Tommy Lee Recalls Injecting Whiskey After Running Out of Heroin and Thinking, ‘Somebody’s Going to Die’

Mötley Crüe iconic drummer Tommy Lee is baring it all, shedding light on one of the most perilous chapters of his legendary rock-and-roll career.

Sitting down for a candid conversation on the Wednesday, July 22, installment of Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard, the musician reflected on the harrowing depths of his heroin addiction during the band’s late-1980s peak, pinpointing the exact moment he realized their reckless lifestyle had crossed a fatal threshold.

Lee recounted a grim night spent with his band’s bassist—though he omitted Nikki Sixx’s name during the retelling—when their heroin supply mysteriously vanished in the dead of night, prompting a dangerously unconventional fix.

“What are we going to do?” Lee remembered pondering as the early morning hours ticked by around 3 or 4 a.m. Desperate to stave off withdrawal, the pair unscrewed a bottle of Jack Daniel’s whiskey, poured the amber liquid into the bottle cap, drew it up into medical syringes, and injected the alcohol directly into their veins.

“It was at that exact split-second where I thought, ‘Okay, we could easily just drink this normally, but instead we are mainlining it,’” Lee confessed to Shepard, acknowledging the surreal absurdity of the act. “‘This is profoundly wrong, and someone is inevitably going to die from this.’”

That terrifying wake-up call catalyzed a massive shift for the heavy metal pioneers. Facing imminent tragedy, Mötley Crüe checked en masse into rehabilitation facilities and group therapy sessions while gearing up to record their monumental fifth studio album, 1989’s Dr. Feelgood. The record ultimately soared to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, maintaining an impressive 109-week residency.

“We collectively decided that rehab was our only option if we wanted to survive,” Lee shared. “People were casually swallowing handfuls of sleeping pills before heading out for the evening. We were functioning zombies, and morning after morning, bandmates simply weren’t waking up easily. We knew time was running out.”

To foster collective recovery and complete the album, the group temporarily relocated to Vancouver, British Columbia.

“We would gather regularly to process how everyone was adapting to this completely sober dynamic,” he explained. “When you dive headfirst into intense group therapy with your coworkers—who are battling the exact same demons—you uncover deeply complicated layers about one another very quickly.”

Lee also addressed the reality that conquering addiction is an ongoing, lifelong battle, admitting to Shepard that three years remains his personal longevity record for continuous sobriety.

This stark revelation adds yet another powerful narrative to the band’s extensively documented struggles with substance dependency, a topic previously laid bare by Sixx in his acclaimed 2007 memoir, The Heroin Diaries.

Catch Tommy Lee’s full, unfiltered conversation on Armchair Expert below:

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance use or mental health challenges, support is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) website, or call their 24/7, year-round confidential helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) for free treatment referrals and vital resources.

Source