Mick Mars has filed a lawsuit against his Mötley Crüe bandmates, alleging the band is screwing him over financially.
In the lawsuit as reported by TMZ, Mars claims he originally told Mötley Crüe that he is still available to record with the band and to do limited performances. Instead, Mars said Mötley Crüe instead cut his profits down from 25 percent to 5 percent after announcing his retirement from the road. He further claims that "the band's lawyers made him feel like he should be grateful for even that small cut, because they didn't feel they owed him anything at all" and that Mötley Crüe unilaterally decided to "remove" him from the band.
In what might be the worst accusation, Mars claims Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx was "gaslighting" him about getting worse at guitar despite Sixx not "playing a single note on bass" throughout the band's original farewell tour. The lawsuit seeks to allow Mars to have a look at the band's financials to see if he's truly getting ripped off.
The following a transcription of a portion of the lawsuit, courtesy of Variety:
"How did Mars's brothers of 41 years respond to Mars's tragic announcement [about quitting the road]? They noticed an emergency shareholders' meeting for the band's main corporate entity in order to throw Mars out of the band, to fire him as a director of the corporation, to fire him as an officer of the corporation, and to take away his shares of the corporation. When he did not go away quietly, they purported to fire him from six additional band corporations and LLCs."
"During much of the band's recent tenure, Sixx continually 'gaslighted' Mars by telling him that he (Mars) had some sort of cognitive dysfunction, and that his guitar playing was sub-par, claiming that Mars forgot chords, and sometimes started playing the wrong songs.
"Astonishingly, Sixx made these claims about Mars's playing while he (Sixx) did not play a single note on bass during the entire U.S. tour. Ironically, 100% of Sixx's bass parts were nothing but recordings. Sixx was seen fist pumping in the air with his strumming hand, while the bass part was playing. In fact, a significant portion of (Vince) Neil's vocals were also pre-recorded. Even some of (Tommy) Lee's drum parts were recordings. Some fans actually noticed that Lee was walking toward his drum set as they heard his drum part begin."
"Mars, at times on the tour, did play the wrong chords, but not due to any cognitive dysfunction. He was playing live, and his in-ear monitors were constantly malfunctioning, causing Mars to be unable to hear his own instrument. The fact is that Mars is rarely mocked or criticized online. He is a quiet member of the group, who shows up to play, and puts his heart and soul into each performance. Conversely, other band members are often criticized online, particularly Neil, who is routinely torn to shreds for, among other things, not remembering the songs."
The drama between drummer Carmine Appice and Nikki Sixx suddenly makes a lot more sense, considering what Appice was saying appears to be backed up in Mars' lawsuit. Mötley Crüe has not yet responded to these accusations.
Upon his retirement, a representative for Mars stated that the guitarist can no longer tour due to his worsening Ankylosing Spondylitis. "Mick Mars, co-founder and lead guitarist of the heavy metal band Mötley Crüe for the past 41 years, has announced today that due to his ongoing painful struggle with Ankylosing Spondylitis (A.S.), he will no longer be able to tour with the band. Mick will continue as a member of the band, but can no longer handle the rigors of the road. A.S. is an extremely painful and crippling degenerative disease, which affects the spine."
At the time of Mars's retirement, Mötley Crüe issued the following statement:
"While change is never easy, we accept Mick's decision to retire from the band due to the challenges with his health. We have watched Mick manage his Ankylosing Spondylitis for decades and he has always managed it with utmost courage and grace. To say 'enough is enough' is the ultimate act of courage. Mick's sound helped define Mötley Crüe from the minute he plugged in his guitar at our very first rehearsal together. The rest, as they say, is history. We'll continue to honor his musical legacy.
"We will carry out Mick's wish and continue to tour the world as planned in 2023. No doubt will it take an absolutely outstanding musician to fill Mick's shoes so we are grateful that our good friend, John 5 has agreed to come on board and join us moving forward. We'll see all you Crüeheads out on the road!"
