My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 80 - TOMMY LEE

Episode Date: September 30, 2020

Tommy Lee, one of the most legendary rockstars in history, hops down into the Basement to break down his new album 'ANDRO', and of course, Robbie does a whole lot of geekin out about Mötley Crüe. 3Chi: Use code BASEMENT at checkout to receive 5% off at 3Chi.comYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/mymomsbasement

Hey, My Mom's Basement listeners. You can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. So I was basically raised on Motley Crue. So this was amazing for me. This was like personally the biggest interview of the year for me. I could not believe I was talking to him when I was talking to him. It was just all around the most surreal thing I've done in a while. But before we get to that, let me tell you about our presenting sponsor, 3Chi. 3Chi is the leader in hemp-derived cannabinoid products, and all of these products are formulated by a biochemist, as I tell you each and every week.

Now, what are the products formulated by a biochemist? It's Delta-8 THC, vapes, gummies, tinctures, and oils that can be used to make homemade edibles. And this stuff will basically give you the perfect hybrid of CBD and Delta-9-THC, which you find in marijuana. Gives you the similar buzz, all the medicinal effects without the laziness, the anxiety, the paranoia, stuff like that. If you go to 3chi.com right now, that's the number three, chi.com. You can shop for Delta-8 vapes, gummies, tinctures, all that stuff I told you about. Use the promo code basement. You'll receive 5% off your order.

You must be 21 or older to purchase. And without further ado, let's get into this interview with Mr. Tommy Lee. All right, it is my mom's basement. We are here with one of the most legendary rock stars alive. It's Tommy Lee. He's got a new album out called andro out october 16th how are you man how's the quarantine held up for you i'm awesome robbie i'm i'm cool man um

quarantine schmorrentine um not to sound not to sound um you know there's a lot of bad things that are happening too but for some reason um you know, I don't know, I'm finding all the good in it, and it's actually, it's not very, not that different for me, because I don't leave the house that much anyway, I'm always in the studio, or doing something, so I'm doing all right, I'm doing all right. I'm the same way. I'm inside anyway, so it's like an excuse not to go out. I'll take it. Yeah, you know what?

It's actually, there's a lot of pros, right? There's not that many cons. Like, I don't mind it at all. And here's the deal. I think this is really rad because, like, in the past, doing interviews with people, we'd be on the phone doing like phone interviews. I'd be shit. That'd be a two week schedule.

And you'd be talking to people from all over the world. I did this now. Cause actually I get to fucking see you. Yeah. You know, I can see who I'm talking to. This is actually one of the, one of the benefits of the,

the, the whole pandemic it's made people uh find new and i think better ways to communicate this is rad i dig this absolutely me too i'm glad to hear it so i want to start off by saying i'm a huge fan of yours i have been my entire life uh nicky six is the reason that i play bass my brother is a drummer who raised me on crew literally so i've heard everything from all the crew shit to never a dull moment Moment to Tommy Land the Ride to the Methods of Mayhem shit. Like, I've literally heard everything that you've ever put out. Damn, dude.

I've never heard anything like Andrew. Whoa. I want to ask you, where does this come from for you? I know the industrial stuff and the hip hop has obviously always been an influence for you, even in the drum solos and the last few tours, we saw that. So where did this come from for you in 2020? I've, I, after the Motley tour was over in 2016, I was like, I'm going to take a year off. No music. I'm just, I got to air it out. I just,

I want to clean slate and I just didn't nothing for a year, no music. I'm just, I got to air it out. I just, I want to clean slate and I just didn't nothing for a year, no music, no nothing. And then I made it a year. And then I just started, man, I had just a ton of ideas and I just came down to my studio and just started letting it fly. Really. You know, I've had a bunch of ideas that I just kind of like jotted down or or sung you know melodies or or beats into a you know my phone and I just came down here and I just started working in the studio and shit man uh it happened pretty quickly so um I was just inspired

by just god man like what's you you know, what's moving me? And, you know, the new sounds and new technology, you know, God, it's pretty hard not to be inspired when sort of the, you know, all your options are endless, man. With a lot of the technology today, you can pretty much do anything you want, which is fun, you know? Did you have specific musical influences on this? Because they were definitely none that I could pick out myself. Like I said, I've never really heard anything like this. So was it musical influences or was it stuff for you, like you said, going into the studio and just jotting down melodies and sounds and then seeing what came out of that? god you know to say that i would you know don't have any influences would be crazy i'm influenced by so many things we all are we hear everything

all these things all the time um i i there's not like one particular artist or a couple particular artists and you know that are. I'm generally influenced by shit that like by stuff that moves me, you know? I mean, there's a lot of new stuff that's come out where I'm like, Oh my God, that's dope. Or, you know, I'll see something, or I'm really influenced by a lot of things, not in particular like a style or an artist. You know, I think probably one of my biggest influences is Sonics.

Like, man, when shit sounds good, like, you know, that freaks me out. Like, I'm a big ear candy guy. If it's something that I – so I was inspired to create something that maybe you haven't heard yet do you know what i'm saying that's a big that's a big one for me because fuck making something that's already out there or similar to something is kind of pointless like it's already out there so why try to bite that or do you know so i'm always pushing to make something new and something hopefully fresh that somebody may or may not have or do you know so i'm always pushing to make something new and something

hopefully fresh that somebody may or may not have heard before you know like so that's kind of where i get my my juice from i think fans of yours would definitely agree with that you're always pushing the new you know directions and genres and stuff like that now a common theme that this shares with all your other stuff is how loud it is, how in your face it is and how many collaborations you have. You've done a lot of collaborations and people doing vocal features on your solo stuff in the past. I wanted to ask you a lot of the collaborations on this album are like in the

past underground people or people that maybe you're putting on. Do you find pleasure in that as a guy who has this massive platform as a guy who's Tommy fucking Lee being able to kind of put people on, like i saw shoddy horrors on this and that's a guy that i've known from the battle rap game and i was just blown away from that that's crazy that's cool that you know him yeah he he's a badass and you know um i was telling somebody earlier i i i have a list of people you know that know, I'll see something or hear something. I'll be like, God damn, I love this person. Or I know there's something about their style or I would love to collaborate with them.

And I have a list. And as I'm writing music, you know, I'll be I'll be doing something. I'm like, oh, my God. For instance, with Soma Coma, I'm like, Shadi would fucking murder this, like hands down. And I reached out to him, sent him the track, and he's like, yo, dude, I got this. No problem.

And he just, he nailed it. It's a cool track, yeah. So yeah, so I really enjoy, I enjoy collaborating with people. And for this one, I got extreme pleasure out of it. Not that I didn't before collaborating with people, you know, everyone from, you know, you got from Wu-Tang, Fred Durst, Kid Rock, Lil' Kim, George Clinton with the Method stuff.

That was all super, super rad and fun um but this one is uh it's like that but even more uh fun like i get i get a bit more from it just because like i said earlier with the music hoping to turn somebody on to something they haven't heard or felt yet the same goes with the artists like man i know for a fact some people haven't heard a few of these people on the record and they're going to if i can sort of give them you know that platform and and turn some people on oh they're you know that to me, that's enjoyable. Like, oh my God, dude, have you heard so-and-so for instance, push, push, dude, she is a fucking firecracker.

She's got that South African, you know, accent. And which kind of reminds me of some Diane Twood stuff meets, you know, some other shit. And I'm, I'm hoping that somebody, you know some other shit and I'm hoping that somebody you know just really digs that and goes wow and then now she's got some some new fans you know so that part's cool to me I'm getting a kick out of that yeah as a guy who's always pushed those boundaries does it ever annoy you or piss you off to hear some rock stars that you came up with talking about the current generation of music like there's nothing good out there dude that bums me out so much because there's a ton of good shit there really is um you know they're maybe they're just not you know listening in the right area right places but there's a lot of good stuff out there and it's and it's inspiring you know um it's yeah if you're looking for maybe you know i i get where they're coming from when they say that partially if you're

looking for the new like you know i i asked myself that question is like where are the rock stars like you know that and that doesn't really necessarily pertain to music that's sort of like a an iconic thing like where are the rocks rock stars like where's the the guy that you know that freaks you out like either scares you or like blows you away like you know what i mean so that is missing i will say that um um you know i think that? So that is missing. I will say that. You know, I think that that's definitely missing. But as far as music goes, there's a lot of cool stuff out there, man. I hear it all the time.

All the time. Yeah, I'm with you. So as a guy that's a rock star pushing the boundaries of hip hop with this record, I want to ask you about a friend of yours, Machine Gun Kelly, who's doing the opposite with his latest record, Tickets to My Downfall. I wanted to just see if you had heard it or if he had ran any of the tracks by you. He's diving into the rock and roll game. I've been a pretty big fan of this record since it came out. I think it's really good. Yeah, I heard it and it sounds cool, man. I need to go back and listen to it again. But I kind of went through it and listened to it. And it's cool, man. You know, it makes you think, you know, is this more Colson? You know, because, you know, that guy loves rock music.

You know, it's like a lot of fucking, a lot of rappers, dude, really dig rock music you know it's like a lot of fucking a lot of rappers dude really dig rock music i mean look post malone did like a two-hour nirvana cover session on youtube i was like awesome and and i know posty and he and he digs fucking rock music yeah you've got him on this record on a bonus track yeah a lot of a of rappers dig rock, and they also dig the lifestyle. And if you know, obviously, you've seen it a million times in videos where they're just rock-starring it out. And this is hip-hop, and that's in there. So this is probably Machine Gun Kelly's way of just showing everybody like a bit more of who he is.

He's not just, you know, a fucking just a rapper, you know, and I think it's cool. And I'll bet he's having a fucking blast with it. You know, I know he is. Speaking of people in hip hop and rappers in general, just respecting rock stars and appreciating the lifestyle nowadays. How did you feel when Post and Tyler put out a song called Tommy Lee? Basically like an homage to, you know, your time on top of the world as a rock star. That would be awesome, right? I was fucking tripping balls.

Like, okay. I love Post. I played drums on his Beerbongs and Bentley's record a couple years ago And I love him But when they fucking They came to me like Dude

We got a song called Tommy Lee And we We want you to remix it And I listened to this song And I was like what the fuck this is crazy this is so like i didn't even know what to think you know like a lot of hip-hop dudes shout out my name in their tracks like which is always cool and like that's you know it's cool to hear you shout out uh in in a bunch of those songs but they're like when they name the whole fucking song tommy lee and

they're talking about this and that and i'm like whoa this is wild and they asked me if i'd remix and my and i was like hold on let me think about it yeah dude so rats and so yeah played drums and smashed some guitars on it and did uh you know sort of my my take on a on a remix of it and it turned out they loved it um and it's just uh pretty wild dude it's pretty wild when you know your homies shout you out like that that's that's pretty massive it's just like another thing etched in stone that will always be there you know idolizing you know tommy lee and his time as the biggest rock star in the world so that's pretty awesome crazy you know it's funny because later today at around two o'clock um i have a session here are you familiar with a dude named 24k golden the name sounds familiar yeah he's got the fucking biggest song on the planet this week

um that's a song called mood he's got a a new song called climb and it features machine gun kelly and i'm cutting the drums on it here this afternoon oh that's awesome that's all yeah any any collab between you and machine gun kelly mean, even the song that you guys did together for the Dirt soundtrack, I thought was pretty dope. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He killed that. Yeah. He killed that.

It was just cool to hear a hip-hop verse on a Motley Crue song, something that, like, as a Crue fan growing up with Crue, I mean, blew my mind. And speaking of that movie, I was a huge fan of the movie. I read the book probably before I should have, age-wise. And then the movie was just like a perfect snapshot of the band, right? It captured the energy of Motley Crue. How did that final product compare to what you originally envisioned? Because, man, it was in the works forever.

I remember reading about it in 2008, 2009 even. Right, right. Yeah, I know, dude. It took forever and um i can't even tell you how happy all of us uh are and we're with the movie like we still i still scratch my head i can't believe um that it was made so accurate and so incredible to get, I don't even know how many years that book covers, but to smash that into like an hour and 30 minutes or 40 minutes,

whatever the movie length was, that's insane. And smashing it in, I mean, not like just like, yeah, here's just like a clusterfuck of stuff that doesn't make sense. It was just wild back then. It played out. It all worked. And so hats off to Jeff Tremaine

for honoring his word. Because when we met with him, he was like, guys, we met with several directors cause we were really apprehensive at first. We were like, I don't know, dude, jackass. Like he's directed jackass. This isn't a fucking comedy. And we, when we love jackass, like that's rad. Of course. Yeah. And so we were, we were a little apprehensive and he's like, no dudes, I'm telling you, there's nobody else on the planet to make this movie but me.

I swear to God, A, he's a giant fan. And B, his dedication in his mind in this meeting was like, dudes, I'm going to bring everybody right back to that time when they're watching this, you know, and for a lot of people that weren't around during that time, they're going to trip the fuck out, you know, right. So, so it was cool that he, he did that, you know, he brought everybody bright, bright to a time, either right back if you were there or brought people who were never there to this time of like, whoa,

is that what it was like back then? Dude, it's for pretty much till the wheels fall off like anything goes. Like it's nothing like today. And, you know, and that time will never be again so he did he did uh he did uh you know massive justice to those who've been there and those who haven't and not all get to experience this fucking insane time right yeah and it was obviously a massive success i mean it literally brought motley crew like back from the dead back from retirement I assume you never thought that would happen but when you went into the studio to record a couple songs with the guys first time

back in the studio with them in a long time for the soundtrack was the seed planted did you have any idea in your mind like we might get back together after this thing's over or not at all yeah no we were done we were we were like you know what we're big like our pride is is just it's it's too much to uh to go we we we were like you know what let's just let's just call it a day now because the last thing we all ever pictured us doing was playing like county fairs yeah you know to like you know i don't know 340 50 people you know 500 people we're like we're going out when fucking arenas are sold out and we're just going to be like thank you good night and just peace the fuck out like you know now and not do the rest of it and leave everything on a high note and we literally we were like this is it thing just blew up and live nation the promoters came to us and offered us uh a deal we couldn't pass up i mean we've never played

stadiums and we were like fuck you want to go play stadiums and we were like fuck yes you know so so that's kind of how that happened the movie is a a big uh you know uh instigator for all that and it brought everybody to a place of like you know what dude we've never done stadiums and fucking and okay yeah yeah let's go do it and then the thing the tickets went on sale and it sold out like yeah immediately we were like what dude this is crazy it's massive it's absolutely and then covid fucked everything up we'll get you next year though we'll get you next year with that yeah yeah yeah next next june we we're doing it so So I've got some kind of like fanboy Motley questions to ask you, things I've been wondering about forever.

So on what Motley record do you feel you did your best drumming? Oh, that's hands down the Karabi record, the self-titled Motley record. Yeah. the self-titled you know motley record yeah it just way we were in such a fucking uh a creative place uh with john and we had a lot to prove because it is suicidal to change a singer you know you can replace a guitar player drummer bass player whatever sort of especially the singer with the voice as iconic as vince right it's such a specific voice totally and replacing him with a voice that's completely different completely right right it's just growly and like um so we had we had a lot to prove. So everybody was on their, like, everybody was on their musicianship, like, peaked out.

Like, dude, everything that gets recorded has to be the fucking best you got. Right? Because otherwise, this is it. And so, yeah, that'll definitely, that's the one for me personally, drumming-wise and sonically, that thing just rips. I'm glad you said that. I mean, from the first fill on Power to the Music, when you come out, me and my brother are crazy about that record.

Absolutely. We did a podcast where we did our top 10 underrated Motley songs. I think my top five were all off MC 94. Misunderstood. That's, I mean, listen, I could geek out about that record to you all day. That's so cool, man. That's so rad. Another album that I don't think got the credit it deserved at the time.

And now I was barely alive when this came out. I was not alive. I don't think so. It's weird of me to say, but generation swine was Vince's return to the band. Right. And you guys went with the more industrial, experimental sound. I think it's fair to call it the most experimental Motley record. For sure. And people probably wanted something that sounded like the Motley they knew at the time. But looking back, I feel like that record's aged really well. What do you look back on that record and think?

That record, I love. There are some songs on that record that are some of my favorite uh crew tracks um that was a really cool time um you know I it I have to say it was you know uh producer Scott Humphrey who's I've with with methods and scott's a really uh he's a he's a great producer and he and and myself i have to take responsibility for pushing we were pushing the band to really like to fucking go to another level creatively like we know we've already made shot of the devil we've made this we made that like those have already been made let's not just make another one of those fuck why um so so

we were pushing and i was i was trying to you know inject some some you know not a ton but some more electronics into the production and into the songs um and it was it it was hard for some some of the guys in the band they weren't as uh um they weren't as as uh you know inspired to do that you know they're quite happy quite happy with sort of you know the way things were and it's it you know it was it was a tough record to make but man there was some good shit on there and um and it was Vince coming back um a lot of that stuff had been written with uh with Karabi yeah and Vince came in and we I remember dude we would fucking erased karabi's tracks and put vince on so uh so a lot of that stuff that's where it was headed um and then vince came back and uh you know there you have it but

that record is cool man generation swine's got some fucking dope stuff on it also it was just it was just the next level for us yeah i'm with you and it speaks bringing it all the way back to andro to the way that you've always pushed you know look at mc94 you kind of went into that grunge sound look at generation swine went into the industrial sound when you know the pumpkins were on top of the world speaking of the pumpkins yeah you're the drummer on an album i've never heard you really talk about that collaboration what was working with uh billy corgan like dude billy's fucking awesome and i'm obviously i love the pumpkins who doesn't yeah um uh when he asked me to to play on his record i was i was tripping

because that's typically not and billy's a huge motley fan by the way yeah yeah i know yeah yeah and when he asked me to play on his record I you know immediately thought well fuck yeah I would love to but but I don't know if if I can I won't do something with somebody if they're if I can't bring something to the party like yeah if I can fucking if I can bring it and add something, you know, spectacular to this thing, then I'm down. And I was just thinking like, I could do it. But is this really, you know, there's some prog rock, like there's some crazy time signatures.

I mean, stepping into the shoes of Jimmy Chamberlain in and of itself is intimidating. Dude, yeah, he's a badass. He's definitely a badass. And, and so I took it, I took it on because to me it was a challenge, you know, and I enjoyed it. It, it was a mind fuck. And you know, it took me out of sort of my, sort of my box and put me into, you know, this crazy, which was fun, this crazy prog rock thing where sort of you could really, really play with. And Billy is funny because he is such a stickler, dude.

You won't believe this and with today's technologies with pro tools or ableton or whatever you can take a super badass drum track and maybe the end you kind of ran out of steam or whatever and just you could take that from another track and put it in no way he but he's like he's like he's such as a he's a stickler for i want i want i want that magical take i want from top to bottom like that's the one yeah and we didn't stop until that was it i mean he fucking wore my ass out um it was a lot of fun, but he wanted that Led Zeppelin shit where from top to bottom, it's one take. There's no edits, and it's got magic in it.

It's not been cut together with the best of the best. It was magical from the second it started to the second it ended. It was fun. Challenging as fuck. It's a cool record. It's a really cool record. I got one more question for you. Noel Gallagher of Oasis once said, I've pretty much summed up everything I ever wanted to say in Rock and Roll Star, Live Forever, and Cigarettes and Alcohol.

After that, I'm just repeating myself in a different way. If you had to, what songs would you use to sum up Motley Crue's career? What would you use three songs to say everything Motley Crue ever wanted to say? Wow. Wow. Wild Side, Girls, Girls, Girls, and hold on here. Fuck. Oh, boy.

Oh, my God. Three songs. Jesus Christ. There's going to be a bunch left out. I guess. Oh, my God, dude. It's a tricky one. Only three.

Yeah. Oh, Jesus. I'm going to say. Dude, you know what? Home sweet home. I was thinking that, you know, in the back of my mind i was like yeah home sweet home because that was cool for us it was a departure from your you know it was piano and just a song about being on the fucking road forever and wanting to go home and so so yeah those i'll go with those three all right there's a bunch missed out but uh yeah there's only yeah if you're only picking three i'll take them i think those are a good three to Tommy, I appreciate the time a ton. Like I said, Andrew, everyone check it out. October 16th, this record comes out.

It's unlike anything you've ever heard. And hopefully, listen, it's 2020. Everything's getting rebooted nowadays. I hope Tommy Lee goes to college, gets rebooted. We'll get a sequel. We were just talking about that the other day. You never know.