Tommy Lee: Afterglow?

There have been some attention-grabbing news articles over the last few days about a lawsuit by Motley Crue against Tommy Lee's personal manager. Check out the news section for details, but in short, the band Motley Crue is suing Tommy Lee's personal manager because they feel the projects he has attached Tommy to have hurt the Motley Crue brand. There are many in the industry who feel this lawsuit is a joke and will never get off the ground.

So what's my two cents on the situation? I hope Motley wins. I hate to say it but I have some close acquaintances who have dealt with Mr. Stubner and no one has ever had a good thing to say about him. A friend was working for a local radio station event that featured Tommy Lee and his manager would literally push fans away from trying to come near Tommy. He also said that the second the promotion was over, Tommy and his manager were out the door and refused to give any other autographs. Another well known up and coming musician once told me that you can always tell the difference between East Coast and West Coast musicians. The two examples he used were Jon Bon Jovi and Tommy Lee. He said he was once at an event with Tommy and no matter who approached him, he refused to give any autographs. However, he mentioned that Jon Bon Jovi was there as well and must have signed at least 15 items for fans and did it with a smile on his face.

I believe that Tommy Lee is a complicated and widely misunderstood character and I do think the press has been unfair to him�at times. Even worse, people immediately dismiss his talent which is a shame because he's actually an exceptionally gifted musician and one of the preeminent drummers living today. Whether you like the music he creates or not isn't the point, what is important is that he is a man of many talents but due to the public image Carl Stubner has made for him, virtually everyone I know see's Tommy as a clown and nothing more.

When Tommy left Motley Crue in 1999, he released s successful side project; Methods of Mayhem. The album actually went gold and in some circles it was seen that Tommy made the right decision in leaving Motley behind him. The problem is that the side project's success was most likely a fluke as it was released at the peak of the metal/rap movement. Ah, the good old days when Fred Durst's band could move over 500,000 units in one week, I don't miss them. The success of Methods of Mayhem was the equivalent of bands like the BulletBoys and Candlebox having gold records during the metal and grunge movements of the late 80's and early 90's. Neither of these acts defined the genre and most likely rode the wave of success their respective genre was having.

Aside from this fluke album, Tommy has been involved with nothing but failures for the last decade. He's had two truly shining moments during this decade. The first was the release of Motley's autobiography �The Dirt' in 2001 (a book that made the publishers money). The next wave of success didn't occur until 2005 when Motley embarked on a triumphant reunion tour. It's funny to see Tommy do anything and everything he can to escape Motley Crue, but that is the only place he tends to have artistic victories.

His 2004 autobiography, �Tommyland' was mortifying. At what point did Tommy feel that having a portion of the book narrated by a body part would be a good idea? Inside sources tell me the publisher did not recoup their advance despite it briefly showing up on the New York Times bestseller list. He followed this book with the wildly disastrous �Tommy Lee Goes To College' which coincided with another fruitless solo album �Tommyland: The Ride'. The show was a bomb as was the solo album. Despite one failure after another the producers of Rock Star decided to cajole Tommy into the second season of the show with a fake band that was never meant to exist in the first place. Despite little talent involved with the contestants, Supernova went ahead and recorded a debut album that is un-listenable. That is quite a feat considering Butch Walker was producing it. It's not so much that the songs and music was dreadful, but the entire project lacked focus and most importantly passion. So why in the world Tommy keep this manager around? Your guess is as good as mine.

Tommy let me give you some advice; dump Carl. If Carl was a sales officer in Corporate America he would have been fired five years ago. He isn't helping your career in any form or fashion. Aside from bullying Motley Crue management into giving you a higher percentage of ticket sales, he has ruined your reputation as a musician. You want to distance yourself from your amateur video past and did you think having your penis as a side narrator helped? You think goofing off on a reality show will improve your image? Do you want to know why your criminally underrated album �Never A Dull Moment' from 2002 was a failure? It's because people can not get past your celebrity image. They view you as a tool. In their eyes, you will always be a celebrity first and a musician second. When I attempt to defend �Never A Dull Moment' I'm surrounded by giggles and gasps because they see you as someone who makes a fool out of himself time and time again. It's time to grow up and show the world you are truly "misunderstood". Only then will you be released from the shackles that Mr. Stubner has put on you. Maybe then people will see you as a musician and not the guy who was once married to Heather Locklear and Pamela Anderson. Until you make some serious changes, no one will ever take you seriously.

Anthony Kuzminski can be found at The Screen Door

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