Tommy Lee Used To Drink 2 Gallons of Vodka Every Day — Now What?
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Anyone who grew up with heavy metal and the Mötley Crüe knows of famed drummer Tommy Lee. With his long hair, myriad tattoos, and very hearty partying, he embodied the lifestyle of the hard rock musician — until he realized the toll it was taking on his life. While many celebrities have since opened up about their struggles with alcohol, Tommy Lee’s recounting of his days drinking “two gallons of vodka a day” just might top the charts. To follow his journey to sobriety, let’s first take a trip down memory lane back to the ‘80s and the rise of Tommy Lee’s star. While we may not be Tommy Lee, we can learn from his sobriety and maybe become rock stars of our own journey!
Tommy Lee rose to stardom as a founding member of the heavy metal band Mötley Crüe, formed in 1981. In 1983, their album Shout at the Devil was released and became the band’s breakthrough to stardom. Mötley Crüe is may be best known, however, for their wild lifestyle. In their autobiography titled The Dirt, the band shared their infamous partying ways and recalled popping handfuls of pills and pounding bottles of booze. Lee also described his habit of downing two gallons of vodka every day.
Tragically, one night in 1984, some of the band members went for a liquor run that ended up in a fatal accident. One of the members, Nicholas “Razzle” Dingley, died and another, Vince Neil, was sent to jail. Tensions mounted within the band, and a third member, Nikki Sixx, suffered a heroin overdose that almost took his life. In 1990, Lee and other band members noted, “Someone’s going to not wake up one morning. Like, this is getting f–ing ridiculous, right?” They decided to abandon their raucous and risky ways.
After the band cleaned up their act, their music continued to gain popularity, and they formed their own label. In 1995, Lee married Pamela Anderson after meeting her just 96 hours earlier. Three years later, Lee served a suspended prison sentence due to a domestic altercation with his wife. They divorced, and Lee quit Mötley Crüe to pursue his solo career. He formed Methods of Mayhem and also starred in several TV shows. The band reunited in 2004 and announced their final tour in 2015. In 2019, Lee married actress Brittany Furlan, to whom he’s still married. Although Tommy Lee reports that he’s sober today, he recalls battling with alcohol misuse for the majority of his adulthood. Let's get a clearer picture.
“Alcoholism,” or alcohol use disorder (AUD), is characterized by an impaired ability to quit or cut back on alcohol despite the adverse effects it has on our life. Many factors contribute to the risk of developing AUD. For Tommy Lee, the presence of alcohol and other drugs that played such a large part in his hard rock lifestyle simply added to the normalization of his excessive drinking. Other major life events, including the death of a fellow band member and multiple divorces, may have contributed to his drinking habits.
Lee’s struggles with AUD both improved and worsened over the years. He later recalled in a podcast that “It’s easy to fall in love with the way it [alcohol] makes you feel, where it makes you relax, and then all of a sudden you’re like [...] ‘I’m drinking two gallons of vodka a day’?” Lee reports that he became immune to his excessive drinking, as it became so normal for him and his bandmates. His experience points up the way alcohol is often used as a coping mechanism or “escape”, which can quickly turn into misuse.
During the band’s final tour, Lee shares that he was mostly “drinking out of boredom” — highlighting how excessive drinking can become habitual. All of the consequences of Lee’s long stint of heavy alcohol consumption are not known, but he admits to feeling like his liver was “on crutches.”
Let’s explore other negative effects of excessive drinking, and see what was going on in Tommy Lee’s body.
Drinking vodka every day, especially excessively (like Tommy Lee’s two gallons a day), is detrimental to multiple aspects of life. Negative effects of drinking vodka every day include the following:
Like Tommy Lee, we open the door to many potential consequences by drinking excessively. Tommy Lee is now sober: how did he go from drinking two gallons of vodka a day to sobriety?
The journey to sobriety consists of many different stages and experiences. However, there are three major components in the journey to sobriety.
As we can see, the journey to sobriety can be rocky. However, highs and lows teach us a lot about it. What can we take away from Tommy Lee’s story?
Tommy Lee, among many other celebrities, has opened up about his alcohol misuse in order to bring awareness of AUD to a wide audience.
Lee’s story can inspire us to start our own journey to sobriety. What lessons can we take with us?
Lee went from drinking two gallons of vodka a day to sobriety. The journey and practices he shares can help us navigate our own commitment to a better relationship with alcohol.
Among the takeaways from Tommy Lee’s story are these: It’s never too late to commit to sobriety and a healthier life and, like Lee, no matter what our current relationship with alcohol is, we can recover by committing to change. We can become the rock stars of our own journey!
1. What factors affected Tommy Lee, his vodka consumption, and his alcohol use disorder?
Excessive drinking and partying were a big part of his hard rock lifestyle. Tommy Lee reported that he fell in love with the way alcohol made him feel and noted that at one point he was drinking out of boredom.
2. Is Tommy Lee sober today?
Tommy Lee reports that he remains sober to this day.
3. Is drinking a pint of vodka every day a lot?
Yes. Moderate consumption guidelines are one standard drink or less per day for women and two standard drinks or less per day for men. One standard drink is about 1.5 ounces. A pint (16 ounces) is more than 10 times a standard drink.
4. Did Tommy Lee drink a gallon of vodka a day?
Tommy Lee reports drinking not one but two gallons of vodka a day during the peak of his vodka consumption habit. With that amount, which totals 256 ounces or 16 pints, Lee was consuming more than 85 times the moderate consumption guidelines for men of two 1.5-ounce alcoholic drinks or less per day.
5. What are the consequences of drinking vodka every day?
Excessive drinking leads to physical health problems such as liver damage, mental health issues such as depression and anxiety, and societal consequences such as public intoxication and DUIs.
6. What can we learn from Tommy Lee’s journey to sobriety?
Tommy Lee’s journey to sobriety shines a light on the normalization of excessive drinking and the detrimental effects it has on all areas of our lives.
7. How did Tommy Lee stop drinking two gallons of vodka per day?
Tommy Lee received professional treatment for his alcohol use disorder and attributed his recovery to his commitment to change and his support system at home.
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