In the ongoing saga between Mötley Crüe and their former guitarist, Mick Mars, the 71-year-old axeman has given an interview with Variety commenting on his lawsuit against his former bandmates and the circumstances that fostered legal action.
Earlier this week, Mars sued Mötley Crüe. In his lawsuit, Mars said he made it clear he could still record with the band and do limited performances despite his health struggles. His lawsuit alleges that Mötley Crüe cut his percentage of profits from 25% to 5% after he announced he was retiring from regular touring. He also said that the band’s lawyers made him feel that he should be grateful for that 5%, because the band felt they didn’t owe him anything.
Mars also said there was a band meeting where the rest of the group decided to “unilaterally” remove him from Mötley Crüe. He then went on to accuse bassist Nikki Sixx of “gaslighting” him about his guitar skills diminishing, and he countered that Sixx didn’t “play a single note on bass” during last year’s Stadium Tour.
In his interview with Variety, Mars said: “Those guys have been hammering on me since ’87, trying to replace me. 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, 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 (management people) — probably about five or six people (against) 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). 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 was asked about the allegations he made in his lawsuit that all of Sixx’s bass parts were pre-recorded and that many vocal and drum parts were also not live.
“Yes, on this particular tour, Nikki’s bass was 100% recorded. 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.”
“Anyway, that was the worst 36 gigs ever had with the band,” he added. “It was 36 because they knew I wanted to retire from it after (the first 12).”
“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.”
On what he thinks will happen next: “I think that those guys are hoping that I’ll just fold and lay down. Because I’ve done that many times. But this thing that I helped build for 41 years, I’m sorry, you’re not gonna take that from me. I worked very hard for that. It’s mine. I’m keeping it. You can’t have it. Sorry. But they’re well prepared, I can already tell you, because I’ve known them that long too. But I’m not backing down. I’m not gonna fold. And we’ll see what happens. I’m most definitely not afraid of them, or intimidated or anything else.”
