This article appeared in Issue 14, published in 2007.
As a member of Mötley Crüe, Tommy Lee earned fame, fortune and a notorious reputation. While juggling drumming duties for the Crüe and Supernova, he’s embraced his passion for electronic music and has embarked on a nonstop tour as Electro Mayhem with partner DJ Aero. Will the club world accept them when the novelty wears off?
Words: Darren Ressler
Images: Alex Cao
Since rocketing out of L.A.’s hedonistic metal scene in 1981 as the drummer for Mötley Crüe, Tommy Lee has sold millions of records, played thousands of sold-out stadium shows and has been involved in more exploits and controversies (arrests, brawls, lawsuits, sex tapes) than Evel Knievel and Eminem combined. Though he’s promised to behave like a good boy on countless occasions, Lee just can’t stop living on the edge. Perhaps that’s why he’s been a favorite subject for the tabloids. (Plus, it’s hard to keep a low profile when you duke it out with your ex-wife’s other ex on a televised awards show.)
Beyond the controlled chaos that’s been a recurring theme of Tommy Lee’s public life, the tattooed rocker has held a secret close to his chest for the past two decades—he loves dance music. And he’s finally ready to spread the word, emerging as one half of the DJ duo Electro Mayhem.
Sitting on a couch at Big Shot’s cover shoot at a studio on the Lower East Side, Lee doesn’t seem like the wild man he’s reputed to be. He’s tall, lanky and, despite his years of hard living, looks great for a guy in his mid-40s. When he sees the interview is going to be about his music rather than his exploits, he relaxes and seems eager to talk about the moment he was stung by the dance music bug, courtesy of Josh Wink’s landmark single, “Higher State of Consciousness.”
“I heard that track right when it came out, and I’m not even sure if it was out in America,” Lee remembers. He hops up and folds his long legs into Indian-style position and he puts away his cell phone. “I was at Ministry of Sound in London with my wife, Pamela, at the time, and right at midnight that track came on. I was like, ‘What the fuck is this?’” Lee’s eyes look like they’re going to pop out of their sockets, and he starts flailing his arms in the air to imitate a faux orgasm.
DJ Aero and Tommy Lee (a.k.a. Electro Mayhem). Image for Big Shot by Alex Cao.
“I don’t do this very often,” he slowly confides as he leans forward, “but I got up and ran to the DJ booth and was like, ‘Dude, what is this song?!’ And the DJ said, ‘Josh Wink’s “Higher State of Consciousness.”’ I wrote that shit down, and I looked for a long time to find it. Once I got it, I incorporated it into my drum solo. I thought that song was one of the coolest electronic tracks I had ever heard. It was so amazing that it hurt.”
Although Mötley Crüe’s sound is nothing but high-octane rock (and a few winsome ballads for the ladies), Tommy Lee says he’s always listened to a variety of styles. As a kid, he liked disco and any music with a strong beat.
“I’ve been a fan of all kinds of music — industrial, techno, hip-hop, rock —and whenever I’d build a drum solo for the tour, I’d always throw in some loops, sampled sounds and a bunch of crazy shit,” he says. This may come to the chagrin of some fans — especially the ones who scrawled “Disco sucks” on their lockers in high school — but Lee laughs that many who turn up to Mötley Crüe shows still wear denim and leather. Not surprisingly, he laments that they haven’t maintained an open musical mind.
Do Lee’s band mates support his DJ career? Kinda, but not really. “Nikki [Sixx] has come to see us after some Mötley shows. Mick [Mars] definitely wouldn’t come. Vince [Neil] almost came one night, but didn’t. Besides, he’d just show up for the chicks.”
“I think I was inspired not to do the typical drum solo because that’s when everyone gets up to buy a beer or a T-shirt. They think they’ve heard it all before,” Lee maintains. “In fear of that, I did something totally visual, whether it’s spin around upside down, fly over the audience, make the drums levitate or disappear or blow up. Whatever the case, I wanted to complement the visuals with the sound. For me, I’d always go toward electronic music, because that’s something all of these heavy metal kids probably didn’t know about. It switched it up from hearing rock music, and I just wanted to take people into a whole different place for ten minutes.”
Tommy Lee left Mötley Crüe for the first time in 1999 (at press time, it was unclear if he had quit again) and formed a rap-metal band, Methods of Mayhem, with rapper. (Lee reportedly wrote many of the songs while in jail for domestic assault.) Aside from Limp Bizkit and Rage Against the Machine, few bands during that period were able to successfully merge the two styles into a cohesive sound; however, MOM managed to pump out a gold-selling debut that featured Fred Durst, The Crystal Method, Snoop Dogg, Lil’ Kim, George Clinton, and Mix Master Mike. (Even Kid Rock made a cameo!)
When it came time for Methods of Mayhem to tour in support of their debut, Mix Master Mike had already committed to a Beastie Boys’ world tour. Lee needed a DJ, so he put the word out and hoped for the best. While he was in Australia, a friend e-mailed Lee a Quicktime video of an unknown Californian named DJ Aero. Lee was impressed by his scratching skills, and when he got back to L.A., he brought Aero in for an audition. Aero soon found himself on the road with Methods.
Aero’s life at the time was the polar opposite to Lee’s rock-star lifestyle. Hailing from Victorville, about 80 miles north of L.A., he came of age in the ‘90s, when the city’s underground rave scene was thriving. A devotee of DJs like Doc Martin and Barry Weaver, he always liked hip-hop and graffiti and was influenced by everything from DJ Jazzy Jeff to Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit.” Before the MOM tour, Aero was working as a corporate trainer for a buffet company and moonlighting as a DJ at local parties.
“My first show with MOM was in Vancouver, and I’ll never forget the after party,” Aero says. “Working with someone like Tommy, who knows the drill, is cool. That experience taught me how to get through it on the road. There are people who can tour and people who can’t, and you can tell. The guys on their cell phone talking to their wife or girlfriends before the gig can’t tour.”
Their first official gig as a duo took place three years ago at Ultra during Winter Music Conference in Miami. Lee and Aero (who had played in front of a gigantic audience at Glastonbury as MOM) took the stage during the afternoon, hours before local favorites like Rabbit in the Moon. As their road crew set up a drum kit and DJ gear, the crowd seemed puzzled and unsure of what to expect.
“Halfway through the set, when Tommy went out with the big bass drum and let people start hitting it, people went crazy,” explains Aero. “I guess we got the bug and everything started rolling from there.”
Seven years after meeting, Lee and Aero have been gigging as Electro Mayhem nearly ever month all over the world. They’ve played Dubai, San Juan, Zürich and all over North America, and their exploits — some good, some bad — can be seen two or three minutes at a time on YouTube. Highlights include a shirtless Lee freaking out on stage as well as a number of clips where the two are straight up rocking the crowd.
Noting that too many people at the start of their gigs focus on them rather than dancing, Aero says, “It’s a blessing and a curse.” He jokes about the cell-tographers and wishes he had a jamming device to make the audience concentrate on the music. “Sometimes it’s really cool to do these shows because people are focused on what we’re doing with us and the visuals. As a DJ, I don’t get it. If I were at a club, I wouldn’t want to watch the DJ; I’d want to dance, drink and talk to girls.”
“I don’t pay much attention anyway because I go into the zone,” Lee adds. “Maybe I’ll look up every once in a while, and I’ll see lots of phones. I’d rather see people dancing because that’s when the party is going off.”
Do Lee’s band mates support his DJ career? Kinda, but not really. “Nikki [Sixx] has come to see us after some Mötley shows. Mick [Mars] definitely wouldn’t come. Vince [Neil] almost came one night, but didn’t. Besides, he’d just show up for the chicks.”
He spent four days in Ibiza recently and made fast friends with Erick Morillo, who poured vodka down Aero’s throat at 8 am. Lee was blown away by the throngs of beautiful people and nonstop parties on the island, but says he had to keep his visit brief for his own safety. “They never stop the party!” he laughs. “After four days I had to get out of there. A guy like me could die! How does Erick Morillo live there?”
Given his success and vast personal fortune, why is Tommy Lee working so hard at his third career? (Aside from the Crüe, he’s starred on a couple of reality shows.) “A lot of people ask me what it is about this that attracts me,” says Lee. “Obviously, I don’t need the money. I’m doing this purely for the pleasure, and I’m enjoying this 150 percent.”
During their travels, Electro Mayhem have made lots of new friends in dance music. Lee says he’s talked with Josh Wink several times, and Adam Freeland — whom he hopes to record with soon — is a regular at his home.
He spent four days in Ibiza recently and made fast friends with Erick Morillo, who poured vodka down Aero’s throat at 8 am. Lee was blown away by the throngs of beautiful people and nonstop parties on the island, but says he had to keep his visit brief for his own safety. “They never stop the party!” he laughs. “After four days I had to get out of there. A guy like me could die! How does Erick Morillo live there?”
Where they once played out once a month, Lee and Aero are now being more selective about their gigs, so they can concentrate on producing original tracks. Lee has a small studio on his tour bus and is building another one in his home. The night before this interview, they were working on music into the wee hours of the morning with DJ Skribble, and they’re hopeful to get some tracks out in 2008.
“It’s time to do some crazy collaborations with some of the people we’ve met on our journeys,” says Aero. “Now it’s time to do the more choice parties and be more selective. If you don’t have your own music, you’re not really a DJ.”
“We’re playing everybody else’s shit, and that’s cool, but it’s cool to have your own music and to have them playing our stuff,” Lee adds. “At one point, I was doing a Mötley or Supernova show in the area, [and then I’d] blast over to the club and do the same thing ‘til late in the morning. We’ve been going at it super hard, and now,” says the rock God, “and now it’s time to chill a little.”