Tommy Lee’s wife, social media influencer Brittany Furlan, has revealed how the drummer recently broke four ribs.
“We were staying at an old rental house in Nashville. It was a cool, old quirky house,” Furlan explained via Snapchat (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “But the stairs outside were made out of stones, and they were really uneven, and the roots were pushing them up from the tree. And everything was fine. I actually fell up the stairs a few times getting groceries, but whatever. So, 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. 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,” Furlan continued. “It was really scary. He was on the ground [and] 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.’ And they wanted to keep him there, but he did not wanna stay.”
Fans were surprised on June 16, the first night of the highly anticipated Stadium Tour, when Lee excused himself from Motley Crue’s set after only five songs.
“About 14 days ago, I fuckin’ broke not one, not two, not three, but four fuckin’ ribs right here,” the drummer explain to the crowd. “I wish I had a fuckin’ badass story like me and Connor McGregor fuckin’ scrapping out in some fuckin’ bar or something, but I don’t.”
Lee was replaced by Tommy Clufetos for the remainder of the performance. This has since been repeated on further Stadium Tour dates, with Lee regularly playing a few songs before relinquishing duties to Clufetos.
Unsubstantiated rumors had suggested Lee was injured during a skirmish with frontman Vince Neil. However, the drummer’s bandmates have shown their support as Lee continues to play through pain. “The fact that Tommy was told by the doctor to not play with four broken ribs and he beasted half our show is a miracle,” Nikki Sixx declared after the first show.
Furlan expressed similar admiration for the drummer’s ability to tough it out.
“He’s just a fighter. He’s the toughest guy I know,” she admitted. “I mean, look at all his tattoos; he just really fights through the pain.”