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Mötley Crüe Coaster Suit Dismissed
A superior court judge in Los Angeles has dismissed a suit against Tommy Lee and Mötley Crüe from a man who claimed the band stole an idea for a stunt performed during a 2011 tour.
Photo: Rick Diamond
Atlanta’s Fourth of July fireworks were matched by the explosive performance by Methods of Mayhem and Tommy Lee.
Howard King alleged the stunt, which featured Tommy Lee playing drums while strapped to a drum kit on a circular track, was ripped off from an idea for a “Tommy Lee Loop Coaster” he came up with 20 years prior.
Specifically, the suit said King had formally presented his coaster idea to the band’s agents in 1991 after they signed a nondisclosure agreement. In her ruling, Judge Lisa Cole wrote King failed to present evidence of the purported NDA or any other documentation of a meeting with the agents.
The plaintiff also failed to present evidence that he’d dropped off a package for Tommy Lee that included the loop coaster idea, court documents note.
A motion for summary judgment was granted to Mötley Crüe on the basis that King failed to “take reasonable steps to keep his loop coaster secret” and “disclosed the idea to numerous persons without securing an NDA.”
“In addition, the undisputed facts establish that there was no improper use of the loop coaster idea, as the drum ring was developed independently of [King’s] idea,” the judge wrote.