Motley Crüe win legal battle over Mick Mars – former guitarist ordered to partially pay back $1.5M advance for not completing tour
For the last two years, Motley Crüe have been involved in an ongoing legal battle with ex-guitarist Mick Mars. Following his retirement in 2022, Mars alleged that the band were withholding profits that were rightfully his. However, a new ruling has declared that Mars actually owes his former bandmates $750,000.
Despite Mars’ public crusade against the Motley Crüe gang, arbitrator Honorable Patrick J. Walsh found that Mars had received a $1,500,000 advance payment to perform at 138 Motley Crüe shows. Mars’ departure from the band meant that he never fulfilled his end of the bargain, rendering him un-entitled to the sum.
“[Mars] understood when he received the advance that it was an advance and that he had to pay it back if he stopped touring,” Walsh concludes in the final arbitration documents. “He stopped touring. Therefore, he must pay it back.”
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“Mars is ordered to pay to MCI the pro rata rate for the shows he missed between September 2021 and today,” he continues. “He is not required to pay for shows that have not taken place.”
When Mars first pursued legal action against his former bandmates, his claim centred around his entitlement to the band’s profits as he hadn’t left the band, he had only retired from touring. As a result, he believed he was still owed a 25% cut of profits, including touring revenue.
However, as the arbitration document reveals, a 2008 amendment to the band’s governing agreement stated that if a member “resigns from performing”, he “in no event” would be “entitled to receive any monies attributable to any live performances”.
Furthermore, Nikki Sixx’s testimony claimed that Mars himself had “proposed this amendment” due to concerns that “Vince Neil [vocalist] and/or Tommy Lee [drummer] would again choose to leave the band and he wanted it to be clear… that anyone who left would not share in revenue from touring”.
Alongside the arbitrator ruling in favour of Mötley Crüe, the band were also cleared of allegations that they don’t play live. Mars had publicly alleged that Sixx’s basslines and Lee’s drumming in particular were pre-recorded. In 2023, he even claimed that he had been the only member of the band to ever play live, noting that Sixx “did not play a single note on bass”.
As Business Wire reveals, Mars “formally recanted his prior claims during sworn testimony”. When faced with “extensive live performance recordings” and a testimony from New York University professor specialising in music technology, Mars was “forced to admit under oath that his statements were false”.
The suit also reveals that Mars was cut from the band due to his own “deteriorated” guitar playing. The document explains that the band “believed that his guitar playing had so deteriorated that they had to make provisions to cover for his mistakes when he strayed during concerts”.
Mick Mars has not yet responded publicly to the ruling.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
