Mick Mars – Motley Crue Are 'Trying to Take My Legacy Away'

The ongoing feud between Mick Mars and Mötley Crüe continues to heat up, as the ex-guitarist recently claimed that his former bandmates are attempting to erase his “legacy.” He also revealed that he was barely involved with the group’s last three studio collections: 1997's Generation Swine, 2000's New Tattoo and 2008's Saints of Los Angeles.

In Rolling Stone’s new exposé (published on June 24), Mars – who’s in the process of suing Motley Crue for “unilaterally” removing him from the band, among other assertions – talked about notions that he and/or the other members were using prerecorded tracks in concert. He also acknowledged accusations that he couldn’t remember how to play the material properly, surmising [via Rolling Stone]: “When they wanted to get high and fuck everything up, I covered for them.”

Mars elaborated [via Rolling Stone]:

Now they’re trying to take my legacy away, my part of Mötley Crüe, my ownership of the name, the brand. How can you fire Mr. Heinz from Heinz ketchup? He owns it. Frank Sinatra’s or Jimi Hendrix’s legacy goes on forever, and their heirs continue to profit from it. They’re trying to take that away from me. I’m not going to let them.

Further into the article, Mars stated that he was “squeezed out of the decision-making process” for Generation Swine (which saw the return of frontman Vince Neil following his 1992 departure). He confessed: “I don’t think there’s one note that I played. They didn’t want my guitar to sound like a guitar, basically. They wanted it to sound like a synthesizer. I felt so useless. I’d do a part, they’d erase it, and somebody else would come in and play.”

Regarding follow-up New Tattoo, he said he “didn’t write any of those songs, since [he] wasn’t invited," adding: "I think I got one lick on that album.” In the same Rolling Stone piece, however, bassist Nikki Sixx disagreed: “Mick played lead guitar, rhythm guitar, and any other guitar that’s on that record.”

That said, both sides seem to agree that an uncredited DJ Ashba handled much of the guitarwork on Saints of Lost Angeles. Sixx explained in the same write-up: “Mick was struggling to play his parts. So there’s [a] mixture of D.J. and Mick, and we would always make Mick the center focus unless, of course, he couldn’t play his parts or remember his parts.”

In any case, the various disputes between the two parties show no signs of stopping anytime soon.

In related news, Sixx recently contributed to “Bygones,” a song from Dolly Parton’s upcoming LP – Rockstar – that also sees her collaborating with Judas Priest's Rob Halford and Mars’ Motley Crue replacement, John 5.