Before selling out stadiums with Mötley Crüe, Tommy Lee was making ends meet in a very unexpected way. Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee opened up about his pre-rock stardom days on the Armchair Expert podcast. Lee revealed he worked as a $500-a-date male escort before Mötley Crüe became one of rock’s biggest bands.
Tommy Lee recalled working as a $500-a-date male escort to make ends meet before fame
The 63-year-old drummer went back to the memories of his cash-strapped days on the Wednesday, July 22, episode of Dax Shepard’s “Armchair Expert” podcast. He recalled how he and bandmates Nikki Sixx and Vince Neil turned to escort work while living together in their early struggling days.
“Very beginning when we all had moved into an apartment together, and then we met this lady who’s the madame,” Lee said. He explained that the woman lived nearby, was a few years older than the group, and eventually offered them work.
Tommy revealed their manager was paying them barely $20 a week to make ends meet. Once the group realized how much money could actually be made through the escort arrangement, Lee said the decision was easy.
The drummer also recalled he went on roughly nine or ten dates in total, earning $500 per outing, which was a massive jump from his weekly allowance. He noted the dates were often less scandalous than people might assume; many women were, in fact, simply looking for companionship over dinner.
“Sometimes go and just sit and have dinner with them,” he explained. “Just dinner, literally. Just want company just to dine with. But you know what? I think I was lucky too, because a couple of the older women that I got, they were actually really fun.”
Lee, however, didn’t specify how long the escort arrangement lasted before the band’s music career took off.
TELL US – WERE YOU SURPRISED TO LEARN ABOUT TOMMY LEE’S UNCONVENTIONAL PRE-STARDOM SIDE HUSTLE?
