Growing up and seeing her brother play, it comes as no surprise to learn that Athena Lee went in the same direction as Tommy Lee and became a drummer herself. As stated in her AHEAD profile, Athena has played for several rock groups, including the all-female acts Butt Trumpet, Hardly Dangerous, and Femme Fatale. She also formed her own band KrunK with her ex-husband James Kottak, who was a drummer for the German rock group Scorpions, in the late '90s. The couple, however, separated in 2010, leading Athena to leave Krunk and join Femme Fatale. (KrunK was also later renamed Kottak.)
According to her interview with LightArt in 2015, Athena taught herself how to play drums. She remembers playing around with her brother's drum kit as a teenager, re-arranging his things whenever he's away on a tour and then putting it all back just before he'd get home. "After I'd play, I'd put everything back, and he never knew," she told Modern Drummer in 2006. When Tommy Lee did teach her some tricks, Athena said she was instantly hooked. "I grew up a dancer — not a stripper, a dancer — and every kind of beat moved me. So going to the drums was kind of a natural thing," she said.
For her musical talents, Athena won Best Female Drummer at the 2nd Rock City Awards Show in 1997. She was also nominated as Best Drummer at the 7th L.A. Music Awards that same year — making her the first female to ever be nominated in the history of the awards show, per AHEAD.
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