Mick Mars filed a lawsuit against Motley Crue stating that the group is attempting to push him out after 41 years together. In response, the band claims that Mars has already left the group and essentially quit when he declared he would no longer be performing.
Also, Motley Crue’s legal team gave Variety written declarations from seven band members who went on the band’s final tour with Mars in 2022, which included 36 stadium events. The declarations said that Mars’ performances at those gigs were subpar and caused issues for the whole band.
In response to Mick Mars’ lawsuit, Motley Crue claims he left the band due
According to Sasha Frid, the band’s legal representative, “Mick Mars openly resigned from Mötley Crüe after the previous tour.” “The band provided Mick Mars a significant compensation package to recognise his career with the band, even though the band had no debt to Mick and Mick Mars owed the band millions in advances that he did not repay. Mick Mars declined and instead to initiate this unsightly public lawsuit after being coerced by his management and attorney.
The band members initially only spoke through their counsel, but on Thursday night, bassist Nikki Sixx joined the conversation by tweeting a link to this article and stating, in part, “Sad day for us and we don’t deserve this, given how many years we’ve been propping him up. We continue to wish him luck and hope that he finds management and attorneys who won’t harm him. You are loved, Mick.
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
— 📷 (@NikkiSixx) April 7, 2023
The disparity between the company’s Thursday afternoon announcement that Mars “publicly quit” and his own press release from last October, which said that “Mick will remain as a member of the band, but can no longer face the rigours of the road,” was further raised by Variety. The Crue camp retorted that leaving the band entirely was legally equivalent to leaving as a touring member.
“That’s accurate. Resigning from the band is quitting touring, according to Frid. The band’s main duties include touring and playing shows. In addition, as you can see from the change, a shareholder who resigns is not eligible to get any payment from touring, which is what Mick is attempting to do. Mick Mars has no right to any more compensation, that much is obvious.
Mars, 71, claims that the Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) condition he has had since he was 27 has prevented him from travelling any more. He asserts in the lawsuit he filed Thursday morning that even though he stopped playing, he hasn’t given up his rights as a one-quarter stakeholder in the band’s several entities. He claimed he was still available for recordings, one-off performances, or residencies. (You may read a previous article about Mars’ filing here.)
The first thing Frid stated in response to Mars’ legal action was, “Mick’s complaint is regrettable and wholly unfounded. Mick Mars and the rest of the band members approved and signed an agreement in 2008 that said, “In no circumstance may any resigning shareholder be entitled to receive any funds due to live performances (i.e., tours).”
In his lawsuit, Mars claimed that he was the only member of the foursome that played live for all 36 of the band’s stadium tour dates in 2022. Mars’ lawsuit was filed as a request for records and papers in response to the band’s own lawsuit that sought to have him arbitrated. Vince Neil and Tommy Lee were occasionally seen or heard by audience members away from mics or instruments when their sections were in progress, he said, and Nikki Sixx didn’t play a note live.
“Equally terrible are his assertions regarding the band’s live performances,” Frid said. The songs of Mötley Crüe are usually performed live, but on the band’s most recent tour, Mick Mars failed to recall the chords, played the wrong tunes, and consistently made mistakes, which ultimately led to his resignation. The band’s staff has made many statements attesting to his declination, which the lawyer gave to Variety. In order to respect Mick’s legacy and act morally, the band “did everything to protect him (and) attempted to keep these problems confidential. Regrettably, Mick Mars decided to sue to discredit the band. The band sympathises with Mick Mars , wishes him well, and hopes that he may receive better advice from his opportunistic advisors.
Seven crew members protest in the signed declarations that are included concerning Mars’ participation in the 2022 trip. In the statement submitted by the group’s attorneys, Robert Long, the band’s production manager since 2007, stated: “When he is off, the band’s whole performance suffers. Mick’s performance on the Stadium Tour was impossible to manage and completely ineffective. The first step was the band’s practise sessions in April 2022. The band would have to stop playing and teach those sections to Mick Mars again in order to remind him of the arrangements since Mick Mars would frequently forget chords and melodies. Mick’s troubles with performance persisted throughout the tour. He would frequently play incorrect chords, lose notes, play out of tune, stay in the chorus of a song and never leave it, forget the song he was playing and start a different one, and become lost in tunes. This occurred at every performance. Mick Mars was given signals by our playback engineer to keep him on track, but he missed them.
Mars claimed in the complaint and in an interview with Variety that cues he missed were caused by abnormalities in the sound mix in response to critiques other band members had of him during or after the tour. He states that the ensemble was playing along with or miming to studio recordings in his monitor mix, but that his own attempts to perform entirely live were hampered by hearing a replay in which the bass frequencies overpowered his own parts.
Thomas Reitz, the band’s tour manager, who joined them for the 2022 tour and is still with them in 2023 even though they have a new guitarist, said in a statement that “Mick Mars was suffering, forgetting chords and songs. He couldn’t play his solos since he wasn’t familiar with the tunes
The other band members worked on helping Mick Mars for hours. Mick Mars frequently experienced confusion and irritability. During the practises, I also saw firsthand the band and crew’s annoyance at Mick’s errors. Mick Mars problems persisted and worsened during the tour. He almost always played the incorrect chords, the incorrect tune, or forgot what song he was playing during a concert. A sound engineer would require a backup track at all times.
Scott Megrath, the band’s monitor engineer, who also began working with Motley Crue with the 2022 tour, declared that at specific periods, “I had to make sure that the other band members would not hear Mick’s feed into their earpieces since it would confuse them and perhaps disrupt the concert. Mick Mars made blunders frequently and during every performance. In all my years of expertise, I have never witnessed a guitarist make blunders on stage like this.
The four other crew member declarations—from front-of-house engineer Brent Carpenter, bassist Fred Kowalo, drummer Steve Morrison, production coordinator Ashley Zapar, and drummer Tommy Lee—all follow in the same direction.
In the end, it’s unclear if these and other remarks Crue’s lawyers made regarding his performance will play a significant role in the next arbitration. Although the guitarist claims that neither of those things have occurred and that, technically, Mars is still in the band, the main point of their argument against Mars is that he left the band of his own free will, not because he was dismissed.
Mars also stated in a yet-to-be-published interview with Variety that, in his opinion, the other band members could not perform any of the band’s songs flawlessly from memory if forced to do so on the spot, without any prior practise. He noted instances during the 2022 tour’s rehearsals where he said Sixx needed to ask him for a refresher on the structure of some songs.
According to Motley Crue’s legal team, he will continue to receive income from publishing and sound recordings but is no longer eligible to hold any more ownership positions. According to Mars’ complaint, the group offered him a severance agreement in the amount of 5% of the proceeds from the current tour, which was their first without him. Even after the offer was increased to 7.5%, he still thought it was insulting.
He said that in exchange for that portion of the proceeds from the current tour, he had been requested to sign away from all future payments from the band’s enterprises, except from any merchandise that could include his picture. According to sources close to the group, they previously worked to have Mars freed from a Live Nation contract for the ’23 tour and saw it as a favour to do so.
The lawyers for Motley Crue also provided a copy of a 2008 shareholder’s agreement revision that was written with the involvement of all four band members. It was said that the contract was changed following instances in which Neil and Mars left the band separately before rejoining because there was a dispute at the time on whether they should receive any touring compensation after leaving.
The agreement states that “no amount of purported value shall be attributable to the trademarks at the time of recognition,” and that “in the event that any shareholder resigns from performing and/or rendering services in MC,” “he shall not be permitted to continue to use the trademarks for any purposes whatsoever.”
According to sources in the Crue camp, when Neil and Mars took breaks from the band, they were not paid, and Mars was in favour of this practise continuing in the future. Of course, Mars’ conviction that he can contribute to the band in ways other than travelling is under dispute. Nonetheless, Sixx has stated in interviews that he does not envision Motley Crue continuing to release new albums in the future. The guitarist stated that he would want to continue being a part of the band’s recording endeavours.
Also Read : Co-founding guitarist Mick Mars is suing Mötley Crüe for “rip off, sick mocking, and gaslighting.”
Since guitarist Mick Mars Mars .and the rest of the band issued divergent public comments regarding his situation in October, the Motley Crue drama has captured the attention of many fans. As of Thursday afternoon, though, it was still unclear to the public how things were shaping up privately. Once that’s become evident, these seasoned bandmates may be giving Journey’s very competitive members a run for their money.
Mars and the other members of the organisation have not yet established a date for their arbitration.