Tommy Lee ( Musician) Biography
Tommy Lee born Thomas Lee Bass is an American musician and founding member of Mötley Crüe. He is also the band’s long term drummer he founded the rap-metal band Methods of Mayhem. He was born on 3rd October 1962 in Athens, Greece.
Tommy Lee ( Musician) Age/Family
Thomas was born on October 3rd, 1962 ( 56 years old as of 2018). He was born to David Lee Thomas Bass and American U.S. Army Sergent and mother Vassilikki “Voula” Papadimitriou whose a Miss Greece contestant for the 1960 Miss World event. His family to California when he was one year old. He has a younger sister Athena Lee.
Tommy Lee ( Musician) Wife/Kids
Thomas has been married four times; his first wife was Elaine Starchuk. They married in 1984 and divorced in 1985.
On May 10, 1986, Lee married his second wife, actress Heather Locklear. The couple divorced in 1993.
Before meeting actress and Playboy playmate Pamela Anderson, Lee was engaged to model Bobbie Brown. On February 19, 1995, just four days after meeting her, Lee married Anderson. They have two sons together: Brandon Thomas (born June 5, 1996) and Dylan Jagger (born December 29, 1997). The couple divorced in 1998. Although divorced, the couple reunited briefly upon Lee’s release from jail but eventually split again in 2001. In 2008, it was announced that Lee and Anderson were back together and living with each other and their children, but they split for good soon afterward.
Tommy Lee ( Musician) Early Life
Thomas received his first drum when he was four years old, and his first drum kit when he was a teenager. He later dropped out of high school to pursue a career in music he started with the band Suite 19.
Tommy Lee ( Musician) Career
Band Suite 19 was his first successful band it played the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles during the late-1970s. Around this time, he met future bandmate, Nikki Sixx. Casually, Sixx was forming a theatrical band that would specialise in anthemic heavy metal and was impressed by Lee’s drumming. He changed his name to Tommy Lee and earned the nickname “T-bone” due to his 6′ 2½″ height and his lean physique. Shortly afterward, guitarist Mick Mars joined the band. Tommy recommended a singer he had met during high school, Vince Neil, who soon joined the group, and Mötley Crüe was formed.
Mötley Crüe quickly built a strong fanbase and they released their debut album Too Fast for Love in 1981, on their own independent label Leathür Records. Elektra Records decided to sign the band shortly thereafter, reissuing their debut in 1982. The band then began a string of hit releases throughout the decade—1983’s Shout at the Devil, 1985’s Theatre of Pain, 1987’s Girls, Girls, Girls, and 1989’s Dr. Feelgood—establishing the quartet as one of the biggest hard rock/metal bands of the 1980s.
Lee used several memorable gimmicks during his drum solos at concerts, such as having his entire kit revolving and spinning, or having the entire kit float above the crowd while he continued to play. He was legendary for mooning the crowd at nearly every show. The band was known for their decadent behavior both on and offstage, often consuming excessive amounts of drugs, such as cocaine, heroin, pills and alcohol.
2004, Lee reunited with the original Mötley Crüe line-up to release the double-disc anthology album entitled Red, White & Crüe, which went quadruple-platinum and launched a monumental reunion tour to support it, The Red, White & Crüe Tour 2005: Better Live Than Dead, the band’s first tour in six years. They finished the year at #8 on the Top Concert Money Earners list. They played 81 shows and grossed US$33 million according to Billboard Boxscore.
Lee came back once with Motley Crüe to go on the Crüe’s Greatest Hitstour in 1999. With the popularity of rap metal, Lee formed a band called Methods of Mayhem. The band released a self-titled album the same year and toured in support of it.
Although Lee distanced himself from Mötley Crüe after splitting, he agreed to take part in their 2001 autobiography, The Dirt. In addition to Mötley Crüe and Methods of Mayhem, Lee has made guest appearances on albums by other artists, such as Stuart Hamm, Nine Inch Nails and Rob Zombie. He also contributed a song, “Planet Boom” (originally on Mötley Crüe’s Quaternary EP) to the soundtrack of then-wife Pamela Anderson’s 1996 movie, Barb Wire, and produced an album for the pre-Goldfinger project from John Feldmann and Simon Williams, the Electric Love Hogs.
Lee parted ways with Methods of Mayhem partner TiLo and began recording with members of Incubus. He then released his first solo album. The album, 2002’s Never a Dull Moment, has tones of rap metal and electronica. The song “Blue” features guest vocalist Rodleen Getsic (the credits read: “Rolleen”). In August 2002, Tommy Lee and his solo band joined Ozzfest, mainstage. In 2006, he formed a new band called Rock Star Supernova with Jason Newsted (Voivod, ex-Metallica) and Gilby Clarke (ex-Guns N’ Roses).
2006 season of Rock Star selected Lukas Rossi as the lead singer for Supernova. Dilana, Magni Ásgeirsson, and Toby Rand with his own band Juke Kartel were the three runners up and accepted an offer to go on tour with Supernova. The self-titled debut album Rock Star Supernovawas released on November 21, 2006.
Thomas released his autobiography, Tommyland and his second solo album, Tommyland: The Ride in 2005. The CD featured as a soundtrack to the book and includes the singles, “Tryin to be Me”, “Good Times” which was the theme song to his reality TV series Tommy Lee Goes to College and “Hello, Again” which features Andrew McMahon from Something Corporate and Jack’s Mannequin. Tommy Lee was also a guest DJ at WXRK “K-Rock” in New York during the Fourth of July Monster Metal Meltdown in 2005.
In November 2007, it was announced by Nikki Sixx that Tommy Lee was no longer a member of Mötley Crüe. Lee reportedly quit after the rest of the band sued his manager, Carl Stubner, for forcing Tommy to take part in reality TV shows, thus forcing the cancellation of a lengthy leg of Crüe tour dates in 2006.
Lee already quit once in September 2007 before returning to the band. Vince Neil refuted the claims that Tommy Lee resigned from the band and that the band would be going into the studio in January to start recording their new studio album. In the end, Tommy Lee did end up recording the new album, Saints of Los Angeles, and toured with Crüe in 2008 in their tour, Crüe Fest.
Tommy Lee’s current artistic endeavors include touring as an electronic dance music DJ with his Methods of Mayhem DJ/production partner, DJ Aero (birth name: Chester Deitz). As DJs, they are also known as Electro Mayhem and have clocked over 60 club dates as DJs throughout North America (with stops in the Bahamas and Central America) in 2007 alone, with more international dates planned for 2008 (including a stop in Iceland). Lee and Aero debuted as DJs on the mainstage at Ultra Music Festival during Winter Music Conference (WMC) in 2004.
Lee and Aero have been DJing together since 2000, and they will again have a major presence at Miami’s WMC in 2008. In 2009, Lee appeared in select cities with Sharam, one half of Grammy-winning Deep Dish, accompanying Sharam live on the piano during his house DJ sets. Lee and DJ Aero also accompanied deadmau5 in his 2011 Meowington Hax tour. He played keyboards too with Deftones at a benefit show for defunct bassist Chi Cheng in 2009.
In an interview held backstage at the 2009 Download Festival, Lee confirmed that he is currently working on his yet-to-be-named third solo album. It is expected to be released sometime in 2010. On June 27, 2010 Tommy played drums for Ludacris at the BET Awards 2010. On March 25, 2010, he co-presented the International Dance Music Awards (IDMA) along with Roger Sanchez and DJ Rap.
In 2014, Tommy Lee joined the Smashing Pumpkins to perform drums for their Monuments to an Elegy album. That same year Tommy Lee joined the rest of his Mötley Crüe bandmates in a farewell tour. As part of the tour each member signed a legal document preventing them from ever touring under the Mötley Crüe moniker again.
Tommy Lee ( Musician) Photos
Tommy Lee Photos