Switching rides with Tommy Lee has its perks — including, as a friend of the Mötley Crüe drummer recently discovered, avoiding the occasional narrow brush with death.

TMZ reports that Lee was tooling around Malibu with an unidentified friend last weekend when his riding partner suggested they switch motorcycles. According to the gossip network's sources, it was only "minutes later" that Lee's pal was rear-ended by a car — causing a wreck that would have "utterly destroyed" his own bike.

Lee's friend was still reportedly rushed to the hospital, where he was treated for "multiple vertebrae fractures," but TMZ's sources say he's expected to recover. Had he been riding the smaller cycle he started the day with, he might not have been so lucky.

Aside from riding, Lee's been keeping busy with an assortment of musical projects since saying goodbye to Mötley Crüe. His EDM quartet WTF? -- a collaboration with deadmau5, Steve Duda and DJ Aero -- recently made an appearance in Atlanta.

Lee also contributed music and production to Sufferjoy, a project spearheaded by an artist named Anna Montgomery. Exhorting fans to "check this now" and "crank it," Lee shared the track "Rise Rhythm" on his Facebook page over the summer.

"I’m really looking forward to 2016 for when I can actually follow through with my vision and what I want to do, and not have to just kind of drop it," Lee told Your EDM. "I’ve been frustrated for a few years like that. But it’s all about to be cool. I’m real optimistic about some stuff here in the future when I actually get to follow through with what I do."

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