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Mick Mars lawsuit vs. Crue


Gil Bang

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UPDATED: Motley Crue has responded to Mick Mars’ lawsuit alleging that the band is trying to force him out after 41 years, with the group’s attorneys contending that Mars already is out — having resigned, effectively, in their view, when he announced he was halting touring for good.

Motley Crue’s attorneys also provided Variety with signed declarations from seven members of the touring crew that was out with the band when they toured with Mars for the last time on 36 stadium dates in 2022, alleging that his performances at the shows were under par and created problems for the entire group.

“After the last tour, Mick publicly resigned from Mötley Crüe,” said Sasha Frid, the band’s litigation attorney. “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 honor his career with the band.  Manipulated by his manager and lawyer, Mick refused and chose to file this ugly public lawsuit.”

Although the band members initially spoke only through their attorney, bassist Nikki Sixx added his voice Thursday night by quote-tweeting a link to this story and writing: “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 find’s lawyers and managers who aren’t damaging him. We love you Mick.”

 

Variety further asked about the discrepancy between the firm’s statement Thursday afternoon that Mars “publicly resigned,” and his own press release of last October that said “Mick will continue as a member of the band, but can no longer handle the rigors of the road.” The Crue camp responded that dropping out as a touring member was legally tantamount to quitting the group altogether.

“That’s correct. Retiring from touring is resigning from the band,” said Frid. “The band’s primary function is to tour and perform concerts. And as you saw from the amendment, if a shareholder resigns, he cannot receive any compensation from touring — which is what Mick is trying to get. It’s clear-cut that Mick is not entitled to any more money.” 

Mars, 71, has said that the disease he has suffered from since age 27, Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS), rendered him unable to be on the road anymore. But he said he was still available for recordings, one-off shows or residencies, and contends in the suit he filed Thursday morning that even if he didn’t play anymore, he hasn’t given up any rights as a one-quarter shareholder in the band’s many companies. (Read an earlier story about Mars’ filing here.)

Frid’s initial reply to Mars’ legal action further said, “Mick’s lawsuit is unfortunate and completely off-base. In 2008, Mick voted for and signed an agreement in which he and every other band member agreed that ‘in no event shall any resigning shareholder be entitled to receive any monies attributable to live performances (i.e., tours).’”

Mars’ suit — filed as a request for records and documents, in response to the band filing its own suit taking him to arbitration — included the allegation that he was the only member of the quartet playing live through 100% of the 36 shows on the 2022 stadium tour. He said Nikki Sixx didn’t play a note live, and that Vince Neil and Tommy Lee were sometimes seen or heard by audience members away from mics or instruments when their parts were going on.

Frid replied to that: “Equally unfortunate are his claims about the band’s live performances. Mötley Crüe always performs its songs live, but during the last tour, Mick struggled to remember chords, played the wrong songs and made constant mistakes which led to his departure from the band. There are multiple declarations from the band’s crew attesting to his decline,” which the attorney provided to Variety. “The band did everything to protect him (and) tried to keep these matters private to honor Mick’s legacy and take the high road. 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.”

In the attached signed declarations, seven crew members offer complaints about Mars’ playing in the 2022 tour. Robert Long, the band’s production manager since 2007, said in the statement provided by group attorneys: “When he is off, the band’s entire performance suffers.Mick’s performance during the Stadium Tour was unworkable and very difficult to manage. It began with the band’s rehearsals in April 2022. Mick would consistently forget chords and songs so the band would have to stop and re-teach those parts to Mick to remind him of the arrangements. … Mick’s performance issues continued throughout the tour. He would consistently miss notes; play out of tune; play the wrong chords during a song; stay within a chorus of a song and never come out of it; forget the song that he was playing and start a different one; and would get lost in songs. This happened at every show. … Our playback engineer put in cues for Mick so that he would stay on course but he would miss the cues.”

Mars, in response to criticisms other members had of him during or since the tour, said in the suit and in an interview with Variety that cues he missed were due to oddities in the sound mix. He claims that the mix in his monitors had studio tracks that the group was playing along with — or miming to, in some cases — but that his own attempts to play completely live were complicated by hearing a playback in which the bass frequencies overwhelmed his own parts.

Tour manager Thomas Reitz, who joined the band with the 2022 tour (and is continuing on in 2023 as the group plays with a new guitarist), declared in his statement that “Mick was struggling, forgetting chords and songs. He was not up to speed with the songs and could not play his solos. The other band members spent hours trying to help Mick. Mick would often get frustrated and confused. I also witnessed the band and crew’s frustration with Mick’s mistakes first hand during the rehearsals. Mick’s issues continued and got worse during the tour. Virtually at every concert, he played the wrong chords, wrong song or would forget what song he was playing. A sound technician would always need to have a backup track ready in case Mick played the wrong song or chord.”

The group’s monitor engineer, Scott Megrath, who also started working with Motley Crue with the 2022 tour, said in his declaration that, at certain points,”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 other four declarations from crew members — including 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 — proceed along the same lines as the above statements.

Ultimately, it’s not clear whether these and the other statements Crue’s attorneys provided about his performance will be an important part of the arbitration to come. The primary thrust of their argument against Mars is that he resigned from the band of his own volition, not that he was fired — although the guitarist’s contention is that neither of those things have happened and, legally, he is still in the band.

Mars further told Variety in a yet-to-be published interview that if he were asked to play any of the band’s songs on the spot, without preparation, he could play them all perfectly, from memory, whereas the other members could not, in his view. He cited incidents during rehearsal for the 2022 tour in which he claimed Sixx had to ask him for a reminder of how certain songs go.

Motley Crue’s attorneys say he will continue to get royalties from publishing and sound recordings, but that he is not entitled to be a shareholder in anything else going forward. Their offer of a severance agreement, as explained in Mars’ lawsuit, was 5% participation in what the group will make from the current tour — their first without him — an offer he still considered an insult even when it was upped to 7.5%. He said he had been asked to sign away all future compensation from the band’s businesses — except for any merch that might bear his likeness — in return for that share of the current tour’s profits. Sources close to the band say that they already negotiated him out of an obligation to Live Nation for the ’23 tour, and considered it a favor to have gotten Mars released from that exposure.

Motley Crue’s attorneys also shared a copy of an amendment to a shareholder’s agreement from 2008 that was drafted with input from all four members. The contract was said to have been amended after periods in which Neil and Mars individually quit the band before coming back, due to confusion at the time over whether they should received any touring money after they resigned. “In the event that any shareholder resigns from performing and/or rendering services in MC,” the document says, “he shall not be permitted to continue to use the trademarks for any purposes whatsoever” — and, additionally, “no amount of purported value shall be attributable to the trademarks at the time of recognition.”

Sources in the Crue camp say that when Neil and Mars had their moments of not being in the band, they did not receive compensation while they were out — and that Mars was all for that continuing in the future. At issue, of course, though, is Mars’ belief that he can make contributions to the band outside of touring. As for making records, though, which the guitarist said he would like to continue being a part of, Sixx has indicated in interviews that he does not foresee Motley Crue releasing new albums going forward.

Many fans have been transfixed by the Motley Crue saga since, prior to Mars filing court papers Thursday afternoon, it was still a mystery to the public as to how things were shaking out privately since the guitarist and the rest of the group made their contrasting public statements about his status in October. Now it’s clear: these veteran bandmates might be giving the deeply combatant members of Journey a run for their money.

No date is currently set for the arbitration between Mars and the rest of the group.

 

 

 

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1 minute ago, Celery Man said:

Despite having read The Dirt while drunk 15 years ago, I know almost nothing about Motley Crue. I assume he looks like that because he played Norlin era Les Pauls.

 

my first read of the title was that Johnny Marr was suing The Cure

Vince Neil is a raging piece of shit that can't sing and killed someone. Nikki Sixx is a piece of crap who can't play bass but is a moderately ok songwriter. Tommy Lee is a piece of shit with a large penis. And Mick Mars is an OK dude who is a decent guitar player.

 

You are all caught up now.

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Regardless of what happened, Mick is a 25% owner of the Motley Crue business entity. When he quit touring, the press release was he was retiring from touring but was remaining in the band. He didn’t relinquish his ownership and is probably owed money based on that.

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13 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

Regardless of what happened, Mick is a 25% owner of the Motley Crue business entity. When he quit touring, the press release was he was retiring from touring but was remaining in the band. He didn’t relinquish his ownership and is probably owed money based on that.

and they've offered him a piece of the tour...the one where they are all working and he isn't.  

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1 hour ago, G650 said:

As I said elsewhere, the insane part is Mick is the only talented musician in the fucking band.

More talented than Nikki Sixx, who wrote all the songs?

26 minutes ago, freyguy said:

or...shitty bassist sues his shitty glam band mates.

Mick's the guitarist.

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3 minutes ago, G650 said:

No they offered 5% of future earnings period. Then upped it to 7.5%.

you don't read so good

 

Their offer of a severance agreement, as explained in Mars’ lawsuit, was 5% participation in what the group will make from the current tour

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3 minutes ago, Gil Bang said:

you don't read so good

 

Their offer of a severance agreement, as explained in Mars’ lawsuit, was 5% participation in what the group will make from the current tour

Yes sparky, while taking his 25% band share away. Try and keep up. This news came out a fucking day ago.

6 minutes ago, Rimbo said:

More talented than Nikki Sixx, who wrote all the songs?

Mick's the guitarist.

A billion percent.

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2 minutes ago, Rimbo said:

a billion percent of 0 is still 0, right?

Eh, yes. But Mick is a pretty decent guitarist. Nikki Sixx legitimately might be a worse bassist than Sid Vicious. 

 

I saw Motley Crue awhile back, maybe 10 years ago, where they played with some other band I was actually there to see, and holy shit Vince Neil and Nikki Sixx were possibly the worst musicians I've ever seen, and I'm including high school bands. Maybe even Karaoke night. So when I hear Nikki Sixx was miming the whole tour to backing tracks, my first thought is thank God, those poor fans get to dodge a bullet

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like i said I couldn't identify a Motley Crue song past "Girls Girls Girls" but if the band goes out and makes $50MM on a tour this year (that's a made up number, I have no idea what it is), they didn't create that $50MM by getting in a bus and playing shows this year. They're harvesting the value they created 30-40 years ago. With Mick.

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9 minutes ago, Celery Man said:

like i said I couldn't identify a Motley Crue song past "Girls Girls Girls" but if the band goes out and makes $50MM on a tour this year (that's a made up number, I have no idea what it is), they didn't create that $50MM by getting in a bus and playing shows this year. They're harvesting the value they created 30-40 years ago. With Mick.

Cmon man, Dr. Feelgood at least.

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1 hour ago, Celery Man said:

like i said I couldn't identify a Motley Crue song past "Girls Girls Girls" but if the band goes out and makes $50MM on a tour this year (that's a made up number, I have no idea what it is), they didn't create that $50MM by getting in a bus and playing shows this year. They're harvesting the value they created 30-40 years ago. With Mick.

Sadly, I can name Home Sweet Home, because a college roommate had MTV playing almost non-stop, that f-ing song was in the highest of the high rotations.   If I ever hear that song or see that video ever again, I'm liable to go all Rainey-Street-Ripper.    

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12 hours ago, 0xdeadbeef said:

Sadly, I can name Home Sweet Home, because a college roommate had MTV playing almost non-stop, that f-ing song was in the highest of the high rotations.   If I ever hear that song or see that video ever again, I'm liable to go all Rainey-Street-Ripper.    

isn't that a cover?

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With Putt on this one.  If you grew up with them, they fucking rocked.  Bottom line.

Some folks seem incensed that the  Crue ain't so sophisticated.  That's a fucking feature, not a bug.

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I don't think it was legal for an IROC Z to not have a Crue cassette in the tape deck in the late '80s. They never did it for me so I had to wiki their discography. Pretty stunning for a band that's been around for 4 decades to have only put out 9 albums, with more than half of them coming out in the '80s. 

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1 hour ago, tx 3 putt said:

Also, fuck all you panty waste motely crue haters. Growing up in the 80’s, this band fucking rocked !!

y’all go listen to your alanis morisette 

Believe it or not, I'm actually not a Crue hater. But there are two truths. First, every album since Feelgood is a fucking abomination. Second, Vince Neil can't sing and Nikki Sixx can't play bass.

 

They are a wildly different band then say Poison though. Not even close.

 

Speaking of Poison too, C.C. Deville is a crazy underrated guitarist. Which is his own fault for being in Poison, but anyhoo.

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17 minutes ago, G650 said:

Believe it or not, I'm actually not a Crue hater. But there are two truths. First, every album since Feelgood is a fucking abomination. Second, Vince Neil can't sing and Nikki Sixx can't play bass.

 

They are a wildly different band then say Poison though. Not even close.

 

Speaking of Poison too, C.C. Deville is a crazy underrated guitarist. Which is his own fault for being in Poison, but anyhoo.

And maybe the drummer for the greatest thrash metal band ever can't play drums well.

I mean, he can't...

 

Agreed on Deville. Good riffs, good solos, actual phrasing and musicality...

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30 minutes ago, Rimbo said:

And maybe the drummer for the greatest thrash metal band ever can't play drums well.

I mean, he can't...

 

Agreed on Deville. Good riffs, good solos, actual phrasing and musicality...

Oh Lars sucks. But without him there would be no Metallica, his ambition and managerial skills made that band. The rest of them supplied the talent.

On Master, Justice, Black Album, essentially the drum tracks were hand edited hit by hit. I've talked to a guy from one of those sessions, Justice I think, and it was lol. There's a video of Dave Lombardo filling in for a few shows and the band literally is totally discombobulated because he is so on time.

 

Speaking of Lombardo, dude tracked the entire Reign in Blood album, zero click and zero corrections. Insane.

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12 minutes ago, G650 said:

Oh Lars sucks. But without him there would be no Metallica, his ambition and managerial skills made that band. The rest of them supplied the talent.

On Master, Justice, Black Album, essentially the drum tracks were hand edited hit by hit. I've talked to a guy from one of those sessions, Justice I think, and it was lol. There's a video of Dave Lombardo filling in for a few shows and the band literally is totally discombobulated because he is so on time.

 

Speaking of Lombardo, dude tracked the entire Reign in Blood album, zero click and zero corrections. Insane.

Lombardo is the truth. Not only did he hit everything on RiB on time, he did it faster than even the band expected. They went into the studio clocking the album's songs at about 36 minutes. Dave played so perfectly that they were able to play each song faster and faster, and they shaved the album down to 28 furious minutes. 

Watching him play with Metallica is hilarious. Those guys don't know what to do with him behind the kit. 

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21 minutes ago, G650 said:

Speaking of Lombardo, dude tracked the entire Reign in Blood album, zero click and zero corrections. Insane.

Heh... somehow you reminded me of this:

 

I tried covering "Walking on the Moon" with some friends a long time ago, and god damn The Police's shit is difficult. It sounds easy because it's so sparse, but it's actually difficult because it's so sparse. Which is why you have absolute legends calling out The Police's greatness.

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4 minutes ago, honolulu horn said:

Lombardo is the truth. Not only did he hit everything on RiB on time, he did it faster than even the band expected. They went into the studio clocking the album's songs at about 36 minutes. Dave played so perfectly that they were able to play each song faster and faster, and they shaved the album down to 28 furious minutes. 

Watching him play with Metallica is hilarious. Those guys don't know what to do with him behind the kit. 

You can definitely make the argument that there's something wrong with playing perfectly on time. Speed should ebb and flow with the phrasing, if done correclty.

HOWEVER... if you can't play perfectly on time, you're not going to be able to ebb and flow deliberately.

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1 hour ago, G650 said:

Oh Lars sucks. But without him there would be no Metallica, his ambition and managerial skills made that band. The rest of them supplied the talent.

I saw Lars play tennis on Jim Courier's celebrity tour.  He's actually good -- I believe he was a ranked junior out of Scandanavia -- but he was as big a dick beating the shit out of a woefully bad but nice Mike Mills (REM) as he is in Metallica.  The guy is simply a purebred asshole.

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Just now, G650 said:

He's a legit tennis player. He could have been a pro.

Best part of that day was after a long rotation of celebs & pros doing pleasant doubles, etc. the whole thing finished with a singles match between Andre Agassi and John McEnroe.  Andre was still ranked, McEnroe was long retired, but damn he was still cat quick.  Those guys were trying to kill each other, the level of play just skyrocketed.  I think Andre won something like 6-2 but it wasn't easy.

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30 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I saw Lars play tennis on Jim Courier's celebrity tour.  He's actually good -- I believe he was a ranked junior out of Scandanavia -- but he was as big a dick beating the shit out of a woefully bad but nice Mike Mills (REM) as he is in Metallica.  The guy is simply a purebred asshole.

Probably needed a step ladder to jump the net after his victory. 

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On 4/7/2023 at 7:16 PM, CooterBrown said:

Regardless of what happened, Mick is a 25% owner of the Motley Crue business entity. When he quit touring, the press release was he was retiring from touring but was remaining in the band. He didn’t relinquish his ownership and is probably owed money based on that.

This is a good point.  He's absolutely owed money.  He helped build the band, the brand, and the songs he's a 25% owner in is a reason why people are paying to see them play now.  But 25%?  Seems a little steep.  My guess is the other guys aren't looking to cut in the replacement guitarist for 25% of the tour.  5% seems like not enough.

On 4/7/2023 at 8:02 PM, G650 said:

Cmon man, Dr. Feelgood at least.

Kickstart my Heart anyone?

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25% ownership means he’s also responsible for 25% of expenses which includes paying any touring musicians like John 5. It doesn’t seem like Mick has any issue with that. It’s the cost of doing business. His problem is that they cut his ownership share of the tour down to 5%. You can’t take away an owner’s shares like that. It’s not how it works. It’s not a handshake agreement. Motley Crue is assuredly a corporation. Seems like Mick is the only band member that understands that.

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On 4/8/2023 at 12:31 PM, G650 said:

He's a legit tennis player. He could have been a pro.

Bullshit.

He was good as a junior...in DENMARK.

His family moved to Newport Beach, and he literally didn't make the team at Corona del Mar High School.   He's talked about it on Stern, saying he was top-10 in Denmark, but wasn't even top-10 on his street in CDM.

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41 minutes ago, Gil Bang said:

Bullshit.

He was good as a junior...in DENMARK.

His family moved to Newport Beach, and he literally didn't make the team at Corona del Mar High School.   He's talked about it on Stern, saying he was top-10 in Denmark, but wasn't even top-10 on his street in CDM.

 

I was being facetious.

 

contender.png

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5 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

25% ownership means he’s also responsible for 25% of expenses which includes paying any touring musicians like John 5. It doesn’t seem like Mick has any issue with that. It’s the cost of doing business. His problem is that they cut his ownership share of the tour down to 5%. You can’t take away an owner’s shares like that. It’s not how it works. It’s not a handshake agreement. Motley Crue is assuredly a corporation. Seems like Mick is the only band member that understands that.

Does a partner in a big law firm that retires (while the other partners are working 10 hour days) get the same cut as the other partners? 

I think that there's a lawyer on this board.  Perhaps he can answer.

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34 minutes ago, Gil Bang said:

Does a partner in a big law firm that retires (while the other partners are working 10 hour days) get the same cut as the other partners? 

I think that there's a lawyer on this board.  Perhaps he can answer.

In a word -- no.  Ownership percentage in a professional services firm does not usually equal what gets paid out to each owner annually.  Many firms have a compensation committee that makes those calls, others have a specified formula based upon rainmaking, billable hours or other variables.  Absent some contractual obligation -- sitting on the sidelines does not pay all that well.   

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I have no idea what the contracts say that govern this business arrangement.

But what I do know is the reason Motley Crue was more successful that pretty much all the other hair metal bands is that their songs had a serious groove going on. And that was all Mick. He was a hell of a player and writer in that regard. I’m still not sure if Tommy Lee helped or if Mick did it inspite of him. I’m probably of the camp that Tommy was an OK drummer and didn’t fuck up the groove but Mick really drove it.

Groove is everything in rock/pop/blues etc music. Tunes without groove are like the coolest concept restaurant where the food is just meh; they just don’t connect. At all.

I was never a huge Crue fan back in the day. But they were always kind of a guilty pleasure. Because the songs fucking grooved.

Mick was the perfect guitar player for that band at that time. Spiritually speaking, they owe him a ton. Too bad they can’t work it out. But that’s how it often goes I guess.

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