Tommy Lee might sound a bit morbid when he says he wants each show on the final tour with his band, Mötley Crüe, to be like a wake.
It’s not as gloomy as it may sound — even though fans may be a little teary-eyed in saying goodbye to Mötley Crüe after sharing in 30-plus years of music, mischief, mayhem and everything else a rebellious, good-time rock band is supposed to represent.
“I always thought it was weird and cool, there’s something very bizarre about going to a wake,” Lee said in a recent phone interview. “I still find it so odd that after somebody’s funeral, there’s that thing where everybody gets together and has drinks and celebrates and parties. And you’re like this is (expletive) weird. But there’s something real cool about it, because everybody’s celebrating a life and death simultaneously, the beginning of something new and the end of something old. So I think we’ve figured out that’s how we want this to play out, much like a happy funeral, a celebration.”
A press conference at which the band announced that this would be the final Mötley Crüe tour hinted at the vibe the group wants to create. The four members — drummer Lee, singer Vince Neil, guitarist Mick Mars and bassist Nikki Sixx — arrived at the press conference in a hearse, with a New Orleans-style band playing the festive music one hears during a Crescent City funeral procession. Inside, the band members took their appointed seats with their names on faux-tombstones in front of them.