Mick Mars Sues Motley Crue

Michael Angulia | 04-06-2023

Mars playing with the band on The Stadium Tour - Photo by antiMusic's Rob Grabowski

Motley Crue guitarist Mick Mars, real name Robert Alan Deal, has reportedly filed a lawsuit against the band over his percentage of their profits following his retirement from touring.

Mars announced his retirement from the road last October due to his battle against Ankylosing spondylitis, a painful medical condition that made it difficult to tour with the reunited band.

Celebrity news site TMZ shared the news that they have obtained the legal documents filed by Mars against the band. They report that Mick claims the band "cut his percentage of profits from 25 percent to 5 percent ... after he announced he was stepping back from touring. "

Variety published excerpts from the legal paperwork that they report is a "verified petition for writ of mandate to compel inspection and copying of books, records and documents" of the various business associated with the group.

The suit claims that after Mars announced his retirement that the band held a meeting to remove his from the group. "They noticed an emergency shareholders' meeting for the band's main corporate entity in order to throw Mars out of the band, to fire him as a director of the corporation, to fire him as an officer of the corporation, and to take away his shares of the corporation. When he did not go away quietly, they purported to fire him from six additional band corporations and LLCs."

According the report, the suit also alleged, "During much of the band's recent tenure, Sixx continually 'gaslighted' Mars by telling him that he (Mars) had some sort of cognitive dysfunction, and that his guitar playing was sub-par, claiming that Mars forgot chords, and sometimes started playing the wrong songs.

"Astonishingly, Sixx made these claims about Mars's playing while he (Sixx) did not play a single note on bass during the entire U.S. tour. Ironically, 100% of Sixx's bass parts were nothing but recordings."

Mars announced last October, "Mick Mars, co-founder and lead guitarist of the heavy metal band Motley Crue for the past 41 years, has announced today that due to his ongoing painful struggle with Ankylosing Spondylitis (A.S.),he will no longer be able to tour with the band.

"Mick will continue as a member of the band, but can no longer handle the rigors of the road. A.S. is an extremely painful and crippling degenerative disease, which affects the spine."