The friction between Mötley Crüe and their co-founding guitarist Mick Mars is getting ugly. Yesterday (April 6th), multiple sources reported that the 71-year-old axman had filed a lawsuit against the band — now comprised of Vince Neil, Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee and touring guitarist John 5 — for allegedly withholding financial information and essentially forcing him to surrender a sizable portion of his stake in the Mötley Crüe corporation.
Last fall, Mars announced that he was retiring from touring with Mötley Crüe after the band's 2022 dates with Def Leppard, citing his ongoing battle with ankylosing spondylitis (A.S.), an inflammatory disease that causes the vertebrae in the spine to fuse. The initial statement implied that Mars was to remain a member of the band, but would be replaced in the live setting by longtime Rob Zombie guitarist John 5, who played his first show with the Crüe earlier this year.
However, in Mars' legal papers, he accuses Sixx of "gaslighting" him for years about his guitar skills diminishing, and alleges that the other three members of Mötley Crüe relied heavily on backing tracks during their 2022 comeback shows. Mars also alleges that his departure from Mötley Crüe was decided after an emergency band meeting was struck and he was voted out. "When [Mars] did not go away quietly, they purported to fire him from six additional band corporations and LLCs," Mars' suit reads, according to Variety.
Last night, Mötley Crüe responded to Mars' legal papers with a statement provided to Loudwire. In it, the band rebuke Mars' accusations about his financial treatment by Mötley Crüe, and also accuse Mars of struggling to "remember chords" and making "constant mistakes," which ultimately led to his departure from the band. Read the full statement below.
"Mick's lawsuit is unfortunate and completely off-base. In 2008, Mick voted for and signed an agreement in which he and every other band member agreed that 'in no event shall any resigning shareholder be entitled to receive any monies attributable to live performances (i.e., tours).' After the last tour, Mick publicly resigned from Mötley Crüe. Despite the fact that the band did not owe Mick anything — and with Mick owing the band millions in advances that he did not pay back — the band offered Mick a generous compensation package to honor his career with the band.
"Manipulated by his manager and lawyer, Mick refused and chose to file this ugly public lawsuit. Equally unfortunate are his claims about the band's live performances. Mötley Crüe always performs its songs live but during the last tour Mick struggled to remember chords, played the wrong songs and made constant mistakes which led to his departure from the band.
"There are multiple declarations from the band's crew attesting to his decline which are attached. The band did everything to protect him, tried to keep these matters private to honor Mick's legacy and take the high road. Unfortunately, Mick chose to file this lawsuit to badmouth the band. The band feels empathy for Mick, wishes him well and hopes that he can get better guidance from his advisors who are driven by greed."
Mars has since responded to Mötley Crüe's statement in a new interview with Variety, claiming that he "carried those bastards for years" and revealing a long history of acrimonious relations with his bandmates. The interview also characterizes Mars' membership with Mötley Crüe as being over, reporting that the band viewed Mars' retirement from touring as a resignation from the band altogether. Variety also reports that Mötley Crüe are suing Mars, and that Mars' legal filings from yesterday (April 6th) are actually a countersuit.
"Those guys have been hammering on me since '87, trying to replace me," Mars told Variety. "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 Mötley Crüe 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," he added. "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 A.S. 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."
Later in the interview, Mars elaborated on his accusations that his bandmates were using pre-recorded tracks during their 2022 stadium tour, and once again shot down the notion that he was the one having trouble remembering songs.
"I know the songs. I've even said to those guys — when we were on the phone, when they were all gonna fire me — I go, 'You take your drums and play this song. You take your bass and play this song. And I'll play the song correct.' And prior to this particular stadium tour, when we rehearsed, the first thing that happened when I walked in was, Nikki Sixx was like, 'Hey, Mick, how did that part go? I can't remember it.' So that's how our rehearsals went. I rehearsed all of these songs for three months, every day, solid, twice a day. When I walked into this rehearsal for the stadium tour and I said, 'Pick a song, I know them all,' [and the response was], 'Uh, we aren't gonna do it that way,' to quote Nikki Sixx."
"And yes, on this particular tour, Nikki's bass was 100 percent recorded," Mars continued. "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."
The interviewer concluded by asking Mars if he thinks fans will be disappointed to know that Mötley Crüe aren't actually a band of brothers, and that they may actually "hate each other."
"Well, that's the way it works," Mars replied. "Every band hates each other, right? But it's hard to predict. There's gonna be a lot of disappointed people, and there's gonna be a lot of ones who go, 'Yeah, tell me something new.' But on the stage, all the band members are like a unit, until they're off the stage and then they're not anymore ... It is what it is. And like I said, I'm a part of this company that made this name. I'm not gonna let anybody take it from me — anybody."
Read Mars' full interview with Variety here.
