“I carried those bastards for years,” says Mick Mars, telling PvNew how he thinks his 41-year history with Motley Crue should not end with him facing off with the other three members in the halls of justice.
The veteran band, now down by one original member, has sued to force Mars into arbitration, looking to get a ruling that he is officially a member or shareholder, with any of the rights that confers. They contend that when he announced he was quitting touring, that amounted to a resignation. Mars, 71, counter-sued on Thursday morning, contending that he didn’t give up anything, at all, by announcing last fall that effects of his longstanding arthritic disease made him no longer fit for the road. His legal filing was full of provocative assertions about the others, and so was the response Thursday afternoon from Crue’s lawyers, who believe he gave up all rights by putting away his touring suitcases — and further, the Crue camp maintained, Mars had become an instrumentally erratic drag on the band.
PvNew has Mars’ first interview about what’s gone down in contentious recent months — or even the band’s entire career, since, he alleges here for the first time: “Those guys have been hammering on me since ’87, trying to replace me.”
The gloves are clearly off. Crue’s reply to Mars’ action had their litigation attorney, Sasha Frid, telling PvNew: “After the last tour, Mick publicly resigned from Mötley Crüe. Despite the fact that the band did not owe Mick anything — and with Mick owing the band millions in advances that he did not pay back — the band offered Mick a generous compensation package to honor his career with the band. Manipulated by his manager and lawyer, Mick refused and chose to file this ugly public lawsuit.” In response to Mars saying that he only quit touring, not anything else, Frid said: “Retiring from touringisresigning from the band. The band’s primary function is to tour and perform concerts.”
The law firm also provided signed declarations from seven 2022 tour crew members alleging that he could no longer remember or execute all his parts. Mars’ response, in this interview, is to invite the band members to meet him and see who can remember what; he says he’s the only member (or ex-member?) who would be able to perfectly play everything from memory.
(For background to this Q&A, you can read about Mars’ freshly filed lawsuit in this story, or see the response of Crue’s attorneys here. Thursday night, Crue bassist Nikki Sixx tweeted a link to the latter story and added his own comment: “Sad day for us and we don’t deserve this considering how many years we’ve been propping him up” — obviously a strong contrast to Mars’ “carried those bastards” remark.)
Sad day for us and we don’t deserve this considering how many years we’ve been propping him up-We still wish him the best and hope he find’s lawyers and managers who aren’t damaging him. We love you Mick –https://t.co/dhpu7ejxSi
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