MÖTLEY CRÜE drummer Tommy Lee spoke with Nicole Powers from Suicidegirls.com recently about a number of topics. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

Suicidegirls.com: I heard you had a rather scary incident recently in a helicopter. Can you tell me about that?

TL: "Oh! [laughs] No, there was nothing scary about it. Mötley Crüe did a show in Palm Springs, out in the desert, and we were flying the helicopter back. This house was on fire about 30 minutes outside of Van Nuys airport, where we were going to land. So there was this house on fire, you could see all this smoke coming up. And I said, 'Fuck! Let's go over there and check it out.' We flew close to the house to check it out, and apparently we got into the police's airspace. But we were so far away from them. I still don't understand. Like, there was no way we that close."

Suicidegirls.com: So you caused a minor emergency with the police department?

TL: "Yeah, well, they followed us to where we were landing. We were going to land at my house, but we were running out of fuel, so we landed at the airport to get some fuel. And then we just decided, let's get out and we'll just drive home. So we were on the ground, and I had in my backpack a bottle of vodka mixed with lemonade, right. As soon as we landed my pilot, Dave, said, 'Hey! Where's that vodka?' I grabbed it, and he takes two big giant sips straight out of the vodka bottle. Right when he was drinking it the cops walked out and said, 'Who's the pilot of that helicopter?' And he's like, 'That would be me.' So they thought he was drinking. But he doesn't drink and fly – ever. That's stupid. So that's what the whole deal was. They gave him a sobriety test and all that. He's like, 'Guys, I just had two shots of vodka after we landed, now it's a little late to be testing me, do you know what I mean?' So that was it. No big deal."

Suicidegirls.com: But that's typical of you. You get into trouble without trying to, without doing anything wrong.

TL: "I know." [laughs]

Suicidegirls.com: Life is so unfair.

TL: "I know. I had nothing to do with any of it." [laughs]

Suicidegirls.com: I understand you have a compulsory strip rule in your backstage area.

TL: "Yeah. My dressing room has a no clothes rule. You have to remove one item of clothing that's not your socks to even get in. That's just the way we do it. Actually, the night before last, when we were in Reno, it was fucking awesome. We'd just got off stage, and I dried off for a second, kind of catching my breath, poured a cocktail, and all of a sudden the dressing room door opened, and here come, not with one article of clothing removed, but fucking totally naked just walking into my room. I was like, 'God, bless you guys.' It was beautiful."

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