There’s plenty of spin about what happened at the Bellagio’s Light nightclub when former Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee was spinning the tunes. Sean Christie, the club’s director of marketing, said Lee had to be removed by security officers, but Lee’s manager said the 41-year-old drummer walked out of Sunday’s show.
Lee was there for a disc-jockey gig during a Father’s Day party, Christie told the Las Vegas Sun in Tuesday’s editions.
“He was playing lousy music,” Christie said. “We told him to wrap up his set and make a graceful exit. When he refused, we said we would just pull the plug on him, which is what we ended up doing.”
In a statement Wednesday to The Associated Press, Lee’s manager, Carl Stubner, said, “Tommy walked out of the venue (with his personal security helping him with his gear) after 30 minutes into the show since it was clear that the ‘club’ management wanted him to play top 40 hip-hop tunes for their lounge.”
The club was irked that Lee kept ordering $800 bottles of Cristal champagne and didn’t pay for them – which Stubner denied. Lee reportedly cursed at the crowd and shoved someone.
“We bent over backwards to accommodate Tommy, but he was just being crazy,” Christie said. “If he cleans up his act we’d welcome him back with open arms. But dealing with him was probably one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had in this business.”
Stubner’s statement said “people were dancing and enjoying the appearance. Tommy Lee will continue to successfully DJ for dance clubs, which is what he did, and did well.”
Lee has a notorious and well-documented history of volatility, including his tumultuous three-year marriage to Pamela Anderson. During a custody fight over their two sons, Lee filed a court declaration in January 2003, saying he’d been sober for two years and posed no danger to his sons.
