Talk about the rock and roll lifestyle… it’s a wonder any of them lived to tell these tales, but thank goodness they did.
It honestly sounds like it could be a country song too, and it’s no secret that Tommy Lee, who is the co-founder and drummer of the iconic 1980s rock band Mötley Crüe. He first started the band with bassist Nikki Sixx, and as you can imagine, these two got in a heck of a lot of trouble back in the day, and during a recent stop at the Zach Sang Show podcast, he revealed an absolutely wild story about their partying years.
It really sounds like it could be something Johnny Cash or Waylon Jennings back in the day, and like I said, it would make for a heck of a country song, but Lee explained that he has no idea why he and Nikki would shoot Jack Daniels straight into their veins, but they did, and it was a moment where he realized he needed to get sober:
“Yeah. Just for a very short time. That’s actually when, that’s right before I got sober. Yeah, that’s when it’s too much. We were shooting drugs, heroin and cocaine, just doing it, and we ran out. This is my bass player at the time, Nikki, we ran out of drugs, and it’s, I don’t know, probably 2 or 3 in the morning.
And we’re like ‘F***.’ And we’re in a hotel room, in Houston, Texas or something, and there’s no way we’re gonna get anything. So we just unscrewed the cap on this fifth of Jack, and then filled up the cap with Jack and then started pulling it up through a syringe and we’re shooting Jack.”
Just WILD…
Obviously, they were under the influence of multiple different substances at the time, so it didn’t dawn on them how crazy they were being and how dangerous it was:
“And I was like, it didn’t really dawn on me what we were doing. The stupidity of it was like, we could’ve just drank this, but no, we had to shoot it. Why? It’s like, you guys are f****** out of your minds. This is ridiculous. Just to get high, when you could just drink it out of the bottle, or pour it in the glass and do a shot, whatever.
But we had to shoot it, because that’s where we were. That’s where we were at, is like, dudes partying.”
He says stories like that are why they got the nickname “toxic twins,” admitting how dumb it was. Though it ultimately became the wake up call he needed:
“Oh, for sure. Absolutely. Appropriately named toxic twins. We did some some dumb s***. But it’s not until you get to that level where you realize, you’re like, this is not working, dude. Someone’s gonna die. Someone’s gonna die, and then then it’s gonna be really f***ing bad, so why don’t we just pump the brakes here, and go do a little time of rehab and just put this away for a minute.”
Lee got sober in late 2022, and he previously attributed his breakthrough to going to rehab in 2019 and the realization that he was going to do some real, irreversible damage to himself… he admitted that he was drinking two gallons of vodka a day at one point. He previously attempted to get clean in the late 1980s, checking into rehab alongside his bandmates in 1989, but it didn’t stick and it’s great that he’s been able to find sobriety because they were really in the throws of it for a long time.
Similar to country music, the rock and roll lifestyle takes a toll, and sadly, a lot of artists turn to drinking and drugs as a way to cope with constantly being on the road, the pressure of the job and a whole multitude of other reasons. Thankfully, Lee has maintained his sobriety for several years at this point and seems to be in a much different place in life, which I’m sure comes with age and perspective, too.
But shooting Jack Daniels directly into your veins… that’s one I haven’t heard before.
@zachsangshow @Tommy Lee on how bad his addiction got #tommylee #jackdaniels #addiction #zachsangshow #fyp ♬ original sound – Zach Sang Show
The full episode is available below.
And speaking of Mötley Crüe, they teamed up with country music’s own Dolly Parton on a reimagined version of their 1985 hit “Home Sweet Home,” after Nikki and guitarist John 5 lent their talents on the song “Bygones” on Dolly’s rock and roll album, Rockstar:
