During a recent interview with UK-based Metro, Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx was asked to name the funniest thing he has read about the band over the years. He responded:
"The silliest thing I've ever read about ourselves was from Mick Mars's attorneys. They put out that the band doesn't play live. We're, like, who is playing the bass then? It's literally one of the funniest things. Imagine being in a rock'n'roll band for 42 years and some guy in a suit puts out that the band doesn't play. The silliest thing is, because of the way a lot of media is these days, they don't cross-check. They just run with headlines and we call it clickbait. I mean, that's about as silly as it gets."
On April 6th, BraveWords reported that Mötley Crüe guitarist and co-founder, Mick Mars, is suing Mötley Crüe, claiming they kicked him out and ripped him off, financially. Complete details can be found here.
Chris Willman of Variety filed a follow-up report, in which Mötley Crüe contends that Mick Mars quit after "struggling to remember chords, playing the wrong songs."
Willman has followed up with a report stating that the band’s manager of 29 years, Allen Kovac, was so angered by the interview Mars gave Variety after the suit was filed that he agreed to go on record addressing what he believes are the musician’s most scurrilous accusations — including whether or not the group’s performances are largely on tape.
Kovac says Mars is coming out with a list of allegations “to gain leverage in a smear campaign on Motley. He’s attacked the band, and he’s done it in a slanderous way, with false accusations and misrepresenting the facts to the fans. Mick is not the victim. The victims are Motley Crue and the brand, which Mick is so prideful of.” But, adds the manager, who says he has always liked and gotten along well with Mars over the last three decades: “What’s upsetting to me is not Mick, but his representatives, who have guided Mick to say and do harmful things to the brand he cares about so much, Motley Crue. He has a degenerative disease and people are taking advantage of him. It’s called elder abuse.”
He continues: “Mick’s representatives have no idea what they’ve created, but I’ve stopped the band from speaking about this, so they’re not gonna turn the fans against Mick. But I am going to make sure that people understand that Mick hasn’t been treated badly. In fact, he was treated better than anyone else in the band, and they carried him and they saved his life.”
Read the complete Variety report here.
Mars’ suit — filed as a request for records and documents, in response to the band filing its own suit taking him to arbitration — included the allegation that he was the only member of the quartet playing live through 100% of the 36 shows on the 2022 stadium tour. He said bassist Nikki Sixx didn’t play a note live, and that vocalist Vince Neil and drummer Tommy Lee were sometimes seen or heard by audience members away from mics or instruments when their parts were going on.
The Stadium Tour, featuring Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Poison, Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe, wrapped up on September 9, 2022 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada. This marked Mötley Crüe guitarist Mick Mars' last show with the band.
Check out fan-filmed video of "Kickstart My Heart" from the aforementioned show. It was the last song of the night, closing this chapter of Mick Mars' career.
To view Mötley Crüe's complete tour schedule, visit motley.com.
