Legendary rock band Mötley Crüe has been thrust into the spotlight as guitarist Mick Mars launched a countersuit against his band. He revealed in an exclusive interview with Variety where he opened up about the situation and called his former band members Vince Neil and Tommy Lee ‘felons’ amid an ongoing legal battle.
The rift between Mars and the rest of the band has escalated, with Mars claiming that he never officially resigned from the group despite announcing last fall that his longstanding arthritic disease rendered him unfit for touring.
Mars was offered a severance package that involved getting 5% of the current tour, which of course is the first one without him, and then that would be it. After Mars countered the offer, Crüe’s attorneys made a counteroffer to Mick and offered to increase his share of the 2023 tour from 5% to 7.5% and required him to still divest himself of all interests in the band thereafter.
Mick Mars’ words about Vince Neil and Tommy Lee and the lawsuit read:
“That’s an insult to me that they’re offering me that. No. It’s my name. It’s Mick Mars; it’s Mötley Crüe, the four of us that made the band. You would have to have a good reason to be fired. I don’t. I could come back with this and say, ‘Hey, you know what? I’m going to counter because you a**holes are felons. You (Lee) for spousal abuse; you (Neil) for manslaughter.’ I’m not doing that.
It just makes me really upset that they want to try and bully me more or less out of the band, so it’s the last man standing that collects everything. And if there’s any real justice to it, I’d be the one that would be only one that has no criminal record. I’m pure. I’m clean as a freshly washed baby. [Laughs.] I haven’t done anything. And these guys have all gone over the top — heroin addicts, on and on and on and on.”
He added:
“And I’m being beaten up, mentally — and I’m already physically ruined. But the hazing, the gaslighting, and all that stuff, when they tell me that I’m losing my mind and I’m this, that, and the other — oh my God. What’s the matter with you guys? You’re the felons, not me.
In my defense [Laughs], they should be pointing those fingers toward themselves, not me. That’s my opinion. You can’t be fired from your own company unless you do something horribly bad — like, be a felon. That’s mean, but sorry!”
The musician took this as an insult as he is one of the four that made Mötley Crüe what it is today, so Mars shows no signs of backing down, asserting that if anyone should be ousted from the band, it should be Neil and Lee due to their past legal issues – Lee for spousal abuse and Neil for manslaughter. As the lawsuit unfolds, fans and the music world alike will keep a close eye on the developments, waiting to see the ultimate outcome of this dramatic rift within Mötley Crüe.
