TOMMY LEE Talks About Autobiography, Playing Drums Upside-Down

In an interview with CNN's Larry King which aired live Tuesday night (Oct. 26),former MÖTLEY CRÜE drummer Tommy Lee explained his reasons for writing a tell-all autobiography, "Tommyland". "You know why I wrote the book," Lee began. "There's a few different reasons. One, I just turned 42-years-old. I figured this is somewhere around the halfway point, perfect opportunity. I had some time off this summer from touring to write a book and sort of document my life, up to here. And, two, I thought, you know, what a — another perfect opportunity, because I believe misconception is my worst enemy. What a perfect opportunity to put it all out there. Because really, I've taken the high road through a lot of moments, where I could have, you know, retaliated or just — or spoke my truth or whatever it was. And I just chose to be quiet. And this is a perfect opportunity for me to put it all out there. And hopefully, hopefully, the readers and the press people and everybody else who just only sees bits and pieces or hears, you know, what they've seen or read in the press, they can all help, as I have, in this book, turn the page and move on to the second chapter of my life. Maybe they can all do that, too, and we can move on. God, I really hope I can at some point, stop answering a lot of silly questions. Because there's a lot of silly ones, too."

Lee also spoke about CRÜE's infamous stage set which featured Lee on a drum riser that rotated upside down. Asked how the idea came about, Lee said, "You know what, I had a dream one night. And I woke up and told the guys in the band, I said, you guys, you're not going to believe this. I just had the craziest dream. I would love to have my drums elevate and go out over the crowd and spin around forwards and in reverse, right to left, and then gyroscope. And, you know, strap myself in, bottle down the drums, I go, the fans would lose their minds.

"[Playing under those conditions is] extremely difficult," he continued. "Drums weren't meant to be played upside down. But we pulled it off. To this day, it's one of those — one of those spectacles that went down in history."