Ex-Motley Crue guitarist says he wanted to retire only from touring

Mick Mars, in a legal battle with his former Motley Crue bandmates over his 2022 dismissal from the group, says in new court papers that he never intended to fully retire from the band and would have been happy doing Las Vegas runs and making new music.

The 72-year-old former lead guitarist for the group filed a petition in Los Angeles Superior Court on April 6 asking that companies associated with the band turn over business records and pay for his attorneys’ fees. Mars says he has suffered from a chronic form of arthritis that has effectively fused his spine and made him three inches shorter than he was in high school, and that he is unable to turn his head in any direction.

But in a sworn declaration filed Monday with Judge James C. Chalfant in advance of a Jan. 16 hearing on whether he is entitled to more bank accounting records that have already been turned over, Mars says he told the other band members about his intentions to stop touring while still being active in the band.

“I made it very clear that I was not completely retiring from the band and would make myself readily available for any other band activity, such as recording, Vegas-type residencies and one-off concerts,” Mars says.

About a month after the end of the group’s Stadium Tour in October 2022, Mars received a draft separation and release agreement “completely out of the blue,” the guitarist says.

“I found the terms of the … agreement to be hideously one-sided and unfair,” Mars says. “I refused to sign it. I spent 41 years of participating in creating, building and maintaining the band, along with the associated globally-recognized goodwill of the name ‘Motley Crue,’ which is my and the others’ legacy.”

The group made “huge amounts of money” on the recently concluded World Tour that Motley Crue co-headlined with British rockers Def Leppard, Mars says.

“I believe that the other band members saw a tremendous opening to make even more money by effectively taking my share of that money,” Mars says.

Mars co-founded the band in 1981 and came up with the name “Motley Crue.” He suffers from Ankylosing Spondylitis, a chronic inflammatory form of arthritis that mainly affects the spine and pelvis. He was diagnosed with the condition at age 27.

“The disease has caused me severe pain throughout my career,” Mars says. “I started being unable to turn my head in the late 1990’s and can no longer move my head in any direction.”

Mars says he has not been able to drive for years and that he has to sleep until 3 p.m. daily when touring.

Mars says he is a 25% shareholder in the entities. He last appeared in concert with the band in September 2022 and the group now tours with substitute guitarist John 5, a 52-year-old former member of Marilyn Manson’s band. Mars’ former band colleagues have said Mars retired and that is why he was replaced.

The other band members tried to compel arbitration of all of Mars’ claims, but in September the judge ruled that Mars would have to arbitrate his record inspection disputes with only three of the seven entities, and that those involving the other four would go to trial. On Nov. 16, Mars’ attorneys dropped as defendants the three band companies the judge included in his arbitration ruling.

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