There are some MÖTLEY CRÜE fans walking around who think Mick Mars is being a bitter and greedy old man for suing his old bandmates after dedicating 41 years of his life to them.
It’s all about standing your ground when challenged. This is not about who earns the most money. It is about fighting for one man’s LEGACY.
“How can you fire Mr. Heinz from Heinz ketchup?” Mars stated in a Rolling Stone interview this year. “He owns it. Frank Sinatra’s or Jimi Hendrix’s legacy goes on forever, and their heirs continue to profit from it. They’re trying to take that away from me. I’m not going to let them!”
“I don’t have a problem remembering the songs, they all do!”
– Mick Mars
The drama with Nikki Sixx and Mick Mars has been an ongoing one that has apparently lasted several decades. This feud did not just develop during The Stadium Tour debacle last year where TMD exposed the usage of “backing tracks” for all main instrumentation, except Mick’s guitar. The lawsuit filed by the 72-year-old guitar hero this year confirmed all of TMD’s reporting was dead on the money and 100% factual. “Nikki Sixx did not play one note” while on tour last year, stated by Mars, nor has Sixx played bass on any of the Crue’s early albums, or the new Crue record being worked on by the band today. It is all performed instead by ghost performers and AI technology, according to industry insiders.
Truth be told, while the Crue experienced early meteoric success in the rock biz, Mick Mars has not been happy with the direction of the band for a very long time.
Mick Mars stated once that he almost left MÖTLEY CRÜE during the “Generation Swine” sessions and that still to this day, he absolutely hates that album.
According to DestroyerofHarmony site:
“Generation Swine” had two major things. The return of Vince Neil and the move to an industrial electronic sound. It was meant to be called “Personality #9” with John Corabi on vocals. Record label pressure won out in the end and Vince Neil was back in. From a record label perspective, the $3 million cost/loss of the self-titled album was still fresh on their profit and loss statement.”
In 2019, former Ozzy guitarist Jake E. Lee made it known that he was considered by Sixx to replace Mars back in the band’s heyday.
As the story goes, Mars contends that his beef with Sixx and the Crue really began in 1987 when they started threatening to fire him so they could hire a flashier and more youthful guitar player.
With the proof now shared by TMD that Sixx and Kovac were both clearly involved in a premeditated plot last year to ‘target and ruin’ Mars’ musical legacy and public reputation, plus remove him from the band permanently, stealing most of his profits from The Stadium Tour, it makes all of the other complaints against the fake musician and his partners in crime now begin to gain much more legitimacy. Mick Mars is not backing down.
He named the band. He helped get the unknown Crue off the ground with his own financial backer and on top of it all, Mick actually wrote and played most of the band’s most iconic guitar riffs on the first five studio albums that turned the ‘no name Hollywood act’ into a worldwide phenomenon. Nikki Sixx has not released a Crue album in 15 years. Whose fault is that? Mars believes it is this kind of ‘stagnancy’ that buried the band six feet under long ago, not his “declining health or cognitive decline” as Sixx and Crue’s attorneys claim.
In fact, ex Crue singer John Corabi went on the record to say that most of Mick’s guitar playing was removed by the band on all of the albums following Swine, including New Tattoo and Saints of Los Angeles, where Corabi and others like DJ Ashba were predominantly used 80% of the time on the six strings, not Mars.
“I went along with the makeup, but I never liked it. I looked like a really ugly old woman.”
– Mick Mars
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