Tommy Lee is talking about the Mötley Crüe 2019 biopic released on Netflix in a recent interview with Billy Corgan on his “Magnificent Others” podcast.
Tommy Lee Says ‘The Dirt’ Should Have Been a Miniseries
The biopic was based on “The Dirt” by Neil Strauss and featured Douglas Booth, Machine Gun Kelly, Daniel Webber, and Iwan Rheon as infamous bandmates Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, and Mick Mars.
Lee told Corgan that he’s very happy with how the film turned out but also agreed with Corgan’s view that it should have been a miniseries instead. Corgan claimed that it could have been “the greatest miniseries of all time,” and Lee wholeheartedly supported this assessment, via Yahoo as originally reported by Parade.
The Netflix Biopic Gave Mötley Crüe New Momentum
GettyThe best part of “The Dirt” being released on Netflix was that it brought tons of renewed interest to Mötley Crüe after they stopped performing together.
“We certainly have a lot of dirt, and I think, you know, Neil, who’s a great writer, I liked his approach at the time,” Lee said.
“He would have a bunch of sit-downs with each guy separately, not with the band. And what happened doing it that way is literally like, we’d be reading something that Vince said, and I was like, ‘I forgot about that.’ And so we all sort of reminded each other of things that we had forgotten, or that were extremely blurry,” he continued.
Lee went on to say that the band reminded each other of how things truly were during that time in production. He says the memories inspired the band’s vision for the project and attracted young fans in the process.
The former drummer also said he got tons of emails from new fans who discovered Mötley Crüe through the biopic.
“These kids don’t know,” Lee said to Corgan. “They have no idea. You know what I’m saying? Like, this kid’s 17, going like, ‘Is that really how it was?’ And they’ll never, ever experience that time. Never. And so their curiosity, they’re like, ‘Man, these guys, like what? They’re still alive?'”
Watching Actors Portray the Band Was ‘Bizarre’
He also told Noise11.com that, “All the guys who played us in the movie did just a spectacular job — they really nailed each guy so well, it was mind-blowing.”
Lee describes watching the band rehearse with Nikki Sixx while the cast was rehearsing in New Orleans and said it was “bizarre” to feel like you’re watching yourself.
“Everyone did such a great job of exactly nailing each guy really, really well where it would give you goosebumps, that kind of thing. ‘Like wow, that guy moves exactly like Vince’ — you know, Daniel. It’s pretty crazy. Pretty wild, man.”
The biopic was released in March 2019 and is an adaptation of the book of the same name. Netflix snagged it in 2017 after it was previously in talks with Paramount and Focus Features.
