A chance meeting on New Year's Eve in 1994 produced one of the most famous love stories in rock history.

“He came up, grabbed me and licked my face,” Pamela Anderson told Movieline in 1995 of her first encounter with Tommy Lee. “I thought he was a cool, friendly, nice guy. I gave him my number.”

The Playboy Playmate and the Motley Crue drummer made their famous connection that night at Hollywood's Sanctuary Club, but the second date wouldn't come until six weeks later in Mexico. Anderson traveled there for a photo shoot, Lee showed up at the Ritz-Carlton where she was staying, and 96 hours later they had tied the knot in a beach wedding.

They skipped traditional wedding bands and got tattoos of each other's names on their ring fingers instead, then settled into a Malibu mansion and a "fantasy life," often indulging in martinis and joints before noon. There was also lots of sex, much of it well-publicized.

Electrician Rand Gauthier worked on-site at the couple's home and after becoming disgruntled over money, stole their infamous sex tape and released it to the world. Anderson later addressed the tape during a 2020 appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohencalling it "a compilation of vacations we were naked on."

The couple had two sons, Brandon Thomas in 1996 and Dylan Jagger in 1997. Brandon Thomas Lee is an actor who most notably stars in The Hills: New Beginnings.

In February 1998, Tommy Lee allegedly attacked Anderson while she was holding seven-week-old Dylan, and spent time in jail for felony spousal abuse. She filed for divorce later that year. Her "Tommy" ring finger tattoo was eventually touched up to say "Mommy" instead.

Still, “there was Tommy and then there was nobody else,” Anderson told People in 2015. “He was the love of my life. We had wild and crazy beginnings that was too much for both of us.”

Here's a look back at Lee and Anderson's romantic, rocky but never uninteresting relationship.

Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee Photos

See dozens of photos of one of rock's most famous couples.

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