Music

Tommy Lee: ‘Stop voting for celebrities and get someone real to run the US’

The Mötley Crüe star tells The Big Issue his post-US election plan and why the idea of playing live again has gotten him through Covid-19 and California’s smoky skies

Tommy Lee

It’s no secret that Tommy Lee is no fan of Donald Trump – but in this week’s Big Issue magazine he details just how far he is willing to go to escape four more years of the US President.

The Mötley Crüe megastar has been hunkered down in his home studio in California working on new music while outside the state has been hit by Covid-19 and smoky skies due to wildfires.

As new album Andro is about to be released, he comes up for air to give The Big Issue his opinion on the US election. So what does he reckon to four more years of Trump?

Read the full interview: Tommy Lee on Trump, touring and golf with Alice Cooper

He says: “Dude, I swear to god if that happens then I’m coming over to visit the UK. I’m out of here. I’ll go back to my motherland, go back to go Greece and get a house on one of the islands.

“The thing that stings the most is that I feel like we’re embarrassing. I feel like people in Europe and the rest of the world look at America and think: “What the fuck are you guys doing over there? Stop voting for celebrities and get someone real to run the country.”

But despite the negativity of the political landscape or the Covid-19 disruption that delayed Mötley Crüe’s planned stadium tour, playing in front of audiences is keeping Lee optimistic.

He adds: “I can just imagine what it’s going to be like being on stage with that many people and that energy when it’s OK to be together again. It’s going to be priceless – that kind of energy I’m probably never going to see again in my lifetime. Can you imagine what that’s going to be like? Holy shit!”

To read more from Tommy Lee, buy this week’s Big Issue magazine, available now from vendors all over the country. If you can’t make it to your local vendor, get your copy or subscribe to get the magazine delivered to your device or door from bigissue.com/subscribe, The Big Issue Shop or The Big Issue app, available to download from the App Store or Google Play.

Tommy Lee’s new album Andro is out on October 16

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