Tommy Lee Quotes

The Radiohead record, The Bends is my all-time favorite record on the planet.

I'll never forget when I was, like, 17, and 'Highway to Hell' came on the radio, and I was like, 'Dude, listen to that guy's voice!'

It's been a while since I've studied: since high school. It's a lot of work, a lot of work.

What I wanna do with Methods is keep that around as sorta my freak out, creative free for all- anything goes project.

I've loved roller coasters since I was a kid.

John Bonham was probably the most influential in terms of playing style and timing.

The horses forced into the chuckwagon races die of heart attacks, broken necks, broken legs, and other injuries. It'd be easy to get off on western tradition without this bloody spectacle. Dude, it's the Old West, not ancient Rome!

When you're playing upside down, it takes twice the strength.

I'm still that rowdy dude who has after-parties in his dressing room with a concert-sized PA system blasting away.

I don't think anybody should ever touch anybody in anger, ever.

I don't have a problem with my temper.

There was a time when cowboys respected their horses instead of riding them to death just to show off for a crowd.

I was always impressed by some of the progressive styles of guys like Neil Peart.

I was never one for the passenger seat. I have always wanted my level of entertainment and showmanship to be the same as a frontman.

I'm always getting injuries like bruised and bloody knuckles from catching a cymbal or the edge of a drum.

There are things you do that just come natural, and sometimes those are amazingly in synch, and sometimes they're horribly out of synch, and you're like, 'Ooo! That wasn't very good tonight.' Most of the time, it's just on.

One day, after practice, he came up behind me, tapped me on the shoulder, and as I turned around, he sucker-punched me and relocated my nose to the other side of my face. What up, Mr. Drum Captain? How's your drumming going, bro? Played any arenas lately?

You know what's weird, I just write to write, with no intention, I just write.

Whatever we do as a band, none of us can do as individuals. We all know that, whatever we have gone through with each other and as a band.

Getting married in four days was the biggest ... mistake I've ever made. I have two beautiful kids, but ... how can you know somebody in four days? Bonehead.

I've always gravitated towards the beats, obviously. And when I was growing up, I always loved funk music or even - dare I say it - disco.

Just because we are wearing lipstick doesn't mean we can't kick your ass!

Too many drummers sit at the back covered in drums, and you never see them.

That's the good part of having my past follow me, is that sometimes some of that stuff can help.

I am such a gearhead. In my recording studio, I personally engineer and edit everything on computers.

I got really frustrated in jail, and I was like, 'Man, I love what I've done, and I love the mark I've made on rock n' roll history' ... and I sat there, and I got really depressed, thinking, 'I gotta make a move ... do something fresh and new.'

Trust me: all of us walk around and look at each other, and without saying it, we all know we're thinking, 'Really dude? Were still here!' and pinch ourselves. Typically, careers have short life span, 10 years if you're lucky, so what we've done is amazing.

One of my favorite things in the world is to be seeing two people that are really old, still holding hands, still kissing.

There's Tommy, Tommy Lee the rock star, and Tommy the dad. I'm wearing several hats these days.

I find that doing the drums last, coming from a drum history, really works well for me.

I think that when I did the Methods Of Mayhem record, some of the hip-hop stuff probably freaked a lot of Motley Crue fans out.

I lived up on Kanan and Mulholland. It's a bit of a drive, but once you get there, the horses, vineyards, it's just so peaceful.

I threw my son, Brandon, a rave for his birthday and I fully set it up like a crazy rave with lights and sound, me and my partner DJ'd - I got Mix Master Mike from the Beastie Boys to come DJ for a bit.

I'm a hopeless fu**ing romantic. That's a part of me that a lot of people don't know about. They know everything there is to know about another part of me, but not a thing about my heart.'-
Tommy Lee

We thought we had elevated animal behavior to an art form. But then we met Ozzy.

I love touring Canada, and our Calgary fans are among the roughest and toughest.

Sometimes when you cut your bed tracks right off the bat, you don't really know where the vocal is landing and where the background vocals are, and other loops and stuff that are going on.

Single's fun - you don't have to check in with your girl, but it's not easy. I do get lonely.

By the age of 17, for me, we had got an recording contract, and, boom, I was gone.

The crowd is a pretty good indicator when it's good, because it's kind of a universal energy that gets passed around.

Our music will continue to have an impact in people's lives long after we finally call it quits.

Pharrell Williams: '[Tommy Lee] is a great drummer with a lot of style. He keeps his chops up in terms of technique and his style in drumming; his chops are very sharp. Also, 'Pour Some sugar on Me' can be played in the middle of any hip-hop party. I love that.'

Man, that's awesome that Pharrell paid respect. I've always loved his shit, ever since 'When Doves Cry'. Oh, wait, my bad. Pharrell is that producer guy from Atlanta who dates Janet Jackson. The little guy, right? Discovered Kris Kross. Nice. Thanks, bro.

Being married to two extremely high profile, you know, actresses, and being sort of chased by, you know, paparazzi and people, it's a whole different dynamic happens to a relationship when that happens. All of a sudden, things get a little crazy, a little crazy.

My house is really clean. It's a really big house so I have three ladies who come in and clean it twice a week, but let's just say that, in between times, maybe it's not quite so clean.

If you show up late [for anger management], you don't get credit for the class, which made that car ride even more of a test of your temper. Being late was great-you could leave if you wanted to, but that wasn't going to help you at all. I was late a few times and I always stayed, hoping to get credit for good behavior. I never did, and that made me really fucking angry. Thank God I was learning how to deal with that.

Sometimes when you have children they're the opposites of you.

I was just reading some poetry, and it talked about how things start as one thing and change into another, and I just thought, what a great concept for a song.

On our first record, man, I didn't know what I was doing. I was just playing. I was over playing. You're as green as you can be with no experience in recording or knowing how sometimes a song can work: when it's too much, when it's not enough, when it's not right.

Why is it that the hot chicks never can sing?

No, I don't have a problem with my temper.

Playing upside down is insane. It's two or three times more difficult than what's normal. Your feet want to come off the pedals, your arms want to drop down - all of your body is fighting gravity.

I guess I always think the people that know me or fans that have followed me and know my solo work would know that I've always had really eclectic tastes - even in Motley, dude.

I really wanna get my paws on scoring a film.

My oldest boy is 14, and he's not in that kind of awkward stage where, when we talk about girls, or there's a hot girl walking by - they're just so shy; it's weird.

I still play but for some reason, I am having so much fun playing guitar and singing that I don't really miss it because I've done it for so long like twenty-something years with Motley.

When I'm single, I'm one guy, and when I'm in a relationship I'm totally another. They're both a good time.

The best thing about being rich is the freedom; freedom to do whatever you want whenever you want. It doesn't suck.

I don't specifically sit down to write a Motley Crue song, so for me, that's how it works. The things that sound like they might be Crue, I put aside on my hard drive and keep them in that pile.

It's always interesting to me that we all hear music differently. It's an awesome experience to hear what other people hear.

I just write ... if it's really good, it's going on the record. If it's average, it's going in the trash.

Phil Rudd from AC/DC was someone I really liked a lot ... Not because I was dazzled by his playing ability - he was just a rock, y'know?

On Ecstasy, Joan Rivers looks like Pamela Anderson, so imagine what Pamela Anderson looked like.

At 17, I signed a recording contract right out of high school, so I started touring and traveling the world. I sort of missed out on the college experience.

It sounds kind of strange, but Jail time was almost a good experience for me.

No one really buys records anymore. You can look at sales and do that math real quick. Unfortunately, it's fast food in the music industry. People don't ingest full records anymore.

Obviously, I'm a little more responsible these days.

But you know what I'm trying to say, it's that there's a couple of really dangerous drugs out there and I've lost some friends to them.

There was no way we were going to let this band hobble around on three legs. We chose the route that every professional actor, athlete and musician should do - leave the legend intact and bow out at the top.

I'm constantly evolving as a musician.

Nikki lives around the corner from me and I see him all the time. We talk a lot, and of course we're still friends. That was our baby, Motley Crue, we put that band together.

Of course drums weren't meant to be played other than sitting on the ground. When you're upside-down, your feet don't want to sit on the pedals.

The angry man will defeat Himself in battle As well as in life.

I wouldn't specifically say rock n' roll is dead, but I don't see a lot of charismatic performers in the way of new blood who are edgy and dangerous on stage, like Marilyn Manson, who you never quite know if he's going to make it through his own show.

I've always been kind of a - you know, I have my moments, where I can be Tommy, and then I flip a switch; when you're on stage, you turn into this other personality.

Going through life solo isn't very exciting if you can't share it with somebody, you know?

I start my own frat, and try out for the women's swim team.

If it's successful and it sounds awesome, and looks killer live, then I guess I can pat myself on the back and take all the credit too.

The older I get, the more I don't care what people think or what people say. I just do what moves me.

A lot of hip-hop artists wear fur, and they think it's a status symbol. That doesn't register for me; I just see dead animals.

Being a drummer, I'm always like, 'Oh, that's got a funky beat. That's cool,' and I like to dance.

I don't really put too much emphasis on what somebody else might think of it. Otherwise your putting limits on yourself.

I take the best of all the styles I like and put them together in one package.