Tommy Lee strikes up
the band in Nebraska

Motley Crue drummer says playing
halftime show was ‘awesome’

Dave Weaver / AP

Rocker Tommy Lee of Motley Crue fame, second right, plays with members of the University of Nebraska marching band at the halftime of the Nebraska-Baylor game before 77,881 red-clad football fans, in Lincoln, Neb., on Saturday. Lee is in Lincoln filming a reality show for which he is taking classes at Nebraska, including chemistry and the history of rock and roll.

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updated 5:37 p.m. ET Oct. 19, 2004

LINCOLN, Neb. - Drummer Tommy Lee has played plenty of stadium shows with his band Motley Crue. But none was quite like his performance with the University of Nebraska marching band before 77,881 red-clad football fans.

“Oh yeah, it’s real different,” Lee said of Saturday’s halftime show at the Baylor-Nebraska game in Memorial Stadium. “That was awesome, absolutely great.”

Lee is in Lincoln filming a prospective NBC-TV reality show in which he takes classes at Nebraska including chemistry and the history of rock ’n’ roll. If the show makes the cut, it is scheduled to air on NBC in July.

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He tried out for the marching band’s drum line earlier in the week.

Lee, 42, joined the band in the stands in full uniform, playing along with other drummers, a broad smile on his face.

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Lee took part in the band’s Latin music halftime show, playing a rack of five tom-toms carried on his shoulders. A cheer went up from the stands as Lee was shown on the stadium’s giant TV screens during a rendition of the Cuban song “Malaguena.”

Lee also came out of the stands twice to man a hand-held compressed-air cannon that shoots hot dogs into the stands. “It’s awesome, dude,” Lee exclaimed after his first shot. “You can launch a wiener.”