Tommy Lee, 49

At 16 I already knew what I wanted to do. I’d go to school but only to my favourite classes – music and graphic art. Oh yeah, and co-ed volleyball. I never understood why you’d want to play basketball or football with a bunch of other guys – I wanted to play sports with the girls. After school I’d race home to play my drums. I had a band that I played with in my garage. I was pretty determined I was going to be a drummer.

My dad was so supportive of me, whatever I wanted to do. He built me a soundproof room in the garage so I could practise my drums. I have the fondest memories of us sitting in the backyard together blowing things up, wiring up pyrotechnics or building light boxes, so that when the band played we had all these effects. When I joined Mötley Crüe he and my mom came to the shows and rocked out.

I wasn’t a wild kid at school. It was when I left school, joined Mötley Crüe and started touring the world that I turned into a maniac. That’s what happens when you’re just a kid and suddenly you’re going round the world experiencing anything and everything.

If I met the 16-year-old Tommy Lee now, we’d still have a lot in common. I swear there’s a part of me that has never grown up and I’m sure it never will. I still drag that little guy around with me every day. What would he think of me? He’d be shocked by certain things I’ve done. I guess there’s certain things, probably some of the naughtier things – the drugs, the women – that would shock him. He’d be very inquisitive, he’d want to know it all, but I’d try to protect him, like I try to shelter my own sons.

If I could give my younger self advice, I’d tell him not to let anyone tell him what’s cool. A lot of people in the music industry listen to too many other people. Once in a while I found myself doing that, then I’d pull myself up and say, ‘Why are you listening to him, you know what you’re doing?’ I feel like I have my finger on the pulse as to what is cool and what people like, so should I sit here, listening to a guy who works in an office, telling me what’s cool? I don’t think so.

It bothered me that people paid more attention to my marriage [to Pamela Anderson] than my music. It was just a phase in my life that I went through. It all comes with the territory when you marry another high-profile person.

I’d tell the younger Tommy that when it comes to drugs and drink, try it all – he will anyway – and then you’ll figure out what works for you and what doesn’t. I’ve done some stupid things, but I think I learned from them so I wouldn’t say I regret them.

Looking back, I still think some of my happiest times were with me and my dad when I was a kid. I start to smile whenever I think of him. He died about six or seven years ago. He loved to sit by the lake, so a few days before he died I rented a big house boat and I took him out there in his wheelchair. We spent a couple of days by the lake just talking and I got to say everything I needed to say to him. I’m so glad I got the chance to do that. I miss him a lot.