In a new interview with Tone-Talk, Jake E. Lee spoke about Mötley Crüe’s comments that were supposedly aimed at him.
Back in 2019, Nikki Sixx posted two tweets, criticizing certain people he felt were ‘coming out of the woodwork’ around the time of Mötley Crüe’s ‘The Dirt’ movie. He targeted ‘has-beens, never was’s, and washed-up people with small careers.’ Sixx had also addressed a rumor that Mötley Crüe had supposedly asked Lee to join as their guitarist in the early ’80s.
“Nikki got his panties in such a twist over what I had said in the last one. Which — all I said was they wanted me in Mötley Crüe. Which is… It’s just f*cking true. They did,” Lee responded to the claims. “Other people have backed me up on that, and recently, even Mick Mars said, ‘Yeah, they were always telling me, ‘Jake E. Lee, blah, blah, blah.’ So I wasn’t lying, and I don’t think I was saying anything mean. But Nikki got all [makes sound] about it.”
Lee then compared Sixx’s insult to a Tim Burton movie. “Here’s the thing I’ve been sitting on. It’s like he thinks he’s in a Tim Burton movie, calling me a shadowy worm. Which makes sense because he dresses like Beetlejuice, and he plays bass like Edward Scissorhands! I’ve been sitting on that for so long, I have to get it out there! And that’ll be the clickbait headline on the internet now.”
While Lee was working with Ozzy Osbourne, Mötley Crüe opened for him on the tour after their music caught his attention. The audience liked their performance, and both Mötley Crüe and Osbourne’s band members spent time together during the tour. However, things got tense later.
Lee revealed that Sixx and Tommy Lee approached him to replace Mick Mars as their guitarist. He then compared himself to Mars, saying he was more talented and better looking. According to Lee, it made sense that Mötley Crüe wanted to work with him after seeing his performance. However, he couldn’t join the band because Mick Mars’ relative was funding Mötley Crüe, meaning they couldn’t fire Mars.
“Nikki and Tommy wanted me in the band. They wanted me to replace Mick, which you can understand. I was better looking and better playing. They wanted me to replace Mick. Mick’s in-law or whatever was funding the band, so that didn’t happen,” Lee explained.
Mötley Crüe didn’t respond officially to Lee’s comments, but Nikki Sixx shared his thoughts on Twitter. He posted about how people with small careers often try to gain attention by making clickbait headlines about popular bands. He said this behavior was desperate, though he didn’t directly mention Lee.
