Throwback Thursday: The Night Tommy Lee Got Set On Fire In Wyoming
The new Netflix movie The Dirt documents Motley Crue in all of their bombastic, ridiculous glory. During four decades of decadence, the band narrowly survived car accidents, drug overdoses, and an ant-snorting contest with Ozzy. One death-defying moment that didn't make the movie took place in Casper, Wyo. when Tommy Lee (literally) went up in flames.
October 12, 2005, the Crue were 17-songs into their Carnival of Sins set at the Casper Events Center. During the drum solo, Lee was swinging above the stage on a wire when he was burned on the face and hands in a pyrotechnics accident. He played another song before the show was cut short and he was rushed to the Wyoming Medical Center.
"He didn't look good while the paramedics were treating him backstage, so we chose to err on the side of caution and send him to the hospital," singer Vince Neil told People.
Luckily, Tommy escaped with only minor injuries and was released later that night.
The 2005 show was the Crue's third trip to Casper. Two decades earlier, in November of 1985, they rocked the Events Center on the Theatre of Pain tour. They returned in the summer of 1999, teaming up with the Scorpions on the Maximum Rock Tour. They also played at Cheyenne Frontier Days in 2011.