Tommy Lee Biography

Rock Musician

Name at birth: Thomas Lee Bass

Tommy Lee first gained fame as the drummer for the heavy metal band Mötley Crüe, who came to national prominence after touring with KISS in 1983. Mötley Crüe was soon famous both for its maniacal concerts and its maniacal behavior offstage, with the heavily-tattooed Lee often leading the parade. Lee's musical career has sometimes been eclipsed by his very public personal life, which included tumultuous marriages to actress Heather Locklear (1986-93) and actress/pinup Pamela Anderson (1995-98). In 2005 he starred in his own "reality" series, Tommy Lee Goes to College, in which he attended classes at the University of Nebraska and played drums in the school's marching band. He published a memoir, Tommyland, in 2004. His albums with Mötley Crüe include Shout At the Devil (1983), Girls, Girls, Girls (1987), Dr. Feelgood (1989) and Red, White and Crüe (2005). The band's members published a group autobiography, The Dirt, in 2001.

Extra credit: According to Tommyland, Lee's father was American, his mother a Greek national... Lee has two children with Anderson: Brandon (b. 1996) and Dylan Jagger (b. 1997)... Before his marriage to Heather Locklear, Lee also was married briefly in 1984 to Elaine Bergen... He is no relation to actor Tommy Lee Jones.

Other heavy-duty rockers on Who2 include Tony Iommi, Metallica and Def Leppard.