Published reports indicate Lee burned his hand last week while playing with sparklers, and the band’s Nikki Sixx confirms this with a posting on his MySpace blog.

Writes Sixx:

“Yes Tommy messed up his hand pretty bad, and yes accidents do happen and yes frustration does happen to everybody including Tommy who would rather play drums (even with a damaged hand) than just about anything in the whole world.”

Sixx goes on to say the band had a choice – either find a replacement drummer or cancel a few Crue Fest shows. Fortunately for the band’s fans, they were able to find a replacement.

He’s Sevendust drummer Morgan Rose, who will keep the Crüe beat for a few days while Lee recovers. But that doesn’t mean Lee is totally out of the picture. He’s still playing in the band, just not on drums.

“Until then,” writes Sixx, “he is at all the shows, jumping around, helping out with vocals and playing piano ever so lightly on Home Sweet Home …”

One thing we’d like to point out about Sixx’s blog posting is the rocker takes into consideration what canceling a few dates would mean, not only for the band, but also for fans and everyone involved with the tour. That’s a consideration you don’t see every day.

“I think Morgan needs a standing ovation for his dedication to kicking ass and helping not only Motley Crue out, but the road crew and everybody else out here whose life’s (sic) would been effected (sic)… Thank you bro.”

Of course, when you’ve been in a band like Mötley Crüe for as long as Sixx has, you become accustomed to injuries bizarre accidents band catastrophes unexpected changes. Apparently Sixx has learned over the years to shrug off problems like Lee’s injury, as demonstrated in the last sentence of his posting:

“As for now, Motley Crue is a five-piece band… making history, one injury at a time… hahaha…”

Click here for Nikki Sixx’s MySpace blog.

Click here for the Mötley Crüe Web site.