Tommy Lee and Ludacris Go Green
By Tine Roycroft

“Going green.” It’s the phrase on everyone’s lips these days. No, your girlfriend isn’t about to unload after one too many Sour Apple Martinis. It has to do with the roommate who was once the main proponent of Aqua Net now letting her locks hang loose and unsprayed. It has to do with the guy at work who formally printed out reams and reams of pointless emails per day now bookmarking certain sites and saving a small forest. It has to do with saving the planet.

“Going green” is necessary. “Going green” can be trendy. But whether you are a staunch advocate of saving the planet or just have a passing interest because you heard Nicole Richie is doing it, it requires a lifestyle change. And those aren’t always so easy to make. But that’s where rocker Tommy Lee and rapper Chris “Ludacris” Bridges come into the picture with their new cable television show, Battleground Earth.

The green premise? These two outrageous personalities must use their wits and the talents of their teammates to overcome weekly green challenges such as finding alternative fuel sources, deducing how to keep water supplies clean and taking a more in depth look at recycling. The green reward? Saving the planet is certainly always a good thing, but on the business side, the winner will have the honor of performing at a huge and (yes! Earth friendly!) concert while the loser will take his place as an opening act.

Johnny Colt, 40, the original bassist for The Black Crowes and now playing in the band Train, is a member of Tommy Lee’s team and says the experience has been eye-opening. But although Battleground Earth has educated Colt, he said that even prior to the show, he was on his way to being “green.”

“Well, I married a woman from San Francisco,” joked Colt in a recent interview. “And she had a compost pile. So I thought I was covered. Then I got a call from Tommy Lee. He said, ‘I’m going to do this show.’ He called me because I’m the only guy Tommy knows with a calculator.”

Colt went on to explain that because of a combination of his admirable traits ~ an ability to do math and the fact that he is clean, sober and responsible ~ made Colt an invaluable member of Tommy Lee’s green team. Sure, it was an honor just to be asked, said Colt. But this bassist had other reasons for signing on for the adventure.

“It was the fact that Tommy called me and told me he was going green on television,” Colt said. “And I had to see that. I wanted the best seat in the house to see Tommy Lee go green. I mean, that’s hilarious.”

Apart from seeing his longtime bad boy bud concentrate on reusing and recycling, according to Colt, Battleground Earth opened Colt’s eyes. He now says that he lives much more consciously; he bikes as often as possible, uses as little energy as he can and is dedicated to leaving a very light ecological footprint.

Enter Tony “4-IZE” Hayes III to help Ludacris attempt to solve a few green mysteries. 4-IZE, 30, began rapping in 1991 with his first group ~ a collection of talent and hotness that included Luda.

“We were on the same little league team,” recalled 4-IZE about Ludacris. “We were the only black kids on the team. And he asked me to play catch. Or I asked him. Then we became best friends. We were, like, 12.”

The two friends began rapping together and then supported each other through their respective music careers. 4-IZE and Ludacris left the baseball field and the recording studios behind, however, to rise to the challenge of Battleground Earth.

“It’s educational shenanigans,” 4-IZE said of the show. “We’re learning about the environment and what we can do to preserve the natural resources and beauty. But at the same time, we have fun things, celebrities and pranks and jokes.”

4-IZE said he enjoyed many of the challenges on the show and didn’t want to give too much away but did say his favorite challenge was one in which pretty girls in bikinis walked back and forth on an obstacle course, substituting glasses of polluted water for glasses of clean H2O. Surely this eco act was noble, but the bikini-clad babes could not have hurt either.

Clearly, these two musicians and their BFFs have learned a thing or three about keeping it real and keeping it green and having a fun time all the while. But to find out who rises to the eco-occasion and wins the concert, tune into the Discovery Channel’s Battleground Earth this fall and test your own ecological innovation during the show’s ten-episode season.