Motley Crue Sues: Our Managers F'ed Us!

Posted Jun 18th 2007 7:49PM by TMZ Staff

Legendary hard rockers Motley Crue have filed a $20 million lawsuit against one of their managers, claiming "greed," "extortionist tactics" and terrible career advice caused the band to lose millions of dollars in profits and tarnished the band's stellar reputation.

In the lawsuit, filed today in Los Angeles County Superior Court, the four founding members of the band (Nikki Sixx, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Tommy Lee) through Motley Crue Inc., claim manager Carl Stubner and Sanctuary Management Group gave them bad business advice and attempted to "divert revenue from [the band] and redirect it to themselves.

Furthermore, the suit claims, Stubner forced Tommy Lee to "to become engaged in 'reality' projects that were bad career moves for Lee, harming [Sixx, Mars, Neil and Lee], the Motley Crue brand and Lee's own image." The suit calls the low-rated NBC show "Tommy Lee Goes to College" a "critical disappointment and a ratings disaster," adding it painted Lee as "incoherent, lazy and incompetent" and made him "look like a laughing stock who could not carry a drum beat." The suit also claims Lee's participation on "Rock Star: Supernova" "diminished the public's interest in Lee and their overall perception of his musical talents."

Because Lee was so busy doing reality TV, the band says he was unavailable to tour with the Crue, thus causing the cancellation of several key concert dates. The band claims that they lost $8 million in ticket and merchandise revenue because of Lee's scheduling conflicts. These conflicts, the band says, were "both real and concocted" by Stubner to "leverage his control over Lee to his financial advantage and to Motley Crue and Lee's detriment."

A call to Sanctuary was not immediately returned.

UPDATE: Tommy Lee's lawyer Barbara Berkowitz tells TMZ that her client isn't involved in the case. In an email, Berkowitz writes, " Mr. Lee was neither consulted regarding this matter nor authorized the lawsuit. Mr. Lee has not made any allegations against his current personal manager. Mr. Lee feels fortunate to have been part of the Motley Reunion tour, as well as other opportunities outside of Motley Crue over the past several years. It is unfortunate that others believe that they all could have made more money had Mr. Lee exclusively participated in the band that he co-founded in 1980. "

Filed under: Celebrity Justice, Movies

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(Page 6 of 6)Previous 15 Comments

76. dude, the crue hasn't release a "full album" since New Tattoo. Re-releasing songs with one new song or two isn't a "full album"

Posted at 6:14PM on Jun 19th 2007 by bunnyboo

77. Who's Motley Crue?

Posted at 7:07PM on Jun 19th 2007 by Hank

78. Never was a big fan of this band.

Posted at 3:35AM on Jun 20th 2007 by Madeline

79. I agree with "That Girl". I thought the same thing. What about Vince Neal on the Surreal Life?? That was way worst then Tommy Goes to College. I actually thought Tommy came off as sweet and not at all big on himself which is nice to see.

Posted at 1:04PM on Jun 20th 2007 by Danielle

80. wisegirl - Sixties and seventies rock snobbery is erroneous here. I thought so too, (fluff) until I seriously listened to Motley Crue albums in their entirety. I no longer wrote them off as fluff musically. They were one of the best for what they do. They just veered away from self-indulgent 18 minute songs like Floyd or Tull, or indulgent head space drum/vocal solos like Zepp. They DID basically stick to song length suitable for radio air play, as was done and advised in the day even thought they were too metal for much mainstream airplay, but their tunes have an energy and distinct style that IMHO definitely sets them apart as Crue. They were far better than most of the common hair bands. Not correct to categorize them as such just because it was 'around that time'.

Posted at 1:38PM on Jun 20th 2007 by Girl, girl, girl musician

81. Harv has turned into an egotist. These storylines are lame . The censors are going hog wild because now everyone is giving harv payola to kill bad bloggers . This site is lame and a shame . Don't insult PAmela Anderson --MONEY !! And sure as hell don't be funnier than the lame writers who drink voodka then write this crap . I'm outa ' here . TMZ SUCKS !!

Posted at 10:13PM on Jun 20th 2007 by TMZ SUCKS DRY BONE

82. TMZ SUCKS !

Posted at 10:15PM on Jun 20th 2007 by TMZ SUCKS

83. FOR ALL OF YOU WHO DONT REMEMBER THE CRUE RULES THE ROCK WORLD IN THE EIGHTIES AND THEY STILL RULE TODAY. ITS A SHAME THAT THEY CANT EVEN TRUST THEIR MANAGERS. AND AS FOR THE COMMENTS ABOUT THEM BEING OLD OLD OLD AND DRUG ADDICTS, MAYBE YOU SHOULD GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT, FIRST THAY MAY BE GETTING OLDER BUT CAN STILL ROCK WITH THE BEST AND JUST TRY GETTING TICKETS TO A MOTLEY CRUE SHOW AND YOU WILL SEE JUST HOW LOVED THEY STILL ARE, SECOND AS FOR THEM BEING NOTHING BUT DRUG ADDICTS MAYBE YOU SHOULD KNOW MORE BEFORE YOU OPEN YOUR BIG MOUTHS. THEY ARE RECOVERING ADDICTS WHO HAVE LEARNED FROM THERE MIS FORTUNES. NIKKI SIXX SUPPORTS AND CO FOUNDED CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT AN OFGANIZATIONS THAT HELP CHILDREN IN THE STREETS. AND IS ABOUT TO HAVE PUBLISHED A NEW BOOK CALLED THE HEROIN DIARIES ( ABD YES ITS ABOUT HIS DRUG USE DAYS AND ITS TO HELP TO DETOUR TEENS TO NOT TAKE THE SAME PATH HE DID. TO ME THAT SOUND PRETTY AMAZING YOU GO NIKKI YOU HAVE MILLIONS OF FANS BEHIND YOU WHO LOVE YOU

Posted at 9:58PM on Jun 21st 2007 by PAULINE

84. #13 Sandra: you're a stripper who does private parties on boats, yet you are surprised when the men there have no respect for women? Hmmmm ..... does anybody else see a connection between those two things?

Posted at 12:44AM on Jun 22nd 2007 by Stripper Sandra, get a clue.

85. They sucked in the 80's,so why would anyone want to hear them now???????????

Posted at 12:20AM on Jun 23rd 2007 by Shane

86. Because Tommy Lee has been a higher profile and kept himself in the spotlight for the past 10 years (due to his management) has made this band still relevant today. If not for Tommy Lee, Motley Crue would be long forgotten and touring clubs instead of arenas. The band should really drop their egos, look at the past 10 years and then quickly drop this stupid lawsuit.

Posted at 3:11AM on Jun 24th 2007 by Jamie

87. All the haters can go back to their Michael Jackson records. Face the facts..........Crue will always be themselves. Thats why they still have fans. And I doubt if they're doing this for the money, get real you idiots the guys are rich. If someone takes money out of my pocket they get sued. It's the American way. All the haters go ''Beat It'' with your one glove on. you pathetic losers................I'll be ''Shouting at the Devil'' and kicking azz

Posted at 12:36AM on Jul 4th 2007 by Metal4ever

88. The reason that people have lost interest is because:

1. You are OLD.
2. You are OLD.
3. Your music hasn't grown with the times.
4. You blame your poor career paths onto someone other than yourselves.
5. You are has beens....retire while you're ahead.

Posted at 4:52PM on Jul 8th 2007 by Hang it up GUYS

89. Crue was cool, but Tommy Lee is a bigger brand name now. This ought to be interesting, it looks in a lot of ways like Tommy Lee's manager did do as alleged, he did what was best for Tommy. If Tommy didn't feel this was in his best interest, I am sure he would be in the studio recording a new crue album or on tour supporting it somewhere. Only the Palms Security can stop T Lee!

The reunion tour was neat to go see, but it wasn't the crue of old. Can't believe it did 30M!

Its interesting theres no mention of Vinces reality show...

Posted at 5:17PM on Sep 13th 2007 by Long Live Scotty J!

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