Tommy Lee Denounces ‘Lame A–‘ Self-Promotion Amid L.A. Wildfires

Tommy Lee is sick of seeing his fellow musicians promoting themselves online amid the Southern California wildfires.

The Motley Crue drummer voiced his disdain for the practice in an Instagram post, which you can see below.

“Makes me fucking sick to see most people just [carrying] on … posting on lame ass social media!” he wrote. “Guys right now nobody gives a flying fuck when your record drops or the next concert is when so many people are in the middle of one of the biggest disasters of all time! I get that some comic relief is always [needed] but Jesus Christ leave it all alone and maybe just stop and see who needs help if you can.”

As the music industry settles into the new year, regular promotional activities have returned to a norm where a dozens of new albums and tour announcements occur weekly.

Naturally, this has spurred in uptick in tour flyers and the like being disseminated across social media feeds. For those going through difficult circumstances amid the wildfires, seeing others carry on with business as usual is understandably upsetting.

READ MORE: 13 New Rock + Metal Tours Announced the Past Two Weeks

Southern California Wildfires Have Forced More Than 200,000 Evacuations

The Southern California wildfires began on Jan. 7 in Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades neighborhood, quickly spreading throughout the city due to the excessive Santa Ana winds and dry conditions. The fires have killed at least 25 people, destroyed more than 12,000 structures and forced more than 200,000 Los Angeles residents to evacuate their homes as of Jan. 14.

Numerous L.A.-based musicians and music industry professionals have lost their homes in the disaster, including Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith and Primus guitarist Larry “Ler” LaLonde. Producer Bob Clearmountain, who’s helmed albums by Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, David Bowie and many others, also lost his Mix This! home studio in the blaze.

“I can’t really look back. I can’t spend too much time being bummed out about it,” Clearmountain told the Los Angeles Times. “I’ve got to say, ‘OK, what can I do?’ I’m going to change the style of what I do. I’m gonna do what I do, but do it differently, and hopefully it’ll be good, maybe better than what I was doing. That’s all I can think right now.”

Resources for Individuals in or Near Evacuation Zones

People in surrounding areas can get live updates for the fires on the app Watch Duty, which provides a map of the fires, alerts, smoke distance, flight trackers, evacuation orders, available shelters and more. The Watch Duty organization is powered by active and retired firefighters, dispatchers and first responders who monitor the circumstances in real time.

CalFire has also prepared a Go! Evacuation Guide for individuals who are preparing to evacuate. It has helpful pre-evacuation advice, power outage information, evacuation procedures, animal evacuation and what to do if you are trapped.

People can also donate to GlobalGiving’s California Wildlife Relief Fund to help provide food, fuel, clean water and shelter for those who were affected.

MusiCares also has resources available to music industry workers impacted by the natural disaster.