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The bitter legal battle between Mötley Crüe and their founding guitarist Mick Mars is over, and the Crüe won. In 2022, the band announced that Mars was retiring from touring because of his battle with ankylosing spondylitis, a degenerative bone disease, but that Mars would remain a member of the band anyway. A year later, Mars sued his bandmates, claiming that they’d unilaterally kicked him out and cut his percentage of the band’s profits from 25% to 5%. Now, a judge has ruled in Mötley Crüe’s favor, and Mars’ lawyer isn’t happy about it.
Rolling Stone reports that a retired judge ruled that Mötley Crüe were within their rights to “remove Mars as an officer and director of Mötley Crüe Inc.” when he couldn’t continue to tour with the band. That judge ordered Mars to repay $750,030 from an advance after he missed dozens of live shows and to sell his ownership stake in the company to his bandmates for $505,737, which means he owes them a $244,293 net payment.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Mars’ lawyer Ed McPherson had this to say:
The decision is awful. It’s not fair. This band has never been fair to Mick. When Mick said, “I can’t tour anymore because of a hideous disease, but I can still write, perform one-offs or residencies and record,” they said, “Sorry Mick. It’s been 43 years, but you’re out. Goodbye, and we don’t want to pay you anymore.” This arbitrator said it’s fine. We need to figure out if we’re going to challenge [the decision]. It’s ridiculous. It’s just a question of whether he wants to keep pursuing this. Basically, he’s over Mötley Crüe.
In a statement, Mötley Crüe’s lawyer Sasha Frid said, “This dispute was about protecting the integrity and legacy of one of the most successful bands in rock history. With the arbitrator rejecting every claim and enforcing the parties’ agreements as written, the band has been fully vindicated — legally, financially, and factually.”
in the years since Mars filed his lawsuit, he and his former bandmates have said a lot of unkind things about each other. In 2023, Mars said, “I carried those bastards for years.” Soon after that, a lawyer for Mötley Crüe argued that Mars was being manipulated by his representatives, accusing them of “elder abuse.” (Mars, the oldest original member of the band, is now 74.)