It’s often hard for players to recall the exact moment they stumbled across a riff or lick that would end up becoming a hit. It’s equally difficult to pinpoint the ins and outs of a recording session. That was especially the case for Mars, who failed to remember recording of Mötley Crüe’s Girls, Girls, Girls – because he was unconscious for it.
Bizarre stories fly out of the Mötley Crüe camp with wild abandon, and have done since their 1981 debut album, Too Fast for Love, hit the shelves. In the May 2005 issue of Guitar World, Mars regaled another.
Tthe story centers around the band’s fourth album, Girls, Girls, Girls. It was a standout smash in 1987, and is certified four times platinum in the US.
Mars revealed he recorded the title track’s water tight rhythm parts with a “Kramer through a Marshall head absolutely dry”. No effects were allowed anywhere near his signal.
“It's doubled,” he adds. “So it's big, but everything's dry – a nice big dirty sound.”
As for its leads, while a guitar solo punctuates the middle section, a descending staccato run rounds the song out in flashy fashion. The rumor was that Mars fell off his chair while recording it and producer Bob Rock simply let the tape run. Mars remembers it in a slightly more dramatic – and suitably rock ’n’ roll – manner.
“I was drunk,” he says. “I fell flat on my face, but I held onto the guitar neck, so I could still squeeze out some notes, even though I was unconscious.”
It sounds impossible – and it could well be, given that not all stories that come out of the Crüe camp are based entirely in reality. But we’ll let this one slide, as it’s a great tale regardless. Even if it comes from the band’s most substance-soaked era.
“That was during a dark period,” Mars accepts. “I was drinking my head off. It's always something. I have a very addictive personality. Even when I quit drinking, I couldn't stop taking pain medication.”
Sadly, for Crüe fans, Mars acrimoniously left the band in 2023. John 5 was drafted into the group in his place. Mars has since said that reconciliation is off the table and the relationship between both parties continues to sour amid disputes over the resulting lawsuits.
But the crazy stories of the band’s 1980s peak cannot be taken away from Mars, and recording licks like that on Girls, Girls, Girls – while slipping out of consciousness – is classic Crüe, whichever way you look at it.
