SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Tommy Lee strode from the elevator on the second floor of the courthouse here last week with the sure step of a man in familiar surroundings.

Flanked by his lawyer and two sheriff's officers, the lanky musician facing a multimillion-dollar wrongful death suit moved quickly past reporters, jurors and a pair of young fans sporting nose rings and black T-shirts. He kept his eyes forward, his tattooed hands at his side and his mouth closed. After two decades in rock-n-roll, Lee knew the courthouse drill.

His career, from glam metal band Motley Crue to his current solo act — with doomed marriages to blonde startlets in between — is marked as much by mugshots and lawsuits as sold-out shows and hit records.

"That's how it's always been in my life," Lee once observed. "There's always a storm cloud lurking in the distance, waiting to f--- up everything good and perfect."

Lee spent the first part of the week in a courtroom here defending himself in a negligence suit brought by the parents of a 4-year-old who drowned in his pool. On Thursday, with that proceeding on a long weekend recess (testimony resumes Tuesday), Lee had to rise early and appear before a judge in another courtroom, this time in Malibu, concerning probation from a 1998 assault on ex-wife Pamela Anderson.

Looking wan and wearing what looked like the same suit and shirt he had worn the previous day, Lee, 40, stood silently as a skeptical prosecutor questioned whether he should be permitted to count a VH1 charity event and a visit to sailors in Pearl Harbor toward his remaining sentence of 237 hours of community service.

The judge ordered Lee and his lawyer back to court next month with a more detailed accounting of his activities at the "Save the Music" benefit and at the Hawaii naval base.

Lee's most famous legal woes certainly involve "Baywatch" pin-up Anderson, whom he married in a swimsuits-only Mexican ceremony five days after their first date. Their relationship seemed to be a whirlwind tour of the Los Angeles County court system, making stops in civil court, where the couple sued a pornographer for the sale of their X-rated home video; criminal court, where he pleaded no contest to striking her during a fight about a kitchen skillet; and family court, where the pair divorced and then waged a vicious battle for custody of their two sons.

But Lee's troubles with the law started long before Anderson. In 1980, Lee, the son of a Southern California road worker and a Greek immigrant beauty queen, and other members of Motley Crue shared a vermin-infested crash pad in Hollywood. According to the group tell-all "The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band," the city health department cited them for not emptying their trash. And the lock on the front door was perpetually broken because police officers responding to fights, drug use, noise or a combination routinely kicked the door down. Lee recalled fighting with a girlfriend nicknamed "Bullwinkle" so violently that officers burst into the home with guns drawn.

But the band's following grew, they signed with Elektra records and in 1983, they played sold-out arenas on an all heavy-metal tour that included Ozzy Osbourne and Van Halen. Making it big brought Motley Crue a whole new set of problems. In 1987, a Florida real estate agent sued the group for hearing damage she suffered while sitting in front row seats at show. The band's insurance company eventually paid the woman $30,000. A year later, two Alabama boys filed suit against the band for injuries they received during a pyrotechnics display in Motley Crue's "Theater of Pain" tour. Insurance paid the boys, one of whom lost an eye, upwards of $175,000.

During the same period, Lee, the drummer, became notorious on the concert circuit for mooning his audience. When the band rolled into Cincinnati in 1989, police were ready. When Lee dropped his leather g-string before the crowd of 12,353 people, officers arrested him on disorderly conduct charges, a misdemeanor that carried a small fine.

In 1986, Lee and "Dynasty" actress Heather Locklear wed and the marriage was a stabilizing influence on the rocker. But when they split in 1993, his problems began again.

In February 1994, Lee packed a loaded .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol and 10 hollow-point bullets in his carry-on luggage and tried to board a plane at Los Angeles International Airport. He pleaded no contest and was sentenced to a year's probation.

Later that year, police handcuffed and then released him after a brawl at a Los Angeles nightclub. And a few days before Christmas, police arrested him at his Malibu home after an argument with his fiancee, Bobbie Brown, the blonde star of Warrant's "Cherry Pie" video. Lee claims he never touched her and she simply flagged down a patrol car after he kicked her out of the house and demanded a $15,000 engagement ring back. He spent three hours in jail and the pair reconciled briefly.

He met and married Anderson in 1995. Lee recorded some memorable moments of their honeymoon in a Lake Mead houseboat with a video camera. According to Lee, the tape was stolen from a locked safe in the couple's home while they were vacationing in London. When the X-rated video appeared on the Internet, Lee and Anderson sued the distributors. On the advice of their lawyers, Lee claims, he and Anderson reached an out of court settlement allowing a one-time webcast of the video.

"We thought we had won," Lee wrote in "The Dirt." "Hardly anyone would see the video on the Internet and we could recover the tape and start over."

A year later, however, the video was being sold widely and Penthouse planned to publish images from the tape. The couple sued again and lost.

The couple's relationship began to deteriorate. On a night in February 1998, Anderson summoned police to their Malibu mansion and showed them red marks on her back and a broken fingernail. Lee, she said, had kicked and pushed her while she was holding one of their young sons. Lee was booked on charges of spousal abuse, child abuse and a firearms violation. He later said he had lost his temper after he couldn't find the right pan to cook vegetables. He pleaded no contest to felony corporal injury to a spouse and spent four months in jail. While behind bars, Anderson began divorce proceedings.

"My stir-fry had turned into a nightmare," he later said.

After his release, he and Anderson made a failed attempt at reconciliation. When they separated for good, Anderson reportedly told prosecutors that Lee had violated the terms of his probation by drinking. A judge jailed him for five days and tacked three additional years to his probation.

In 1999, Lee quit Motley Crue and released a rap-metal record under the name Methods of Mayhem. It was a sales disappointment and got middling reviews.

In 2001, Anderson filed for full custody of their children, Dylan and Brandon, alleging Lee was unfit and calling him "a very angry, unstable man who presents a danger to others." After a two-year battle, the pair reached an agreement in January 2003 to share custody.

It was during the bitter battle for his children that Lee threw the fateful pool party. On July 16, 2001, Daniel Karven-Veres, a preschool friend of Dylan Lee, drowned during a birthday celebration for Brandon Lee, 5. His parents accused Lee of negligence and filed suit. Anderson is on their witness list and could be called to the stand next week to attack her former husband's credibility.

Lee toured last year to promote a new album, the aptly named "Never A Dull Moment," but much of the press coverage focused not on his music, but the upcoming drowning trial, Anderson and the videotape. Doesn't all the craziness bother you, one interviewer asked.

"You know what? I don't think I'd have it any other way," he replied.