I was playing with the Aquabats, and then I quit to join a band called Suicide Machine in Detroit.

I was in a band called Hooker for a while.

I was a kid, and I wasn't even sure if I wanted to play the drums, you know? All I wanted to do was skateboard, but I was still learning and taking it in, so it was good.

I used to have friends come on tour and work as my drum tech, but they get bummed out when I have to tell them what to do. This time I'm just going to fly them out and let them hang. It's all good.

But there's actually a lot of punk bands out there that go out of the norm, use odd time signatures, or a lot of different tempo changes in a song.

But really, anytime, I play on a practice pad as much as I can.

Bill Stevenson of The Descendants is really good, too.

And I played in jazz band as well during all three years in school.

On our first record, man, I didn't know what I was doing. I was just playing. I was over playing. You're as green as you can be with no experience in recording or knowing how sometimes a song can work: when it's too much, when it's not enough, when it's not right.

I announced to everyone that I was embarking on a solo tour. Not a music tour, but a tour of drugs and prostitutes.

Playing upside down is insane. It's two or three times more difficult than what's normal. Your feet want to come off the pedals, your arms want to drop down - all of your body is fighting gravity.

I did the marching band all throughout junior high and high school. Music was one of my favorite things in school.

Drumming's pretty physical. We sit at the back of the stage getting beat up like a workhorse.

I've always gravitated towards the beats, obviously. And when I was growing up, I always loved funk music or even - dare I say it - disco.

I'm driven by music. It's in my blood, and I've never been able to stay away from it for too long.

Too many drummers sit at the back covered in drums, and you never see them.

Why is it that the hot chicks never can sing?

I am such a gearhead. In my recording studio, I personally engineer and edit everything on computers.

I'll never forget when I was, like, 17, and 'Highway to Hell' came on the radio, and I was like, 'Dude, listen to that guy's voice!'

Being a drummer, I'm always like, 'Oh, that's got a funky beat. That's cool,' and I like to dance.

Every tour we do, everybody's always wondering, 'What's Tommy Lee going to do next? What new, wild and crazy thing is he going to come up with?'

Whether I'm writing solo stuff, electronic stuff, or material for Motley, I just write to write. I come up with it and put things in different piles.

I was always impressed by some of the progressive styles of guys like Neil Peart.

John Bonham was probably the most influential in terms of playing style and timing.