Rockers forge super group

Rock Star: Supernova bursts with talent

Alexa Stanard / Special to The Detroit News

Tommy Lee recruited its members. America chose its lead singer. Now Rock Star: Supernova, rock music's newest super band, is coming to Detroit.

Rock Star: Supernova was introduced to America during the second season of the CBS show "Rockstar," when Mötley Crüe drummer Lee and his bandmates -- former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted and former Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke -- chose Lukas Rossi as their front man from a group of 15 aspiring lead singers. The foursome will play the Fox Theatre on Monday.

CBS's "Rockstar," produced by reality-television king Mark Burnett, offers relatively unknown singers the chance to compete to front a world-famous band (or, in thecase of the second season, a new band comprising of world-famous rockers). The show's first season featured the remaining members of INXS searching for a replacement for the late Michael Hutchence.

Lee spoke with The Detroit News last week about how Rock Star: Supernova came to be, and why he's happy to have Rossi on board.

"I was just really into doing something totally new and something fresh," Lee said. "I love Mötley Crüe, but after two years of touring with them and playing the same songs, I thought, 'Oh my god, I'm going to kill myself.' That's why I do solo records and do stuff to keep my creative juices flowing.

"My kids go to school in Malibu, and Mark Burnett's kids go to the same school," he said. "I run into him all the time. My tour with Mötley Crüe was about to come to an end, and one day he asked me what I was up to and I said, 'I don't know, maybe I'll put together some super group.'

"He said, 'Why don't we do it on my show?' And before you know it, boom, it was on."

Lee then reached out to Newsted and Clarke, who hail from two of the best known rock bands of the '80s and '90s.

The three guided the show's weekly elimination process of the 15 would-be leads as music fans across the country voted for their favorites. Choosing a lead singer in front of a national audience was "a strange process," Lee said, but it allowed the band much greater reach in its search.

"We could have gone through our personal Rolodexes, but we never would have found this guy ever," Lee said. "We used the TV network and their money to search the planet. And it worked. Doing it on TV was a little strange. But at the end of the day, we got us a smoking singer."

That was Rossi, a Toronto-based singer/songwriter chosen in the show's finale, whose vocal stylings have earned him comparisons with Jeff Buckley and Radiohead's Thom Yorke.

"We found the ultimate front man," Lee said. "The way he moves, the way he sings -- you can't teach someone that. Lukas' original material by far, out of everyone else, his stuff smoked it. That's what I was curious about -- what kind of music can they bring to the party. That was a big deciding factor for me."

Rossi's original song, "Headspin," which he performed on the show, made it onto the band's self-titled debut album, released Nov. 21 on Epic Records and produced by Butch Walker, who's worked with Avril Lavigne, Pink and with Lee on his 2005 solo album, "Tommyland: the Ride."

The group, which was originally called Supernova but had to change its name after being sued by another band of the same name, kicked off its 27-city tour with a sold-out show on New Year's Eve in Las Vegas and will end in Long Beach, Calif., on Feb. 27. "Rockstar" runner-up Dilana opens for the band.

Lee, who was born in Athens, Greece, said he always hits Greektown when he visits Detroit and looks forward to introducing Rossi to the city's enthusiastic rock fans.

"Anybody who's a musician who plays Detroit knows they're some of the best music fans in the world," he said. "It's one of those cities I always look forward to coming to. Lukas is going to see what they bring in Detroit, and I'm sure it will be one of his favorites too."

Alexa Stanard is a Metro Detroit freelance writer.