“I’ll tell you one thing we’re going to do at Donington,” stresses Tommy Lee, legendary drummer of the mega rock’n’roll band Mötley Crüe. “ We’re going to give it to you f****ing hard.”

“The Crüe”, as they are affectionately known by their millions of adoring fans, have always hit it hard, on and off stage, with a staggering intensity bordering on the impossible. To the last, they have all fallen foul of the law, have all been addicted to drugs and alcohol, left a trail of beautiful and exotic ladies behind them and sport more tats than the inmates of a South Central holding cell after a Mexican gang war.

Yet the band, who have sold more than 50 million albums worldwide, began innocently enough in 1981 via the auspices of founding members Tommy Lee (near right) and bassist Nikki Sixx (second right) who, after enlisting the services of Bob “Mick Mars” Deal (guitar) and the blond-maned singer Vince Neil, settled on their now-notorious moniker.

“When we started we were like this big cocktail,” recalls Nikki Sixx, now a keen photographer. “We were one part Sex Pistols, two parts AC/DC, three parts Aerosmith, three parts Rolling Stones and two parts Ramones, but now we are just a rock’n’roll band. It has all become this condensed gloop. We’ve been doing it so long we can’t sound like anyone else even if we wanted to.”

Undoubtedly unique, Mötley Crüe rose through the 1980s on a wave of make-no-bones, take-no- prisoners euphoria that, with their penchant for high heels, mucho make-up, endless groupie action and all things nefarious, epitomised the LA hair-metal scene, setting the bar for all others to reach. A string of three albums stamped their authority — Shout at the Devil (1983), Theatre of Pain (1985) and Girls Girls Girls (1987) — all of which proffered their raucous brand of heavy-duty glam metal, with lyrics espousing the virtues of lots of sex, drink, drugs and overwhelming decadence.

At their peak, the band notched up record sales while simultaneously bringing the house down with live shows that, using Lee’s love of circus and Sixx’s adoration of all things carnival, often involved revolving drum kits, a smattering of midgets, female acrobats and an overload of pyrotechnics.

“One of the things about Mötley is that we always feel it is our job to entertain the crowd,” says Lee who, born in Athens in 1962, is of Welsh and Greek descent. “People pay good money to see us so we are always trying to come up with something new. We want them to walk away saying, ‘F***; that was amazing!’ ”

Of course at times the crowd respond over-enthusiastically. “We’ve seen some weird shit,” remarks Lee, a supporter of animal rights and the campaign group PETA . “I once had a huge eyeball from some kind of animal thrown at us and it got lodged in the top of the drum riser. People get drunk and do stupid shit. I have pretty much seen it all.”

To be sure, a lot of people have seen rather a lot of Lee, whose home video antics with wife Pamela Anderson blazed through the internet like a premium virus in 1995. For his part, Sixx hit the headlines in 1987 after being declared legally dead after a heroin overdose, only for medics to bring him back with two shots of adrenalin — his two minutes on the other side being the inspiration for the song Kickstart My Heart.

“I didn’t think I’d even be alive now,” attests Sixx, 50. “Never mind playing music or getting up on stage and performing. Anything after 25 was inconceivable. When I had my thirtieth it was like, wow, this is what old age is like! Then you look across the room and you see this crazy looking gypsy pirate and it’s Keith Richards and you’re like, if he can do it, so can we.”

And, if recent reports are anything to go by, the band are back on top form. “We are really, really looking forward to playing the UK at the Download Festival,” chuckles Lee excitedly. “It’s a crazy line-up. A lot of the other guys on the bill are our friends so we’re going to have a shit load of fun. Hell, somebody’s getting pregnant for sure.”

So you haven’t calmed down then? “Hell, no! I am still the same as I ever was!” Lee replies.

And how does it feel to be known as one of the biggest, loudest, most excessive rock’n’roll bands in the whole world?

“Well for one thing . . . it certainly doesn’t suck.”

Chris Sullivan Mötley Crüe headline the second stage at the Download Festival on Friday at Donington Park, Derbyshire (www.download festival.co.uk; www.motley.com)

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