Tommy Lee Part 5: The Dr. Feelgood Drum Solo

As far as awesome concert spectacles go Tommy Lee was not likely to top the spinning drum set stunt from the Crue’s 1987 tour. He sure came close though with the Dr. Feelgood drum solo of 1989-1990: on a track, suspended over the heads of the audience, Tommy & attached drum set would make their way around the arena while he played along with snatches of some of his favorite Rock songs.

The solo culminated with Tommy taking a long bungee jump off his drum set, dangling just above the audience. One night, a miscommunication with his roadie almost resulted in Mr. Lee cracking his noggin’ open like a cocoanut.

(from Chronological Crue)

‘7/4/90
At the end of his flying drum solo in New Haven, Connecticut, Tommy descends as usual on his bungee rope but has a feeling his roadie will not pull the brake on it in time. He panics and lets go of the rope to reach his foot strap, turning him upside down. When the rope’s brake is pulled on his twenty-foot plummet, Tommy’s head cracks into the head of a person in the audience, before he hits the ground head-first and blacks out. He gets taken to hospital for observation of his concussion, which not only signals the end of this show, but forces the cancellation of another show.’

Just as the 1987 drum solo was featured in the video for ‘Wild Side,’ Motley made sure those of us who didn’t see them on their massive Dr. Feelgood tour at least got a peek of Tommy’s latest trick.

Tommy Lee Part 4-The Girls, Girls, Girls Drum Solo Mystery

I wrote about Tommy’s famous Girls, Girls, Girls drum solo HERE and soon after found out a couple things that cast a lot of doubt on Tommy’s claim that he got the idea from a dream. First, check out this video of the solo from Des Moines, Iowa in 1987. Tommy goes through his regular spiel. 

Here and elsewhere, Tommy insists that he dreamt the idea to rotate in his drum set in front of an audience, and he very well may have had that dream, but it looks like Buddy Rich had the same dream and beat him to the execution!!

What?!! That is some funky classic video. The band looks pretty damned amazed! Or amused!

Tommy has seen the above video and has responded that he did not know of its existence and as far as he knew he was was the first to do this stunt . . . and I would say that this is not an impossible thing for two drummers to think of and execute . . . they’re a nutty breed to be sure. So I would normally leave it at that if this were the end of the mystery. But it ain’t. Watch this:

So yeah, 12 years before the above Tommy Lee video, Mick Mars (at this time he was still Bob Deal-he’s the red-headed guitarist to the right) was in a band in which a drummer went upside down as he played . . . ! Right. Did this never come up during the whole Girls, Girls, Girls tour?! And although that Buddy Rich vid is from the early ‘70s, pre-dating the above Whitehorse video, it is explained at the YouTube page that Mick’s former band mate Jack Valentine apparently did invent the contraption/conception and Buddy did the act on TV for him when he broke his leg and was unable to perform.

 

[EDIT] I have known about the following video for years, a 1984 home video of Mick Mars being interviewed and reminiscing about his days as Robert Deal with old band mate Jack Valentine. In the two following parts Mick talks about Motley’s upcoming tour of Europe and fields a lot of questions from Jack about memories of the old days, very personal and candid stuff. The drum trick is mentioned several times in the second part and there are even pictures. Also, we should remember, Jack and Mick (or, Bob) were in a band that was once called Motley Croo or some such spelling . . . so how much exactly did Motley get from Mick’s old band? You’ll notice that Mick seems to get uncomfortable when Jack reminds him of the old Motley Croo name . . . obviously there was no discussion of usage between them at that time. Mick himself is said to have acquired his name from another L. A. performer known as Mickey Mars. Jack mentions several times how completely different Mick looks as compared to his Bob Deal days and how his trademark faces are the one dead give-away. They call it the "Mars Face."

Probably, Mick brought the drum idea to the band or told Tommy about it several times and then Motley paid his old band mate for the idea and to shut up and let-on that it was Tommy’s invention . . . or . . . Tommy dreamt it, brought it to the band, Mick mentioned he was in a band where a guy did it and etc. However it came to be it was a huge asset to the Motley’s show and Tommy’s rep as a wild man. 

TOMMY LEE DRUM SOLOS FROM OTHER TOURS COMIN’ UP . . . . SOME DAY . . . AT THE SLEAZE PATROL FILES  . . . . 

Tommy Lee Part 1–The Girls, Girls, Girls Drum Solo

On the Theatre Of Pain tour Tommy Lee’s drum set rotated & then raised him on a 90 degree angle. For the the 1987 Girls, Girls, Girls tour Tommy wanted to fulfill a dream he said he had where he did a complete 360 degree rotation in his drum kit in mid-air. Thanks to YouTube we can check out video of the solo from a show in Tacoma.

Girls Girls Girls Tour Drum Solo

When Crue went back on the road in 1989 they started in Europe to make up dates they had cancelled in late 1987 after the band descended into near destruction. In Sweden, at the beginning of the Dr. Feelgood tour, Tommy brought the rotating drum kit with him to show his Swedish friends what they missed.

Tommy Lee Drum Solo In 1989 In Sweden

There is video of  Tommy’s 1985-86 Theatre Of Pain drum solo presently on YouTube so we might as well add that to the post. This killer video was taken in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on October 19th, 1985 on the North American leg of the tour (the Crue then went to Europe in 1986) (see Paul Miles’ Chronological Crue Gigography HERE).

Besides the above photos from Circus, Metal Edge, Hit Parader & other metal mags of the day, the only other way us Crue fans could catch a glimpse of this amazing solo without going to a show was the second music video & single off of the Girls, Girls, Girls album, ‘Wild Side.’ I remember watching this with a little bit of awe back in 1987.
 

More Tommy Lee & Girls, Girls, Girls era Crue on the way . . . Also the first of many (probably too many) Dr. Feelgood era posts, Shout & Decade era, Motley drawings by friends, back patches, early 1990s Crue stuff from Much Music, 3-8 page magazine poster bonanzas & more . . .