Founding Motley Crue guitarist Mick Mars has filed a lawsuit against his former bandmates, accusing them of conspiring to kick him out of the band after a longterm battle with ankylosing spondylitis left him unable to continue touring with the hair metal heavyweights. He also happened to throw his former bandmates under the tour bus, alleging that all three use prerecorded tracks at concerts instead of playing live.
Mars announced back in October that he was retiring from touring due to his ankylosing spondylitis, a type of inflammatory arthritis that he has dealt with since being diagnosed at 27. The disorder has caused the vertebrae in his spine to fuse and compress, rendering his mobility limited and causing his height to shrink three inches, according to the suit. Though he could no longer go on the road with the band, Mars was clear that he would remain a member of the band in every other sense, vowing to continue playing residencies and participating in studio recordings. As such, he would remain a 25% shareholder in the business.
According to the suit, the band held a shareholders’ meeting without him where the decision was made to oust him from the band and offer him a 5% share in band’s tour revenue until the end of the year as a courtesy. Mars has responded by requesting access to Motley Crue’s business records in order to determine whether or not it was legal for the band to do this.
“It is a tragedy that, after 41 successful years of playing together, a band would callously attempt to throw out a founding member who is unable to tour anymore because he has a chronic disease,” Mars’s lawyer, Ed McPherson, told Rolling Stone. “Mick has been pushed around for far too long and we are not going to let that continue.”
The suit suggests that Mars may be entitled to a share of the band because he played an integral role in its formation, having chosen singer Vince Neil (though he was drummer Tommy Lee‘s friend from high school) and naming the band. It also highlights that he and bassist Nikki Sixx were the only two band members to never leave the group, making them the only consistent shareholders throughout the history of the band.
The suit also accuses Sixx of “gaslighting” Mars during his final tour, saying he would tell Mars that he “had some sort of cognitive dysfunction, and that his guitar playing was subpar, claiming that Mars forgot chords, and sometimes started playing the wrong songs.” It goes on to offer two retorts, first suggesting that the other band members don’t even really play their instruments:
“Astonishingly, Sixx made these claims about Mars’ playing while he (Sixx) did not play a single note on bass during the entire U.S. tour. Ironically, 100% of Sixx’s bass parts were nothing but recordings. Sixx was seen fist pumping in the air with his strumming hand, while the bass part was playing.”
Second, the suit argues details how each member of the band has committed worse and, more importantly, firable offenses throughout the years, including Vince Neil’s vehicular manslaughter conviction (for killing Hanoi Rocks drummer Razzle in a drunk driving accident) and Tommy Lee’s felony spousal abuse of Pamela Anderson, among other incidents.
Motley Crue has upcoming tour dates with Def Leppard as part of their ongoing Stadium Tour with special guest Alice Cooper on select dates. Click here for more information.