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The following is a brief excerpt from the in-depth interview:
SR: What was Tommy Lee like back then? Could you tell he had what it would take to become a major superstar?
GL: "Tommy Lee was always a star, back then he went by his real name Tom Bass. We had a great rehearsal studio that his dad built for him, it was a room built inside of a room that had dead air space between the two rooms so that no sound leaked out. It was big, it was free and Tommy and I practiced all day almost every day, that is how we got so tight, we had all this time to work it all out. Tommy always wanted to practice and so did I, the bass player was another story, so a lot of times it was just Tommy and myself working out the parts.
Tommy was always a chick magnet, he knew girls on every block for miles around his parents house in West Covina, California and they all loved to party with us (who the hell were we to say no?). Tommy always had that thing that set him apart from the others, he just didn't give a shit what anybody thought or said, he knew he was going to make it and screw anybody who thought otherwise. I remember Tommy showing up at all of my Suite 19 gigs and begging me to kick out Gary and let him play in the band and one day I called him and said I was having problems with my drummer and did he still want to get together and make some noise. In about an hour we were together jamming and we played together for about a year. We had a lot of fun together in that year. A lot of times I would spend the night at his house and one night I was awakened by loud thumping sounds...he was playing a drum solo in his sleep!!!!! I just sat up and listened, it wasn't too bad...for pillows.
He was and is a good guy and an incredible drummer. I probably wouldn't have broken up that band if the opportunity had not come at that time to take Randy's place in Quiet Riot. Boy was Tommy upset with that decision, but I promised him I would come back and start another band or find him a great band to play with, and I did! MÖTLEY CRÜE!!!"
SR: You were also in an early version of Quiet Riot, and Kevin DuBrow seems to be another artist with a good/bad reputation. What was that time like, and was it difficult replacing Randy Rhoads?
GL: "I'll make this one a quick answer, Kevin DuBrow is the biggest asshole I've ever been involved with...and I've met a lot of assholes in this business. It was not hard for me to replace Randy in Quiet Riot, I'd seen him play a hundred times and been on many of the same bills with Quiet Riot, I knew how every song went.
I loved Randy, everybody did. It was an honor when Randy and Kevin called me and asked if I would take his place in Quiet Riot because he got the Ozzy gig. I was happy for Randy and I was happy for myself, this was a good stepping stone to bigger and better things to come. I thought Drew Forsyth was one of the best drummers around and I brought my last bass player in Suite 19, Gary Van Dyke, into this new opportunity. Randy warned me about Kevin DuBrow when he was at my house borrowing an old Marshall head, the same one Eddie Van Halen rented from me to record the solo on Michael Jackson's 'Beat It' song. Eddie's equipment was in New York at the time of the recording, they were on tour. And yes I still have that old Marshall head, it's a 1971. Getting back to what Randy said about Kevin, I didn't believe anybody could be such an asshole, boy was I wrong..."
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