Dax Shepard has waited for 35 years to apologize to Tommy Lee for an “obnoxious” comment he made to the singer when he was 16.
“So I’m with my uncle, he’s like 10 years older than me,” Shepard, 51, said during the Wednesday, July 22, episode of his “Armchair Expert” podcast, recalling the first time he met Lee, 63, at the Denver Grand Prix in 1991.
He continued, “We’re kind of milling about in this little tent where you guys are … and I start chatting to you and this is what I said. I go, ‘Yeah, I’m not really into Mötley Crüe, but I’m so in love with your wife, Heather Locklear.’” (Lee was married to Locklear, 64, from 1986 to 1993.)
“It’s so bad, and my uncle loved it, right?” Shepard added. “And I was a legend for f***ing two days cause I said this thing to Tommy Lee at 16.”
Though his uncle was impressed with his remark, Shepard ended up getting flak from his friends for many years afterward.
“I think every time a dude comes up to me, he’s like, ‘I don’t really know you, but my wife thinks you’re whatever.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I deserve that,’” he recalled. “Or someone comes up and is like, ‘I don’t care for your s***, but I love your wife.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I deserve that.’” (Shepard has been married to Kristen Bell since October 2013.)
Shepard also noted that Lee was “totally cool” about the remark.
The Zathura actor concluded by telling Lee, “So, I want to apologize for such an obnoxious way to say hi to you 34, 35 years ago. I didn’t think I would ever get a chance to say that.”
Lee rose to fame in the ‘80s as the cofounder and drummer of heavy metal band Mötley Crüe alongside bassist Nikki Sixx, guitarist Mick Mars and lead vocalist Vince Neil. During his podcast appearance on Wednesday, Lee looked back on the rise of his career, the height of his time with the legendary band, his sobriety journey and more.
At one point during the episode, Lee recalled a night when he and Sixx, 67, injected Jack Daniels whiskey into their veins.
“[We] filled up the cap with Jack and then pulled a couple syringes, and were shooting Jack Daniel’s,” he said. “It was at that moment where I went, ‘OK, what is happening? We could just drink this, but we’re shooting it. This is f***ing wrong. And somebody’s going to die.”
Lee and his bandmates ultimately decided that they needed to seek treatment for addiction. The group attended rehab together in 1989 and went on to record their album Dr. Feelgood.
“’We can’t do this alone, guys. We got to do this together, or it ain’t gonna happen,’” Lee recalled telling his bandmates when they decided to go to rehab.
Lee and Neil later broke their sobriety at the end of Mötley Crüe’s Dr. Feelgood World Tour. The drummer confessed his actions to the band the following day.
“I couldn’t live with the f***ing guilt. Pretty much just let our other two boys down,” he recalled. “So the whole band’s in a room. I was like, ‘Guys, I f***ed up last night. Vince and I went to a strip club, and the drink lady came by … If I lost it, I’m sorry.’”
After a long battle with addiction, Lee became sober in 2022.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
