Mick Mars Accuses Motley Crue of Trying to Replace Him for Decades

Former Mötley Crüe guitarist Mick Mars is claiming that his old bandmates wanted to replace him for decades.

Mars was forced to leave their latest reunion tour and retire last October due to his ongoing struggle with Ankylosing spondylitis, a form of spinal arthritis. Former Rob Zombie guitarist John 5 took his place and filled in for the tour.

Following his lawsuit against Mötley Crüe, Mars is claiming that they wanted him to leave the group for years. In an interview with Variety, he stated:

“Those guys have been hammering on me since ’87, trying to replace me. They haven’t been able to do that, because I’m the guitar player. I helped form this band. It just makes me really upset that they want to try and bully me more or less out of the band.”

Talking about the band’s comeback tour the past year, Mars mentioned what it was like for him explaining:

“[They were] the worst 36 gigs I ever had with the band. It was 36 [instead of the originally scheduled 12] because they knew I wanted to retire from it after that. I don’t know, and I can’t say I positively know, but I have a pretty good feeling that they wanted me gone anyway.”

Mars is now suing Mötley Crüe claiming that the band cut his percentage of profits from 25% to 5% after he left. While recently, the remaining members of the band released their statement about the lawsuit mentioning the support that they had given Mars with his health condition during his tenure.

Meanwhile, Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx teased working on new music in the future with Mars’s replacement, John 5.