Why Tommy Lee is Insane

Last week, I read the autobiography of Motley Crue's drummer, Tommyland by Tommy Lee.


I went into it thinking, "Oh this will be COMPLETELY entertaining" in not a nice way. What I didn't expect was that I would be completely enrapt in Tommy's narrative style and the stories he shares.

Tommyland isn't the normal rock star memoir. He's not sharing a particular time of his life, like Nikki Sixx did with The Heroin Diaries. Tommy Lee shares what he thinks is important. And what comes out this way is that the Motley Crue drummer might be insane.

"Why?" you ask. Sit down and I'll tell you.

We start off with a prologue in script form where Tommy and his penis talk. The penis, by the way has it's own input throughout Tommy narrative. You learn this from the different typeface and the splash stain graphic.

A chapter dedicated to Jagermeister.
"What I don't know is why my better ideas haven't been put into action yet. Jager goes with everything, please believe... You can make Jager desserts: Jager root beer floats, Jager chocolate sauce, Jager ice cream sundaes. And I've got plans for the hot dog stands. Dodger Stadium needs to know that every dude in that whole place would kill to buy a Jager dog. They could make the Jager into some funky jelly paste and shoot it into the middle of the dog back in the factory."*

Nowhere in history does this sound appealing. Even if i was an alcoholic, I don't think a Jager dog would be tasty.

A chapter dedicated to his sexual preferences. This happens to be the second chapter of the book and he goes into some detail that I could've gone without.

Nothing in the book is told in chronological order, which when his editor pointed it out and said it was jarring, he said "Listen Algernon, I've been way out of place and in the business of jarring people since I was seventeen."**

All in all, the book was entertaining, as I hoped. You get an insight to Tommy Lee you normally wouldn't  expect. This isn't one of those "I was born. I did this. And then that" memoirs and he states that right from jump. It was worth the time it took for me to read it. Granted, there are things I could do without knowing, but it wouldn't be Tommy Lee otherwise.

Even though the man may mentally resemble The White One in human form, he had one major truth that resonated with me. "When something is so much a part of me and important to me, it's hard to capture the feelings in words."***  He was talking about music, and I can relate that exact sentiment to writing.

And because of him, I now have a new favorite word: automagically.




* Page 244, Tommyland
** Page 13, Tommyland
*** Page 249, Tommyland
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Last.fm hit of the day: Clay Bodies by Zola Jesus