‘Nobody Knows What’s Real Anymore’: How Tommy Lee Went Down the ‘Rabbit Hole’ For Special Edition of ‘Tommyland’
Categoria: Musica
"Tommyland Rides Again" is a freshly refurbished and expanded treatment of 2005's "Tommyland: The Ride," and arrives ahead of what Tommy Lee predicts will be new Motley Crue music.
Por Billboard | 20/05/2026
A shiny new toy — namely a Dolby Atmos for his home studio in Los Angeles — has revived Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee ‘s interest in some of his old musical playthings. On Friday (May 22), Lee will release Tommyland Rides Again, a freshly refurbished and expanded treatment of 2005’s Tommyland: The Ride , his second solo album after his short-lived side project Methods of Mayhem. Filled with guests — including Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger, Good Charlotte’s Joel Madden, Backstreet Boys’ Nick Carter, Sum 41′ Deryck Whibley, Dave Navarro of Jane’s Addiction, Andrew McMahon (Something Corporate, Jack’s Mannequin), Fuel’s Carl Bell and others — the 12-song set peaked at No. 62 on the Billboard 200 and hit the Hot 100 with the Butch Walker collaboration “Good Times,” which was the theme for that year’s NBC/VH1 reality series Tommy Lee Goes to College . “A couple years ago, my kids were tripping out and like, ‘Dad, you gotta re-release this,’ ’cause it was 20 years since it came out,” Lee tells Billboard via Zoom. “I didn’t really think much of it, but then the studio got done being built and I was like, ‘I wanna remix some of my stuff’ — one being Tommyland: The Ride , for its anniversary. “So I learned the process, and once you hear Dolby Atmos, it’s insane. I’ll never listen to regular stereo again. And now we’re going down the rabbit hole and I’m remixing anything.” At the time of its release, and with its guest list, Tommyland: The Ride was a kind of snapshot of rock music circa 2005. More in the realm of Lee’s 2002 solo debut Never a Dull Moment than Motley Crue’s heavy glam rock or the industrial roots of Methods of Mayhem, Tommyland was decidedly more melodic and focused on songcraft, even downright gentle in spots. “Whenever I do something solo, without Motley Crue, I’m like a little kid in a sandbox,” Lee explains. “It’s just you, and you sort of have the freedom to do whatever it is that’s blowing your skirt up. “The cover art kind of says it all; it’s basically a, like, roller coaster (track) going into my ear, into my f***in’ crazy, eclectic musical styles mind, and that’s what it’s always been.” In addition to the new mix, Tommyland Rides Again adds another track, “Stupid World” with Chad Tepper, an uncharacteristically topical song that Lee wrote during the Covid pandemic. “I found a bunch of stuff,” Lee says, “and the second I heard it I was, ‘I gotta do this. The timing couldn’t be better,’ just because of the content. It’s really about how ridiculously stupid the world we live in has become. Things have gotten even crazier since (he wrote it), and I was like, ‘I’m rolling with this. This is meant to be, ’