Earlier this week, co-founding Mötley Crüe member Mick Mars filed a lawsuit alleging that the band decided to "unilaterally" remove him despite his plan to continue recording with them and participating in limited performances while he deals with ongoing health issues.
The band have now responded to the suit — which also claims the Crüe cut the guitarist's percentage of the band's profits from 25 percent to 5 percent — saying that Mars resigned from the band on his own and was not ousted, as he claims. Further, they claim that Mars left after significant issues with his performance during live shows.
UPDATE (4/7, 1:14 p.m. ET): Mars has responded to the band's claims, telling Variety that he "carried those bastards for years." He also alleged, "Those guys have been hammering on me since '87, trying to replace me ... The thing that they keep pushing, for many years, is that I have a bad memory. ... I don't have a problem remembering the songs. I don't have a problem with any of that stuff. But I do have a problem with them, constantly, the whole time, telling me that I lost my memory. No. Wrong. That's wrong. Absolutely wrong."
The Crüe's litigation attorney Sasha Frid told Variety: "After the last tour, Mick publicly resigned from Mötley Crüe. Despite the fact that the band did not owe Mick anything — and with Mick owing the band millions in advances that he did not pay back — the band offered Mick a generous compensation package to honour his career with the band. Manipulated by his manager and lawyer, Mick refused and chose to file this ugly public lawsuit."
The band's legal team also provided signed declarations from seven members of the touring crew — including tour manager Thomas Reitz; monitor engineer Scott Megrath; Nikki Sixx's bass tech, Fred Kowalo; Tommy Lee's drum tech, Steve Morrison; production coordinator/designer Ashley Zapar; and front-of-house engineer Brent Carpenter — alleging that the band's live shows were suffering due to Mars's performance issues, including failing "to remember chords, [playing] the wrong songs and [making] constant mistakes which led to his departure from the band."
Megrath shared:
I had to make sure that the other band members would not get Mick's feed into their earpieces because that would confuse them and potentially ruin the show. Mick's mistakes happened on numerous occasions and at every show. In my years of experience, I have never seen mistakes like this by a guitarist on stage.
"The band did everything to protect him [and] tried to keep these matters private to honour Mick's legacy and take the high road," Frid added. "Unfortunately, Mick chose to file this lawsuit to badmouth the band. The band feels empathy for Mick, wishes him well and hopes that he can get better guidance from his advisors who are driven by greed."
Nikki Six tweeted in response to the matter: "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 finds lawyers and managers who aren't damaging him. We love you Mick."
The band have now responded to the suit — which also claims the Crüe cut the guitarist's percentage of the band's profits from 25 percent to 5 percent — saying that Mars resigned from the band on his own and was not ousted, as he claims. Further, they claim that Mars left after significant issues with his performance during live shows.
UPDATE (4/7, 1:14 p.m. ET): Mars has responded to the band's claims, telling Variety that he "carried those bastards for years." He also alleged, "Those guys have been hammering on me since '87, trying to replace me ... The thing that they keep pushing, for many years, is that I have a bad memory. ... I don't have a problem remembering the songs. I don't have a problem with any of that stuff. But I do have a problem with them, constantly, the whole time, telling me that I lost my memory. No. Wrong. That's wrong. Absolutely wrong."
The Crüe's litigation attorney Sasha Frid told Variety: "After the last tour, Mick publicly resigned from Mötley Crüe. Despite the fact that the band did not owe Mick anything — and with Mick owing the band millions in advances that he did not pay back — the band offered Mick a generous compensation package to honour his career with the band. Manipulated by his manager and lawyer, Mick refused and chose to file this ugly public lawsuit."
The band's legal team also provided signed declarations from seven members of the touring crew — including tour manager Thomas Reitz; monitor engineer Scott Megrath; Nikki Sixx's bass tech, Fred Kowalo; Tommy Lee's drum tech, Steve Morrison; production coordinator/designer Ashley Zapar; and front-of-house engineer Brent Carpenter — alleging that the band's live shows were suffering due to Mars's performance issues, including failing "to remember chords, [playing] the wrong songs and [making] constant mistakes which led to his departure from the band."
Megrath shared:
I had to make sure that the other band members would not get Mick's feed into their earpieces because that would confuse them and potentially ruin the show. Mick's mistakes happened on numerous occasions and at every show. In my years of experience, I have never seen mistakes like this by a guitarist on stage.
"The band did everything to protect him [and] tried to keep these matters private to honour Mick's legacy and take the high road," Frid added. "Unfortunately, Mick chose to file this lawsuit to badmouth the band. The band feels empathy for Mick, wishes him well and hopes that he can get better guidance from his advisors who are driven by greed."
Nikki Six tweeted in response to the matter: "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 finds lawyers and managers who aren't damaging him. We love you Mick."
