Born to David Lee Thomas Bass, an American army sergeant, and Vassilikki “Voula” Papadimitriou, Miss Greece (for the 1960 Miss World event), the family moved to Los Angeles when Athena was two years old. The most influential people in her life are her parents and brother, Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee (link to Tommy Lee’s page)
She started her music career as a member of the punk group Butt Trumpet before joining forces with the all-girl band Hardly Dangerous. Later she founded Krunk, a rock band with her then husband James Kottak, former hard-core drummer of The Scorpions. She has gained many accolades for her musical talents including “Best Female Drummer” at the “Rock City – Rockies” and “Best Drummer” (males and females category) in the 7th Annual L.A Music Awards. In fact, Athena was the first female ever nominated in the history of the L.A. Music Awards. She is currently the drummer in Femme Fatale with Lorraine Lewis. Parallel to her music career, she pursued a degree in nursing, qualifying and serving as a surgical nurse for several years.
Aside from her musical career Athena has also been a celebrity guest commentator on VH-1′s Behind the Music and E! True Hollywood Story. After her much publicized divorce from James Kottak, Athena was chosen along with three other rock ex-wives to star in the reality show “Ex-Wives of Rock ”.
As for her family and personal life, Athena and James Kottak have three children; Tobi (a girl) born 1991, Miles born 1993 and Matthew 1997. Athena has had a battle with breast cancer but since 1999 has been in remission.
