Tommy Lee Plays First Full Show of Motley Crue’s Stadium Tour
Tommy Lee performed his first full show of Motley Crue's Stadium Tour Tuesday night after previously splitting duties with fill-in drummer Tommy Clufetos due to recently breaking four ribs.
The performance at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C., marked the seventh show of the Stadium Tour, which also features Def Leppard, Poison and Joan Jett, and is scheduled to run through Sept. 9 in Las Vegas. Lee soldiered through the set without any mention of his injury, the Charlotte Observer reported.
Before the Charlotte date, Lee had been playing only the first few songs of each show and returning later in the set to play piano on "Home Sweet Home." He explained during the tour kickoff in Atlanta that he had broken four ribs two weeks earlier and had been advised not to play drums at all.
"What I've got to tell you is about 14 days ago, I fuckin' broke not one, not two, not three, but four fuckin' ribs right here," Lee told the audience. "The doctors told me, 'No playing, bro. No playing.' And I was like, 'Are you fucking high, bro? We've got a fucking tour to do!' So anyway, I ain't sitting out for shit. My boy's gonna help me out here, and I'll see you guys later. On with the goddamn show."
Lee's wife, Brittany Furlan, recently detailed how the drummer sustained his injuries. "We were staying at an old rental house in Nashville. It was a cool, old quirky house," she explained. "But the stairs outside were made out of stones, and they were really uneven, and the roots were pushing them up from the tree. And everything was fine. I actually fell up the stairs a few times getting groceries, but whatever. So, the day that we were leaving Nashville, our driver came and we had all this luggage and he wasn't helping us; he just stayed in the car. And so Tommy was trying to carry all of our luggage for us. And he fell down these crazy stairs and broke — broke — four ribs. Not fractured, not bruised — broke."
Lee received an onstage assist from Clufetos, who has toured with Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper and more. The veteran drummer recently teamed up with Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx, along with Zombie and guitarist John 5, in a supergroup called L.A. Rats. They released their first single, a cover of the Geoff Mack-penned country standard "I've Been Everywhere," in May 2021.
Sixx recently praised Lee for pushing through his injuries on the tour. "The fact that Tommy was told by the doctor to not play with four broken ribs and he beasted half our show is a miracle," the bassist wrote in a since-deleted tweet. "We are a band and are proud of his strength. He is doing the whole tour and day by day adding more songs. What a fucking animal. Anybody out there ever break your ribs?"
The Stadium Tour continues Thursday in Nashville. You can see some fan-shot videos from Tuesday night's performance below.
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