Tommy Lee is ready for a little mayhem — and not just with Motley Crue.
The drummer, who kicks off the Crue’s Saints of Los Angeles Tour on Jan. 31 in Indio, Calif., tells Billboard.com that he’s started work on his second Methods of Mayhem album, following up the group’s platinum 1999 debut.
DJ Aero and guitarist Kai Marcus are still on board, and Lee’s producing partner Scott Humphrey “is starting to get involved” as the songs are formulating.
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“We’re just getting all the ideas together now,” reports Lee, who released two solo projects — 2002’s “Never a Dull Moment” and 2005’s “Tommyland: The Ride” — since the “Methods of Mayhem” album. “We’re gonna start tracking as soon as Motley is done (touring) at the end of March, and hopefully I’ll have it ready by April/May and done by the top of June.”
He describes the new material “as out of control … pretty new and crazy-sounding. There’s some ridiculously banging hard rock tunes and electro dance-rock.” But, Lee adds, “There’s no hip-hop anywhere around it at all.” He plans to have some guests on the album, but in moderation compared to the flock of big names on “Methods of Mayhem.” “I’m just gonna be mindful of how many and where their parts are,” Lee explains, “so they’re not major parts that’ll be missed when we go and play live.”
Lee says he wouldn’t mind having Methods of Mayhem on the Crue Fest II tour, which is slated to go out in July, “like Nikki (Sixx) did with Sixx AM last year. That’d be killer.”
As for the rest of the Crue Fest II lineup, Lee says it’s still being discussed. “There’s offers going around all over the place,” he says. “Rob Zombie’s name came up. Godsmack. Alice Cooper. I’d like to switch it up, add a little bit more variety this year.”
Lee says the movie adaptation of the Crue biography “The Dirt” is still “just trying to find all the right catalysts.” He expects we’re more likely to see a follow-up to 2008’s Grammy-nominated “Saints of Los Angeles,” which was the Crue’s first set of new material in eight years.
“We haven’t really talked about making a new record,” Lee says, “but maybe we’ll write one on the road this summer and have it ready for next winter. I don’t think (the long gap) is going to happen again. That would be terrible if it did.”