TOMMY LEE: The Words 'Reality' And 'Music' Do Not Go Together

Stuff.co.nz recently conducted an interview with MÖTLEY CRÜE/SUPERNOVA drummer Tommy Lee. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

On whether he will have his eye on the SUPERNOVA singer if a woman wins "Rock Star: Supernova":

"He he he! If we do choose a girl, that'll be interesting. On tours we usually have three or four dancers with us but they travel separately, so I don't know how that would work. That could be really fun on the road. But at other times it might be a disaster, you know, if you're on stage pretending to have a good day together when you're not. So that depends. But there are girls in the show who definitely are holding their own, so that could work out."

On the fact that SUPERNOVA's reality TV rock 'n' roll try-out just doesn't seem very rock 'n' roll:

"The words 'reality' and 'music' do not go together. And anybody who considers this is reality television doesn't know much about music. This is a full-blown music show on national television and thank God we have one. This isn't karaoke. They're not up there playing to a tape. They're singing with a real band, auditioning for a real band."

On the opportunity to hold auditions across the world:

"In MÖTLEY CRÜE we auditioned, like, five singers. It's just a different time now. We found (MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist) Nikki (Sixx) through an ad in a newspaper, so that could be considered not organic, and we put that band together through contacts. To use the power of national TV to search the entire planet for the ultimate singer — oh my God! It's such a wonderful luxury to use that power. I mean, there were more than 20,000 auditions for SUPERNOVA worldwide. It means we can find the best of the best in the world."

On relationships:

"I've been single for, like five years, and I'm kind of thinking about getting a girlfriend. Life's fun and all, but sometimes it just gets old. Wonderful things are happening in my life but it doesn't make them that special when I don't have someone to share them with."

On whether he and his bandmates have the experience to keep SUPERNOVA going long after the hype dies down:

"I've sold close to 40 million records, and to me selling 40 million records is a lot more powerful than being in a stupid tabloid magazine. I'm a producer, a songwriter, a drummer and an actor. There's a lot of fans out there that would disagree with you."