Motley Crue bassist takes issue with ex-bandmate’s legal case

Although guitarist Mick Mars maintains in recent court papers that he never intended to fully retire from Motley Crue and would have been happy doing Las Vegas runs and making new music, co-founder and primary songwriter Nikki Sixx says Mars himself said he was leaving the band.

“In 2022, Mick informed the band and management that he was resigning from the band,” Sixx states in a sworn declaration filed Monday with Judge James Chalfant. “The band and management sought to handle the situation amicably to honor Mick’s legacy.”

Mars, 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.

In his own sworn declaration filed in advance of a Jan. 16 hearing on whether he is entitled to more bank accounting records beyond those previously produced, 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.

But the 65-year-old Sixx, whose real name is Frank Carlton Serafino Feranna Jr., says Mars was not cheated and did an about-face after events began amicably.

“We offered Mick a generous severance package for his contributions to the band, despite the fact that he was not entitled to any further compensation based on the band’s agreements,” Sixx says. “Mick initially accepted the offer, but after retaining new counsel, he changed his mind demanding, among other things, to be paid in perpetuity for everything the band does even though he was not performing with the band.”

Motley Crue exercised its rights under a June 1987 agreement of shareholders of a band entity to fire Mars as an officer and director and repurchase his shares, according to Sixx.

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.

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.

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.