Mick Mars doesn’t “regret” anything from his time in Mötley Crüe – even when things got “ugly”.
The 72-year-old axe-slayer was shocked when his former bandmates – Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee and Vince Neil – issued a statement announcing he had resigned from the ‘Girls Girls Girls’ group when in fact Mars had retired from touring.
He’s unable to talk too much about his exit, after he filed a lawsuit at Los Angeles County’s Superior Court in April 2023, in which he claimed his bandmates had been “gas-lighting” him and belittling his musicianship.
In his original filing, he accused the glam metal band of trying to force him out after he had to step back from touring due to longstanding health issues that have worsened.
Mars – who has just released his debut solo album, ‘The Other Side of Mars’ – claimed he would have remained a member of the band regardless of his retirement from touring due.
In a new interview with Guitar World, he said: “I couldn’t do it anymore – the travelling part. I mean, I’m 72 and I have this c***. It gets a little bit strenuous for me to travel around the world and keep doing that for months at a time with a two-week break. It’s just gotten to be too much for me. So yeah, that’s about it.”
On them using “resigned” instead of “retired”, he said: “Two different words, two different meanings. It was just retiring from the touring part. I’d actively be involved in every entity of Mötley Crüe. I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for them. I don’t regret anything we’ve ever done – good, bad or ugly, whatever. My body just couldn’t do it anymore.”
Mars insists he was good friends with his bandmates, despite the drug and booze-fuelled antics they got up to, including allegedly setting fire to his doors.
Asked if they were more than colleagues, he said: “Yeah, at one point. It’s like, I don’t hate anybody. In the band there’s a lot of stuff that I wasn’t particularly fond of that would happen through the years. Wiping your [butt] on my doorknob wasn’t exactly fun. That kind of stuff – lighting my doors on fire. And like I said, when I look back at it now, it’s kind of comical.
But this happened, and it wasn’t funny at the time.”
Mars has been replaced by John 5.