Tommy Lee
Tommy Lee | |
|---|---|
 Lee in March 2012 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Thomas Lee Bass |
| Born | October 3, 1962 Athens, Greece |
| Artists | The Smashing Pumpkins |
| Role | Drums |
| Other associated acts | Mötley Crüe, Fuel, Rob Zombie |
| Website | tommylee |
| Wikipedia | Tommy Lee |
Thomas Lee Bass (born October 3, 1962)[1] is a musician most famous as the founding member and drummer of Mötley Crüe. In 2014, he was a guest drummer for The Smashing Pumpkins for their Monuments to an Elegy album.[2] The idea to enlist Lee came from Jeff Schroeder. During the May 2014 studio sessions, Corgan told Schroeder "we really need to get someone like Tommy to play on this song" (which song is unclear), and Schroeder simply replied “well, why don’t we reach out to him?”[3]
| “ | I've known Tommy since 1992. Didn't know him real well, but enough to call him up. He was like, 'The Pumpkins drumming style is a lot busier than I play.' But he heard it in demo form and said, 'I wanna play on all of them.' You can hear on tracks like 'Run2Me', where he did a lot of drum programming – he took real investment in the material. | ” |
| — Billy Corgan, Q&A, Uncut, January 2015 | ||
| “ | Doing Billy's record, for me, was such a cool experience, because stylistically – fuck man – I put on a couple different hats. All of a sudden I'm playing this crazy, prog rock that I don't typically play much of. It was such a challenge for me to come up with some really cool parts and make it "Smashing Pumpkins," but also leave my imprint. I love being challenged, so I want to thank Billy for that. He's a real stickler for not editing, so we would go for the ultimate performance, from top to bottom. There was nothing better than when I was cutting drums. I could see Billy through the glass; I'd watch him jumping up and down, dancing around like a little fucking kid when I'd nail a track. He'd say, "That is fucking amazing!" It doesn't get any better than that. | ” |
| — Tommy Lee, 2016 Tape Op interview | ||
Relevant discography[edit | edit source]
- Monuments to an Elegy – The Smashing Pumpkins (drums on all tracks) (2014)[4]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Prato, Greg. "Tommy Lee Biography". Retrieved January 28, 2014.
- ↑ Grow, Kory. "Motley Crue's Tommy Lee to Drum on Smashing Pumpkins Record". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
- ↑ Billy Corgan, "Mirrors Within Mirrors, While Tom-Tomming With Hammers", Smashing Pumpkins Nexus, May 8, 2019
- ↑ Pattison, Louis: "Q&A", Uncut, January 2015, p67