Motley Crue's Tommy Lee, who covered Prince's "When You Were Mine" for his upcoming solo album, recently opened up about his "fanboy" experience meeting the Purple One.

"I met him at [L.A. rehearsal studio] S.I.R," the drummer told Classic Rock for a piece in their October 2020 issue. "He was rehearsing next door to Motley Crue, and everybody was like: 'Prince is here!' I thought: 'I gotta meet him.' So I walk out, and he comes in walking with his security guy. I straight up fan-boy'd out: 'Yo, Prince! My name is Tommy Lee. I don't want to bug you, I just want to say that you're fucking amazing.' And that was it."

After the interviewer jokingly suggested that Lee should have invited Prince to join Motley Crue, the drummer added, "It was either that or 'Let me come over and play some fucking drums on some Prince shit.'" He also noted the duo have more in common than musical prowess: "I ran into him another time at a club after that. And then I started dating his ex-wife [backing dancer Mayte]. I got a little closer than I thought." (Prince and Lee also had another mutual ex: Carmen Electra.)

Lee's version of the Dirty Mind track will appear on his Andro LP, out Oct. 16. The drummer recently spoke about the cover to Australia's Studio 10, noting that he's been a Prince fan "forever."

"This was a really cool opportunity, with my buddy Lukas Rossi to redo a Prince song," he said. "But I took a really kind of a happy, boppy — I mean, the tempo of 'When You Were Mine' is really fast, really uptempo. We slowed it down and made it super dark and sexy, and it is a monster. I can't wait for you guys to hear that one."

 

 

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