In an interview with Louder Sound, Mötley Crüe legendary drummer Tommy Lee recalled a terrible experience he had with an obsessive fan.
Tommy Lee said:
“Two years ago in New York City, I was walking my dog at about 9 AM, and all of a sudden I see this dude running down the street with a life-sized cardboard cut-out of me.
“I’m, like, ‘Are you fucking kidding me, dude?’ There’s traffic, the street’s loaded with people, this guy comes up and I’m, like, ‘Dude, not now!’ and he got really mad…”
“But all these people are looking at me and this guy with a giant cut-out of me. It was just embarrassing, really!”
What’s been your worst ever onstage disaster?
“It was one of those Spinal Tap moments! In Paris on the ‘Girls Girls Girls’ tour, the drums were in this rotating cage. We had enough sound and light cables to rotate it six times.
“But this one time it kept going and sheared all the cables, so now I’m dangling upside down, my mic doesn’t work so I can’t explain or even tell jokes, and the guys come up on a ladder to unbolt me, 15 minutes later… Oh, man!”
What’s the most dangerous situation you’ve ever been in?
“This is something you don’t want to hear when you’re skydiving. I’m doing a tandem dive, I’m strapped to an instructor, he’s on my back with the parachute, and I hear, ‘Oh fuck!’
“I look up and the chute is tangled, he’s yanking and struggling with the ropes, and I think, ‘This is it, I’m fucked, it’s over.’ But I had this spiritual experience where I thought, ‘There’s nothing I can do, I’m just gonna enjoy this freefall until I hit the ground.’ And once I let go, the thing went up. Not cool.”