Before there was Chris Rock and Will Smith at the Oscars, there was Kid Rock and Tommy Lee at the MTV Video Music Awards. Their surprise fight at the 2007 ceremony still came as a shock to those in the audience and forever put Kid Rock and Tommy Lee at odds with one another.
Videos by American Songwriter
What caused the two musicians to make things physical? Find out the story behind their beef below.
A Fight Over Pamela Anderson?
There are several leading theories as to why a fight broke out between Rock and Lee. From the looks of things, Lee walked over to say “hi” to Rock’s seatmate, Sean “Diddy” Combs, and somehow pissed off the “All Summer Long” singer in the process.
Given that both musicians dated Pamela Anderson, most people chalk the fight up to hard feelings about the actress. Kid Rock has denied that claim.
“It has the farthest thing to do from that,” he once explained on The Mikey Morning Show (quote via Metal Underground). “That was probably the best thing I ever did, was get out of that, the day I filed for divorce. In hindsight, you can never tell anyone anything about love, but I went through what I went through, and there’s no doubt it wasn’t love.”
Rock went on to say that he felt Lee had been disrespectful to him for a long time and coming back to find the Motley Crue drummer in his seat felt like an affront he had to deal with – hands-on.
“Well, there’s a lot of history there, obviously,” he continued in the Mikey Morning Show interview. “It’s just a lot of mouth talking, a lot being extremely disrespectful for a long time. To even be in the same room, it’s kinda like… I was trying to figure out why is this…whatever, 45-year-old man, who’s not involved with the show, who doesn’t have an album coming out, who has nothing to promote, even sitting through this garbage.
“So I’m trying to figure out what this guy’s doing there, so whatever, I let that go,” he continued. “And then when I came back from the bathroom he’s pretty much sitting in my seat. I’m like, that’s it.”
Lee has played coy about the incident. “[I was] minding my own biz when I get a tap on the shoulder from Kid Pebble,” he said. “I stand up and embrace him with a semi-hug and say, ‘Hey dude. What up?’ He punches me in the face.”
Kid Rock was charged with a misdemeanor for punching Lee but wasn’t taken into custody. Both parties were escorted out of the ceremony.
Despite Rock claiming Anderson was not an inciting force in the fight, the Baywatch star made a sly comment about the incident on her website shortly after the altercation.
“Funny how things reveal themselves—I’m happy I have my wonderful children and great friends and lovers — Life is good — Vegas is fun,” she wrote (per People). “I’m still living the dream.”
Check out a clip of the moment below.
(Photo by Brian Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images)
