Mötley Crüe made their big return to the stage earlier this month, and after five songs into their set, drummer Tommy Lee was forced to exit the stage due to an injury he sustained prior to the show that involved four broken ribs. Since then, he's been unable to complete full sets on the glam-metal band's current comeback tour with Def Leppard, Poison and Joan Jett and the Black Hearts, so former Ozzy drummer Tommy Clufetos has been filling in behind the kit.
Despite the obvious severity of the injury that's been having a huge impact on his ability to perform, Lee refused to reveal how he actually broke four of his ribs — but now his wife has. In a recent video posted to her Snapchat (transcribed by Blabbermouth) Lee's wife of three years, Brittany Furlan, gave a detailed breakdown of what exactly happened to Lee and how he handled it.
"Everyone keeps asking how Tommy broke his ribs, so I'm just gonna tell you. We were staying at an old rental house in Nashville — it was a cool, old quirky house. 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.
"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 they 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. Anyway, that's what happened."
So now we know.
