (featuring Lukas Rossi), and “Caviar on a Paper Plate,” which finds him tapping Teutonic, Kraftwerk-like electro beats.
Remarkably, each collaborator wrote their own lyrics, and Lee emphasizes the degree to which each so perfectly nailed the task of achieving a kind of philosophical synchronization. “Everybody really brought it with the lyrics,” he insists. “We were all just really in sync with what we were trying to accomplish.”
Lee even exhibits a more, dare we say, graceful side on a pair of songs which feature the heavenly voiced LA songstress King Elle Noir: the lush, romantic pop of “P.R.E.T.T.Y,” and “Make This Storm”’s silky R&B rhythms are genuinely like nothing you could ever expect coming from him.
But rest assured, the jittery “Demon Bitches,” with West Coast rapper Brooke Candy on the mic (famous for appearing in Grimes’ “Genesis” video), is as insane as anything he’s ever put to tape.
For all the genre-hopping, however, “Andro” is a startlingly cohesive work. And Lee even ended up recognizing a bit of accidental conceptualizing, subsequently splitting the record into male and female halves, with the women making for a particularly explosive presence. He explains, “In the end, it felt like there should be a male and female split, it just made more sense that way.”
Ultimately, and curiously enough, what makes “Andro” so fascinating from start to finish, is that it was a record made by Tommy Lee, the music fan, rather than by the exalted, high-profile rock icon.
“Good music is so rare these days,” he observes in earnest, “that I just tried my hardest to do something that hasn’t been done yet. I really just like turning people on to new shit.”
He then amusingly concludes, “You know when the waiter asks, ‘Do you have any allergies?’ I always just say, ‘Only bad music.’”
STRIPLV publisher and photographer Scott P Santodonato sat down with Lee for this exclusive interview about his new album “Andro,” his recording studio, his upcoming tour with Motley Crue and many other subjects.
STRIPLV: You know it’s bizarre Tommy, we launched the magazine in 2006, and you were actually at our release party at Score’s Gentlemen’s Club here in Vegas. LEE: I think I remember that. It’s kind of fuzzy. STRIPLV: You probably don’t, but you were there partying with Boyz II Men and Joey Fatone from NSYNC. LEE: Oh, Shit, that’s right, wow. It’s fuzzy, but I do remember that. STRIPLV: So, congratulations, man. This fucking record is kickass. LEE: Dude, thank you. STRIPLV: It’s so cool. It’s very innovative and really relevant. It’s so cool to see you doing this as a producer and as an artist. To be so pertinent and today. Especially the backend of the record, the last 6 or 7 cuts are dope. I think you got some hit records on there. LEE: Fuck yeah. Woohoo! STRIPLV: So tell me what your process is and what you were trying to do because there lots of different directions on the record, which I appreciate. Tell me about that. LEE: Well, cool, I guess I made the record for you. STRIPLV: Fuck yeah. LEE: It’s been done for a while. It was done pre-COVID-19. After Motley was done touring, that’s it; we’re not going to ever go play again, 2016, I’m like I’m going to take a year off. I did, and I almost made it a year, but then I started having ideas, and I just started coming down to the studio and started throwing them down. I have a list of collaborators that I wanted to work with. Like my little, little fucking wish list. People that I would love to work with that I’ve found on the internet somehow or someone turned me on to, or someone I’ve just really been a fan of, and I really wanted to work with. So, as the songs are getting written, I’d be sitting there and go, “So and so would fucking murder this track.” And I’d reach out, and we’d get together and finish them up. STRIPLV: So, in your process, do you write the melody and lyric during this process, or do you lay the tracks and have some collaboration with them when they come in? LEE: More like the later. I pretty much have it finished without lyrics because I believe whoever is singing the lyrics needs to come from that person. I can’t write something and give it to you to sing. You know what I’m saying. I just think that’s weird. Or a lot of times, I call it Frankenstein, I would cut up an acapella that I found that was similar to the melodies I was hearing in my head, and I’d kind of put that together as just sort of a placeholder in the song. I had a really interesting thing happen there. There’s this song “Make it Back,” it’s the last track on the female side. Her name is Julia from Playa. STRIPLV: How did you find her? LEE: Dude, I found her because Playa, I stumbled across a song of theirs, and I said this is fucking insane. I just followed them, and I reached out to her and said your track is fucking insane, and I told her that I had this beautiful track that I think has your name written all over it that I think you could just smash. That’s kind of how we got together. I really like the stuff they did. STRIPLV: Yeah, because the stuff on the female side with Julia, King Elle Noir and Push Push is dope. The track “P.R.E.T.T.Y.” with King Elle Noir is a hit record. LEE: Dude, that funny because I had that track written for several years, and I really love that song. That’s a fucking smash track, and fucking Elle just killed it, so beautiful. STRIPLV: Yeah, she’s super talented. I love the tone of voice and her delivery. So you cut this all at your home studio? LEE: Yes, sir. STRIPLV: Tell me about your home studio. What kind of equipment do you have and what is your process there? LEE: I have two live rooms and some isolation booths. In the control room, I have a 96 channel SSL G plus. It’s a full-on studio. STRIPLV: And this is in your house? So, you’re looking for homes, are you going to move all of this? LEE: Yeah. I’ve been here for like 11 years, and shit, my kids are grown up and gone, and it’s just my wife and I just chilling here. This place is like 10,000 square feet, and I kind of just want a one level pad, and my tastes have changed, and it’s just time. Every like ten years, I kind of like pick up and move. I’m pulling a geographical. (Laughs) STRIPLV: So, you’re going to move the whole studio, that’s quite a process. LEE: Yes, unless somebody absolutely wanted the studio to stay here, then I’d probably negotiate something, but the plan is to move the studio. STRIPLV: Are you cutting everything in Protools? LEE: We use Protools. I use Ableton myself personally when I’m writing and producing. There is pretty much everything here, dude—everything you need to make crazy shit. STRIPLV: Do you engineer as well? LEE: I do. I do all the demos, but then I bring in Smiley, my engineer to putting the finishing touches on stuff because that’s something I don’t really do. I mean, I do it, but taking it to that whole other level, separating things, mixing is a fucking beating. I need to remove myself from that process, and come in with fresh ears and go “OK yeah, this is sounding like what it should sound like.” STRIPLV: Tell me what it was like working with Post Malone and Tyla. LEE: Oh, fuck. He’s always fun. I played on his record “Beerbongs and Bentleys” fuck a couple of years ago. We did it here. I’ve known him for a while. He’s a fucking riot to work with. We basically just got a bunch fucking beers and sat around and come out here in the live room and jam and boom it was done. But, this latest track that we just did, this track “Tommy Lee,” was done. Tyla and Post did it, and they approached me and asked me I’d do a remix. And I was like, “Fuck yes, I would. I would love to.” STRIPLV: And it’s butter! It sounds great. LEE: It turned out great. Thank you. STRIPLV: Is that live drums on that? LEE: Yes, sir. We did it all here. STRIPLV: Tell me about making The Dirt film. LEE: That was an interesting process. It took fucking forever to get that movie made. It’s gone through so many different hands. At one point, I didn’t think it was going to get done. STRIPLV: When did you start thinking about the project? LEE: That things been around, I want to say, damn I’d be guessing. It’s been that long. Yeah, the thing got made. It’s fucking killer. Jeff Tremaine directed it and did a fantastic job. The cast did a killer job. I’ve watched it six or seven times, and I’m still seeing shit that I didn’t see all the other times. There’s so much going on, and I still find it absolutely mind-boggling that Jeff was able to compress 30 years of fucking madness into an hour and 25 minutes. It’s insane. STRIPLV: It’s fast-moving, which is cool and makes it very entertaining. So is it pretty much real? Is it pretty much how things were? LEE: Dude, so on the money. It’s so on the money. I think that’s the beauty of it. Its authenticity is as real as it gets. That is one of the many promises that Jeff made to us. He’s like, “Guys, I have to direct this movie. There’s nobody else who can do this. I’m going to fucking bring people back right to that time, so they’re in it, and they feel what it was like because that’s something that will never happen again. I want people to experience it.” And he did it; he fucking nailed it. It’s weird watching a movie about yourself, but fuck, it took me right back to all that crazy shit and the way it was man. It was fucking madness. And he nailed it. He fucking nailed it. STRIPLV: Did you have any say in hiring Machine Gun Kelly to play you? LEE: You know what. It was interesting. We’d get heads up of people who were getting cast and stuff, and at the time, I didn’t know Machine Gun Kelly got the part until he called me and said: “Dude, you’re not going to believe this.” I was like, “What?” He goes, “Dude, I’m fucking playing you in the movie.” I was like, “What?” (Laughs) I’ve known him for a while, and I didn’t even know he was auditioning. He’s like, “I’ve got the script. I’m fucking coming over because I want to go through every line of the shit with you and make sure it’s exactly how it happened. If it didn’t go down that way, I want to know. I want to know everything!” And then he fucking went and took four months of drum lessons, to learn how to twirl and to do all the dumb crazy shit that I do. I’ve never seen anybody so dedicated to pulling something off. He’s like, “Dude; I’m gonna make you fucking proud, bro. I’m going to fucking kill this.”
STRIPLV: He did a great job. He did good. LEE: He killed it! STRIPLV: So, married life treating you good? LEE: Yes. Actually, fantastic man. I’m a lucky boy. She’s fucking funny and always has me smiling. My cheeks hurt a lot of times because she’s fucking so silly. Shit’s good dude. STRIPLV: How was your trip to Saint Barth’s? What kind of shape is Saint Martin in? LEE: Yeah, it’s weird, man. Things are strange there in Saint Martin when you’re coming in. It was difficult getting in and out. You had to have a COVID negative test that had been done less than 48 hours prior. STRIPLV: So, they wouldn’t even let you in without that? LEE: Yeah. I’m like at least I’m at the safest place in the world. There’s nobody there with that shit, nobody. STRIPLV: So, are things still pretty fucked up in Saint Martin? Because I haven’t been down there since the hurricane. LEE: I haven’t been down there since then too, but near the airport, there are still boats washed up and still on land. That place got it, but it’s still beautiful there. The water, shit and, it’s fucking beautiful. I’m missing it terribly. I want to go back. STRIPLV: So, when do you think things are going to get back to normal? When do you think that we’re going to have concerts again? What’s the plan with Motley’s 2021 tour? Are you guys talking about that? Do you think we’re going to get back to normal from this COVID shit? LEE: Yeah. We’re hoping that’s the plan. We’ve moved it back exactly one year. Fuck, I would have been in Chicago or something today. Yeah, we’re just hoping for the best because the thing is sold out everywhere. Which is fucking insane. We’ve never done a stadium tour. Obviously, all of us are super stoked about it. I just hope, without sounding selfish, I hope that when it’s all cool and everybody can get back together in large groups of people and can go fucking bananas, I hope that I’m on stage for that. That’s where I want to be. People go, “What do you want to do after the pandemic is over?” I want to be on stage because the energy. Can you imagine that? STRIPLV: People need that, man. People need to feel that shit. It’s so heavy when you’re at a concert, and everybody’s happy, and people are going for it. LEE: Dude, that fucking energy will be priceless, and there is nowhere I’d rather be than on stage because the energy coming at you like that, and you get that, and you give that back. That will be priceless and probably never happen again in my life. I want to be a part of that. I hope we get back to it being cool to all hang out again and go to a football game or a concert or shit like that. Fucking people, wear your God damn masks. STRIPLV: We got to get back to some normalcy. Being able to get together and being with people because this is fucking things up. It’s like we’re almost to the point of virtual sex kind of thing. LEE: (Laughs and Claps’s hands) Oh, so my investment in virtual reality porn is going to do well. STRIPLV: (Laughs) Probably.