MÖTLEY CRÜE drummer Tommy Lee has spoken about the band's upcoming tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of their groundbreaking "Carnival Of Sins" trek and the 45th anniversary of the group.
The 33-city Live Nation-produced tour, aptly titled ""The Return Of Carnival Of Sins," will kick off on July 17, 2026 in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania at the Pavilion at Star Lake and feature support acts EXTREME and TESLA.
In an interview with Zach Sang Show host Zach Sang noted that there must have been a lot of moments where Tommy could have quit MÖTLEY CRÜE, Lee said: "Oh, for sure.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, I actually did quit MÖTLEY for a couple years.
I was creatively dying slowly as just my personal musicianship and craft and stuff, and I needed an outlet.
So I actually quit for a couple years, and that's when I started METHODS OF MAYHEM and started doing some solo stuff because I had to switch gears.
I wasn't able to creatively do anything outside of the MÖTLEY format.
And with my own stuff, it was a place for me — I call it the adult sandbox.
Like, literally anything goes.
No genres, no style — it doesn't matter.
We're doing whatever I wanna do and just have fun with it.
Creatively I needed that, 'cause I was at kind of a bad place in my life.
And then I realized it sitting in jail", referring to the time in 1998 when he served four months in jail for a spousal abuse charge on then wife Pamela Anderson.
"I was, like, 'I gotta change something, 'cause obviously I'm here.
I gotta switch it up because I gotta get happy and get out of here.'" The drummer went on to say that he knew his unhappiness was linked to his creativity.
""100%, man," he said.
"It's such a big part of me.
If you're not happy creatively and you don't feel like you're able to constantly evolve and create and do that stuff, that's dangerous." Asked by Sang if he thinks he was ""born to do this"" and ""it's a part of who"" he is, Tommy said: "I think so, dude, because… I mean, I wouldn't remember, but my parents tell me, as soon as I was tall enough to reach into the silverware drawer and pull out all the pots and pans, I was just constantly playing, constantly playing.
That I don't really remember, but a little later on in life, I remember just jumping up and down on my bed playing air guitar and knowing that 'I'm doing this.' There was no other thing.
I was, like, 'I wanna do this.' And I remember having some funny arguments with my parents, quitting school my senior year.
They're, like, 'Dude, just graduate.
Oh my God, you only have a couple of more months.
What if this music thing doesn't work out?' I'm, like, 'Oh, it's gonna work out.
It's gonna work out.
It's gonna fucking work out.
I got this.'" The tour will celebrate the band's most memorable live show of their storied career with a reimagined show and updated setlist.