Metal Anarchy

Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx has further commented on Mick Mars’ lawsuit against the band. The bassist says he believes the guitarist is “a little bit confused and being misled by representatives right now.”

As previously reported, Mars claimed he was asked to sign a severance agreement, which would drop his 25% stake in the band’s business interests to 5% for their 2023 shows and to 0% for future tours. The offer was then upped to 7.5% for 2023 if the guitarist agreed to divest himself from the band and their businesses. On top of that, be also accused his bandmates of using pre-recorded tracks.

For their part, Mötley Crüe’s management claimed the allegations were part of “a smear campaign.” They also accused Mars’ representatives of “taking advantage of him” and commiting acts of “elder abuse.” Now, Sixx appears to have since doubled down on those claims. He told Planet Rock the following:

“If a member of a band tells you that they can’t tour because of health reasons, you have two choices. You can quit as a band [after] 42 years of work. Or we could look at each other and go ‘are we done yet?!’ We’re really peaking and we understand [Mick ‘s] health issues.

We wish him the best and we know that he’s a little bit confused and being misled by representatives right now. But we still have to stay focused on why we’re here.”

He also added the following about new guitarist John 5:

“I’ve been friends with John forever and I would make jokes ‘as long as you’re a 5, I feel good being a Sixx.’ Y’know, stupid best buddy jokes.

Me and that guy have been either hanging out at each other’s houses, writing songs… he plays [guitar] all day long. So, he comes over here and he grabs one of my guitars or brings his own and we just sit around and play and talk about the 70s and how great Lynyrd Skynyrd and Scooby Doo was.

My wife just said that when Mick [Mars] told us he was leaving the band and I told her I’d talked to Tommy [Lee] and Vince [Neil], and everybody feels that John would be a great fit, and I hadn’t called John yet because you had to be sure we were doing everything correctly. My wife said ‘well, that’s great.’ I said ‘what do you mean by that?’ She goes ‘well, you’ll be going on stage and you’ll be on the phone to John.’ And they’re like ‘you gotta go on stage!’, and he’ll be like ‘ok, call me back in an hour and a half.’

So we’re always chatting and jamming and the friendship is so wonderful. Him and Tommy are really close, Vince loves him. He’s just a great guy and a great musician and he gives us a great opportunity as a three-piece so to speak to really lock in. He’s just such a great guitar player.

It’s nothing against any other musician that you play with, just that when you play with new musicians you play differently. We’re still playing the same songs that people wanna hear but it kind of like re-inspires you. And I’m sure the same thing would happen if they got a new bass player. They’re like ‘oh wow, he’s attacking it differently.’ So it’s never about how bad anybody was.

It’s a nice time [for Mötley Crüe] and it’s kind of inspired us to write a little bit. We love our history, we’re very proud of everything we’ve done. We’ve always been really supportive of Mick no matter what Mick was going through. We’re just happy with where we’re at right now.”