Tommy Lee's Shady Side

Tommy Lee prided himself for years on being a rock n' roll bad boy. In his two memoirs, Tommyland and The Dirt (about his life in Mötley Crüe), the drummer detailed the insane antics with groupies (seriously, hide your phone after this), his battles with substance abuse, and his whirlwind relationships and marriages with the likes of Heather Locklear and Pamela Anderson. He felt a degree of self-satisfaction with his lifestyle. After all, he survived, right?

He told Rolling Stone, "I think I'm smarter, more mature, more experienced. I mean, I'm still a f**king maniac when I want to be — I can flip that switch on, and I can also flip the switch over to Tommy the Dad, Responsible Guy."

Fair enough. But Lee did a lot of shady things before and after hitting the big time as both a rock star and as possibly the world's first celebrity sex tape star. Let's take a look (at everything but that tape.)

In March 2018, Lee got into a brutal fight with his and Pamela Anderson's 21-year-old son, Brandon, according to The Blast. Lee was reportedly rendered unconscious and was bleeding from the mouth after the fight.

TMZ obtained audio of the 911 call about the incident. Lee's fiancée, Brittany Furlan, tells the dispatcher, "My stepson and my fiancé got into a fight. [Brandon] pushed his father, [Lee] asked his son to leave, he wouldn't leave, and [Brandon] punched him ... my stepson has guns in his room and that's why I'm freaked out. I locked the door."

Furlan then said that Lee regained consciousness and requested paramedics not come to the home, but emergency responders still transported him to the hospital around 11:35 p.m.

Lee posted a photo of his injured mouth, writing, "My heart is broken. You can give your kids everything they could ever want in their entire lives and they can still turn against you."

Lee and Furlan insisted the fight was over a tweet Lee posted about Anderson's recent interview on Piers Morgan's Life Stories, in which she discussed Lee's past spousal abuse against her (among a lot of other things). Furlan told 911 dispatchers that the argument started over "[Brandon's] mom ... he was mad because [Lee] posted some ugly photos of her."

"Think she'd find something new to discuss instead of rehashing old s**t but I guess she has nothing else going on & needs attention," Lee tweeted. "Signed, 'The abuser' (who she texts everyday & asks for me back)." 

When Morgan replied to Lee's tweet, asking what he should interview Anderson about instead, Lee tweeted (via The Blast), "I suggest you don't interview her. Are you that desperate for people to interview? She literally has NOTHING going on so she brings up old drama for attention. I'm sure there's some people better worth your time. Lovely to hear from you too ha."

Lee also posted a social media video of Brandon's bedroom, reported The Blast, though it's unclear if that's where the altercation took place. In the video, which shows clothes strewn all over the room, a marble-mouthed Lee gripes, "For all your girls potentially trying to date my son, here's what you get to f**king deal with. Way to go, B! Place is tight."

Brandon released a statement to People the day after the fight, alleging that Lee's alcohol abuse was the root cause of their altercation.

"I'm devastated at the events of the last several days that have been a result of my father's alcoholism," the statement read. "I've worked tirelessly organizing an intervention and it's incredibly upsetting that it never came to fruition. I wanted my dad's hopeful sobriety and recovery to be a private family matter but, as a result of his accusations on social media, I feel forced to speak out. I have and will continue to cooperate with law enforcement as needed. I love my father and just want to see him sober, happy and healthy."

Sources told TMZ that Brandon alleged Lee was drunk and lunged at him and that Brandon swung at Lee in self-defense. 

In a social media post, however, Lee wrote, "My fiancée and I were in bed when my son busted into the room and assaulted me. I asked him to leave the house and he knocked me unconscious. He ran away from the police. THAT'S the truth." 

Lee also tweeted a response to Brandon's statement, writing, "I'm happier than I've been in my entire life. I have a few drinks here & there because I'm f**in' retired and enjoying my life. I worked 30+ f**in' years I deserve it. You didn't arrange any intervention, you barely spoke to me while u were here. Just coverin' ur a**!"

Sources told TMZ that Lee was willing to withdraw the police report he filed against Brandon with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and not press charges against him if (and only if) Brandon apologized to him. Brandon refused. After Brandon released a statement blaming Lee's alleged boozing for the brawl, Lee reportedly "went nuclear," and now plans to not only press charges, but also to get a restraining order against his child.

It's unclear if Lee will be investigated for Brandon's claims that Lee lunged at him first. Meanwhile, law enforcement sources told The Blast that Brandon plans on fully cooperating with a police investigation and has hired an attorney. People reported that Brandon is considered a "person of interest," not necessarily a suspect, in the battery investigation.

Lee married Baywatch star Pamela Anderson in 1995, five days after their first date — a date that Lee told Rolling Stone only happened because he stalked her into submission.

Lee claims he dropped to No. 2 in Anderson's world when Brandon was born in 1996, prompting Anderson to file for divorce, but they reconciled when son Dylan was born in 1997. However, Dylan's birth supposedly relegated Lee to No. 3 status. "Now I was full-on nonexistent ... Unable to step back and see the situation from any reasonable perspective, I turned into a whiny, needy little brat," Lee told Rolling Stone. "Maybe it was my way of becoming Pamela's third child, so I'd get the attention I needed, too." 

According to Lee's account in Rolling Stone, the couple began arguing more than ever, and their hostility escalated. On Feb. 24, 1998, an argument grew particularly heated, Anderson tried to call her parents, Lee hung up the phone, a shouting match ensued, the kids began to cry, and as Anderson ran to the boys, Lee said he kicked her to help her on her way. Lee claims he tried wrestling their son Brandon from her arms because he wanted to take him outside and give everyone a chance to calm down, but while trying to forcefully take the little boy from her, she stumbled and broke a nail.

Lee and Brandon went outside, but when Lee came back inside, police were waiting. He was arrested and charged with felony spousal abuse.

In May 1998, Lee was sentenced to six months in prison and mandatory counseling and community service after pleading no contest to corporal injury to a spouse, according to the Los Angeles Times. The rocker was warned that violating probation would result in three years behind bars. This was reportedly because Lee had a prior record of violent incidents dating back roughly 15 years. He was also prohibited from contacting Anderson.

Despite his history, Lee considers himself a victim of Anderson's temperament. "I couldn't understand why Pamela had followed through with pressing charges. She was probably scared and thought I was some crazy, violent monster; she probably thought she was doing the right thing for the kids; and she probably wanted an easy way out of a difficult situation," he told Rolling Stone. "As much as I loved Pamela, she had a problem dealing with things. If something wasn't right in her life, she'd rather get rid of it than take the time to work on it or fix it. She fired managers like I changed socks; personal assistants and nannies would blow through our house like pages of a calendar. So the way I understood it, what Pamela did to me was, basically, fire me. I was f**king fired."

In January 1999 and May 2000, Lee went was accused of drinking, which violated his probation and landed him in more legal hot water.

While Lee was in prison, Anderson took up with her ex-boyfriend, surfer Kelly Slater, which reportedly left Lee devastated. However, he and Anderson did reunite upon his release, though the timing and the level of commitment between the two parties apparently varied greatly. The couple even discussed remarrying in 1999, though it never happened.

"We're crazy in love," Lee told People in 2005. "We're going to take things slowly and see where they go ... The boys miss Pam and me together. When we're together, they're so happy. At the end of the day, that's truly what my heart wants. I want us all to be together."

That sounds wonderful, but Anderson, at the time, denied they were back together at all.

Anderson moved on from Lee to Kid Rock in July 2006 — complete with four weddings to mark the occasion. That relationship didn't last, but it didn't stop Lee from beefing with the Detroit native even after Anderson had moved on from both of them.

At the MTV Video Music Awards in 2007, witnesses told MTV News that Lee talked smack to Kid Rock, who in turn slapped him in the face. When Lee tried to fight back, Kid Rock allegedly sucker-punched him in the face. Both men were escorted out of the venue.

Kid Rock later told The Kevin & Bean Show (via People), "Last contact I had with [Lee before the VMAs] was when me and Pam were going through our divorce. He picked up her Blackberry and started emailing me a lot of horrendous things. It was extremely disrespectful. I calmly told him, 'Listen, I will see you again.' And that was the end of it ... This was unavoidable. I had to do what I had to do because this was a long time coming. You know, I came back from the bathroom and he was sitting right there. It was even more disrespectful after everything he's said. I was like, 'That's enough, that's it."

Anderson married famous poker player Rick Salomon in 2007, then reunited with Lee in 2008, after she annulled her marriage to Salomon. If you can believe it, it didn't work out that time either.

While Anderson was married to Kid Rock, she filed for full custody of Brandon and Dylan. "In the past few months Tommy has embarked on a campaign of threats, harassment and a general lack of cooperation," she claimed in court documents obtained by the Daily Mail.

"I suspect Tommy's jealousy over my new relationship has sparked his recent anger, harassment and breakdown of communication and co-parenting," she said. "...On one occasion the boys said their father had told them that he used to be friends with [Kid Rock] but now hates him because 'he stole mommy away from us.' I cannot imagine any reason for telling such a thing to the children other than to turn them against [Kid Rock] and me and to torture them emotionally ... Tommy freely uses disrespectful and obscene language and does so in front of our children. The children come home after their visits and use inappropriate language and swear words."

"Often when they come home they suffer from nightmares for days," the filing alleged. "They typically scream, cry and cling to me when they know they have to go to Tommy's house and tell me they do not want to go. Brandon has told me that Tommy hurts him and pinches him and Dylan. Dylan has told me that he hates me for making him go to his father's."

To Lee's credit, in 2015, Anderson gushed to People that she and Lee were best friends and great co-parents.

TMZ reported that Lee lashed out at Nicolas Cage's son, Weston, at a Mötley Crüe concert at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Los Vegas in September 2013. Witnesses claim Nicolas and Weston were hanging out backstage with Mötley Crüe frontman Vince Neil when Lee tried to enter his dressing room. Weston accidentally blocked Lee's entry, prompting Lee to allegedly flip out, shoving Weston and yelling at the celebuspawn to "get the f**k out of [his] way."

Weston allegedly flipped out right back at Lee, leading to an "ear-piercing" screaming match between the men. Witnesses told the site that it almost got violent when Weston challenged Lee to a fight, but thankfully, Crue's security intervened just in time.

For his part, Weston seems to have moved on from the incident, later telling Journey of a Frontman with a chuckle that the last concert he attended with his actor father was "a Mötley Crüe concert where Tommy Lee almost started a fight with me."

In August 2012, an engineer named Howard Scott King sued Lee for $400,000 over Lee's infamous roller coaster drum stunt. King alleged that he pitched the idea to Lee and Mötley Crüe in 1991, reported TMZ. King claimed he never heard back from the band, but Lee began doing a loop-coaster drum stunt on Mötley Crüe's 2011 tour.

Lee's legal team argued that King never pitched the idea to the band, and that the idea he claimed Lee stole was significantly different than Lee's drum loop-coaster stunt because the roller coaster King proposed tracked all over the stage. A judge ruled in Lee's favor in January 2014, arguing that King didn't have exclusive rights to the concept of the roller coaster drum solo, especially since Lee's stunt was a loop and not the track that King suggested in his original idea. The judge also noted that since King didn't assemble Lee's roller coaster drum set, Lee could enjoys its spoils all by himself.

And that's all we have to say about rock stars and roller coasters.

Despite his bad boy rep in his heyday, Lee insisted to Rolling Stone in 2004, "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." Except, well, for when he wasn't.

Lee married Melrose Place star Heather Locklear after a whirlwind courtship in 1986. People magazine described the lead-up to the wedding (via Ultimate Classic Rock) as "a lingerie-and-sex-toy shower for Locklear and a bachelor party with 15 bikinied mud wrestlers for Lee." Lee described their union in the most superficial and shortsighted of terms, telling the mag, "I think we'll be the coolest grandma and grandpa in the world. We'll be like 85 or 90. I'll still be a rock pig, and Heather will still be gorgeous."

Not so surprisingly, the couple divorced in 1994, which Entertainment Weekly attributed to Lee's "ill-concealed on-the-road philandering" while the band was on tour. Lee admitted to Blender magazine (via Blabbermouth) that he slept with adult video stars while he was married to Locklear. As he so eloquently put it, "Yeah, f***ing with porno stars ruined my marriage. That was in '93, right before I got divorced from Heather."

In their book The Dirt, Mötley Crüe members recalled their most debauched moments. Many of those wild moments were drug and alcohol-fueled, and one vignette, in particular, was extremely disturbing. 

Lee's Mötley Crüe bandmate, Nikki Sixx, claimed in the book (via Tucker Max ): "For ten years solid, we had been invincible. No one could touch us. Tommy and I had raped a drunk girl in the closet, and she had forgotten about it." This excerpt is Sixx's own retelling of the events, making it really, really terrifying.

Let's be clear: if someone is under the influence of drugs or alcohol, that person cannot legally give consent to sexual activity, and a person who commits a crime under the influence of drugs or alcohol is not freed from guilt because of their impairment.

If you or someone you know has been the victim of sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or visit RAINN.org for additional resources.

Elsewhere in The Dirt (via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), Lee and his bandmates' bad behavior proved scary and sometimes outright deadly. For example, in the tome, Lee confesses to sleeping with a woman just to drive her Jaguar — and that's the lighter fare. 

Lee also admits to urinating and vomiting on bedroom floors often, to setting a tree on fire with Sixx and Mötley Crüe frontman Vince Neil just for fun, and to getting drunk and high and urinating inside a police patrol car through its window. Lee and Sixx would apparently shatter bottles over one another's heads and swallow whole light bulbs for fun. On a train trip to Tokyo while touring in Japan, Lee and Sixx ran up and down the train aisles pouring sake on passengers and throwing bottles of booze around — at least one bottle struck a passenger.

In fact, the band's behavior was so wild that when they were slated to open for Kiss — who themselves are known for rock n' roll excess — Gene Simmons reportedly kicked them off the tour for being too over the top.