Mars says: “I carried those bastards for years.”
Former Mötley Crüe and co-founding guitarist Mick Mars says he and the band shouldn’t be at odds after 41 years together. The 71 year old guitarist filed a lawsuit against his former bandmates on Thursday (April 6th) after the Crüe decided to take him to arbitration over terms of him retiring from touring. Mars says his 25 percent ownership in the band was diminished to five percent after retiring from the road in late 2022, and is seeking to review the financial records to see what else he may be owed. The band’s litigation attorney, Sasha Frid, calls the suit baseless stating Mars resigned from the group and was given a nice severance package even after having erratic performances during the band’s Stadium Tour in 2022.
Mars’ lawsuit also claims he was the only member to perform 100% live during The Stadium Tour’s 36 shows in 2022. Mars also accuses bassist Nikki Sixx of “gaslighting” him about his guitar skills diminishing, and claims he played each show live from start to finish, while Sixx pre-recorded all of his bass parts for The Stadium Tour and didn’t “play a single note” on stage. Mars also claims most of Vince Neil’s vocals and some of Tommy Lee’s drum parts were also pre-recorded.
Since the back and forth drama made news, Mars has opened up in an interview with Variety about the situation.
“Those guys have been hammering on me since ’87, trying to replace me,” he tells the publication. “They haven’t been able to do that, because I’m the guitar player. I helped form this band. It’s my name I came up with [the Motley Crue moniker], my ideas, my money that I had from a backer to start this band. It wouldn’t have gone anywhere.
“The thing that they keep pushing, for many years, is that I have a bad memory. And that’s full-blown, out-of-proportion crap. Around 2012, when they first started saying that my memory was bad and I didn’t remember the songs, I came home and saw all my doctors, because I keep myself together, because I’m an old bastard. They had all the 10th Street people there [from the band’s management] — probably about five or six people — (versus) all my doctors going: ‘There’s nothing wrong with him.’ And now they’re still playing that game with me.
“So, no, the truth is: I want to retire from touring because of my AS [Ankylosing spondylitis, an inflammatory, arthritic disease that causes vertebrae to fuse]. I don’t have a problem remembering the songs. I don’t have a problem with any of that stuff. But I do have a problem with them, constantly, the whole time, telling me that I lost my memory. No. Wrong. That’s wrong. Absolutely wrong.
“But my stupid body is telling me ‘No, don’t do that’ [stay on the road]. You know, I’m gonna be 72 years old, and I’ve been touring with these guys 41 years, helping build the brand, helping do this and that. And you’re served with papers and going, this is crazy. This is stupid. I mean, come on.”
Mars says he’s insulted by the band’s offer of receiving five percent from The World Tour in which the group is co-headlining with Def Leppard.
“That’s an insult to me that they’re offering me that. No. It’s my name. It’s Mick Mars, it’s Motley Crue, the four of us that made the band. You would have to have a good reason to be fired. I don’t. I could come back with this and go like, ‘Hey, you know what? I’m gonna counter because you assholes are felons. You (Lee) for spousal abuse; you (Neil) for manslaughter.’ [Sixx has only been convicted of misdemeanors, not felonies.] I’m not doing that. It just makes me really upset that they want to try and bully me more or less out of the band, so it’s the last man standing that collects everything. And if there’s any real justice to it, I’d be the one that would be the only one that has no criminal record. I’m pure. I’m clean as a freshly washed baby. [Laughs.] I haven’t done anything. And these guys have all gone over the top — heroin addicts, on and on and on and on.”
“And I’m being beat up, mentally — and I’m already physically ruined. But the hazing, the gaslighting and all that stuff, when they tell me that I’m losing my mind and I’m this, that and the other — oh my God. What’s the matter with you guys? You’re the felons, not me. In my defense. [Laughs.] hey should be pointing those fingers towards themselves, not me. That’s my opinion. You can’t be fired from your own company, unless you do something horribly bad — like, be a felon. That’s mean, but, sorry!”
He also elaborates on the claim that his bandmates didn’t perform 100% live, or in some cases, live at all, during his last tour with them.
“On this particular tour, Nikki’s bass was 100% recorded,” he claims. “Tommy’s drums, to the best of my knowledge, there was a lot. I can’t say he did all of it recorded, but there were some reports from people in the audience that said, ‘Oh, I heard the drums playing, but there’s no Tommy on there. The song started, and there’s no drummer.’ Stuff like that. And actually everything that we did on that stadium tour was on tape, because if we didn’t, if we missed a part, the tape would keep rolling and you’d miss it.”
In his suit, Mars claims he missed his cues due to issues with the sound mix sent to his in-ear monitors. He clarifies that statement in the interview.
“What was going in my ear wasn’t really my guitar. It was some kind of weird, out-of-phase kind of a thing. And I have it here, on my iPad. I’m telling my sound guy, Scotty, to turn up my guitar, and I go, ‘Wait a minute, that ain’t mine.’ Because mine’s a big, huge, fat sound. And so when I started getting at it, it was a lot better. But there was parts with that tape on my guitar that were so horrible, yes, I did lose my spot a couple of times. But not all the time. And it is very difficult. And then it’s also difficult when they have a bunch of old-school 808 bass drums going and turning up the bass guitar. Do you know what that does to a guitar frequency? It drowns it out. And that’s what was going on a lot out front. … You’d have to be me to know it was the truth.
“Anyway, that was the worst 36 gigs ever had with the band. It was 36 [instead of the originally scheduled 12] because they knew I wanted to retire from it after that. I don’t know, and I can’t say I positively know, but I have a pretty good feeling that they wanted me gone anyway. Because they’ve been wanting that since forever. It’s just frustrating for me. I’m pretty upset that they’re even pulling this crap, when I carried these bastards for years.”
No arbitration date has been set as of press time. The band’s attorney confirms Mars will continue to receive royalties from publishing and sound recordings, but is not a shareholder for future business.
Last year, more than 1.3 million tickets sold for The Stadium Tour which also featured Def Leppard, Poison and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts. Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard continue the trek with The World Tour hitting the US, Europe and beyond.
