Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee has revealed in a new interview that he isn’t overly fond of the band’s third album, Theatre Of Pain.
Speaking with Stereogum, Lee explained that “there’s parts I love, and parts that I don’t” when it comes to the 1985 album.
“I can’t say it’s my least favourite, because there’s some great stuff on it,” Lee added. “But as a band, we were still trying to figure out what it is that we all collectively did. I was just coming into the picture with songwriting, and we were in this headspace where we loved David Bowie.”
He continued: “Every time you saw him, he had changed into something different. We liked that, so that’s why around Theatre Of Pain we really glammed it out — super-bright colours, more makeup. Then we went for a different look on the next record. We were always evolving, but Theatre Of Pain was early on enough that we were still figuring out what Mötley Crüe was.”
Fellow Mötley Crüe member Vince Neil echoed his sentiment, saying in Mötley Crüe autobiography The Dirt that he had been baffled over the success of Theatre Of Pain’s success.
“Every night, though I loved singing [‘Smokin’ In The Boys Room’], Nikki would complain that the song was stupid and he didn’t want to play it,” Neil said. “I felt like the only one sober enough to realise how bad some of those [Theatre Of Pain] songs were. I was shocked the record went double platinum.”
Nikki Sixx also had reservations about Theatre Of Pain, calling it “a pile of rubbish, the whole fucking record, with a few moments of maybe brilliance” in 2014’s The Big Book Of Hair Metal.
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Lee’s new solo album, Andro is out on October 16th. The first two singles from the collection, ‘Knock Me Down’ and ‘Tops’, were released in early June.
Check out ‘Tops’ by Tommy Lee ft. Push Push:
