Mick Mars‘s lawyer informed Rolling Stone that the matter of whether the guitarist was wrongfully separated from MÖTLEY CRÜE is set to go to private arbitration later this year.
As previously reported, Mick Mars is currently suing CRÜE alleging that the band 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.
Mars‘s lawyer, Ed McPherson, told Rolling Stone that the recent ruling by the judge on January 16, indicating that MÖTLEY CRÜE delayed producing some requested documents, confirms that his client was mistreated by his bandmates.
“Finally, somebody, somewhere told these guys they can’t bully Mick anymore,” McPherson said. “We’re in the middle of a huge arbitration that will ultimately decide if Mick has to give up his shares or not, if they did things properly or not. Obviously we claim they didn’t do anything properly. But they feel that they’re above the rules. And that’s what this lawsuit was about.”
“This was them feeling they were above the rules, and this judge saying, ‘No, you’re not. And you may have given all the documents now, so there’s nothing left for me to do, but, you’re going to pay for it,” he added. “I think that’s a pretty huge victory for Mick. If they want to claim a victory, that’s fine. But this is someone finally telling Mick, ‘No, you’re not crazy. These guys are bullying you. And we’re not going to let it happen.'”
In a last year’s interview with Rolling Stone, Mars revealed that the band had not really talked since the premiere of The Dirt movie in 2019.
“Nobody spoke to me in 2022 [during CRÜE‘s ‘The Stadium Tour’ with DEF LEPPARD]. A lot of the time felt like I was just playing by myself. You know how you can be in a crowd of people and still feel alone? That’s how I felt that whole tour. I felt used, sad, and inferior. When we played the last show [in Las Vegas on September 9, 2022] I felt relieved. A lot of the pressure was gone. But I was very emotionally wounded. They weren’t just shallow wounds. They were deep ones; the kind you can’t get over.”
Furthermore, Mars expressed his desire to avoid any future communication with his bandmates.
“I think all of us would be okay with that,” he said. “And I don’t just mean me with them. I mean them with each other. I don’t plan on having a funeral. If I did, I think maybe they’d show up for that just out of courtesy. But for me, there’s no funeral. There’s no nothing.”
