35 years after the release of Mötley Crüe’s Billboard topping 1989 album “Dr. Feelgood”, a limited edition box set is being released to celebrate the anniversary. To celebrate the release, we sat down with drummer Tommy Lee to speak about the Dr. Feelgood era, where the idea of his iconic rollercoaster drum solos came from, and how he thinks everyone in Norway is “absolutely fucking beautiful”.
Text: Anne-Marie Forker
Live photo from Trondheim Rocks: Kjell Roger Solstad
Hi, Tommy!
Hi! How are you?
I’m very well. Greetings from Norway. Thank you for your time today to talk about Dr. Feelgood. Your drumming is such an important part of it. Producer Bob Rock said of your drum sound that “He hit so hard that the drum would almost compress itself”. Had you always hit hard, from the very start? How did you start playing drums?
Yeah, I actually always have and that’s also a blessing and a curse because it’s great live, but in the studio, it can be too much because the microphones are so close to the drum head. Like Bob said, it’ll cause microphones to really compress and almost have a reverse effect. Sometimes the microphone can’t handle that amount of noise to capture and can end up distorting the microphone or whatever. So, in the studio I have to just attack things a little bit differently, with a little bit more finesse, and not so much power, because too much power can sometimes be a bad thing.
Did you find that adjustment difficult in the beginning, to play more quietly with more finesse?
Yeah, it’s something you have to learn because once the drums are under a microscope, which is basically under microphones, you can really hear the difference and you can hear the quality of the sound. So, you find yourself adjusting your playing so that it sounds the best but still captures that hyper energy. That’s just a fine detail the drummer makes when he’s playing. Here’s the breaking point and here’s where it stays good.
There’s a great drum groove on ‘Kickstart My Heart’, where you play the flam on every back beat. The intro to ‘Dr Feelgood’ has the high hat shifting from being on the beat to off the beat, and ‘Rattlesnake Shake’ seems to invert the ‘Dr Feelgood’ groove by starting it on beat 3 instead of beat 1. Can you tell us a bit more about your objectives for any of those tracks?
Well, that’s pretty amazing that you recognise that stuff! That’s cool. Can you play drums?
No, I don’t play drums, but I did my research!
Oh my God, wow. That’s an interesting question. Not many people ask that, only drum magazines, but that’s cool. With Dr. Feelgood I was just basically accenting the guitar riff, trying to make that as syncopated as the guitar was, and by opening the hi-hat on the downbeat and then lifting it on the upbeat. Just basically putting the accents where they need to be. And then having the bass drum sort of popping in between just kept it really funky and chunky, you know? So, that was my main objective for that song. That’s also the funk coming out of me. I’m a big funk fan.
Oh, really?
Yeah. It’s cool to be heavy and stuff, but if it doesn’t make you groove, or if it doesn’t make you move or dance, or jump up and down, then I’m not doing my job right. I’m always searching for that definitive “oh yeah, this is the one” and as soon as your head starts popping, you’re like, “oh yeah, here we go”.
This album is absolutely full of groove, and it went platinum multiple times including here in Norway. Did you know before releasing the record that you had made something extra special?
You know, you never really know. The only thing you know at that point was that we had made a great record. The rest is up to the to the fans, to confirm that. At the time we put in the work that it takes to make a great record, not one or two good songs, the whole album’s got great songs. We definitely put in the work and had a bunch of songs that didn’t make the record because we had such a high standard. We really set out to make an amazing record. It’s always cool when you have that feeling that you’ve done it, but we had that feeling before with the John Corabi record and “Generation Swine”, which I think are fucking amazing records. But for some reason, whatever those reasons may be, they just didn’t connect. The timing is everything, too. There’s a lot of other exterior components that go along with that stuff. For Dr. Feelgood, it was just great timing, great songs and fucking good shit all around!
What happened to the songs that didn’t make it to the album?
They just end up in a pile of demos that didn’t pan out. You start focusing your energy into songs that you know are killer. A lot of times with music, sometimes it’ll come right away and those naturally come together and are really amazing, and then others you can be pulling your hair out and think “God, this isn’t working”. When it’s forced, it’s just never good.
One of the highlights of the live shows from the Dr. Feelgood era and every era of the band both musically and visually is your drum solos. Where did the idea of the rollercoaster and flying out over the audience come from?
That’s just the next step in the evolution of the drum solo. One of my first concerts I was Pat Travers and the drummer was Tommy Aldridge. I was probably 15 years old and all of a sudden the drummer Tommy starts his drum solo and I’m like, “oh my God, he’s fucking just murdering it, right?” I’m looking around and I’m seeing people go get a t-shirt or go to the bathroom. At first I didn’t understand why everybody was not paying attention and going to do other things during this part of the show. Then, at that moment, I realised that this guy is behind a wall of drums and symbols and you really can’t see him, the only things you see are some sticks every once in a while and his curly hair. You couldn’t see what he was actually doing with both of his feet, both of his hands. I thought “Okay, I have to change this. I’m gonna figure out a way where people can see what you’re doing.” If you’re a guitar player, and they do a solo, you can see their fingers, you can see everything they’re doing. Drummers are behind this wall of stuff, and you can’t really see what he’s doing, so that’s when I decided to tilt my drums forward, so that people would have a bird’s eye view looking down and then flying over the audience, so they can be underneath you seeing everything and out over the audience. That was the beginning of taking the drum soul into a new place, to entertain people, instead of just sitting there behind a wall of drums and no one knows what the fuck you’re doing back there.
One of the key elements, as you know, of live performance is how the band connects with the audience and that would just enhance that. Speaking of live performance, you came to Norway on the Dr. Feelgood tour in October 1989. I know tours can become a blur in time, but do you have any memories of Norway?
I can definitely remember Norway. I have fond memories. I remember being in Norway, Finland, Sweden for the first time thinking “Wow, this is insane!” It’s such a beautiful area and I noticed something special, the people, you know, I always say the people make the place, the place doesn’t make the people, and everybody was just extra friendly and not only friendly absolutely fucking beautiful! Like, if you’re ugly, they must deport you to like Russia or some other fucking place because oh, the girls are beautiful, the women are beautiful, even the men are handsome. It’s just a a special part of the world over there. I don’t know what they put in the water but everybody’s fucking gorgeous.
There’s a famous Norwegian band, a-ha, and their frontman Morten Harket said that the Vikings took all the beautiful women from England and took them all to Norway, and that’s why they are so good looking.
Oh my gosh. Good times have been had there many times!
You have a new EP coming out this week. What’s it like been having John 5 in the band now?
Oh my God, I’m going to sum it up in just a couple words – a breath of fresh air. New blood, it’s a new energy he’s brought to the band that’s been missing for a while, unfortunately, due to health. We feed off that energy, so essentially he has brought everybody up to a new level of excitement and some of those things that fade a bit. I can’t say enough great things about John and his playing, his attitude and his energy. He’s added nine more lives to us.
Will we see you in Europe, perhaps next year or after that?
I hope so. I would imagine sometime maybe late 25 or 26.
Oh, that would be great. We look forward to it. Thanks again for your time today, Tommy.
Thank you for your time. Have a great rest of the day, or I don’t know, is it night time there for you?
Yeah, seven o’clock, so early evening.
Oh okay. Well then have a beautiful rest of your evening then!
(Interview originally published in Norway Rock Magazine 2024 #4)
