In a recent interview with Matt Pinfield on 95.5 KLOS‘s “New & Approved” show, former ROB ZOMBIE guitarist John 5 discussed his decision to join MÖTLEY CRÜE, stepping in as the replacement for co-founding guitarist Mick Mars.
John 5 said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth): “When I was asked to join MÖTLEY CRÜE, we didn’t really have any bad things going on [in ROB ZOMBIE] or anything like that. So it was tough [for me to leave Rob‘s band]. I was doing it for 17 years and I loved it. We were friends and laughed, and everything was still the same. But I thought to myself, ‘I want to…’ ‘Cause I always thought about everybody else: ‘Let me make sure everything sounds good.’ I just wanted to think about myself for a minute and go, ‘I really wanna experience this. Life is short and I want to experience as much as possible.’ And, of course, I love MÖTLEY CRÜE.”
“I’ve been friends with Nikki [Sixx, MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist] forever — forever,” he continued. “Just really close. And then with Tommy [Lee, MÖTLEY CRÜE drummer], I’ve always worked with him. So I was really close with these guys — really, really, really close. And poor Mick, he has a horrible disease. And the poor guy. If I have a weird papercut, I’m, like, ‘I don’t know if I can do the show.’ And you’ve got Mick Mars out there… I would always say he’s the toughest guy I know because he’s getting up there and just killing it and in pain, but just playing. And I’m, like, wow, I have such respect for him. And then he didn’t want to tour and things like that. So they asked me and I was, like, ‘Absolutely. I would love to do it. I would love to do it.’ And they gave me the songs, and, of course, I didn’t wanna say, but I knew every single song — I knew how to play them all.
“But I told Rob, and I said, ‘Rob, I just want to experience life and I wanna do this.’ And he understood. He was cool. He wasn’t psyched, but he understood, and that’s what was really, really cool.”
John 5 stepped in as Mick Mars‘s replacement in fall of 2022. Mick officially retired from touring with the band in October 2022 due to deteriorating health conditions.
In April 2023, Mars initiated legal action against his MÖTLEY CRÜE bandmates, alleging that he was unjustly terminated by his “brothers of 41 years.”
In the lawsuit, Mick alleges that MÖTLEY CRÜE reduced his share of earnings from 25 percent to a mere 5 percent after revealing his decision to withdraw from touring. Additionally, he states that the group’s attorneys made him feel as if he should appreciate this minimal portion, as they believed they had no obligation to provide him with anything. Mick also asserts that a complete band gathering took place where they chose to “unilaterally” exclude him from MÖTLEY CRÜE.
Mick consistently alleged that bassist Nikki Sixx was “gaslighting” him by suggesting his guitar abilities were declining, even though Sixx didn’t “play a single note on bass” throughout a recent tour, as stated by the guitarist. Mick asserts that all of Nikki‘s segments were pre-recorded.
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