Nikki Sixx recently addressed how Mick Mars’ departure forced Mötley Crüe into a challenging position while speaking with Guitar World magazine.
The bassist seemed adamant that Mars’ wish to quit touring was out of the blue, as he recalled Crüe’s initial reaction to the decision:
“We never saw it coming that Mick wasn’t going to be able to tour and was going to have to tour and was going to have to quit the band. In the middle – not even the middle – of a huge tour, we had to ask ourselves, ‘Do we want to let the fans down Do we want to let Live Nation down? Do we want to let Def Leppard down?’”
Sixx carried on by detailing the ‘dilemma’ Mötley Crüe was in and how they questioned themselves to quit or not:
“[We asked ourselves] ‘Do we want to let ourselves down because an original member of our band can’t tour anymore?’ We had to have a deep, deep look into what we were going to do.”
He then talked about the recruitment process of Mars’ replacement John 5 and answered whether bandmates, Tommy Lee and Vince Neil, ever thought of hiring someone other than John:
“No, we talked about John, and that was that. I mean, it’s just like we kind of knew. Because we knew him, too… It wasn’t like, ‘We’re in a sh*tty situation. Let’s just get a guitar player, and then we’ll get another guitar player, and then we’ll get another guitar player.’ We were looking for somebody that wanted to be here permanently with us.”
Mick’s departure didn’t only place Mötley Crüe into a ‘dilemma’ on what to do, but also into a legal battle. The two parties have since accused one another of different claims, from being greedy to being felons.
