Tommy Lee recently joined an interview with Bill Maher on Club Random Podcast and reflected on how Mötley Crüe escaped cancel culture.
Referring to the inner dynamics of Mötley Crüe, Maher asked:
“As you get older, you must be like… People just get more tolerant and more like, ‘Oh, whatever we were fighting about, I don’t give a f*ck.’ Is that where you are with the band?”
The drummer replied:
“Yeah, we just tend to like the kind of take a piss. We actually just recorded a song called ‘Canceled’ because we were just inspired by the rest of the world, things, and places like anybody else. There was this article.”
Revealing what was in the article and their reaction, Lee went on to say:
“It was like, ‘How did Mötley Crüe ever not get canceled?’ ‘How?’ That was the headline, and we were like, ‘F*ck, we got to write a song about that’ because we didn’t ever get it. We snuck in under whatever threshold, wherever that was where we got away with f*cking murder.”
Since their debut in the industry, Mötley Crüe has been involved in numerous controversial incidents, including Vince Neil’s car crash that left Nicholas Razzle Dingley dead. The singer, who was already heavily drunk, lost control of the car on the return trip from the store and collided with another vehicle. Neil faced charges of vehicular manslaughter and DUI. Despite the severity of the event, Mötley Crüe continued their presence in the industry and released commercially successful albums in later years.
The band’s history has also been marked by allegations of sexism. Nikki Sixx said the following about being labeled as that in July on Threads:
“I read an honest complaint email from one of the venues about us today. It was pretty spot on. Said we were sexist pigs needing a shower flaunting half-naked women around on stage. Said we were too loud and said f*ck too much during the family-oriented show as well… and this is us being good.”
Lee also faced threats of being canceled due to his controversial acts on social media. The rocker shared nude photos of himself on several occasions, which led him to receive backlash.
You can watch the drummer’s full interview below.
