Tommy Lee couldn't hang with the drumline during his reality show stint in "Tommy Lee Goes to college" and he says the show made him look like a fool. So the professional drummer has decided to sue his manager for getting him into the TV gig in the first place. That's part of a law suit filed today in which Lee and his Motley Crue mates say they've lost millions of dollars - and the band has lost its reputation because of "bad career moves".
In the $20 million lawsuit, the four founding members of the band (Nikki Sixx, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Lee) through Motley Crue Inc., claim manager Carl Stubner and Sanctuary Management Group gave them bad business advice and attempted to "divert revenue from [the band] and redirect it to themselves."
The suit also claims the manager forced Tommy Lee to "to become engaged in 'reality' projects that were bad career moves for Lee, harming [Sixx, Mars, Neil and Lee], the Motley Crue brand and Lee's own image." The suit calls the low-rated NBC show "Tommy Lee Goes to College" a "critical disappointment and a ratings disaster," adding it painted Lee as "incoherent, lazy and incompetent" and made him "look like a laughing stock who could not carry a drum beat."
The suit also claims Lee's participation on "Rock Star: Supernova" "diminished the public's interest in Lee and their overall perception of his musical talents."
Bandmate Vince went on "the Surreal Life" and did his facelift/makeover show and judged the Hooter's pagent -- all of which were way more stupid than Tommy's show. Now THAT was some bad career advice...
Because Lee was so busy doing reality TV, the band says he was unavailable to tour with the Crue, thus causing the cancellation of several key concert dates. The band claims that they lost $8 million in ticket and merchandise revenue because of Lee's absence from concerts.
