Mick Mars sues Mötley Crüe, accusing band of conspiring to fire him, miming onstage

One-time Mötley Crüe electric guitar player Mick Mars has filed a lawsuit against his former band, Variety reports.

Mars, a co-founding member of the band, announced his retirement from touring with the group last October, following the conclusion of their 2022 North American stadium tour with Def Leppard, Poison, and Joan Jett & the Blackhearts.

At the time, Mars maintained that he would remain a member of the band, with John 5 taking his place on the road.

In his lawsuit, though – filed, according to Variety, through his attorney, Edwin F. McPherson, in Los Angeles County’s Superior Court today (April 6) – Mars says that, after his announcement, the band moved to remove him as a significant stakeholder in Crüe’s corporation and business holdings via a shareholders’ meeting. 

Mars, the lawsuit says, was asked to sign a severance agreement that would divest him of his 25 percent stake in the band's various business interests in return for a 5 percent stake in the band's 2023 tour. This stake, the lawsuit alleges, would be reduced to 0 percent for future tours.

According to the legal filing, Crüe's management later upped the offer from 5 percent to a 7.5 percent stake in the band's 2023 tour, which would remain contingent on Mars divesting himself from the band and their businesses. When Mars refused to sign the papers, the band took him to arbitration in an effort – the lawsuit alleges – to keep the dispute private. 

The guitarist also accused the band's long-tenured bass guitar player, Nikki Sixx, of gaslighting him. "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," the filing – also obtained by Rolling Stone – says.

In return, Mars' suit contends that Sixx "did not play a single note on bass during the entire [2022 North American] tour,” and – additionally – that "a significant portion" of Vince Neil's vocals and "some" of Tommy Lee's drum parts were pre-recorded.

Mars has spent decades battling Ankylosing Spondylitis (A.S.), a painful degenerative disease that affects the spine, an affliction that ultimately led to the guitarist's decision to retire from touring.

While the lawsuit acknowledges that Mars made occasional mistakes on the band's 2022 tour, it chalks these up to faulty in-ear monitors.

Mars has ultimately asked to be awarded attorneys’ fees and other costs associated with the lawsuit, and to inspect the band's business records. According to Variety, the suit does not involve any requests for damages.

Guitar World has reached out to Mötley Crüe's representatives for comment.