Mötley Crüe have responded to a lawsuit filed by former guitarist, Mick Mars. Update: Mars has since hit back at the band, saying in a new interview that he “carried those bastards for years.”
Through their attorneys, the band said “resigned from the band” when he retired from touring. They also dismissed Mars’ argument that he is owed money, while arguing that he suffered from performance issues that impacted the rest of the band on their most recent tour.
“Retiring from touring is resigning from the band,” said Sasha Frid, Mötley Crüe’s litigation attorney (via Variety). “The band’s primary function is to tour and perform concerts… If a shareholder resigns, he cannot receive any compensation from touring — which is what Mick is trying to get. It’s clear-cut that Mick is not entitled to any more money.”
Last year, Mars announced that he was retiring from touring with Mötley Crüe, citing his ongoing struggles with an arthritic disease called ankylosing spondylitis. In his lawsuit, Mars said he still intended to play with Mötley Crüe in some capacity, whether it be select live dates or in the studio, but was “unilaterally” removed following a full-band meeting.
Furthermore, Mars said his profit share was cut from 25 percent to a five percent after he announced his retirement from touring.
Mötley Crüe’s attorneys contend that, despite Mars’ claims, the band offered him a “generous compensation package.”
“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,” the attorneys said.
Mötley Crüe’s attorneys also provided Variety with signed declarations from seven members of the band’s touring crew, alleging that his performances at the shows were under par and created problems for the entire group.
“Mick would consistently forget chords and songs so the band would have to stop and re-teach those parts to Mick to remind him of the arrangements,” the declaration read. “Mick’s performance issues continued throughout the tour. He would consistently miss notes; play out of tune; play the wrong chords during a song; stay within a chorus of a song and never come out of it; forget the song that he was playing and start a different one; and would get lost in songs. This happened at every show. … Our playback engineer put in cues for Mick so that he would stay on course but he would miss the cues.”
For his part, Mars has alleged that Mötley Crüe bassist Nicki Sixx didn’t “play a single note on bass” on the band’s last tour and instead used pre-recorded tracks. He blamed his own mistakes on issues with the sound mix.
After Mars announced his retirement from touring last year, Rob Zombie guitarist John 5 was quickly announced as his replacement for Mötley Crüe’s 2023 world tour with Def Leppard. That trek continues next month, and you can get tickets here.