MÖTLEY CRÜE’s TOMMY LEE Says He’s Been Sober For A Year: ‘I Was Drinking Two Gallons’ Of Vodka A Day
Tommy Lee, the drummer for Mötley Crüe, revealed that before he got sober nearly a year ago, he was “drinking two gallons” of vodka on a daily basis. In a 2020 interview Lee revealed that before going to rehab to receive professional help for his addiction, he would drink a whopping two gallons of vodka a day. Tommy Lee claims he was drinking two gallons of vodka per day last year.
Honda Music
But on the contrary, the drummer has told numerous outlets including Yahoo! Entertainment that in recent years he has been given a clean bill of health, and he is surprised to have made it through his decades of excess in one piece. To their credit, Motley Crüe has not shied away from the darker aspects of their time as rockstars, nor the addiction that plagued their careers. The death of Dingley is recounted in the band’s memoir, “The Dirt,” an unflinching portrait of the band’s excesses, particularly their alcohol and drug use. Tommy Lee’s excessive alcohol consumption is just one aspect of the hard-partying lifestyle that he and his fellow Motley Crüe rockers cultivated during their careers.
The best of Kerrang! delivered straight to your inbox three times a week. What are you waiting for?
He said they’d regularly take a handful of drugs — “like Valium” — and then “pound a bottle of Jack” Daniels and then go out for the evening. Like, I– https://sober-home.org/ you know, for most people, they’d probably have, you know, destroyed a bunch of stuff. This is– you’re drinking enough to, like, you could probably die.
Examining the Health Effects of Heavy Drinking
I can’t– that’s not cool to have you have you worry like that. It’s always just sort of– this particular instance, I had been home. Idle time at home, not touring, just being at home, I did what I told you.
If there are any concerns about content we have published, please reach out to us at The FHE Health team is committed to providing accurate information that adheres to the highest standards of writing. If one of our articles is marked with a ‘reviewed for accuracy and expertise’ badge, it indicates that one or more members of our team of doctors and clinicians have reviewed the article further to ensure accuracy. This is part of our ongoing commitment to ensure FHE Health is trusted as a leader in mental health and addiction care. It takes a brave person to share their struggles and admit to overcoming challenges. Tommy Lee has been in the spotlight for most of his life, and he’s always maintained a persona of being the “bad boy.” So, for him to come out and share that he is sober and was previously addicted is a powerful message for his fans.
Mötley Crüe drummer is married to fourth wife Brittany Furlan
In the lead-up to rehab, Tommy tells Yahoo! that he began drinking again after Mötley Crüe’s last tour due to a combination of burnout and having nothing else to do, having previously been four years sober before that. Lee, who said he started drinking before high school and dropped acid at 13, said celebrating his sobriety can be challenging. Tommy Lee can’t believe his doctor recently gave him a clean bill of health, given what he’s put his body through in his 61 years. Heavy drinking takes a toll on the liver, and can lead to a variety of problems. This is because the liver is where most of the alcohol you drink is processed. The NHS notes that regularly drinking more than 14 units of alcohol a week risks damaging your health.
Luckily for Lee, the band as a whole became self aware of their various bouts with excess and decided to make a move toward something healthier as the ’80s came to an end. Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee was drinking gallons of vodka every day last year — so much that his new bride was afraid she’d wake up to find him dead. Maher was in shock when he heard this, so much so the comedian had to confirm with Lee that he was referring to himself when talking about drinking two gallons of vodka a day. Tommy Lee recently spoke to Yahoo Entertainment about his new album “Andro” and how he is about to celebrate one year of sobriety. He recalled that recently being stuck inside due to the pandemic led to boredom, which led to excessive drinking. Lee mentioned that he goes through “phases” of sobriety and partying but that last year he spent over a month at rehab to help reset.
Lee said he had no lasting health effects from the drinking or the myriad other substances he’s abused over the years. BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the “Report to Facebook” and “Mark as spam” links that appear next to the comments themselves.
Get a daily look at the top news in music, movies, television and more in the entertainment industry. “It’s my life, and it’s my decision to be who I am and love who I love and to live my life how I want to live my life. It’s definitely not anything that I concern myself about.” This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. So, it can be incredibly beneficial to reach out for help.
Lee shared the vodka tidbit after Maher told him what Sammy Davis Jr. once said after becoming sober — the hardest part about quitting drinking is “getting up in the morning and knowing that’s as good as I’m going to feel all day.” In October 2023, former Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee did a podcast interview, sharing that he’d just achieved 1 year of sobriety. This is a huge accomplishment for Lee, as he’s been famously known for his openly using (and abusing) substances. Tommy Lee’s alcohol consumption was never hidden really well. But few people knew just how bad his substance abuse truly was.
However, you have the best chance for success if you seek professional help. Alcohol use disorder is an addiction and a disorder of the brain. Your body and mind work against you, as they’ve become reliant on the very substance that hurts them.
Tommy Lee’s alcohol consumption should have sent him to the hospital with a variety of health problems. He did struggle with an addiction but hasn’t shared that any other health issues arose. However, Tommy Lee’s drinking was far beyond binge drinking. Lee’s consumption would be described as “heavy drinking” and comes with a high risk of developing many health problems. Anyone could have guessed that Tommy Lee’s alcohol consumption was excessive.
- “I would just wake up and be just building, just all vodka and just a little eyedropper of cranberry or lemonade. I was drinking two gallons — not pints, not quarts, but gallons, the big-handles.”
- Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes.
- See today’s front and back pages, download the newspaper, order back issues and use the historic Daily Express newspaper archive.
- The death of Dingley is recounted in the band’s memoir, “The Dirt,” an unflinching portrait of the band’s excesses, particularly their alcohol and drug use.
“It’s easy to fall in love with, the way it makes you feel, the way it makes you relax. And then, all of a sudden, you’re, like, ‘F—‘ I’m drinking two gallons of vodka a day?’ You’re trying to kill yourself now.” That said, the 61-year-old musician, reveals that with all the excess, he still has come through it mostly healthy. Having hit the skins for legendary glam metallers Motley Crüe for the best part of four decades, Tommy Lee is one of rock’s most celebrated drummers.
Bassist Nikki Sixx, for example, has listed the reasons he loves being sober, and appears to have maintained his sobriety for many years. Speaking on “Club Random” in October 2023, Lee stated that he just completed a year of sobriety. In 1984, Motley Crüe made headlines for all the wrong reasons when a car driven by the band’s lead singer Vince Neil — who was later found to have been intoxicated — crashed into an oncoming car. https://sober-home.org/cocaine-withdrawal-symptoms-timeline-and-recovery/ The passengers of the other car sustained life-changing injuries, while the crash took the life of Hanoi Rocks drummer Nicholas “Razzle” Dingley, who was in the car with Neil. All jokes aside, Lee — who admitted to taking ecstasy and pills with swigs of Cristal or shots of Goldschläger throughout his life in the 2001 Mötley Crüe memoir, “The Dirt” — understands that his body has taken a beating from his wild and crazy past.
So it was time for me to pump the brakes and, you know, just– just get rid of it for a while. Lee, 58, did acknowledge it was miraculous to have survived his heavy drinking period without adverse health issues in his interview with Yahoo. “She was, like, ‘Baby, I don’t think I’ve ever even seen anybody drink that much,'” he recalled. After drinking a massive amount of booze when he was younger, the rocker, who is now sober, admits he was shocked when his doctors told him he didn’t have any long-term health problems. It would be reasonable to assume that Tommy Lee won’t be in the best state of health after a lifetime of hedonistic rockstar antics.
For this reason, the recommended weekly limit of 14 units is equivalent to six pints of average-strength beer or 10 small glasses of low-strength wine. He continued to say that his relapse had been prompted by him feeling “burnt out” after a tour with Mötley Crüe and was driven to drink after being at home “doing nothing but lounging in the pool and drinking”. Representatives for Tommy did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment, but the rocker tweeted a response directed at his son Wednesday evening denying Brandon’s accusation of alcoholism and intervention claims. The revered Motley Crue drummer shared this detail during a video call with Yahoo Entertainment on Friday. Tommy Lee is no stranger to partying hard, and the Motley Crue drummer revealed in a new interview that he was doing so as recently as about a year ago. Tommy Lee poured his heart out about his excessive drinking in the past.
Concern from his wife, Brittany Furlan, partly influenced that decision. “She was like, ‘I don’t think I’ve ever even seen anybody drink that much.'” Lee recalled. The star, who originally shot to fame in the late 1970s was a founding member of the heavy metal band which quickly grew a strong fanbase in 1981. As the iconic drummer, Lee used several memorable gimmicks during his drum solos at concerts, such as having his entire kit revolving and spinning, or having the entire kit float above the crowd while he continued to play.
The “lethal dose” of alcohol for a 132-pound adult is around one liter in spirits, according to Alcohol.org.nz. Two gallons is equivalent to a little more than 7.5 liters. Fox News Flash top entertainment and celebrity headlines are here. “Dude, the doctor was, like, ‘You’re good.’ And I was like, ‘Are you sure you have the …? Let me see. Is that my name on there, or … Because I find that f—ing impossible. This is impossible.” Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Tommy Lee revealed that the “Good Times” may have been hazardous to his health.
