Tommyland

You lived with Tommy Lee during the writing of this book. Can you describe that experience in one sentence?

A trial by fire I’ll never forget.

You are featured in footnotes of the book and featured as a partner in crime more than a co-writer. How did that come about?

Tommy’s book was my first outing as a co-writer and now that I have ample experience in the genre I can say with confidence that I will probably never have a time quite like that one again. Until then I’d only ever been a journalist, asking questions aimed at capturing the subject, according to my perception. Becoming a collaborator was a new challenge. It wasn’t my perception anymore - it was theirs that I had to capture. Everyone I’ve worked with has had trust hurdles I’ve had to find ways to clear in order to be able to write their book from their point of view. It isn’t just being able to imitate their voice, it’s being able to think like them and on the page, to be like them. To earn Tommy’s trust, he had to make me his co-pilot, to literally have me live like him, with him, beside him long enough to write as if I were him. He even went the extra mile and sat beside me while I wrote most of the book. It was full immersion. The footnotes and the other narrative devices speak to my experience of being in his world as much as they do Tommy’s frenzied, electric personality. Tommy loved those elements, as you can see by the editorial notes of his that I included as post-its on the page. They’re pretty much verbatim. He really got into the process, in his way.

What is the biggest media misconception about Tommy?

There are quite a few, but less now I think than there were before the book. The book captured the fact that he may be a wild man, but he’s got a big heart. Sometimes that big heart is what gets him into trouble. Tommy is also more cultured than people expect. He’s been around the world many, many times and he appreciates foreign countries and customs more than his image would indicate. He’s also got pretty unpredictable musical taste. We exchange music regularly and more often than not, Tommy sends me a sensitive, well crafted pop song or ballad that I doubt most people would expect to find on his iPod. He plays drums in Motley Crue and he DJs bombastic electro-house, but he also appreciates and enjoys effective pop music.