Motley Crue responds to Mick Mars lawsuit, citing poor performance

Motley Crue has hit back at Mick Mars’ lawsuit claiming the band is trying to force him out after 41 years, with lawyers for the group confirming that Mars did. He is Outside—having effectively quit, in their view, when he announced he was putting the tour on hold for good.

Motley Crue lawyers also filed diverse with declarations signed by seven members of the touring crew who walked out with the band when they toured with Mars for the last time on 36 stadium dates in 2022, claiming his performances at the shows were up to par and creating problems for the entire group.

“After the last tour, Meek publicly quit Motley Crue,” said Sasha Freed, the band’s litigation attorney. Despite the fact that the band didn’t owe Mick anything — and with Mick owing the band millions in advances he didn’t repay — the band offered Mick a generous compensation package to honor his run with the band. Manipulated by his manager and attorney, Mick refused and chose to file this ugly public suit. “.

diverse He was also asked about the discrepancy between the company’s Thursday afternoon statement that Mars “publicly quit” and his own press release last October which said “”Mick will continue as a member of the band, but he can no longer handle the rigors of the road.” Crowe’s camp responded that dropping out as a touring member was tantamount to quitting the group altogether.

“That’s right. Quit touring.” He is Farid said. “The band’s primary job is to tour and do concerts. And as you saw from the edit, if a contributor quits, he can’t get any compensation from touring—which is what Mick is trying to get. Mick is clearly not entitled to any more money.” “.

Read Variety’s previous story on the Mars profile here.

March, 71, said that the disease he has suffered from since the age of 27, ankylosing spondylitis (AS), It made him unable to walk on the road anymore. But he said he’s still available for recordings, one-time performances or residencies, and claims in the lawsuit he filed Thursday morning that even if he no longer plays, he has not waived any rights as a one-quarter shareholder. in several band companies.

Fred’s initial response to Mars’ legal action stated, “Mick’s lawsuit is unfortunate and completely outside the norm. In 2008, Mick voted and signed an agreement in which he and every other member of the band agreed that ‘in no way shall we Resigned shareholder They are entitled to receive any money attributable to live performances (i.e. touring).

Mars’ lawsuit—filed as a records and documents demand, in response to the band suing of its own and taking him to arbitration—included the claim that he was the only member of the quartet to play live through 100% of the 36 shows on the 2022 Stadium Tour. He said Nicki Sixx No notes were played live, and Vince Neil and Tommy Lee were sometimes seen or heard by audience members away from microphones or instruments while playing their parts.

Fred responded: “His claims about the band’s live performances are also unfortunate. Mötley Crüe always performs their songs live, but during the last tour, Mick struggled to remember chords, played the wrong songs and made consistent mistakes that led to his leaving the band.” There are multiple statements from the crew. The band attests to his refusal,” which was provided by the lawyer diverse. 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 bring this suit to screw up the band. The band feels sympathy for Mick, wishes him well, and hopes he can get guidance. Better than his advisors who are driven by greed.”

In the accompanying signed announcements, seven crew members filed complaints about Mars playing on the 2022 tour. “When he’s out, the entire band’s performance is affected,” said Robert Long, the band’s production manager since 2007, in the statement provided by the group’s attorneys. During the tour the stadium is unwieldy and very difficult to manage.It started with the band’s rehearsal in April 2022.Mick was constantly forgetting chords and vocals, so the band would have to stop and re-teach these parts to Mick to remind him of the arrangements….Mick’s performance issues continued throughout the tour.He would miss notes Constantly; playing out of tune Play the wrong chords during a song; stay inside the chorus of a song and never get out of it; forget what song he was playing and start a different song; and you’ll get lost in the songs. This happened at every show. … Our playback engineer put down cues for Mick So he’ll stay on track but he’ll miss the signals.”

Mars, in response to other members’ criticism of him during or after the tour, said in the suit and in an interview with diverse Those signals he missed were due to anomalies in the sound mixture. He claims the mixes in his monitors contained studio tracks the group was playing with—or imitating, in some cases—but his own attempts to play fully live were complicated by hearing replays where his own were overshadowed by the bass frequencies. cutting.

Tour manager Thomas Ritz, who joined the band for the 2022 tour (and continues into 2013 as the group plays with a new guitarist), declared in his statement that “Mick was struggling and forgetting chords and vocals. He was unfamiliar with the songs and couldn’t 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 rehearsals. Mick’s problems continued and worsened throughout the tour. Practically at every concert, he would play the wrong chords or the song wrong song or forget the song he was playing. The audio technician will always need to have a backup track ready in case Mick plays the wrong song or chord.”

In announcing that at times, “I had to make sure the other band members wouldn’t have a mic feed in their earphones because it would overwhelm them,” said Scott McGrath, engineer of the group’s Monitor, who also began working with Motley Crue on their 2022 tour. And potentially spoil the show. Mick’s mistakes have been made on many occasions and at every show. In my years of experience, I’ve never seen mistakes like this by a guitarist on stage.”

The other four make statements from crew members – including Nikki Sixx’s bass tech, Fred Kowalo; drum tech Tommy Lee, Steve Morrison; production coordinator/stylist Ashley Zabar; And engineer Brent Carpenter – proceeded along the same lines as the statements above.

Ultimately, it is not clear whether these and other statements made by Crowe’s attorneys about his performance will be an important part of the upcoming arbitration. Their arguments against Mars were primarily motivated by the fact that he quit the band of his own volition, not that he was fired—although the guitarist’s argument is that none of those things happened and that, legally speaking, he’s still in the band.

Mars said as well diverse in a yet unpublished interview that if asked to play any of the band’s songs on the spot, without preparation, he could play them all perfectly, from memory, while the other members could not, in his opinion. 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 were going.

Motley Crue’s attorneys say he will continue to receive royalties from the publishing and audio recordings, but he is not entitled to be a contributor to anything else in the future. Their offer of a separation agreement, as laid out in the Mars lawsuit, was a 5% participation in what the group would offer from the current round – the first without it – an offer he still considered an insult even when it was raised to 7.5%. He said he was required to sign over all future compensation from the band’s business—excluding any merchandise that might imitate him—in exchange for that share of the profits from the current tour. Sources close to the band say they had already negotiated with him out of a commitment to Live Nation on the ’23 tour, and considered it a favor to release Mars from that show.

Motley Crue attorneys also shared a copy of an amendment to the shareholder agreement from 2008 that was drafted with input from all four members. The contract was said to have been modified after periods when Neil and Mars individually left the band before returning, due to confusion at the time over whether they should receive any money for touring after they quit. “In the event that any contributor resigns from performing and/or providing services at MC,” the document says, “he will not be permitted to continue to use the trademarks for any purposes whatsoever” — in addition, “no alleged amount of value should be attributed to the marks.” business at the time of recognition.

Sources at Camp Crue say that when Neil and Mars had their moments of not being in the band, they didn’t receive any compensation while they were out — and that Mars was all for that to continue in the future. However, the issue at hand, of course, is Mars’ belief that he can make contributions to the band outside of touring. As for recording records, which the guitarist has said he’d like to continue to be involved with, Sixx has indicated in interviews that he doesn’t expect Motley Crue to release new albums moving forward.

Many fans of the Motley Crue saga have been stunned since, before Mars filed court papers Thursday afternoon, it was still a mystery to the public as to how things had been particularly shaky since the guitarist and the rest of the group made their contradictory public. Statements about his status in October. Now it’s clear: These seasoned fellows may be giving the hard-hitting members of Journey a run for their money.

No date has been set for arbitration between Al-Marsikh and the rest of the group.