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Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee broke four ribs on his right side after falling down the stairs of a home in Nashville just days before the launch of the long-awaited ‘Stadium Tour.’
Lee, who has explained his predicament during the tour but not its cause, has been taking the stage with his bandmates and performing part of the set each night before handing his sticks off to Ozzy Osbourne drummer Tommy Clufetos.
Lee has so far kept the specifics to himself, reasoning that the story is not very interesting. But in a recent Snapchat video, his wife Brittany Furlan decided to address the questions once and for all.
Furlan explained that she and Lee were staying at a rental house in Nashville before heading to Pennsylvania for ‘Stadium Tour’ dress rehearsals. She says the house was nice but “quirky” and that the front steps were uneven due to roots of a nearby tree pressing against them.
“The day that we were leaving Nashville, our driver came and we had all this luggage and he wasn't helping us; he just stayed in the car,” Furlan explained. “And so Tommy was trying to carry all of our luggage for us. And he fell down these crazy stairs and broke — broke — four ribs. Not fractured, not bruised, broke. And it was crazy, 'cause I came out and he couldn't breathe. It was really scary.”
Furlan continued, complimenting Lee’s pain tolerance and determination to not let his bandmates down.
“He was on the ground; he was gasping for air. And he got on a plane that day still and went and did the rest of rehearsals [for the tour] in Pennsylvania. He went to the hospital in Pennsylvania when we landed and they were, like, 'You have four broken ribs.' They wanted to keep him there, but he did not wanna stay. And he's just a fighter. He's the toughest guy I know. I mean, look at all his tattoos; he just really fights through the pain.”
The sentiment about Lee’s toughness is shared by Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx, who complimented the drummer for playing through the pain as much as possible.
Lee has kept a sense of humor about the whole thing. Before bowing out of a show last week in Washington, D.C., he handed out beer and “unbroken” barbecue ribs to the first few rows.
The ‘Stadium Tour,’ featuring Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard has dates announced in North America through September.