Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, who is out promoting his new solo album Andro, is featured in a new inteview with Stereogum looking back on some of the band's classic recordings, albums, Methods Of Mayhem and side projects. Following is an excerpt from the interview.

"Helter Skelter"

Stereogum: In a 1986 interview, Nikki Sixx said he thought the Beatles sounded “fucking wimpy.”

Lee: "That’s strange that he said that, because I know he likes the Beatles — and who doesn’t? The Beatles, man. I grew up on the stuff. Those guys were fuckin’ pioneers in so many ways. Their span was just all over the place musically. They’d do fun stuff, dark stuff, orchestral stuff. I can’t say enough about the Beatles. We covered 'Helter Skelter' because covering a Beatles song is cool, and it also just fit with where we were at at the time. Doing it right now wouldn’t make much sense, even though it is fuckin’ crazy right now. But at the time, it was a perfect match."

"Sticky Sweet"

Stereogum: Steven Tyler (Aerosmith) sang backup on this song.

Lee: "That was really cool. It worked out timing-wise — we were studio neighbors at Little Mountain Studios in Vancouver, so we’d go over there and hear their new shit and they’d come over and hear ours. We were like, 'Dude, this song has your name all over it, would you sing on this? And he was like, 'Hell yeah!' We had AC/DC once as studio neighbors at that studio, too. Bon Jovi was in there too, and so was Bryan Adams. There were a lot of people coming through that studio at that time. We’d be in there tracking and recording for hours, and then we’d hit up the strip club for lunch or hang out in the lobby. It was really cool."

Stereogum: After playing variants of metal for most of your career, you pivoted to rap-rock for Methods Of Mayhem.

Lee: "It was a cool time. I’d left Mötley Crüe because, creatively, I was dying. I told the guys, 'I gotta go do something else for a minute or I’m gonna lose my mind.' I had all these ideas and I needed to get them out — and they were genre-smashing ideas. I was mixing hip-hop, rock, industrial, EDM. I was literally all over the place because that’s what I was feeling. A lot of my musical peers tell me the first Methods Of Mayhem record was ahead of its time. If I made it today, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but it was seen as bizarre back then. Now, that kind of genre-smashing is done all the time. I was just bored of doing the same rock thing over and over. I was like, 'Man, there are so many other styles that are moving me that need to come into play here' — and that was my chance to get it out."

Read more here.

Lee released "Demon Bitches", the third single from his upcoming solo album, Andro. The official lyric video is available below. The track is a collaboration with singer / rapper Brooke Candy and producer / vocalist Corey Regensburg, who goes by the moniker Moon Bounce.

Lee recently released more behind the scenes footage from his latest releases, '"Knock Me Down" and "Tops", from Andro. Both videos were directed by Fred Durst. Watch two segments below:

Part 1:

Part 2:

In conversation with Tommy Lee about his new music, his abject joy over his new album, Andro, is infectious. The mastermind behind this compelling collection of songs has conquered TikTok amassing 560k followers in the past couple of months, while growing his Instagram audience to over 1 million during quarantine. An audience that eagerly awaits his new opus.

Lee has had a mega-popular Netflix film (The Dirt), starred in and produced three Network TV shows (Tommy Lee Goes To College, Rockstar:Supernova, Battleground Earth: Ludacris vs Tommy Lee), had a NY Times Bestseller (Tommyland) and has appeared on scripted and interview TV shows - most recently, a hilarious appearance as a professor on ABC’s The Goldbergs.

The longtime Mötley Crüe drummer has just spent the last two years writing and recording his new album and it is about to challenge virtually everything you thought you knew about him and his musical proclivities. True, he hinted at some of the complexity behind the chaos, when he formed Methods Of Mayhem and when he toured with Skrillex, Zedd and Deadmaus, but Lee’s new set of tracks seem to truly represent the music that's he was meant to make - and that definitively reveals the depth and range of his musical fascinations. They also represent the male and female sides of music - equally important and equally powerful, thus the name of the album, Andro. Androgyny is a combination of the essences of male and female genders and the album is the manifestation of the concept.

The passion is evident right from the start of Andro, as the album opens with the first of his two singles "Knock Me Down", a paint-stripping industrial-metal stormer (as close as Andro gets to what Lee is best known for) featuring the up-and-coming rapper Killvein, who gives a scorching performance.

"I heard his shit on the internet," Lee recalls, "and I thought, this dude is badass, 'Knock Me Down' had his name all over it. He raps like a beast, is super-talented, and actually says something. He's gonna blow up."

Another singularly fierce pairing on the second of his two singles, is with female South African rapper Push Push, who raps like lightning in her unique accent over a cool Afrobeat groove on "Tops". She comes off as someone who you probably don't want to cross. "She's a total troublemaker," Lee jokes, "a maniac!"

With a powerful singing voice that takes listeners by pleasant surprise in between her staccato raps, Push Push has a down-to-earth attitude and the talents to deliver on her enthusiasm for experimental, barrier-breaking projects. Push Push has worked on a recent Pussy Riot single and has performed alongside the likes of Peanut Butter Wolf and Ryan Hemsworth. Her tracks have been featured on Comedy Central’s Broad City.

Both artists’ videos were directed by Lee’s longtime friend, Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit). As alike as the sets are for the videos, that is how different, sonically, both songs are. “Working with Tommy was an incredible opportunity, he made sure that I was in a comfortable space, free to express myself fully and without limits. The video shoot was a dream come true. I felt empowered to show all my true colors without judgement. Honestly that team could’ve made anyone feel like a star,” says Push Push.

“It was great working with Tommy! It’s crazy because I grew up listening to Mötley Crüe so I never imagined I’d end up working with Tommy fucking Lee,” enthuses Killvein. “I was surprised he’d even heard of me but that’s all thanks to our mutual friend, Danny Lohner. Danny showed Tommy my music last year and that’s when Tommy sent me the beat. I recorded half the song in my garage in Sacramento and the other half in his studio in Calabasas. I was like a kid in a candy shop in there - he has everything. The video shoot was surreal. Getting to work with both Tommy and Fred Durst on that was a dream.”

Other features on the record include a Prince cover from Lukas Rossi (Rockstar Supernova), Josh Todd (Buckcherry), Brooke Candy and Mickey Avalon. A pre-order can be found here.